1st Time Cookin in Dutch Oven Disaster!

[grillmaster]

Well i decided to cook something in one of my b-day presents. For my first dish i tried peach cobbler. I put coals underneath and on the lid didn't check for 30 mins per recipe needless to say it was obviously to hot talk about crispy crittered. Anyone else have experience cookin like this in a Dutch Oven.

[corndog]

I saw a show on PBS one time about that. There is a formula about how much heat a briquet is worth. I can't remember what the formula is, but I do know that you can find good info on the net. Try Googling that stuff. Sorry this didn't answer your question directly.

[grillmaster]

Corndog,
Thanks for the info but i didn't use briquets i used woods so prolly not a formula for that. I'll check out out pbs and google.

[herper]

Grillmaster, sorry about the disaster. search the forum, we had a thread a few months back, and I think it did not get hijacked too badly. not sure but I think its around 20-25 degrees per briquette sized coal.
Herper

[Buckeye]

Hey GrillMasta......heers a guide fer how many coals go on top an under tha bottom.(FYI...each brickette adds or decreeses bout 10°-13° in temp ta tha oven)
Most cookin' in a Dutch oven is done at 350°:

8" oven : 11 brickettes on top an 5 under bottom
10" oven: 14 brickettes on top an 7 under bottom
12" oven: 16 brickettes on top an 8 under bottom
14" oven: 18 brickettes on top an 9 under bottom
16" oven: 22 brickettes on top an 11 under bottom

-OR-

Ta determine tha number of coals needed...take tha size of tha oven (tha diameter in inches) an double tha number.....divide that number by 3....Put 1/3 of tha coals under tha oven.....tha remainder goes on tha lid.
Example: usin' a standard 12" diameter, 3 3/4" depth oven.....12x2=24;24 divided by 3=8. Use one third of tha coals under tha oven an two thirds on tha lid. This will provide 350° oven temp. If yer usin' a 'deep" oven (5") add an extra 2-4 coals ta tha lid.
Under ideel cookin' conditions fresh brickettes yield up ta 1 hr. of cookin time.
Fryin', boilin' an steemin' need higher heet on tha bottom on of tha oven...while baking requires a more even temp on top an bottom.

Hope this help ya sum. 8)

[herper]

thank you Professer Buckeye. no wonder my stuff came out wrong, the ratio is what really killed me, as well as temps being really fubared. wanted to cook today but between the rain and oldest kid in the hospital again it aint happening. off to see if they have answers on whats wrong with Nermal. may be effect from the car rollover in april. wish us luck
Herper

[crosshill]

Hey Herper, first off, wishing good info from the docs, that is the most important thing.

on the dutch oven cooking, I enjoy cooking in mine and not that I'm all that great but I started that long before I got interested in Q. Try cooking with brickets (sp?), they make temp control easier when you are starting out. You really have no control when using live ashes by the shovel full and have to use a lot of "feel" for temp and times. Also, starting with a dessert was probably not the best idea. Baking can be hard and takes some practice in dutch ovens as you usually have to pull from the fire early and allow to continue to cook as the temperature goes down and use very few bottom coals to prevent burning the bottoms. Practice by making a pizza "pie" in your DO or I have a recipe for county style ribs that is pretty foolproof I can share. It is kinda like you guys advice to me to start Q'ing with a butt roast as it is pretty forgiving. Stick with it though, it is really fun and I think from a "ranchy" perspective it looks good to let people help themselves to the beans, cornbread, or whatever from the stack of DO's as they are filling up with meat from your pit. Hope this helps, let me know if I can help anymore or you need a DO recipe. I don't know much but am glad to share what little I do. :D

later

[ddog27]

I have been cooking with the dutch oven for years. If you are going to use one your best bet is to use charcoal brickettes. That way you can have more control over how much heat you are adding. You can put hot coals from a camp fire on a dutch oven. But if you do so you need to check it all the time, because you have no idea how hot it is in there! :shock: Cooking with the dutch oven is a blast and a great way to add to your outdoor cooking skills. The best part is you can cook almost anything in one. Also is makes your camping trips more fun, (food wise).
:mrgreen: :D

[grillmaster]

Thanks you guys the info and advice is very much appreciated I don't normaly have briquettes around but i will when i decide to use the
DO. Check out my 2nd attempt it's round here sumwhere.

[bigwheel]

Well I got interested in this Dutch Oven stuff when we was bbq cooking at Traders Village about 5 years ago. Had one team out there..mostly hispanic to full blowed injun I think. They was cooking on an all metal dumpster which they had fished out of of some river which was behind the beer joint where they all hung out. Made some purty decent bbq on that dumpster. Sorta the slow semi indirect method. Anyway me and this one drunk injun was the only ones awake..and he hollered at me about 3 AM on Sat morning and say..."Hey white boy..you want some cobbler?" Course I immediately saluted and said.."Yessir..I would love some cobbler!!" At which point he cracked the lid on his trusty DO and dished me up some of the best I ever ate. Ya know that crazy drunk injun even had ice cream to go with it? You meet a lot of nice folks at bbq cookoffs. Chili cookoffs too. Course then I had to run buy me some Dutch Ovens. Got the killer set from Academy imported from the Chicom Commies. Made by Christian slaver laborers no doubt. If the high dollar stuff cooks any mo betta it be hard for me to imagine it. I got the wooden box which it come in sitting on the front porch. I likes to sit on it when I goes out in the cool of the evening to grab a butt and a Bud while ogling the lady bicyclists in their bikini shaped Speedos. How long they been doing that kinda stuff? Seen one the other day made me think maybe I had died and went to California.

bigwheel

[herper]

thanks Crosshill. I will take you up on that offer after the current kid crisis ends
Herper