Baking Bread for Church

Spoiler alert:  I’m going to get very personal in this post. I’m going to talk about my church and my faith.

But - I hope it won’t be in a preachy way.  I hope it relates to the core of why we make food and how we make some of the food and ingredient choices we make for one circumstance or another.  It really goes to the heart of the art of cooking.  I hope I’ll be speaking to expression and meaning in the food and in the result. It’s really the first chance I’ve had to take an emotion and express it through ingredients, through process, and, finally, to result.

If you don’t want to be bothered with all that, I won’t be offended.  You can skip down below and read what I hope will be a good, solid, yummy bread recipe. On the other hand, I hope you’ll also take a moment and, in the comments section below, tell me about a time when you’ve cooked something expressive.

OK, here we go--

Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to provide the bread for our ward’s Sacrament Service. For those not of my faith, let me just take a moment to explain that. In a Mormon chapel, every Sunday, one of the meetings (the most important one, theologically) is the Sacrament meeting. We listen to “talks” (what we call sermons), and sing, of course, but it’s the actual ordinance of the Sacrament that’s the key portion of the meeting. In it, baptized members of the church eat a tiny piece of bread and drink a tiny cup of water in symbolic remembrance of the Savior’s suffering and the offering of the Atonement to us. It’s a big deal to us (or at least it should be). It’s a part of our weekly renewal and repentance.

So, I got the chance to provide the bread for that service last week.  Now, normally, the bread is just store-bought sliced bread. It doesn’t matter, theologically or doctrinally, what bread you use.  In the Last Supper, Jesus himself probably used some variant on a Pita or some unleavened flatbread.

Since I love to bake bread in the Dutch oven, I got up early in the morning to do that, to bake the loaves that would be used in our Sacrament service.

Part of the reason why I bring all this up is to share my thought process as I decided what I was going to do.  My first thought was to pull out all the stops and make an amazing herb loaf, or the cocoa bread, or maybe even a rye. Practical reasons stopped the rye, it would take too long to rise. And the others didn’t seem right. I wanted to give it my best.  I mean, this is for Church, right? In some ways, I’m baking for God, here!

Then I thought about the service itself, and I realized that if I did one of those wonderful breads, then lots of people would be tasting that wonderful bread and they might start thinking, “Wow, that bread is really great!”.  And suddenly, they’re pulled out of the ordinance.  They’re thinking about the bread, not the Atonement.

The bread would have to be simple and plain.  It would have to be the best simple and plain bread I’ve ever baked. In that sense, it might even be a bit zen-like or like a Shaker hymn...

Anyway, so I set about my recipes and identified a pure and simple bread recipe.  I did add a little olive oil and maybe an egg for a touch of richness, and the dough turned out to be a very damp, rustic dough, which, I think, added to the fluffy lightness in the end. I also doubled what’s below and baked two loaves, one for my family.  As I gathered up the ingredients, I said a quick prayer inside, and started in!


Church Bread

12” Dutch Oven
14-15 coals below
18-22 coals above

1 Tbsp Yeast
2 Cup water (110 degrees)
2 Tbsp sugar

~4 Cups fresh bread flour, adding as much as 1 more during kneading
1 tsp salt
~2 Tbsp olive oil
1 egg (optional)

The process was very much like every other bread loaf I’ve done.  I started by getting some warm tap water (to touch, it feels like a nice hot shower, even just a little too hot).  I added the yeast, the sugar, and stirred it up. I set that aside to activate.

Meanwhile, I sifted the flour into a large mixing bowl, and added the salt.  Once the yeast was nice and frothy, and added that and the oil into the mix and stirred it all up.

I scooped it out onto a well-floured countertop and started kneading, shaking on more flour as it was needed. As I mentioned, when it got to a good windowpane test http://www.squidoo.com/dutchovenbread , it was still a very damp, loose dough, but, obviously, not as sticky as when I started. I shaped it into a large ball and set it in the oiled bowl to rise, covered with a tea towel.

There’s quite a bit of yeast in the recipe, so it rose fairly quickly. when it was more than doubled, I punched it down and reshaped it, and set it in a cloth-lined basket for the second raise. As I reshaped it, I pinched a seam along “the bottom”, but I put that side upwards in the basket.  That way, when I would dump it out into the hot Dutch oven, the seam would truly be “the bottom” of the loaf.

I lit up some coals, and when they were getting white, I set up the proper coals over and under a 12” Dutch oven.  I had lightly oiled the interior of the oven, and I let it preheat, empty, with the lid on, for about 15-20 minutes.

Finally, it was all ready to bake. I opened up the Dutch oven, and turned the dough ball in from the basket.  I sliced the top and put the cover back on. After about 15 minutes, I opened up the lid and put in a short-stemmed thermometer, and rotated the lid and the Dutch oven. It was a pretty breezy day, so I added 2-3 coals to the bottom and 3-4 to the top.  After another 20 minutes, it was done (to an internal temperature of 190-200°F). I brought it in and turned it out onto a cooling rack.

After it cooled, right before we left to take it to church, I sliced it up, and it was probably the lightest, fluffiest loaf I've ever baked. I tasted a corner, and it was just what I wanted: pure, simple, and perfectly cooked.

At church, my oldest son got to participate in the service, as he often does. It was very special to me to hear him say the prayer to bless the bread, then to watch it be passed to the congregation. As it came to me, I felt a peace and happiness that I think comes from being able to give something, an offering, and know that it was accepted.


Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Baby You can Light My Fire

--Or--
Is it Chili in here or is it just me?

Imagine that there’s an early hominid wandering through a forest.  It’s a nice day.  He’s been hunting, but hasn’t found anything for dinner just yet. He looks and sees a small plant with a number of dangling red fruit-y things.  They’re not as long as his finger, and the’re about that big around. He’s seen things like it before, but never this exact thing.  Other fruit-y things He’d eaten have tasted really good, kinda sweet, sometimes with a bit of tang.  So, he pulls a few off.  They feel lighter than most fruits, as if they were hollow.  Still, he lifts one up to his mouth and takes a bite.

Immediately his mouth floods with pain, as if it were on fire.  His eyes tear and his face feels flush and hot.  All he can think of is getting something to cool down the burning on his tongue.  He sees a stream nearby and rush to it, cupping the precious cool water in his hands.  Each drink cools the heat and calms the pain, but only for a moment, so he drinks more and more.

Finally, he stops, because it just isn’t helping.  But it’s not long before the pain begins to subside, and he shakes his head and walks away, a valuable lesson learned.

Today, of course, we know of the evolutionary value of a defense mechanism like this. If everyone that tries to eat you ends up screaming in pain, you don’t get eaten very often. Your species lives and reproduces.

But that only works if the predators are smart.  And, we’re dealing with humans, here, or the ancestors of them. Humans are not known for taking lessons well. See, because somewhere along the evolutionary line, one of our great-great-great-great-etc grandparents actually went BACK to that burning bush and ate those peppers A SECOND TIME.

Maybe he just gave them to a friend so he could laugh as the victim of his prank danced and guzzled like he had done the first time. But, no matter, at some point someone decided that this burning blaze on his tongue, this firey feeling was a good thing.

And that’s why, today, we have hot sauce.

The other day, I saw this video that explains why 1) peppers burn our mouths, and 2) why it feels so good afterward.  It’s a fascinating video and article, and in summary it says that the capsaicin molecules in the peppers (which actually cause the heat) react with the nerve receptors on our tongues and fool them into reacting as if they’d actually touched something physically scalding hot.  Our minds actually think that our tongue is scalding.

The reason water doesn’t help is that the capsaicin is an oil, so the water doesn’t wash it off.  It only temporarily tells the tongue nerve receptors that they’re cool.  Then, when the water’s gone and swallowed, the heat comes back because the capsaicin is still there.

That heat and pain also automatically trigger our body's responce, which is: pain relief!  Endorphins!  That's why after, you feel flush and excited.  In fact a few pain creams and ointments utilize capsaicin to trigger the body's natural pain relievers, topically.

It’s interesting to note that, according to the article, the menthol in mint and mint candies work the opposite way, fooling your tongue into thinking it’s touching something cool.

Wow.  Knowledge is cool.

...Or is it hot?


Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

The Politics of Food - Part II

  --OR--

First a Racist, then a Sexist


I’m a basically religious guy.

I know this might surprise you, but in spite of that, I don’t agree with everything that other religious people say.

Recently, I’ve been participating in a discussion of the roles of women in Christian churches.  Some say that young women should be trained and raised up to be wives, mothers, and homemakers.  Others say that they should pursue careers and seek fulfillment beyond the home.  Some say that husbands and wives can balance their home, family, and career roles.

...And somehow food gets caught in the middle.  “Girls should be taught to cook and clean and care for her husband and children!”  “I’m not going to sit at home baking pies and breads!” “Make me dinner!” “Make it yourself!”

Which to me is sad.  Because I think of food and cooking as an enjoyable part of my life, not a symbol of my oppression or of my enlightenment.  I LIKE to cook.  My son LIKES to cook.  My wife is a great cook.   My sister is an excellent chef, and she married another one.  She and he have both taught me much of what I know about food.  My mother was a great cook, and a devout feminist. Now, as her health fails, my father cooks for her daily.

Why should baking a pie represent anything more or less than having a great time making something delicious?  Baking bread is cathartic and wonderful.  Why is that symbolic of oppression?

C’mon.  It’s just food, people...

Next, we're back to recipes.  I promise.  Really.

Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

The Politics of Food - Part I

 -or- 

Xenofoodia


 There have been a couple of circumstances lately where people have gotten into personal and political troubles, with food in the middle of it. I feel a need to share my thoughts about them both.

 The first is, of course, the fury over the Food Network not renewing Paula Deen’s contract, over alleged racist comments.  In addition, some of her sponsors are also now dropping Paula like a hot baked potato.

 Let me get some things out of the way, first:  It’s a free country.  Paula Deen can say whatever she wants, for whatever reason she has, and the Food Network can hire or fire whoever they want, for whatever reason they have.  Neither impacts my life in any direct way.  I’m not writing about whether or not they’re allowed to do either one.  Whether or not they SHOULD do what they’ve done is also an interesting question, but not one that I am going to deal with.  Each decision will have consequences.

 In fact, I suspect that Paula Deen’s TV demise has much less to do with outrage over racism, and more to do with the trends and directions of the Food Network.  For quite a long time, they’ve been moving away from traditional cooking instruction shows, and more toward competitions and restaurant reality shows.  That Paula Deen happened to come across in a bad light simply gave them a good excuse to cut her off.

 And if that isn’t enough, there’s this, just in: Nabisco’s new watermelon Oreos are “racist”.  That is, of course, if you didn’t already make all kinds of race-related jokes and metaphors out of the original chocolate and cream flavor.

 One thing that came up in my mind, however, was a part of the bigger food culture picture. Racism, in all it’s forms, occurs when two cultures meet, and one or both is unaccepting of the other.  America has a longstanding tradition of welcoming people of different heritages.  That’s why we’ve been called the melting pot.  We’ve historically had lots of problems with that, too, as worlds and cultures clashed.  It seems, however, that in the culinary world, we like getting along.  American food culture is a delicious blend of many many cultures.

 I’d like to think of us more as a stew pot.  A good stew is made of lots of ingredients.  As it cooks, each gives its own flavor to the whole, while receiving flavors from around it, and retaining its own tastes and characteristics.  There is a homogenous overall taste, but the individuality of each ingredient also shines through.

 We need to develop that stew mentality.  Each culture can retain and celebrate their own uniqueness, while all becoming American.

 Don’t you wish it were all that easy?

Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

...Tastes Like Chicken, Part II

In the previous post, I talked a bit about the thoughts and experiences that led me to want to be able to study, analyze, and, ultimately, talk about the flavors I am tasting in a dish.  I did a bit of research and reading as well.  A great book that I strongly recommend to anyone that wants to truly explore cooking is “Culinary Artistry” by  Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page.  This book has described a lot about creativity in the world of food, on lots of levels.  Great book!

It turns out that scientists say that the human tongue can taste four things: Sweet, bitter, sour, and salty.  There is some debate over a fifth flavor, vaguely named “Umammi”.  It’s supposed to be a sort of savory flavor.

As I was reading, researching, and tasting, I thought I would add a few.  Not scientifically, so much, as practically. These are things that I sense are elements of dishes I eat.  I’m not sure why, but drawing on the analogies I made in the last post, I think I’d like to call these “Tones”.


Here they are, with some descriptions:

Mark’s Flavor Tones

Sweet

This is the obvious first thing to me, since I tend to eat a lot of sweets.  I probably shouldn’t, or at least, I should make the sweets I eat more healthy, but that’s a discussion for another day.  This one is at the top of my list because it’s one everyone will recognize.  Here are some examples of sweet things:

• Sugar
• Honey
• Fruits
• Chocolate
• Spices that go with sweet, like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger (These might not be sweet themselves, but they tend to bring out the sweet tones in a dish).

Savory/Salty

As I was starting to learn to cook, the term “savory” often confused me.  I learned to describe it as “things that were not bitter, sour, or sweet”!  In most cases, this flavor comes from meats, although many meats also bring some sweet or other tones to the song as well.  As I’ve been formulating this system, I’m learning that the tones work together, and are not always in isolation.

• Meats
• Salts
• Spices that go with meats, like paprika, pepper, garlic

Tangy/Sour

Things that are “tangy” or “sour” usually contain acids.  These tones can really liven up a dish!  Some ingredients that carry these tones could be:

• Tomatoes
• Citrus, especially lemons, though oranges have sweet tones, and grapefruit have bitter tones as well.
• Vinegar

Bitter

The funny thing about bitter tones is that we don’t like them.  In theory, we developed the ability to taste bitter as a defence mechanism to steer us away from eating poisons and other harmful things.  So, why would we intentionally cook with these tones?  When you combine them with other tones, they add depth and the whole becomes delicious!

• Some herbs, like parsley
• Some spices, like nutmeg, or cardamom
• medicines

Spicy (hot) piquance, picante

There are some foods that, evolutionarily speaking, surprise me.  Take, for example, an habanero chili pepper.  At some point, some prehistoric ancestor of ours took a bite of it.  Heat like that would have lit his tongue on fire.  It would have felt like it was biting back!  So, what thought went through that neanderthal brain that made him want to take a second bite?  Or a third?  At what point in the epochs did we decide that this was a good thing?

I don’t know, but I’m glad we did!

• Black pepper
• Chili peppers
• Cinnamon
• Ginger

Cool 

There are very few foods that create the sensation of cool in your mouth, but it is such a distinct sensation that I think it deserves to be labeled as its own tone.  Plus, I love it!

• Mint
• Mentol
• Wintergreen

Undertone

This is one that I added to the list on my own, not at the suggestion of a book or science.  The undertone is like the canvas the painting is painted on, or the quiet background noise that the music plays over.  It’s the bread of a great sandwich.  It’s not a strong flavor, and it can be difficult to identify, but you would miss it if it wasn’t there.

• Bread
• Rice
• Potatoes
• Cooked beans

As I’ve started to think of the dishes I taste in terms of these flavor tones, I’ve found that even mundane eating sometimes becomes an exploration. When I’m paying attention, I start to notice things that were always there, but not identified, not in my awareness.  Food tastes more interesting!

My Dr Pepper, for example, has a strong sour tone, with just enough sweet to make it palatable.  There’s a hint of bitter there as well, and it fades off into a lingering salty/sour.

I don’t know if me blathering on about this is helping, but it has been fascinating to me, and thanks for letting me share it.  Now back to the recipes!





Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

...Tastes Like Chicken, Part I

I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to get a little heady for a few posts.  I hope it's ultimately helpful to you as well.


Last night I was out at a restaurant with my wife, and she smiled her knowing smile, and pointed out the irony in the dish I had ordered.  It had both broccoli and asparagus, both vegetables I hated as a kid.  Not just disliked, either, but violently rejected.  And now, here, I had ordered a plate with both of them combined, and I was happily eating them.

I’ve been doing a lot of thought and study about flavors lately.  For a long time, I’ve wondered what makes me like some things and not others.  And why the things I can’t stand are things that others love. Why did I hate some things as a kid and like them now?

My study started as I was writing the spices and flavorings chapter of “Black Pot Beginners”.  In it, I suggested mixing individual spices with butter and spreading it on a neutral-tasting bread, to be able to learn what each spice really tastes like.  The results often surprised my palate, and opened my eyes.

So, I started thinking about the flavors I was tasting, and I started formulating, in my own mind, a way to analyze and discuss flavors a bit better, mostly as a way to clarify them in my head, and to understand a dish better.

That led me to two analogies:

One: As I studied music, lo, these many years ago, I learned that notes are combined to form chords, and that each chord functions in different ways to move the overall song forward.  There are names for the functions of the chords: Tonic, Dominant, Sub-dominant, Leading-tone, etc...  This allows musicians to use a common language when talking about the music.

Two:  In the world of perfumes, the scents that combine to form a perfume are also referred to as “notes”.  They come out to the senses gradually.  “Top Notes”, for example, are the first things you smell when you put on the perfume.  It’s also what you smell in the store. They can dissipate very quickly.  “Mid Notes” come out soon after, and transition into the “Base Notes”.  These come on after about a half hour, and linger for the rest of the evening, giving the lasting impression of the perfume.

It occurred to me that these analogies can also apply to the culinary arts as well.  The flavors blend like chords, and have function in the dish.  They can also, in some dishes, come on in layers, and even create lasting impressions, even after the dish is eaten.

As I started to think about this, I started thinking about the food I was eating.  I started to notice flavors, and notice the way those flavors combined.  I started eating differently.  Or, I should say, I started enjoying it differently as I ate. I started to formulate the words and thoughts to describe the things I was tasting.  Those formulations started to coalesce into a more coherent system.  So, in Part II of this topic, I’ll show you the system I’m discovering to help me to describe the recipes I’ll be writing about in the future.





Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Thoughts on Dutch Oven Competitive Cooking

This last week, as a part of the start of my book promotion, I got the wonderful opportunity to help judge the World Championship Dutch Oven Cookoff!  Here are some thoughts on competitive cooking, that I excerpted from my book, "Best of the Black Pot: Must-Have Dutch Oven Favorites".

Here I am, tasting the desserts!

It seems like half the cooking shows on TV these days are competitions.  Even the cupcakes have wars, now.  My son loves to watch them all. While I admit that sometimes I can get caught up in the drama of the moment, for the most part, I’m not so much a big fan.  I’ve been a competitor in dutch oven cookoffs as well.  The two salmon dishes in this chapter were my cookoff recipes, as I competed.

Here are some of my random thoughts on competitive cooking.

The people who do cookoffs are really good Dutch oven chefs.

This is especially true of the World Championship Cook Off, but all of the competitors I’ve seen, even at small, local cookoffs, are really good.  I’ve been very impressed.

The people who run dutch oven cookoffs work really hard.

Organizing and running a cookoff is some seriously hard work.  Setting it up, promoting it, getting sponsors and prizes, scheduling the judges, and many other tasks, make it a very time consuming challenge.  Usually, it’s done for free.  My hat’s off to these people.

I always seem to choke when I cook competitively

Having said all that, I’m not a big fan of competing, myself, because I don’t seem to do well.  I can cook under pressure, even under tight time constraints, but for some reason, when I compete, I choke.

A good example is the blackened salmon.  I did a practice run the week before, and it was incredible.  The timings all came out right, the salmon was to die for, and each of the other dishes was perfect, too.  Then, the morning of the competition, it all fell apart, and I made mistake after mistake.  It was a mess.

For some, it brings out their “A” game

However, I’ve talked with others, and they say that the pressure makes them cook better.  It makes them develop their best recipes, and hone their techniques.

Dutch oven competition is always friendly.

One thing I have seen constantly is how friendly Dutch oven cookoffs are.  I don’t see the viciousness or the backbiting that are so prevalent in other competitive events.  I’ve seen contestants share tools and ingredients with each other, and they’re always swapping stories and recipes in the downtime.

Judging apples vs oranges

One of the challenges with cookoffs has to be the judging.  It is challenging to compare dishes against each other.  I mean, we are talking apples and oranges, here.  Literally, in some cases!  Is this one a better apple than this one is an orange?  What’s the basis for comparison?  Sometimes, I don’t envy the judges their jobs.  Judging any kind of creative endeavor is difficult.

It’s made particularly difficult by the fact that, as I mentioned before, those that tend to participate in Dutch oven cookoffs tend to be good at it.  So, as a result, you have to draw the line between varying dishes that are all top quality.  How can you call a winner?

Now, even thought I’m not the best performer in competition, I have been in and around quite a few of them.  I’ve noticed a lot of things about the competition, so here’s my advice on how to do well at a cookoff:

The best tasting food doesn’t always win

There are a lot of things other than the final product that add up into your final score.  First of all, in addition to the tasting, the garnish and presentation is a part of the score.  In addition, how you present the food can pre-condition the judges opinions of your dish.

Also, there are people called “field judges” who score you on your time spent preparing the dishes.  If your preparation area looks cluttered, disorganized, or even dirty, you can be marked down.  Many people will bring fancy tablecloths and other bits of decor for their preparation areas, and they often will get higher scores for that. How you interact with other competitors and with any spectators could be factored into your score as well.

There are some “standard dishes” that tend to win cookoffs.

While variety and innovation are a good thing, they don’t tend to win cookoffs.  Ribs are very popular, as are roasts of both beef and pork.  Stews and chilis don’t do as well, because it’s a little more difficult to find a great way to present them visually. I also haven’t seen chicken dishes win as often.  International dishes, like asian cuisines or pastas also don’t tend to be as popular.  Exotic dishes that the judges would be unfamiliar with could also be more challenging.

That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try these.  It does, however, mean that you’re up against additional stress to prove your dish is great.  Make it incredible, and make it look great, and it could win out!

Planning and timing are a BIG deal.

In a cookoff, all of the chefs will begin cooking at the same time, and all will have a deadline time to turn in their dishes.  Some cookoffs stagger the times, so main dishes are presented to the judges, and then, a while later, breads, etc...

In either case, you’ll want to plan your cooking so that each dish will be finished, garnished, and ready to present to the judges right at the time when it’s due.  If you have it finished too early, it won’t look as fresh and won’t be at the peak of its flavor.  If it’s done too late, you might have to present an incomplete dish, or might even be disqualified.

So, begin with the end in mind.  I created a spreadsheet and planned out each phase of each dish, counting backwards in time from the presentation deadline.  That way, at any given moment in the competition, I knew what I needed to be working on.
Cook with a friend.

One of the biggest mistakes I made in my cookoff experiences is that I cooked alone.  First of all, pulling off three dishes in three hours to competition quality is crazy for a single person.  Second, having a friend there with you is a lot more fun.

Even with my own difficult experience in cookoffs, I really think that at some point, everyone should do a competition.  It’s a wonderfully unique experience, and you’ll learn a lot about yourself and about Dutch oven cooking by doing it.  Go into it for the experience, not necessarily for the win, if you have to.  Do your best, and have a great time.







Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

The History of the Dutch Oven

It's been exciting to see the progress that the publishing company has been making toward the release of the book.  I've learned a lot about how that works, and I can see why it takes so long!  My first book, to be titled, "The Best of the Black Pot" will be coming out in March!

I've been working hard on the second book, tentatively titled, "Learning to Cook in the Black Pot".  Here's an article (interesting, I hope) that I've excerpted from that manuscript.  Just a taste of things to come!


The History of the Dutch Oven

Much of what has been written about Dutch oven history is apocryphal, or at least legendary.  By that, I mean that many writers quote and cite each other as they go through the timeline.  I’m not going to be any different, honestly.  The important thing is not so much the dates, but to get an overall picture of the Dutch oven’s place in history, and to feel some connection to that as you cook. 

Well, really, when you think about it, you could cook just fine it the oven and never know that it even existed before a month ago, right?  But the more that you learn about its background and its life, the more it makes sense.  I find myself reading something and saying, “Oh!  THAT’s why they did it that way!”


Pre-History

After the stone age, people started hammering copper into shapes, and then, discovered that it could be blended with tin to make a whole new age, made out of bronze.  Pretty soon, they were heating and hammering iron out of the rocks and in the 11th century BC, they learned how to make things with wrought iron, and crude steels.

Then, in 513 BC, the Chinese discovered how to make a furnace hot enough to actually melt the iron down, and casting iron began.  Clever of those guys.  The Europeans didn’t figure that until about the 11th century AFTER Christ.  They may be slow, but they get there.

Cast iron pots and cauldrons were used to cook after that, and were even mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays (Like being used by the witches in MacBeth).

Late 1600’s

By this time, the Dutch had a pretty sweet system of making molds out of sand, and were putting out some good pots, pans, and other cast iron things.  These were, of course, being exported all over, particularly in England.  This is one of the theories behind why they are called “Dutch ovens” today.

Another theory is that the Dutch traveling traders spread the pots far and wide, and so people referred to them as “Dutch ovens”.

1700’s

In 1704, an Englishman named went to The Netherlands to study their casting techniques.  He brought those skills back to England, worked on them some more, and got an English patent.  He began producing the cookware and distributing them in England and also in the colonies in America.  In Ireland, as well as other places, they were made with small points hanging from the underside of the lid.  As meats roasted, the steam would gather and drip down these points, giving the pot the name “bastible”.

In America, their practicality and versatility caught on very quickly.  They were perfect for hearth cooking, which is where almost all cheffery happened in homes.  They could roast meats, boil soups, and be used to bake breads and cakes.

Adjustments and improvements came in America, too, including the legs and lip around the lid to keep the ashes out of the food.  Paul Revere is credited with coming up with the idea for the lip, but I have never seen any mention of any real evidence of that fact.  It makes a good story, though.

Another theory about the name came from the fact that the ovens had been also brought over with Dutch immigrants who had settled in Pennsylvania.

In these days, cast iron cookware were considered to be very valuable, and, since they were also very durable, would be passed down from generation to generation.  George Washington’s mother, Mary Ball Washington, specified in her will how her “iron kitchen furniture” would be divided after her death.

1800’s

In the early 1800’s, the United States was growing, and it was here that the Dutch oven truly became an American icon.  Lewis and Clark took Dutch ovens on their famous expedition to explore the Louisiana Purchase. 

As the Pioneers moved west, in the Mormon migration as well, Dutch ovens crossed the plains with them.  On my mother’s side, there were several of these undefeatable souls who walked pushing handcarts all the way from Winter Quarters, on the east of Nebraska, to the Salt Lake valley, cooking their nightly meals in their Dutch ovens, fueled by burning dried buffalo manure.

I’ve read accounts where the wives would mix the bread dough in the morning, and put it in the Dutch ovens, and then in the carts, and by evening it would have risen and be ready to bake.

In the later 1800s, Dutch ovens were also vital parts of the the chuck wagons on the famous cattle drives of the west.

1900’s

In the 1900’s, as the technology and affordability of indoor stoves and ranges increased, Dutch ovens fell out of use.  Cast iron was still popular, particularly the skillets.  Dutch ovens lost their legs, and became more of the range-top and roaster pots as they are popular now.

Still, Dutch ovens remained popular among campers, hunters, hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts.

In 1985 the International Dutch Oven Society was formed, in Utah, “...with the goals to preserve and promote the skills and art of Dutch Oven cooking. From it's humble beginnings in the Rocky Mountains, IDOS has grown to its current status as the largest and most productive group of black pot enthusiasts in the world.”

2000 +

Dutch ovening as a hobby continues to grow.  A few adjustments to the traditional designs have been coming on in the last few years, even since the 1990s, including the “Ultimate Dutch Oven”, currently manufactured by Camp Chef, which features a hollow cone in the center of the oven to allow hot air to enter, convection style. Many Camp Chef ovens also include a small hole in the lip of the lid for the insertion of thermometers or thermometer leads.  Maca makes big, deep dutch ovens, many shaped in ovals to better accommodate large turkeys.

...And on a personal note, it was in 2007 that I first began blogging about my Dutch oven cooking experiences!

I find it interesting to reflect on the changes.  Now, we have glass-top ranges, microwave ovens, convection ovens, stoves that clean themselves, automatic timers, table top grills, panini makers, and a million other modern ways to cook.  A Dutch oven is delicious, nutritious, and wonderful.  But it’s not always the quickest or the easiest way to cook.  I cook in Dutch ovens because it’s my hobby and because it’s fun.  We have contests and parties that celebrate Dutch oven cooking.  In the back of my head, though, I keep the haunting thought: my ancestors used it to feed their families on a daily basis.

Over the years, the Dutch oven has developed into the thing that it is for very practical reasons: it worked.





Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

The Back Porch Gourmet Podcast

Do you remember the Dutch Oven Challenges issued a few months ago by my friend Andy?  If not, you can check them out here, here, and here.

Well, over at the Back Porch Gourmet, he's started up a podcast where he interviews those who love cooking outdoors, and he invited me to be his first guest!  So, go listen to the podcast!

Thanks, Andy!





Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.
Mark's Other Blog Posts: name post, name post,

How to Buy a Dutch Oven

I got a post on my facebook fan page from someone asking about how to choose and buy a dutch oven.  Rather than reply there with what will be way too long of an answer for facebook, I posted this article:

The simple answer is...  Send me some money and I'll buy you one!  :-)

I guess the real title for this article should be:  "How to shop for a dutch oven, and buy one that's the best for you." There's a lot of "That depends on what you're looking for" in the answer, so let's break it down. I'm presuming, by the way, that those reading this are primarily interested in buying their first dutch oven.  If you've already got one or two, and you're looking to buy another, you'll still be looking for the same basic things, but your reasons for buying will be different, and you'll have a different result, possibly.

There are four basic variables that you'll want to consider when you're deciding which kind to buy: The type, the size, the material, and the quality.

The Type

You have two basic options here:  "Camp" dutch ovens, or "Stove" dutch ovens.  Which you choose will depend on what you're going to do with it.

A "camp" dutch oven is primarily designed for outdoor cooking using wood coals or charcoal briquettes.  It's got a lip around the perimeter of the lid that keeps the coals on the lid, and prevents ash from falling down into the food when you lift it.  It's also got legs on the bottom that lift the dutch oven up above any coals you want to put underneath.

A "stove" dutch oven is designed primarily for use indoors, in a conventional oven or on your stovetop.  It won't have the legs, because you're setting it in your oven or resting directly on your stove's burner.  It doesn't have the lip around the lid because there's no coals to be put on top.  Some of these will even be coated in colored enamels. 

It IS possible to use a camp dutch oven indoors, but it's not as convenient.  It's possible to use a stove dutch oven outdoors, but it's tricky.

The Size

Dutch ovens are primarily measured by diameter, and sometimes by quart capacity.  Common sizes are 10" and 12".  You can buy them as small as 5" or as large as 22" (which take considerable effort to lift, even without food in them). Which one you end up buying will depend largely on who you'll be cooking for.  If you're cooking for yourself, or you have a small family, you won't want one as big.  If you have a larger family, or if you're thinking you'll end up cooking for groups of friends, you'll want one bigger.

If this is your first oven, and you're just interested in experimenting a little, I'd recommend a 12" shallow oven.  This will have the capacity to feed a family of four with some leftovers, and can easily cook for a gathering of as many as 8, depending on what you're cooking.  Breads, stews, chilis, desserts, and even small roasts can easily be done in a 12" dutch oven.

Larger and smaller ovens will come in handy in more specialized situations.  For example, I use my 14" ovens to cook turkeys and larger specialty meats.  My 8" dutch oven I'll use for sides of rice or sauces.

The Material

There are two basic materials used to make dutch ovens:  Cast iron, and aluminum.  There are advantages and disadvantages to both.  Even though all of my dutch ovens are cast iron, I've seen chefs that swear by each one.

Cast iron is probably the most popular.  It's the historic choice.  It heats very evenly (if slowly), and it holds the heat very well, so your food stays warm in it, even after it's "done" cooking.  It can take a lot of heat without damage, too.  Unfortunately, it's also very heavy, and the bigger the oven, the heavier. Cast iron has to be seasoned to be used effectively, but with regular use that seasoning patina gets better and better, and it becomes non-stick.  Cast iron also lasts forever.

Aluminum dutch ovens are much lighter than cast iron, so it's often the pot of choice for campers, river runners, and backpackers that carry their gear in to their campsites.  It won't rust, so you don't need to season it.  It heats up quickly, but that also means that it cools quickly, and it's prone to developing hot spots.

Some say that cast iron-cooked food tastes better, but I've tasted delicious food from both kinds.

The Quality

The best dutch ovens I've ever seen come from three companies: Lodge, Camp Chef, and Maca. There are lots of littler brands, like Texsport and a few that are even no-name.  You can often come across dutch ovens at yard sales and antique stores.  Some dutch oven chefs I know will swear by one brand or another.  While it's true that there are some that are better made, keep in mind that our pioneer ancestors cooked successfully in dutch ovens made hundreds of years before modern companies were formed and contemporary casting procedures were invented.  I've cooked delicious meals in off-brand dutch ovens.  I prefer my lodge, but you can be successful with anything.

Here are some hints to check with the quality:

First, check to see that the lid fits well.  Press down on the lip of the lid all the way around.  If you find a spot where the lid rocks back and forth, that's a sign of a poorly fitting lid.  That will let more moisture escape when you're cooking.  Again, you can still cook well in that pot, but it won't be quite as effective.

Some off-brands will use different alloys or different sources for their cast iron stock.  That can make for variations in the thickness of the pot, as well as the density of the metal.  In either case, that can make for more uneven heating and hotspots.  Unfortunately, you can't really check for that in the store.  It's one reason why you might want to go with a more respected brand.

Still, my forefathers that crossed the plains didn't have a Lodge or a Camp Chef.

Summing it All Up

Ok, so this is really a $75 answer to a $10 question.  What dutch oven should I buy?  My recommendation is that if you're wanting to get started in outdoor dutch oven cooking, get a 12" shallow Lodge or Camp Chef (these, and all other links in this article are affiliate links, by the way, and I'll get paid if you buy from them).  You'll possibly notice that almost all of the recipes in my blog use that basic size.  My two 12"ers are the workhorses of my cast iron collection.

Whatever you end up buying, now you have some knowledge to help you make a wise choice, either to get started, or to expand once you've gotten a few recipes down!





Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

How to Dutch Oven Without a Recipe

Cookin' Without a Net

I've rambled on and on here from time to time about food and cooking as art.  Art, in my mind, is basically a vehicle for personal exploration and expression.  So, in order for an activity to qualify as art, it has to come from somewhere inside me and teach me something about myself, and then it has to help me share that discovery with others.

I think I've only achieved that level a few times in my culinary life.  Frankly, I've only done it a few times in song and even fewer in my efforts at visual art.  But nonetheless, it is a challenge for me.  That's one reason I keep trying.

One thing that is for certain: it's very difficult to discover something about yourself, and even more so to express that self-awareness when you're cooking someone else's recipes. 

This morning, as I was catching up on other people's blogs, I came across a posting on "The Back Porch Gourmet" all about cooking without a recipe.  At first, I thought to simply comment on his post, but I ended up thinking too much and so, I posted my own blog entry.

Andy offers some great advice, and I would recommend following it.  Here are my own thoughts as well.

Learn from others first

First of all, being the rebel that I am, I took off on my own way too soon.  Especially in the world of dutch oven cooking.  If I had stuck to cooking other people's recipes for a little longer, I would have learned a lot more a lot quicker.  It might not have been as much fun, though...

Second, watch the right cooking shows.  Find shows that actually teach you techniques and skills, not just celebs that throw a few ingredients together.  Find shows that teach you why these flavors work together and why you need to hold the knife this way. 

And don't waste your time watching competitive cooking.  "Chopped" and "The Iron Chef" and other challenge shows are edited for the drama of the competition, not for learning new skills and getting cool ideas. 

My favorites are PBS's "America's Test Kitchen" and the Food Network's "Good Eats".  Alton Brown is like the Bill Nye of cooking.  He's teaching you about the science and the art of cooking, while being very fun to watch.  Those two are on permanent record on my Tivo!

Start tweaking

Third, learn to hybrid recipes.  When you want to cook a particular dish, look on allrecipes.com or recipezaar.com or your old family cookbooks and check out several differing recipes for the same dish.  Not only will you learn the different approaches, but you'll pull one idea from one and other ideas from another.  In the end, you'll have your own version of a popular dish.

Research helps

...and (Fourth), while I'm talking about recipe websites, another thing I like about allrecipes.com is their ingredient search function.  Sometimes, I'm looking in my pantry and my fridge, wondering what to cook in my black pots that week.  I'll pull up a few ingredients and think, "Can I make something with these?"  I'll jump to their ingredient search function and type in those ingredients.  It pulls up a bunch of recipes using those ingredients.  I read through them, and hybrid them, and come up with something.  This is the process I used, for example, to cook my "Dutch Oven Apple Chicken Curry"

Another way to approach this is with culinary reference books, like "Culinary Artistry".  This book is largely a list of ingredients, arranged alphabetically, and following each one is a list of other ingredients and spices that go well with it.  Pick what you like, use reasonable amounts, and you've got a whole new dish! I used this approach when I cooked up a Salmon and Potatoes mix.

No fear!

Finally, be willing to experiment, and be willing to fail.  Even as recently as last week, I made a pasta sauce for my parents (in the kitchen, not in the dutch ovens), that didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped.  Learn from your mistakes.  Cooking is actually very forgiving.  Many things I've cooked that I've considered to be flops are actually edible, even tasty.  They weren't quite as amazing as I'd wanted, but they were still good.  I've only cooked a few things that I've had to throw away and pronounce inedible.

Share and share alike

Oh!  One other thing!  When you do create something new, share it!  Post it to a recipe site, or make your own blog.  Don't keep it to yourself.  And share more than the recipe.  Tell us what you learned and how you did it.

Let us share in your art!





Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.



Mark's Other Blog Posts: name post, name post,

Mark's Black Pot Aprons

Hello, folks...  Time for a between-recipe posting.  I need some help, here.

The other day, I looked at some funny aprons in a cooking shop, and I thought it would be cool to create a line of them for dutch oven chefs.  I came up with a bunch here, and I thought I'd both share, and ask your opinions.  Which ones are the best?  The funniest?  Do you have any ideas to throw into the sauce?  Any more clever ways to phrase any of these?  Post your ideas as comments below, or as an email to me!

1. I cook in heavy metal
2. Doncha wishya husband could cook like me
3. Careful what you say.  I have a knife.
4. Real cooks don't use recipes
5. Real men wear aprons
   
6. Dutch Ovens: Cheaper than Therapy
7. Never trust a skinny chef
8. *%&! the recipe!  Full Speed Ahead!
9. Recipe?!  We don' need no stinkin' recipe!
10. Danger: Men Cooking
11. Dutch Ovens are for Men: Meat, Metal, Knives, and Fire
12. Well-seasoned chef
13. I'll cook, you clean
14. It's not burned, it's cajun
15. Good cooks never run out of friends
16. You kill it, I'll grill it
17. Too much thyme on my hands
18. Chef's are hot
19. It's supposed to smell like that
20. Meatatarian
21. The Iron-ic Chef
22. (insert whatever your cool idea is here...)
    

I'd love to see what you folks can come up with!

Update - 1/21/10

I just put all of these options into a survey.  Simply click on the ones you like best and submit.  If you have ideas for other good ones, use the comment box below.

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

The Feast Goes On!

Yesterday was the big day, and I had a blast cooking it this year. For those that are newcomers to the Black Pot, or are finding this post as their first introduction to the blog, here's the story, in a nutshell: Once a year, I cook up a big feast (a full 7 course meal) entirely in my dutch ovens. I start early in the day and cook until it's all done, when the guests arrive. I do it partly to celebrate Mother's Day, and partly to challenge myself and my cooking skills.

This year, I chose to do some pretty tough dishes, I thought, but I was pretty calm. I didn't stress so much as I did last year. It was more fun. Here, up above, you see me kneading the sourdough. This one I made from a yeast strain that I caught here in Eagle Mountain, UT. When I told the guests about that, we all started joking about how one goes about "Catching a wild yeast"! Crikey!

This was the first course, the soup. It was based on a recipe (Chicken Soup with Rice) from a good friend. I added some grilled chicken and shrimp on a skewer just for show. It kinda gave it a unique look, even if they were a little overdone. As a sort of appetizer, though, the soup worked pretty well. Fortunately, there were a lot of leftovers of this course, so I'll eat well for my work lunches for a long time!

I pretty much stuck to my friend's original recipe. I did use some home made chicken stock for the base, and added lemon juice. Other than that it was straight ahead soup.
The salad course, of course, I didn't do in my dutch ovens. The cheese is mozarella, the dressing a kind of twist of italian and pacific Island. The crumbled cheese is feta. I was going for this look that combined a lot of different circular foods, all on the plate at once, over a bed of spinach. It tasted great, and looked really cool as well.

I've been doing a lot of reading about presentation along with the actual cooking. I'm still not very confident in that area, but it's something I'm learning steadily.

These are all my guests. They're mostly friends from our neighborhood, and our ward at church, but also a few others from Salt Lake City. We were laughing pretty hard all through the evening, mostly at the expense of our kids!

We had a few couples that, unfortunately, had to bow out. While I missed them, and it would have been fun to have them there, it worked out. I had originally overbooked the guest list a little, and I wasn't sure if I'd have enough crown roast to go around. So, as Jodi and I talked about it the night before, we decided I should also do a turkey for some extra food. In the end, even though we had enough roast to go around, a lot of the guests had some turkey too, so it really all worked out well.

I did the same citrus turkey that I'd done for Thanksgiving last year.

This is the crown roast. I was really nervous doing this, because I'd never done it before. I didn't know how it was going to turn out. I decided to do veggies around it instead of stuffing, and I put some orange slices and an orange/molasses glaze on it as well.

As I had worked out the dinner in advance, I'd hit on this idea of doing it all with a sort of citrus theme all the way through. There was lemon juice in the soup, there were lemons, oranges, and grapefruit on the turkey, and oranges and the orange glaze on the pork.

The bread had the orange theme, as well, as I put an orange and brown sugar/cinnamon glaze on it as well. And... We drank Sprite mixed with orange juice.

I was really pleased with the way the bread turned out. I've learned a lot about making bread over the last year, and it really came together that night. I did it with a braided pattern, in a circle, intead of just hearth loaf. That made it more full in the dutch oven, as well as a little fancier. Half the point of this dinner is to have great food, and half the point is to just make it look more amazing.

The dessert was also great. I made this big circular banana bread, with almond slivers and chocolate chunks. Then, when we served it up, we smothered it in a bunch of sauces. One I made was a butter, sugar, and cinnamon sauce, then we also layered on chocolate and caramel sauces. Finally, a tip of whipped cream!

The food part of the evening was great, and I was proud of it, but that wasn't the best part, even. It was just a lot of fun to have a lot of good friends over and just kick back and laugh with them all.

And today, I could hardly move. But it was still all worth it!

Recipes and detailed stories to come!

Getting Sauced with the Chicken Cordon Bleus

This last weekend, I got schooled.

That's OK, though, it was a good thing!

My father was in town (from Indiana), and he was just visiting for a short time. Whenever he and/or mom are here in Utah, we always get together with my sister and Brother-in-law. Well, I've mentioned before that they are both great chefs and have worked in restaurants and are just plain incredible cooks. Amazing.

Well, when we get together on Saturday for lunch, I started talking to him about cheffery and asking him about how to shop for knives, and stuff. Somehow we get talking about sauces. I mentioned my disaster with the alfredo sauce I tried to make lo, these many months ago. Then he talks me through the whole process, beginning with making a roux to start with.

So, the next day, since they're coming over for dinner, I decide to do a chicken cordon bleu recipe, and make a cheddar cheese sauce using his instructions.

Well, they came out in time to see me put it all together, and he stepped me through the process. So, now I can do sauces and thick cream soups without fear!

But first, the chicken cordon bleu recipe

Dutch Oven Chicken Cordon Bleu

12" Dutch Oven

10 coals below
20 coals above (slightly less in warmer weather)

• 3-4 lbs boneless chicken breasts (thawed)
• a Brick of mozarella cheese, sliced
• A small block of cured meat (usually ham, but this time I used pastrami - turkey pastrami, since my brother-in-law's jewish and won't eat pork)

• A bowl full of well-crushed bread crumbs
• Liberal shakes of
  
• salt
• black pepper
• crushed cayenne pepper
• thyme
• sage
• And a little more salt and cayenne...

I started by mixing all of the spices in the second set of ingredients into the bread crumbs on a paper plate. Then, I pounded a chicken breast until it was spread out and flat. I put a slice of Mozarella in the center, and then a pretty thick slice of pastrami over that. If you get your pastrami pre-sliced, you'll probably want to fold over a couple of slices. Then I folded the edges of the pounded-out chicken over it. The cheese and the pastrami were small enough that I could fold the chicken around it and not have to secure it with a toothpick.

Then I picked it up, dredged it in the crumbs and spices, and put it into the bottom of an oiled dutch oven. Just as a side note, I used some of my chili and onion flavored oil!

I had a lot of chicken breasts, so I ended up packing them in there pretty tight.

Then, I just took them out and put them on the coals. I probably baked them for about 40 minutes or so.

I also took my 10" dutch oven and made some rice with some chicken stock, some lemon juice, and some chopped green onions (don't forget the salt and pepper)

The Sauce

8" Dutch Oven

A whole buncha coals below

• 1/2 - 3/4 cup of all-purpose flour
• 1 full stick of butter

• 1 cup cream
• 1 cup milk
• 2-3 tablespoons roux
• a sprinkle of nutmeg
• a few pinches of salt
• about 1/2 cup of grated cheddar cheese, maybe more.

We started by making the roux. Now, there are lots of different kinds of roux. Some are runny, some are cooked longer and are darker, but the one my bro-in-law taught me was pretty thick and very light.

First, he had me put a full stick of butter in the 8" dutch oven, on the coals. Once it had melted, we added a bit more than 1/2 cup of flour, and stirred it with a whisk. It almost had the consistency of sugar cookie dough. It would hold together as I was stirring it, but then would slowly flatten out when I stopped. I cooked it until it was a little darker than when it started, but still blonde.

We pulled that completely out of the dutch oven, and set it aside in a bowl. Since we didn't know just how thick we wanted the sauce to be, we were going to add it in later.

Then we put in the milk and the cream and set it to boil, with the nutmeg sprinkled in. Once it was boiling, we started adding roux, maybe a little under a tablespoon at a time, stirring it in with the whisk. In no time, we'd found the magic amount to get the right thickness. The rest of the roux, by the way, is sitting in my fridge, awaiting the next meal!

Then, as it boiled again, we added the cheese. This time, the cheese melted, and bonded with the flour, and it made a great sacue. It didn't "break" and end up in a coagulated clump in the bottom of the dutch oven. We added some salt to taste, and away we went! We also added some of the chicken stock from the bottom of the cordon bleu dutch oven, too! Yum!

So, the full meal was: The Chicken Cordon Bleu, on the rice, with the Cheese Sauce on top. The chicken and the rice would have been great by themselves, but that sauce really took it to a whole new level. It really made the meal! And it was very simple.

And then, he explained some other things, like, with that same base, but with more milk, and sauteed mushrooms, onions, and celery, you have cream of mushroom soup! With tomatoes, you have cream of tomato soup! With asiago and parmesan cheese, instead of cheddar, you have alfredo sauce. And so on, and so on... Sauces and soups from the same base. Amazing!

I also served it with some sourdough bread. It was the tastiest Chicken Cordon Bleu recipe I'd tasted, and certainly the best one I'd ever made.

It also goes to show that learning to cook in a dutch oven is really all about learning to cook. In a dutch oven.

Father and Son and Pizza

What’s better than cooking?

Cooking in the dutch oven!

What’s better than cooking in your dutch oven?

Cooking in the dutch oven side by side with your son!

Tomorrow, I’m doing a demo for the ladies of my church, for a Relief Society Enrichment Night (or whatever it’s called now). I’m going to do pizza, because it’s simple and very impressive. And if they try it, their families will love it.

So, tonight, to work out the timing (It’s really tight between when I get home from work and when I have to get started), I did it here at our house. Brendon decided he wanted to help, so he and I did it together. As always, it turned out great. And it was extra fun, because he and I got to do it together.

Mother’s Day

For a long time, now, I’ve thought it would be a fun and unique challenge to do a big, fancy meal, for a lot of friends, completely in my dutch ovens. I finally chose a day and just started inviting friends. I chose the day before Mother’s Day, so that I could make it special for my wonderful wife.

So, for the last two months, I’ve been pouring over past recipes, and new recipe books, planning out the menu. After I figured out what I was going to make, I’ve spent some time occasionally trying out recipes, in preparation. I didn’t want to do any of them for the first time that day. Here’s what I’ve ended up with:

• Appetizers: Sausage stuffed mushrooms with cheese and crackers.
• First Course: Tomato Soup.
• Second Course: Salad
• Main Course: Bacon Draped Pot Roast with potatoes and other veggies, and Orange Glazed Bread
• Dessert: Paradise Chocolate Cookie Pie

So, tonight, I laid out each course on a time table. I had to figure out when I would prep and cook each one. Otherwise, I would be an overwhelmed, nervous wreck by the end of the day. As it stands, it looks like I’ll be cooking starting at about 10:00 in the morning, and the pace will be pretty easy. I’ll never have more than three things cooking at any one time, and most of the time will have only one or two things cooking.

The Salad and the cheese/crackers will be prepared the night before. Just for less stress.

Then, at 10:00 I’ll start working on the Paradise Pie. At about 11:00, I’ll cook the sausage for the stuffed mushrooms, then I’ll prepare the filling.

At noon, I’ll start on the bread, mixing and kneading. I’ll set that aside to rise, while I prep the veggies and put the soup on at around 1:00.

At around 2:00 or so, I’ll get the roast on. Once that’s cooking, I’ll get the tables set up. I might do that earlier in the morning, or the night before, just to give me more time. Somewhere in there, the bread will probably have risen, so I’ll shape the loaf and put it in the dutch oven for proofing.

By 4:00, I’ll probably be ready to put the bread on the fire. That’s also probably about the time that I’ll add the veggies to the roast.

At around 5:00, it’ll be getting closer to Zero Hour, so things will start to pick up. I’ll put the mushrooms on to bake, and pull out the cheese and crackers.

Then, folks should start arriving by about 6:00. At that point, I’ll pretty much just be serving. I will probably put the Paradise Pie back under a few coals for about 20 minutes to a half hour, just to heat it up again, then I’ll just ladle on the ice cream and serve it up!

Now, of course, by writing this all out and telling all of you about it, I will have jinxed myself, of course, and it will all come crashing to a chaotic finish. But then, at least I’ll have something to blog about!

One Year Old!

Checking back in the archives, I just noticed something fun. As of last week, the Black Pot is one year old!

As I mentioned when I first created this blog, it all got started when my dear wife bought me a Lodge 12" regular dutch oven for Father's Day. I've been cooking in it ever since. I've also added five more to my collection since then.

I'm kinda curious, folks, where you're from. In the year I've been doing this, I've gotten some good contact from folks that read here, but I'm curious where everyone is reading. Post a comment and just check in and say what city or state or region you live in.

My Crazy Dutch Oven Weekend

This weekend was Conference Weekend. For those of you who aren’t Mormon, what that means is that we have our semi-annual General Conference. Instead of going to church like normal, we Mo’s plop in front of our TV’s, turn on our radios, or log into streaming media websites to listen to 5 two-hour sessions of spiritual instruction (spread over two days) from the big leaders of the church in downtown Salt Lake City.

It’s funny how that practice impacts family traditions among church members all over the world. Since we don’t go to church, we don’t have to get all dressed up nice, we don’t have to get the kids ready, we just turn on the TV or whatever and listen.

When I was a kid, my mom always baked something yummy while we were listening to the Prophet speak, usually it was cinnamon rolls or something like that. So, this year, I decided to follow that tradition, and I made some on Saturday morning.

For Sunday, initially, I had thought of trying out a recipe for tomato soup that I was going to do for the big Mother’s Day feast, as well as some bread or rolls. But then, we started inviting friends over. Some people’s dietary choices got in the way of some of my ideas, and I had to change my recipes. Pretty soon, I was doing Braided Bread with an Orange Glaze, An interesting fried version of Chicken Cordon Bleu with veggies and rice, and a knockoff recipe for Chili’s Paradise Pie.

How I went from a relatively simple soup with some bread to three more complicated recipes is something that I’m still trying to sort out in my mind. The argument in my head sounds a lot like, “What were you thinkin’?”

So, after doing some housecleaning until about noon, I started cooking. Soon, I had learned why the big-league cookoffs are done in teams of two. I was running back and forth like a madman. Note to Self: When preparing multiple dishes of a big meal, plan in advance! I can’t count how many times I stood in the middle of the kitchen wondering what I should do next! Once it was all done, the food was served, and it all tasted great. But, I hadn’t done the sauce for the chicken, nor for the paradise pie, either.

Anyway, I’m typing this up at work, so I don’t have time to put up any of the recipes. I think I’ll get to those over the course of the week, before I cook again this weekend. It will be simple then. And sunny, too, if the weather forecasts hold up…

Is Cooking an Art?

I've talked before, on other blogs about what makes a work "art". I've said that then experiencing art, it makes me think or feel something new, or in a new way.

But that's always been from the point of view of the viewer, the consumer of the work. What about from the perspective of the artist? What defines "art" then? And does cooking fit that definition?

Well, art, from the artists point of view, would have to come from something new. To simply follow a recipe, a formula, or a pre-made pattern wouldn't be art.

It would have to come from somewhere inside me, to help me discover something new about myself. It would have to allow me to express.

And, finally, it would have to connect with an audience, a consumer, in some way. And I think it would be "more artistic" if it connected on a deeper level than "Oh, that's nice", or even, "That sure tastes good!"

So, yes, I think that cooking can qualify on those three levels. It certainly doesn't always. I do like to modify recipes, and to even create new ones. I don't know that anything that I've ever cooked in my dutch oven has ever caused a new thought or an inspiration. But it is something I can aspire to.

Anyway, if it IS an art form, it strikes me as interesting. It would be one of the few art forms where enjoying the art in it's fullest way involves destroying it.

Also, it would be one of the few art forms that would have evolved from something that is fundamentally essential for survival, eating. Granted, food doesn't have to be artistically prepared to provide nourishment, but then, you don't need the theater, or paintings on your wall to survive, either.

Oh, well, enough musings.

Today, being Easter Sunday, we always have lots of family and friends over, so that usually means I cook. Traditionally (as of last year), I do a big ham in the 14” dutch oven. Last year, I did the Dr Pepper ham with all kinds of fruit and veggies in it for flavoring. It was great. But, of course, I wasn’t writing here in the Black Pot back then, so my dutch oven efforts for that year went unblogged.

*sigh*

This time I did it a little different. I used the recipe below for the baste/glaze/sauce. It worked out great! It was kind of an experiment.

Orange Dutch oven Ham

14” deep dutch oven
17-18 coals each above and below.

• 10-11 lb bone-in ham

• Whole Cloves
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp mustard seeds (or dry mustard)
• 1 Tbsp Allspice
• Salt
• Black Pepper
• Zest from 1 orange

• Slices from 1 orange
• Juice from 4 oranges

First of all, I put the ham in the dutch oven. I had to slice a bit off here or there to make it fit. I slit diagonal cuts in the top of the ham. That helps the baste and the glaze seep down into the ham more. The cloves I stuck in the slots. Then, I mixed all of the remaining ingredients from the second set of the list and rubbed those over the ham.

Then, I sliced up the orange that I had zested and laid those slices on top of the sugar/spice mix on the ham. If I do this one again, I would anchor those orange slices in place with toothpicks, because they kept falling off the ham into the dutch oven in cooking.

Finally, I juiced up a bunch of oranges and poured that on top of the meat. Pour it slowly, more like sprinkling it. Because I found that if you pour it quickly, you wash all that sugar and spice off the ham, and you have more work basting the meat!

Then, put it on the coals and let it cook. I let it cook for about 3 hours. Make sure you keep your coals fresh and hot. This was the first time I used a meat thermometer in dutch oven cooking. I strongly recommend it. It was so much easier to tell when it was done. 160 degrees! When you get there, you’re good! They say a pre-cookd ham you can call good at 140 degrees internal temperature.

Then, I also made Au Gratin Potatoes and Rolls (this time I dusted them with salad seasoning, garlic powder, and parmesan cheese. They were yummy, even with jam!

PS. For those of you who wonder why I never finished writing part II of the Great St Patrick's Day adventure, let me tell you. It was a total flop. Crash and burn. Honestly. The corned beef and cabbage turned out too salty to eat, and the Irish soda bread turned out to be a brick. It was embarrassing. I'm so grateful nobody came over for dinner that night.

It was the first time I ever had to throw away anything I'd made in the dutch oven. It was truly inedible. There have been times when it's not been that good. There have been times when we didn't eat it all, and we ended up throwing away some leftovers. But there has only been one time that we threw it all out because it couldn't be eaten. That was this last week.

But that's OK. These things happen, and I learn from them. It was just kinda tough, especially after seeing all those incr-edible chefs at the world championship.

But I'm good with that now. Today came out really well. A big 4-pot meal, and it was delicious! I'm back in the saddle!