I Charcoal Preparation
o Buy Kingsford charcoal; the other stuff does not burn reproducibly.
o Fill one charcoal lighter can with charcoal for each dutch oven and place on fire grate above a roaring fire. For each 3 to 5 cans, light one additional can.
o When most of the briquets show some light gray color, the charcoal is ready to be used. For 5 dutch ovens, prepare 6 charcoal cans.
II Food Preparation
o Butter inside of dutch oven (use only ovens with lipped top...you need to put coals on top of oven). Alternatively, you can line the inside of the dutch oven with aluminum foil.
o For each recipe, use two #21/2 cans of fruit or pie mix (peaches, apples, pineapple, etc.), one box of white or yellow cake mix and 1/4 pound of butter.
o Place fruit in bottom of oven. Cover with cake mix and level it. Cut butter into about 10 pieces and scatter over cake mix. It is ready to bake. (Note: If you use peaches, you may need to dispose of about 1/2 of the liquid. Crushed pineapple has about the right amount of liquid.)
III Baking
o Place about 8 coals under the dutch oven and about 16-20 coals on top of oven. Check after 30 minutes. Baking is often complete at 45 minutes.
Final Note: Because the Troop often has 100 or so people to feed and a substantial use of dutch ovens, we have in recent years doubled the recipes in each oven. The number of coals for baking remains the same. Watch the baking closely since it is easier to burn the top of the cobbler with the double recipe.
Dick Heckman
11/01/93
Submitted by Pete Stine
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Last Updated: Tuesday, September 19, 1995