[Sca-cooks] Dutch Oven Baking

[Stefan li Rous]

Helena asked:
> At the risk of now being accused of doing "research" ;) I have just  
> acquired
> a set of cast iron cookware, including a dutch oven complete with  
> feet and
> the lovely rimmed lid that will hold coals for cooking.  So, now I  
> would
> like to hear people's ideas for cooking and particularly baking in  
> the dutch
> oven over a campfire.  Baking is my speciality, and I might like to  
> produce
> some baked goods at Pennsic this year for our camp to devour.

Here are a few general files on dutch ovens and baking while camping:
utensils-msg     (200K)  3/26/05    Utensils, plates, trenchers, cast  
iron pots.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-UTENSILS/utensils-msg.html
camp-ovens-msg    (64K) 12/24/02    Small period and SCA camp ovens.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/CAMPING/camp-ovens-msg.html

Among the things mentioned, and which I learned the hard way, put  
three stones in the bottom of the oven and then place your baking pan  
on top of that. This gives you an insulation of heated air beneath  
your food item and helps minimize hot spots and burning.

It also sounds like this might be a new set of iron cookware. If that  
is the case, and maybe even if it isn't, you'll want to season your  
ironware. We recently had a discussion on this, which isn't yet in  
this file, but this does give you a number of useful techniques and  
comments:
iron-pot-care-msg (26K)  3/26/05    Seasoning and caring for iron  
pots and
                                        skillets.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-UTENSILS/iron-pot-care-msg.html

You can find a number of recipes in the FOOD-BREADS and the FOOD- 
SWEETS section which are adaptable to being cooked in a dutch oven.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****