Dutch Oven Baking Question

[pierhogunn2]

That little ole spikey haired devil Alton Brown caught my attention with his knead-not sourdough bread, and well, I just don't want to have to go out and buy a cast iron dutch oven for this stuff

he put about 20 birkettes on the bottom and about 20 on the lid, what does that equate to in the oven? 350*F?

I understand that the crust and texture may be different, but I am intrigued with the idea of getting a nice flavorful local sourdough w/out killing myself with labor

Dan

[scmhogg]

Dan,

I use a dutch oven to make bread. I spoke of it recently in this thread. http://www.bt3central.com/showthread...ighlight=bread

My recipe calls for pre-heating the dutch oven, in the oven, to 500 before you put the bread in and then lowering the temp to 450.

I use a Lodge dutch Oven. This brand was suggested by a member when I found out how much Le Cruset cost.

Steve

[dbhost]

http://www.free-camping-recipes.com/...ure-guide.html

Once you start baking in a dutch oven, you'll LOVE it...

I can't wait until the cooler weather sticks around a while. Take LOML out to Lake Texana, do some fishing, bake up a blackberry cobbler in camp... YUMMY!

[warrenp]

Dutch oven bread baker here too. (You know they sell them at HF? )

And something a local chef taught me, if the bread comes out too brown and crisp, put the dough on a piece of baking parchment paper and lower into the dutch oven.

And that bread is great!

[jonmulzer]

The rule of thumb for dutch oven cooking is if you take the diameter in inches and double it it will be pretty close to 350F. If he were using a 12" dutch oven, I would guess around 325F?

[dbhost]

Dutch oven bread baker here too. (You know they sell them at HF? )

And something a local chef taught me, if the bread comes out too brown and crisp, put the dough on a piece of baking parchment paper and lower into the dutch oven.

And that bread is great!

Actually, I got a clearance deal on a Lodge Logic 12" Dutch Oven from Harbor Freight a few years ago. LOVE that thing!

Never heard of the parchment paper trick. Won't that burn?

[kevincan]

Here is the link to the HF dutch oven. I think it sells for $20. I was just talking to LOML about getting one. I have a friend that has 2 from HF and they are happy with them. I looked at a Lodge 12" dutch oven and it was $60.

http://www.harborfreightusa.com/usa/...submit=find+it

Here is a site I was checking out this week with more info.

http://papadutch.home.comcast.net/~papadutch/

The last 2 weekends I have been at scout events that had people cooking with dutch ovens so now I need to get one.

[JSUPreston]

Papa Dutch (Kevin's link) has a lot of good info. The cobbler using dry cake mix and Sprite is surprisingly good.

From my experiments, using the oven at home at 350 seems to work fairly well if you want to try to cook something at home first. Just follow the rest of the instructions as written.

Piece of friendly advice...don't let the wife try to pick up the oven with the lid on it. Can be very dangerous to her bare feet. DAMHIKT!

[Whaler]

I have the lodge 6 qt enameled model and love it. It was a little more expensive than bare cast iron but for the easy clean up it was worth it. I'm going to brew up a batch of chili in it today.

[pelligrini]

I think the best Cornish hen I have ever had was done in a dutch oven on a scouting weekend. My patrol did end up eating a lot later than we wanted to, but it was worth it.

[pierhogunn2]

Yum!!!

Well boys, I did it

I didn't have a dutch oven, so I faked on, in the spirit of the show, I turned my 10" fry pan into the lid of my cast iron chicken fryer ( now I have a healthy use for it) and did the Knead-not recipe for a loaf


Dayummm is it good, chewy and tough on the inside, incredibly crispy on the outside, with a nice nutty flavor in the crust from the toasted corn meal...

this loaf will not last long, but I am already planning my next loaf for a 24+ hour sit, instead of a 19


onward and downward

[Mrs. Wallnut]

In the dutch oven we have I have made homemade apple pie. Mark was going to do it over coals but didn't get a chance to the first time I made it so I made it in the oven and he took it to the function he was going to. It was a big hit and he came back with none to share. I have done that a couple of times because I can pretty much make a "Deep" dish pie with lots of apples like I like it.

A couple of months ago on a boy scout camp out we made sure that we made some pie dough and then rolled it in wax paper so the oldest son could take it to make a pie over the coals or fire. He said it was a big hit.

I like using the dutch oven to make stew and soup in on the stove during the winter and it turns out great.

[eccentrictinkerer]

Never heard of the parchment paper trick. Won't that burn?

Remember "Fahrenheit 451" ?