By LAURIE HIGGINS
Contributing WriterSANDWICH, MA
Campers and scouts often resort to easy foods like hot dogs and beans, but creative outdoor cooks have discovered what early colonists and cowboys knew about years ago - cast iron Dutch ovens. Contestants at the 10th annual Cape Cod Dutch Oven Cookoff at Peters Pond Park showed that Dutch oven cooking has evolved into an art form that embraces a wide range of food including cakes, bread, pizza and even homemade ice cream. Related Dutch Oven Cookoff winners
The fall air was ripe Saturday with delicious smells of pork, beef, pumpkin and homemade bread that combined to make the stomach growl. But patience is a required virtue for Dutch oven cooking.
South Yarmouth resident Bob Phillips founded the cookoff. He began cooking with Dutch ovens as a Boy Scout leader years ago.
"I got into it with the kids. They would bring cooler after cooler after cooler with food and I said there has got to be another way to survive out here and the Dutch oven was it," he said.
A friend of his read in an outdoors magazine about the International Dutch Oven Society in Logan, Utah and, on a lark, signed Bob up as a member.
"He thought I'd get a real kick out of it. Once I got the membership and saw that they had a cookoff, there was no question I was going to do this. So that was 10 years ago."
The cookoff follows the rules set by the International Dutch Oven Society. Local contestants were asked to dress in either western or colonial gear since those are the two time periods for which Dutch ovens are famous. The three categories for cooking were dessert, bread and main dish. Contestants cooked in cast iron Dutch ovens with three legs and a rimmed flat lid, using charcoal as their heat source.
Five teams competed in the cookoff this year and all of them elected to compete in the three-pot cookoff where they had to make something from each of the categories. All of the teams camped at Peters Pond the night before and were ready to "answer the call of the black pots" when cooking began at 10:00 a.m. in a field set up with picnic tables and their gear.Cast iron learning
The contestants had a wide variety of gear that displayed a large amount of invention. Dunbarton, NH residents Fred and Lee Mullen like to make their own equipment. Fred made the metal cooking table, trivets and lid lifters. He uses old paint cans with holes punched in them set on hibachi grates to heat up coals and hangs mini cast iron pots over the coals to keep a steady stream of hot water for clean up. Lee sewed their authentic colonial costumes.
The Mullens made Pumpkin Pie Squares, Caraway Seed Rye Bread and Pizza in the Woods.
"This is our eighth year competing. We saw a little blurb in a campground newspaper about the Dutch Oven Cookoff on Cape Cod so I said 'Let's go for a ride and see what that's about.' We didn't compete the first year because we didn't bring any food, but Lee was one of the judges that year and we've been coming down ever since because there is a big nice group of people that come down here and everybody has a good time," Fred said.
Using his Pumpkin Pie Squares as an example, Fred explained how to adapt the cooking temperature.
"This recipe calls for 350 degrees and so to get this 12-inch oven to 350 degrees, you take the diameter of the oven, which is twelve, you add three. That gives you fifteen. That's how many coals you put on the top and then you deduct three and that would be nine and you put those on the bottom. For every two pieces of charcoal you get roughly 20 to 25 degrees of temperature," he said.
You then check the item frequently and watch the edges for browning because that means the bottom is done and the coals underneath should be removed.
"Dutch oven Dave" and Esther Horton from North Collins, NY had a high-tech operation. Dave is the director of the Western New York chapter of the International Dutch Oven Society and even has a separate trailer to haul all of his supplies. He keeps his extra coals in reserve in a charcoal chimney resting on a metal garbage can lid and has a two burner gas cooking stove with large pots to heat water.
The Hortons made Barbecued Brisket, German Raisin Bread and Dutch Oven Ice Cream.
"It's just like ice cream that you'd make with an ice cream machine only you're making it with a Dutch oven. You can't crank it so you have to go in and stir it every few minutes," Dave explained.
He used a large plastic tub filled with 60 pounds of ice and rock salt.
"You can adapt any recipe that you find. The good thing about Dutch oven cooking is that you can cook anything that you can cook at home in your kitchen," Dave said.
Dave first became interested in Dutch oven cooking as a Boy Scout. Now he trains Boy Scout Troops, Women in the Outdoors groups, and church groups on how to cook with Dutch ovens.
Esther has cooked in cast iron Dutch ovens at home for 38 years.
"I've been cooking with Dutch ovens since we were married because my mother cooked in them. I haven't cooked on an open fire though or with charcoals. I do it in the oven, but I don't think I've ever cooked a roast that wasn't in the Dutch oven," she said, adding that the cookoff is a hobby she and her husband can enjoy now that the children are grown.Boy Scouts are prepared
The teams from Boy Scout Troop 159 in Salem, NH all used wheelbarrow beds set on sawhorses to cook on. The wheelbarrows were large enough for the three separate entries to be cooked simultaneously.
The first team, Charley Schaible and Tom Tetreault made Granny Smith Apple Cake using a recipe from Charley's mother. They also made Dutch Oven Bread and Italian Sausages cooked in olive oil, basil, oregano and salt.
The second Boy Scout team, Paul and Colin Lamprey, made Corned Beef and Cabbage, Sugar Free White Layer Cake and Honey Nut Bread. Paul said the main dish was his mother's recipe, but he went on-line to get the other recipes and then adapted them. "I tried four different bread recipes until I found one I liked," he said.
Paul and Colin first competed last year and loved it. "Last year the scout master asked us to come down to try something a little different with our troop, to try to get the boy scouts to do something besides hot dogs at the camp out. We did this last year and it was my first time to cook in the Dutch oven and I went out and I've bought five pans since," he said.
Father/son team John and Jonathan Mackie made Thyme Pork Roast, Pineapple Upside Down Cake and Spoon Rolls. As Jonathan rubbed thyme on his roast, his father John said that Jonathan is the real cook on their team.
The camaraderie between contestants was evident. During their free minutes, they checked out the competition and offered encouragement. "We'll be over for dinner," Dave told Fred and Lee as he watched Lee cut up ingredients for her pizza that included green and yellow peppers from her garden, onions, mushrooms, spinach, pepperoni, black olives, and minced garlic.
Fred and Lee assembled the creation on a pizza board and, in an awesome display of teamwork, slid it onto the underside of the Dutch oven lid. That was rested on the tripod over the coals. They created an "oven" by placing the bottom of the Dutch oven in place upside down and placed coals on top.Slow, but busy
Dutch oven cooking is the original slow cooking method, so theoretically contestants should have some down time, but there were no idle hands to be seen at the competition. Part of the judging involves keeping your work area clean and chatting with spectators and each team happily showed observers what they were making and how they did it.
The contest was judged in three stages and the first item to be judged was dessert at noon, followed by bread at 1:30 and the main dish at 2:30. As the time wound down for the main dish, Jonathan sliced apples for a garnish for his pork roast and Paul made perfectly shaped radish flowers with a small knife.
Charlie and Tom were hungry and ready for the judging to be over so they could dig in and eat their meal. They designed the menu to work as a meal, and they planned to eat the sausages on the bread they made. "It's going to be awesome," Charley said.
Father/son team Paul and Colin Lamprey took first place overall. Their first place winnings in the dessert and bread categories and second place in the main dish, tipped the scales in their favor. For the main dish overall, the Horton's Barbeque Brisket won the first prize.(Published: September 29, 2004)
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