~Dutch Oven Cooking For a Large Group~
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The "Scout Masters Dutch Oven Lunch" on Friday at Camp Piggot must feed 45 adult scouters and staff.  The rule of thumb here for main dishes is a standard 12 inch (6 quart) Dutch oven will feed 8-10 people and the "deep" 12 inch (8 quart) will feed 10-12 people.  With this in mind, the following menu was selected:

Rattlesnake with Wild Rice (Tastes Just Like Chicken) (2)
Shepherds Pie (2)   Mountain Man Stew (1 Deep)
Broccoli Au Gratin (1 Deep)   Green Bean Casserole (1)
Dutch Apple Cobbler (1)   Bread Pudding (1)

Cooking and Naritive by Ron H. Daumn.
Photos & web design by Mikel G. Edwards.

A.The first order of business Friday morning is to gather the equipment and food and adjourn to the Scoutcraft area.  Three of the nine Dutch ovens we will use today.  Note the tags on the lids and bails.  This allows us to identify which lid goes with which Dutch oven.  They may look alike but they don't always fit alike.

B. You can't cook without heat and charcoal briquettes are ideal.  By varying the quantity and location, one can control the heat as well as you can in your oven at home.  Here we are starting the charcoal using chimneys.  The idea is you put some paper under the grate, pour the charcoal in and light the paper.  It works well and gets things going quickly.

C. A view of the preparation and cooking platform:  Dutch ovens, charcoal starting and pizza pans in the foreground.  Cheap pizza pans provide a solid platform for the Dutch ovens to sit on.

D. Here I have poured some coals onto a pizza pan in preparation for frying.  The hot dog tong is an ideal tool for sliding hot stuff and moving the hot coals.  Since we are going to fry, we want a lot of heat so as many coals as we can get under the oven.

E.Another look at our cooking area.  MATCHLITE charcoal?  Yes, I use it instead of paper in the chimneys.  6-8 Matchlite charcoal briquettes in the bottom of the chimney with regular charcoal on top works better than paper and without the mess.

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