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Post by Paws on Oct 3, 2005 11:43:47 GMT 12.75
Jerry you ever try that oven? Last week end I baked a corn bread in the camp oven. Had to send out for charcoal cause the wood was just too soft to produce any good embers.
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Post by decivilian on Mar 28, 2006 4:28:36 GMT 12.75
Our group just acquired a humongous Dutch oven (I nicknamed it "Godzilla") and it is large enough to easily hold a pie in the pie plae or a cake or bread. Any suggestions on how to bake these in this monster?
Polly Camp cook for the 2nd Delaware Co. G
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Post by Paws on Mar 28, 2006 10:47:00 GMT 12.75
Just keep an eye on your temperature. If you are using pie tins set one in upside down then the one with the pie on top of it. AThat will keep you from burning the bottom although a fruit pie can take a good deal of heat. Follow your recipe directions for baking just like you would if baking in the oven at home and convert your temperature to coals and your coals to top and bottom arrangements. Remember the formula is 2x the diameter = the number of coals for about 350 degrees F and half of the coles plus two goes on top and half minus two go on the bottom. A few minutes before shut down time remove the coals on the bottom and if doing meats, stews, and some breads put them on the top for the last few minutes. Rotate the lid and the oven by 45 (1/4 turn) degrees every few minutes. A good quality charcoal used in this manner will maintain a heat of 350 to 375 degrees F for up to two hours. Plenty of time for pie and cake. You might want to add four coals to your original total for a sugar pie, chess pie, cream pie, caramel pie or chocolate pie. This will give you the 400 degrees you'll need to set the pie then remove the extra coals to finish baking as your recipe dictates. If you aqre not using charcoal use hard wood coals of about the same size as briquettes to gauge your temperature. These will need to be replaced every 30 minutes or so.
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Post by Two Tales on Mar 28, 2006 21:45:21 GMT 12.75
Polly just how big is this DO you have just fallen into??...I looked at a 20 incher the other day..dang near took it home with me ;D ;D couldn't figure out how to rig it into the back of my li'l car ;D...I have a 14 inch deep (thats a 12 quart) DO that I bake in a lot..I have a trivet (cheap wire cake rack) that I use in the bottomit's baked pies, cakes, bread, cookies and my famous pepperoni bread..2 med sized ducks and a small goose among other things ;D ;D...
this is the formula I use for baking...using a 12 inch DO; 1 coal biquet equals 50*F on the bottom so for 350 I put 7 coals under the it, on top 1 briquet equals 25*F so I put 14 on top..add 1 coal for every 1 inch of DO...also add 1 coal for every 10 *F for ambient temps below 50*F to the top only...it's worked well for a long time for me so I do it this way...
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Post by Paws on Mar 29, 2006 2:01:05 GMT 12.75
Hey TT, I still didn't get an address. Did your e-mail get eaten? it's pawclaws@ohiocampcooks.org or pawclaws1@juno.com. Using your formula, what kind of charcoal are you using and how long will it keep the heat up without replacing coals?
p.s. Never mind that last question, I just ran the calculations and your formula and the one I posted are 3 bottom coals different. ;D
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Post by Two Tales on Mar 29, 2006 2:35:57 GMT 12.75
More or less?
I just resent the addy..let me know..
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Post by Paws on Mar 29, 2006 2:59:44 GMT 12.75
Mine works out to 14 on top and 10 on the bottom. Yours is 14 on top and 7 on the bottom. I've learned the hard way that once you smell it burning it is too late to pull the bottom coals so I generally pull them when cook time is down to about 15 minutes left for breads or cakes. Pies are no biggie usually except for those danged finicky chess pies and such. If you get them perfect it is just jplain luck! I'm amazed how the folk in 1800s could pull out a perfect pie, especially in the South where sugar based pies were very popular. Guess it helps to do it every day! I'm going to try some bread loaves baked in the "rising" oven without preheating this year. I'm thinking the crusts should work out better than using a pre-heated oven. Anyway I hope so!
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Post by decivilian on Mar 29, 2006 3:40:38 GMT 12.75
Thanks guys, I will try this out. Godzilla is a 20 qt. DO, 17" lid diameter and 7" high (not counting the feet and the lid). It weighs a ton and I need to get some of the big boys to help me move it. I figure I could almost roast a suckling pig in the beast, and certainly bake bread and pies and the such.
I have it here at my house right now so I can practice. Being as how we are CW reenactors, I will need to use wood coals and not charcoal briquets. I sure don't want to "experiment" on the army.
Last year I got a White Mountain ice cream maker and made ice cream at all our hot events - the guys loved it and the troops marching by our camp drooled. I now want to make some fresh yummy apple pie to go with it rather than bring one from home.
Polly
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Post by Paws on Mar 29, 2006 4:09:46 GMT 12.75
Polly let us know where you will be showing up. I'd like to see that monster! By the way, please remember to pre-heat that bad boy. I'd probably waste a complete set up of coals to get it up to temperature. After that if the weather cooperates it should hold heat well and just need to be tended to maintain temperature. I've been looking all over for the natural charcoal to slide into the fire pit. Not that easy to find. Instead I've decided to start packing in hardwood blocks of a given size. Basically that means a three inch cube cut from dried oak. or a chunk of a three inch diameter oak limb. That way when we show up to a fire provided with poplar slabs and such we'll be OK. I carry a bag of charcoal to use after all the lookie lous have disappeared which usually happens around 4 PM. That helps a lot and gets dinner out a little faster. I also carry meat and contact thermometers to use on the sly as well. Don't want to kill anyone; well, cept maybe the Major!
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Post by decivilian on Mar 29, 2006 6:07:36 GMT 12.75
When I started cooking for the group we did not have a big enough pot for all the men, so I asked the quartermaster if he could get me something bigger. I should have been specific - I just needed a good-sized stew pot, but he came up with Godzilla instead!
Our group will be at the Boys of '61, several little events in the Delaware/Maryland area, Renfrew in PA, Standardsville, VA, and Cedar Creek (the Oct. event, not the July one).
Where do you find period correct charcoal??
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Post by Paws on Mar 29, 2006 6:42:01 GMT 12.75
You don't, it hadn't been invented yet! ;D At least not for general campfire cooking. For purist purposes charcoal, like what we have today without the additives, was used for making gunpowder and firing kilns and forges. More often used for fire was the closest thing to it "coke" a form of burned peat or bituminous, sometimes lignite, coal which is a very cheap, smoky, slow burning type of coal. What was used for the campfire was whatever could be found locally. (probably how the bean hole and straw box cooking methods were invented due to a lack of proper fuel. The charcoal I try to find "looks like" burned tree branches or limbs, technically would be period correct charcoal. Once it is fired and gets glowing it really is a more realistic alternative than briquettes and more practical than a pile of grey ashes. It is difficult to find and even more so in larger bags. Very expensive as well. Occasionally I see it in ten pound bags at Wal-Mart for around 15 bucks. I think the mostly available brand is Royal Oak. I have toyed with the idea of making my own but; then I saw the Dirtiest Job thing. Forget about it!
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Post by Two Tales on Mar 29, 2006 21:50:11 GMT 12.75
Polly,
Afraid finding "Period charcoal" is out of the question...especailly sense it wasn't invented untill about 1900-1910...by none other than Henry Ford himself...mostly what they did was burn logs untill the coals got bright and then whacked it with a rake iron to knock of chunks of chared and burning log...ie just hot coals...I like Paws thinking on the chunks of oak...those should produce the approxiamte heat values of a charcoal briquet
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Post by decivilian on Mar 30, 2006 1:10:39 GMT 12.75
My sous chef will like the idea of oak - he is an oak freak, swears nothing works better.
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Post by Paws on Mar 30, 2006 7:05:52 GMT 12.75
Promote that sous chef! He is 100 percent corrrect!
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Post by Two Tales on Mar 30, 2006 22:54:23 GMT 12.75
Had a great Aunt that did a bunch of DO cooking out of doors..made us save all the hard wood knots taken from cutting firewood, for her...I think she said that she liked walnut and wild cheery the best..said those gave the most consitant heat through out the burn time...couldn't prove it by me...folks on the farm made charcoal for the forge and a couple of other applications..dirty job that is...used what my great uncle called cold fires to burn it and lots of sprinkling water cans....
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Post by decivilian on Mar 31, 2006 1:52:17 GMT 12.75
Promote that sous chef! He is 100 percent corrrect! Well, I married him, if that is any kind of promotion ;D Polly
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Post by Paws on Mar 31, 2006 4:37:54 GMT 12.75
LOL!! ;D I'll leave that decision up to him! ;D
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Post by Two Tales on Mar 31, 2006 6:14:53 GMT 12.75
Polly,
I just noticed that ya'lls from "Della" were?... ;D ;D ;D was down that a way some time back..went to a Hunter Ed Instructor's Rendevous....Had a good time...we was down by the west side of the bay...folks that think OK is flat should take a trip to that part of this (??) state...
No I aint pokin' fun at your home..but there aint to many places I been that was that flat, driving down it looked something like this__T___T___T___T___T____ ;D
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Post by decivilian on Apr 3, 2006 6:37:58 GMT 12.75
I'm originally from New York, and yes, Delaware couldn't be flatter if it tried. The biggest hill around here is the speed bump in the shopping center's parking lot. I miss mountains. But we do have lots of water which is both a blessing and a curse - good swimming and fishing but it brings out hordes of our state bird = the mosquito.
At least we have no sales tax and our cost of living is very reasonable.
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Post by Two Tales on Apr 6, 2006 5:05:57 GMT 12.75
Polly,
I liked the remark about the speed bump ;D ;D ;D...even with the COL it'd be tough for me to live in a place that flat...heck I walk with a constant lean when I'm on flat ground...looks like I'm gona fall over all the time ;D ;D ;D ;D
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