Outdoor Cooking Indoors

[*Wgoodrich]

#164: Outdoor Cooking Indoors Author: Wgoodrich, Posted: 28 Nov 2003 10:50 am
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Had a cold spell here and started the fireplace. Before I started the fireplace for the season I used a flue brush and strong flash light to inspect and clean the flue maintaining any build up of creosote that can and will start a very damaging flue fire. A flue fire can roar in the chimney area burning up the built up soot or creosote at such a rapid rate and high temperature it can destroy your flue and chimney structure as well as set your house on fire. This is something that should be kept in mind with any wood burning stove or masonry fireplace. Every season you should make sure you wood has cured for at least one full year and that you have inspected the fire place and flue for any cracks occurring last season and use a flue brush to clean out any built up soot or creosote. Then you should be safe to build your first fire of the heating season.

Just for a bit of fun I decided to cook a venison pot roast and potatoes in the fireplace during my liesure day off. Kind of fun and taste to boat.

Below is an end result picture. You can see the metal fire place grate as well as the clean spot where the dutch oven was sitting while it was cooking the roast and potatoes. Works great. You can even bake a cake or pie in your fire place if you like.

Have fun but be safe,

Wg

http://www.homewiringandmore.com/storage/hunting/roastpotatoes.jpg

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#166: Author: wannabee, Posted: 28 Nov 2003 11:06 am
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Look's great. Is that a 20# cast iron roaster. How long did this take to cook.Assume sets on the embers? what did you did when more fire needed to maintain temp. I can't quite see getting the wife to cook in this manner would be up to me. Also what do you have there for a camera, is this the new style that works strictly on puter? Interesting post would like to see more of this taking away from daily stress that we deal with today.

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#172: Author: Wgoodrich, Posted: 28 Nov 2003 12:41 pm
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Yes that is a 20 pound cast iron dutch oven. It has drip ribs in the under side of the lid.

The pot roast was cooked beside the fire with the dutch oven setting on the grate.

No ambers were under the dutch oven however to brown the meat I did shovel some ambers on top of the lid to create the browning affect.

When wood needed to be added I just maintained the fire without concern of the food cooking. The fire was adjascent to the dutch oven with the fire liking from time to time against the side of the dutch oven.

I did burn the fire to build up hot coals under the fire grate so there was a maintained heat and had the fire brick warmed up before I started cooking. The water or broth should be watched and added to during the cooking time. The broth is heated on one side of the kettle causing a rolling flow of the broth moving to the opposite side of the fire [heat seeking cold affect]. This maintains an even heat exposed to the meat.

The meat was set in water in the pot for about 3 hours making the broth and slow cooking the meat. The potatoes [faster cooking] was placed in the pot the last hour placed on the cooler side of the dutch oven. The carrots and whole onions [harder to cook] was placed on the hotter side of the dutch oven at the same time as the potatoes being the last hour. The meat was placed in the middle the entire time.

Key point of this type cooking is the same rolling stir created by the heat on one side with cooler on the other side as when you make campfire coffee. Watch the coffee being made with the grounds right in the water heated by the fire only on the one side. When boiling the water will roll violantly to the cooler side of the pot.

When baking such as cobbler or cakes or pies you would use the same dutch oven with a metal pie pan set inside the dutch oven no fluids. Then when baking the dutch oven again is set on the fire place metal grate to do the cooking. Then close to the end of the bake time hot coals are placed on the dutch oven lid to brown the top of the pie or cobbler for about 15 minutes checking for browning of the crust to desired condition. Then just use a broom to sweep the lid clean before opening the dutch oven to remove the pie pan. Bakes as easy as roasting.

Can be a fun different thing to do and a good calming distraction of the mind when stressed. Great on a cold snowey day.

Have fun

Wg

[*rlfrazee]

#835: Author: rlfrazee, Location: Olathe, kansas Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2003 9:31 am
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Well its a cold snowy day in Kansas and that roast is looking mighty tasty. Had 8 inches of the white stuff yesterday. Spent the day clearing snow. All those neighbors who have laughed at my four wheel drive "toys" arent laughing anymore. Justice finally!! Always admired those who could cook in this manner. You are right about the calming affect of something cooking on the fireplace on a nasty day. What kind of wood do like to cook with or does it matter? Around here its oak usually for heat dont know about cooking though. Do you do this with wild game also? Glad you have this subject on the forum should be getting plenty of time to learn this type of cooking as retiring in 15 months. One last thing, do you use a digital camera for your pics? I havent purchased one yet and understand they are the deal especially for transfering to puter......RL

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#838: Author: wannabee, Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2003 10:15 am
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Only 4degress here N.WI.We have about 12" of the good white stuff. Stays white here. We had are fishing xmas party last nite. Treated to, bear, elk, venison and barbeque, pickled northen and smoked salmon. Ended up a bit like the northern. Women raised with this stuff, sure know how to cook it. Makes you forget about pains in a hurry. Congrats to RL on that retirement coming soon. It's great. What this has to do with wood escapes me, must be the Miller.

[rlfrazee]

Hey Wannabee wood has everything to do with retirement. You know..' honey wood you get me something to drink"? 'Hey honey wood you go to the store and get some bread and milk' ? 'Honey since your home wood you do the laundry'? Boy cant wait. HA HA.....RL

By the way son lives in St.Paul and works in Menomonee,WI.

[Wgoodrich]

RL, I don't know about you but I am a bit disappointed that we didn't get invited to that feast wannabbee went to, sounded like a great time of taste testing.

I have been cooking in the fireplace on nasty days as a form of peace of mind from the pressures of life and not good to go out and do anything when its so nasty outside.

I use any wood I have stacked and split. Best wood in my opinion to cook by especially if on a spit would be hickory. Be careful only to cook soups in open pots to avoid grease build up in the fire place. Also avoid cooking with pine. Taste awful from the smoke.

If you have a wood stove you can make the same type swing arm I have either in a masonry, factory fireplace or even a wood stove.

The picture you see is a venison roast from a deer we processed. The women of this house are not real thrilled to see us have our deer processing parties. Too much of a good time for us I think they are jellous ! They claim it is all the meat being cut up on the dining room table and all the slabs of beef soot fat piled on the kitchen table where the burger is gound. Can't really see them turning up their nose at that, can you? They claim we should be doing that in the barn !! Yea right !! Can't see the football game on Sunday while we have the butchering party.

I use an electronic camera. I can take a picture. Hook the camera to the puter. Start the puter and transfer the picture to a CD readwrite then post on the net in about 10 minutes total. Electronic cameras are great, Picture after picture can be saved on a CD or deleated and not one dime spent on film or developing charges.

Get a cast iron kettle or roaster and wipe liquid soap on the outside of the iron for ease in cleaning the try cooking some soup or a roast. Much easier than you think. Fun too.

Wg

[Unregistered]

RL, always liked a person with humor. Liked the wood reply! Good One. Probably why I never did much book learnin always telling stories and not listening. I think I can pass this on to you. But remember when retiring, one of the older guy's there warned me, now you too! The first thing that will go on you are your Knee's, first the left knee, then your right knee, then your WE- Kneeeeee. Hey enjoy!

[6pack]

See what I mean forgot to sign in and set automatic. :D

[Asparky]

My wife has went Dutch Oven Crazy the last couple of years, course it makes christmas and birthday shopping easy. Just go to the Outdoor store and get the newest Lodge or Camp Chef do dad for her!!

Now, With the addition of the Ultimate dutch oven Turkey roaster and Propane burner this xmas, It took her total dutch oven cast iron cookware weight up to several tons or more. It no longer will all fit in the trunk of the car so guess what, she wants a 4 wheel SUV and a small (Might as well get a large) trailer to haul the stuff up camping. I blame this all on Cee Dub, a local icon!

Whats my point, I don't have one, I'm just along for the cook out!! :) :)

Asparky

[Wgoodrich]

Most outings where I cooked on the fire all I ever needed was a big iron skillet, dutch oven, and pot. All iron all big. Then I could cook any amount I wanted. Next I will try to bake a peach cobbler open fire style.

You guys have all these good stories now it is my turn. About 3 decades ago when I was young and full of I can thoughts I was a Boyscout Commissioner. A few of the Commissioners would get together and invite all surrounding troops and posts to attend what was called a campery. This is where you have say 300 boyscouts in many troops with spike camps in sight of each other. Center of attention was the Commissioner's camp sight, US !. They loved to pull up tent stakes and other good things at night to us poor Commissioners. Of course we got to help them build the rope bridges and set up the compass courses these boys had to go through before they had the big feed each night around the Boyscout Commissioner's camp sight.

We had a pot that was so big it would not fit inside a pick up truck. Hauled it on a flat trailer and used a SCOOP SHOVEL about 2' across as a spoon to stir the food. We made gallons and gallons of chili or bean soup or beef stew in this huge pot on the fire. That pot was empty when the boys got done. The Commissioners had to sneak out to McDonalds for bergers on the sly because they left us none to eat out of that huge pot.

Coffee on the camp fire stood on its own. No I said it right you could have removed the pot and cut to coffee with a knife after it sat by the camp fire all day or all night. Sometimes we had to scrape the coffee out of the pot in the mornings before we could make new coffee. Loved the bathroom when we got home for about three days. Ha Ha.

We camped a few times with snow falling. Those days we had one Commissioner that drew the short straw that had to take a pan of water on a rock out where the boys could see him. While the boys shivered by the camp fire right after they got out of the sleeping bags they could watch the Commissioner with the short straw take his shirt off in his BVDs taking his morning sponge bath. That Commissioner had to remember to grit his teeth so the kids could not see his own shivering. Boy did that impress those kids on how tough we were !! What they didn't know was the one with the short straw got to get in the truck by the heater once he TOUGHED that sponge bath in 30 degree weather. Ha Ha.

Now that is cooking and having fun, still remember those days.

Wg