cooking w/charcoal guide

cooking w/charcoal guide- Ring Method

Practice makes perfect. Don't get dismayed. It will come.
1. 800 deg? You burnt your seasoning off! Reseason immediately.
2. I seem to remember that you have the camp oven? Yes? If not get a lid stand to support the pot.
3. Charcoal placement. Practice the "ring" method.
you don't need to count coals. 1 ring on bottom, and 11/2 rings on top will give you 350deg. Depending on wind conditions. But you will be very close. 2 full rings on top will be around 375-400 etc.
Frying, all coals on bottom. Simmering etc adjust as you would using a range, add or remove heat.

I have attached or copied a full description of the "ring method" below.
If you are going to use your DO often, seasoning and wiping with oil is OK, but if you are not going to use it at least once a week, I highly recommend using Bee wax as your seasoning medium. It will not turn rancid and stink up your pot.

The following is an excerpt from an article by Duane Dinwiddie of the Lone Star DO Society.

CHARCOAL AND TEMPERATURE CONTROL


Beginners frequently over-start their charcoal. By that I mean they leave it in the starter too long before they use it. It should take only 10 to 15 minutes to start charcoal in a chimney starter, and anything longer than that is a waste. It may not look lit in the starter, but if it has flames coming out the top and no smoke, it is ready. Dump out the coals and use the fully lit ones first. Charcoal that has been started for 30 minutes before it is put on a pot will be half burned away, and will not produce as much heat per briquette. It will also not provide heat long enough to finish some recipes. Always start more charcoal than you need, so you can add the extra later to maintain heat if necessary, especially if it is windy. All recipes assume that you use fresh, properly lit charcoal. A few lit coals in a starter will start charcoal put on top.


When I first started this Dutch oven thing, I tried to count out the number of charcoal briquettes called for in the Dutch Oven recipe books. I rapidly found this to be far less than satisfactory for me, as it's dangerous to have to take your shoes off to count hot charcoal. In addition, I found out that you have to use more of the cheaper brands of charcoal than if you use a quality brand such as improved Kingsford "K" charcoal. So, I decided to measure quantities of hot charcoal by geometric patterns. All of my recipes are based on using the improved Kingsford K charcoal or equivalent and the following "ring" method of temperature control. The definitions are:


1-ring : If you make a circle of hot charcoal with all of the briquettes lying flat and touching each other, with spaces left out for the legs on the bottom rings, that is "one ring". The outside edge of the ring is lined up with the outside edge of the pot, top or bottom.


1/2-ring : A "half ring" is the same size circle, but with every other briquette missing.


2- rings : is simply a second ring just inside the first, with the rings touching.


Full spread :means to put all the briquettes you can (one layer deep, lying flat) either under (very rare, except in frying) or on top of the pot.
This ring technique is kind of self-correcting for the size of the briquettes used. If your charcoal has been burning for a while, the pieces will be smaller and will put out less heat. But, it will take more of them to make a ring, so you still get about the same temperature. Of course they won't last as long and the comparison is rough, but it's better than counting briquettes!


These cooking utensils were designed hundreds of years ago to cook food using coals from wood fires. Yes, of course you can cook with campfire coals, but the technique is beyond the scope of this booklet.

 

Re: cooking w/charcoal guide- Ring Method

Not sure what stores are available in NM, but
on line there is Lodge, Campchef, Amazon, and my favorite KA-Tom Restaurant supply. Cabelas, Bass Pro as well.

www.lodgemfg.com Lodge
www.campchef.com Campchef
WWW.Amazon.com
www.katom.com
of course there is ebay as well, but that could be risky. My preference is of course Lodge MFG, as they are the ONLY mfg of cast iron cookware in the USA.

 

I 'appropriated' this chart from http://dutchovenmadness.blogspot.com/p/dutch-oven-basics_1.html
Along with some other handy items.

 

This is my preferred style of lid lifter:
Mair Dutch Oven Lid Lifters

 

Excellent idea. I have been seriously involved with Dutch oven cooking quite a few years but never heard of this before.