Dutch Oven by Vernon Winterton

Dutch Oven: Camp Cooking by Vernon Winterton

Overview

Upgrade your camp cooking with this handy book, its kitchy enamelware pages designed to match your camping kit. Winterton uses simple ingredients to prepare a vast selection of foods for every possible meal + type of eater in this spiral-bound, lay flat book. Many of the 65 recipes can be easily prepped before heading out, then assembled as hunger strikes or a suitable campsite is found. And fear not! No step is skipped. Pot seasoning tips start the book off right for dutch oven newbies. Winterton even offers specific coal counts for use in/on/around each recipe as they cook + a there’s a prep page for learning when coals are ready, so you can rely on meals being done cooking in the timeframe provided.

There are as many complex, multi-step offerings in this cookbook as simple camp fare. There’s a mouthwatering array of soups + sauces, plus robust, filling recipes, like Meat + Cheese Stuffed Manicotti (page 64). The King’s Chicken (page 52) requires chilling + multiple dutch ovens, with steps I find too unwieldy for camping (pounding + breading chicken, for two). But to offset these timely options are quicker, easier ones like Chicken Roll-ups whose single pot gets the roll + cook treatment without added fuss.

I’m a backwoods, disbursed camper, so there’s simply a tent + plastic tub that comprises my kit. If we’re lucky, my friend brings her picnic table. My camp experience requires quick, palable meals for two meat-eating tweens + one vegetarian adult. Many of Winterton’s recipes can be prepped this way – like Breakfast Rolls (page 12) sans bacon on half, Chicken Pillows (page 58) with tofu instead of chicken, or simply leaving off the pepperoni from a section of the Homemade Dutch Oven Pizza (page 68).

Winterton is serious about serving a crowd. Some recipes serve 20! I don’t know who he camps with, but it must be a fun group. Whole tenderloins (page 76) or the Sausage-Spinach Wreath (page 79) are hearty meals after a full day outdoors. His Cheesy Potatoes (page 85) + the Dutch Oven Potatoes (page 88) serve up to 14 people as a side. Aside from alllllll potato recipes, my favorites are the huge range of yummy-looking desserts, a segment that tends to be skipped entirely if you’re not into s’mores.

What we flagged

Our camping season official starts this week! So that’s why this book is featured now – we’re backpacking with friends Friday/Saturday + needed some good meals. To start:

• Sloppy Joes, page 62
• Raspberry-Peach Pie, page 107

Who is this book written for?

Any camper (or person with a cookfire at home) with a dutch oven who wants to expand their cooking repertoire.