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Seminar to focus on 'how-to' of Dutch oven cooking Saturday, May 27, 2006 By Joe Mosby Chuck wagon races have become popular events around Arkansas, with large crowds drawn to the headline event at Clinton each year. If they had really wanted to be authentic, they would have two or three Dutch ovens in each of the wagons. Right up there with a rifle and an ax, the Dutch oven was a vital implement to early settlers all through our nation. Its versatility and usefulness hasn't waned. Today's campers make steady use of it, so much so that cooking contests are held in Arkansas and in other locales. If camp cooking has any interest for you, a Dutch oven cooking seminar is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, June 3, at War Eagle Mill, 13 miles east of Rogers off Arkansas Highway 12 on War Eagle Road 98. Registration is $25 per person and includes all materials and lunch. Phone War Eagle Mill, (866) 4927-32453, ext. 0, to register. Classes are limited in size. "This hands-on seminar will include the 'how-to' of Dutch oven cooking and charcoal fire control," Zoe Caywood of War Eagle Mill said. "Dutch oven cooking is cooking outside in cast-iron pots, cowboy chuck wagon style. The heat base can be hardwood coals or charcoal." The seminar will be taught by Luann Waters and Phyllis Speer, two skilled veterans of Dutch oven cooking. Waters is a conservation and environment educator with more than 25 years' experience teaching in workshops and seminars across the United States. A native Oklahoman, she has done TV programs, seminars and workshops on wild game and Dutch oven cooking throughout the country. She teaches college courses in pioneer food history and food preparation. Speer is an education coordinator with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and a regular host on AETN's "Arkansas Outdoors." She cooks and teaches wild game and Dutch oven cooking throughout the nation. Caywood said Arkansas fans affectionately call her "the redneck Martha Stewart." She is also coordinator of the annual Arkansas Becoming an Outdoorswoman program in Little Rock. Dutch ovens are used for baking, roasting, boiling, braising, frying, simmering and for other cooking methods. The utensils are available in a wide range of sizes. Seminar participants will prepare dishes such as biscuits, cornbread, appetizers, entrees and desserts. War Eagle Mill's organic flours and corn meals will be the basis for many of the food dishes, Caywood said. Participants will learn how to select and care for ovens, actual food preparation, cleaning, and storage tips. Instructions will also include cooking as pioneer and chuck wagon cooks once did. The camp ovens used have recessed tops, legs and bail handles for placing hot charcoal on the top and bottom using a formula for temperature as to how many briquettes to place where. "These cast iron pots were among the most cherished possessions of the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery, the American mountain men, the settlers going west, and the cattle drive cowboys," Caywood said. "Campfire cooking is now experiencing resurgence in popularity. Lunch will be served to all registrants from the cast-iron pots with a sampling of the varied dishes." Along with the cast iron Dutch ovens, several other tools are essential to cooking with them. One is a charcoal fire starter, a metal cylinder with a handle and some air holes in which wads of newspaper can be put in the bottom with charcoal on top. Then the paper is ignited. It's highly efficient for getting charcoal going. A steel pot hook is used for lifting the lid of a Dutch oven - or the oven itself - with its bail. Metal tongs of some sort are useful for moving hot charcoal around, especially from the main fire to the top of the oven. A small metal scoop will also fill this purpose. -------- Joe Mosby is the retired news editor of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Arkansas' best known outdoor writer. His work is distributed by the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. He can be reached by e-mail at jhmosby@cyberback.com. |
