WES SMALLING Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Thursday, May 22, 2008 12:00 am
At first glance, one of Carolyn Buff's most prized possessions doesn't look like much. It's just a small cast-iron pan - a flat, black pancake griddle with a thin handle.
But the cast-iron griddle she holds in her hand is no ordinary cookware. Forged in Pennsylvania more than 150 years ago, the little frying pan was taken West by her great-grandmother in a covered wagon.
And it still makes the best darn pancakes you'll ever eat.
"It's crude and it's battered but there's not a thing wrong with it," Buff told her class of Dutch oven cookers who gathered at Edness Kimball Wilkins State Park outside Casper on Saturday. "All but a few of my cast-iron pieces I inherited from my grandparents and great-grandparents who homesteaded in the Hanna area."
Buff and her long-time friend and cooking partner Jan Burnett have been teaching their springtime Dutch oven cooking class for Casper Community College for eight years. The duo have been campfire cooking together for more than 20 years.
"Our husbands turn and run when we get out the cast iron because they know it's their job to clean up afterward," Burnett said.
Dutch ovens and other cast-iron wares not only make food taste better, whether you're cooking at home or on a camping trip, they're also historic, nostalgic items that are often family heirlooms, Burnett said. Dutch ovens are a throwback to the old days of campfire and cabin cooking on the frontier. A recently manufactured Dutch oven isn't much different from the kinds used more than a century ago.
A Dutch oven is simply a heavy cast-iron pot with a lid and a steel handle. Its origin can be traced back to Europe in the 1700s. Exactly where and when the name came from is up for debate among historians. "Dutch" suggests it was first developed in Holland and brought to England but the name could derive from it being brought to the American Colonies by Dutch traders. Another theory is that early German immigrants brought cast-iron pots and pans to America, so that "Dutch" is actually an Anglicization of Deutsch, Buff said.
In the 1800s, settlers heading West across America brought their heavy Dutch ovens and other cast iron cookware with them, clinging and clanging inside covered wagons on the bumpy trails of the prairie and over treacherous mountain passes.
"As they went over mountain passes they might've had to get rid of the bureau or the piano, but they never threw out the cast iron. That was their survival," Burnett said.
You can cook just about any kind of food in a Dutch oven - meat, vegetables, bread, desserts, you name it. And you can use one just about anywhere - on a wood campfire, on charcoal briquettes above the ground or beneath it, or on a gas or charcoal barbecue. You can cook in a Dutch oven at home too in the oven or on a non-ceramic stove top.
Meals prepared in a Dutch oven taste so much better because cast iron cooks food extra slow and distributes the heat evenly, said Scott Hutchinson, a retiree from Casper and one of the dozen students attending the class.
"That's the amazing thing about it. The toughest cut of meat you can get you can just cut it with a fork," he said as the class prepared a morning brunch of Farmer's Casserole, a scrumptious mix of hash browns, scrambled eggs and cheese, plus other delectable breakfast dishes.
The one drawback to cast-iron pots and pans is the weight, Buff said. They're heavy.
"Cast iron is not good for backpacking," she said.
Charcoal briquettes make the best heat source for camp cooking. Put the pot on hot coals and place some hot briquettes on the lid to heat it from the top. Keep replenishing the heat by adding new coals as the old ones get white and turn to dust.
You can cook underground too. Dig a hole, fill it with hot coals, put the Dutch oven in and cover it.
"Just bury the whole thing with dirt and go fishing for a few hours. When you come back your dinner's ready," Buff said. "But that's a little risky."
If you're not careful, you can easily overcook your food leaving it underground unattended because you can't control or predict the temperature. Worse, you could accidentally start a forest fire so it's better to keep a close eye on what's cooking, Burnett said. Besides, hanging out around the Dutch oven all day and making a big event out of cooking dinner is the best part of the hobby - except for the eating part, of course.
"You always have to think of Dutch oven cooking as a celebration and a production because it's an all-day thing," Burnett said.
Dutch ovens are ultra-durable and will last a lifetime if you take good care of them by keeping them well-oiled and storing them properly. Don't wash them with soap or they'll end up tasting like soap and will probably rust. And never, under any circumstances, put cast-iron cookware in a dishwasher.
"If you take care of cast iron it'll never wear out, ever. You can pass it down from generation to generation," Buff said, admiring her 150-year-old old pancake griddle. "She used this every day of her life, my great-grandmother, and it's going to last for several more lifetimes."