Dutch Oven: Cast-Iron Cooking Over an Open Fire

I am new to dutch oven cooking, and so I have been looking for a long time for a dutch oven cookbook that only had dutch oven recipes. Several of the books I looked at had a plethora of camp cooking recipes, many for a griddle, etc. This book mainly has dutch oven recipes.The only problem I see with the book at all is the author eats a lot of things that I don't think we eat much of in this country...like pigeon and wild boar. I don't know, maybe lots of people eat pigeon and boar, but I don't know anyone who does. Maybe hunters. And there were also some meat cuts that didn't exactly sound appetizing (like pork neck), BUT if you look past that, this book is a gem because it's easy to see that you can substitute meats etc.A real strength of this book is how the author explains the whole dutch oven cooking history. He tells how many coals to put on things - information like that which is very helpful for a beginner. Especially helpful was advice on how to prepare the dutch oven for use and its care. Lots of other really interesting historical information in the book, but not too much. A good balance.The photography in the book is excellent, and the book is printed on heavy, glossy paper.I like this book and it'll be extremely helpful in giving me ideas and confidence to do the dutch oven cooking. My first dinner was excellent, too!

I bought this book to assist me with my first cast-iron dutch oven. It was a great disappointment for someone new to this sort of cooking. The details for the recipes were awful. Often there were no cooking times provided. For example in one recipe it said "Shortly before the end of the cooking time, season again..." But that cooking time isn't provided anywhere. The details in recipes regarding the level of heat were "low" or "medium" or "much upper heat", and yet these terms aren't defined anywhere.There are several recipes for use of sourdough bread, but the book doesn't tell you how to make sourdough starter, it simply tells you to get some from a baker. Each recipe is strictly for one size of dutch oven, but from recipe to recipe, the size of the oven changes.In fact, this might be the worst written, poorly detailed and explained cookbook I've ever seen. I have to wonder if this was self-published because I can't believe any experienced editor wouldn't have published the book with these issues.Final warning, pretty pictures don't make for an effective cookbook.Perhaps if you're an experienced cook using a dutch oven, you can improvise with these recipes, but anyone else stay clear of this book.

Maybe I had different expectations but I was disappointed in the amount of information on how to use a campfire dutch oven. I was interested in a "how to" book, this wasn't it. This read like a very generic primer with the kind of basic information that you quickly never refer to again. I found more useful info on the web and on YouTube. The recipes looked ok if not remarkable. Returned it.

As an outdoor cooking blogger, I am not new to Outdoor Dutch oven cooking and I was disappointed with this book.The book is beautifully produced on thick glossy paper and the photos are impressive. He includes some interesting history and general information in the beginning of the book; however….I think the book is more suited for a hunter or a European diet? (It reminds me of an English countryside cook book I have.) The author cooks with a lot of meats that I don’t think the average person cooks with like pigeon and wild boar and without knowledge of the flavors of these meats, it makes it difficult to substitute an alternate meat that will blend well with the other ingredients. Because of that, there are a lot of recipes in the book that I simply just won’t try because I don’t have access to that meat and have no idea what to substitute in its place.My biggest complaint with the book is, in the recipes, he does not always include the size of Dutch oven and he does not include an oven temperature or specify how many coals go on and under the oven. The book is subtitled “Cast-Iron Cooking Over an Open Flame” so I get that part (you’re having to eyeball your campfire/coals) but he also talks about using charcoal but then doesn’t include a coal option for each recipe. He does include guidelines in the general sections of the book, but nothing for each recipe so I’m left to guess and I can’t even make an educated guess. If I at least had the preferred oven temperature, I could “do the math” to determine how many coals I need for the size of Dutch oven I’m using. Nevertheless, there are some recipes I DO want to try so I’ll attempt to “do the math.”I would not recommend this book for a beginner outdoor chef. This book is more about “winging it” over an open fire and unless you know what you are doing and are already comfortable with Dutch oven cooking, I think this will just set you up for failure.