Outdoor cooking with cast iron: Hearty stew & cornbread

Campfire cooking with a cast iron dutch oven and tripod.

I've been itching for weeks to cook outdoors over an open fire. Since we live in a rural community surrounded by Nature in all its glory, I don't feel the persistent urge to escape to a backwoods campground or cabin. I already live in the woods and the fire pit is on my front yard. Wildlife and trees are all around us all year long. However, I do miss outdoor cooking, whether it's over a fire or propane cook stove.

Who's afraid of a wabbit?

When we first moved here, there was no house, so we camped in a small truck camper and cooked, ate and did dishes in a screened tent. It was challenging and overwhelming at times, especially during days of non-stop torrential rain, hail, windstorms and hungry, blood sucking insects. The ticks and mosquitoes were brutal.

I'll admit that I don't miss those months of camping while we waited for our house to be finished, although we did have some memorable moments like the rabbit hanging around during the day and scaring the poor dog out of his wits. City dog meets country rabbit = dog cowering and shaking under the camper!



Overall, we survived five months of roughing it and I learned a lot about cooking outdoors. My cast iron skillets were and are still well used.

I've always been a huge fan of Little House on the Prairie, so when I read somewhere about Frontier House, I ordered the DVD and watched it over and over again. Although I have no desire to completely live like pioneers of the 1800s, the simplicity of those times has always intrigued me. I love cast iron, the real stuff, not the fancy shmancy stuff in stores these days. I've always wanted a real cast iron dutch oven and tripod, so after doing some comparison shopping online, I ordered some items to kick start my outdoor cooking adventures.

cast iron dutch oven

I thought that a 12-quart dutch oven with a flat lid would be a great investment. The lid is flat so that coals can be placed on top, simulating a typical oven. With this type of dutch oven, I can make anything, including baked goods. I have been doing a lot of thinking, planning and organizing for emergency preparedness these days because you never know when the power will go out for a long period of time and you have to resort to roughing it. I've been on a mission for two years learning alternative ways to grow, store and cook food. We've lost power for up to 12 hours, had a drained car battery and been snowed in, so being prepared out here is essential. There is no "corner" store where we live.

I anxiously awaited two weeks for the Lodge Logic 12 quart dutch oven, lid stand, tripod and lid lifter to arrive. The oven was already seasoned - great! The cookware includes some interesting reading materials, including a manual on caring for your cast iron cookware and recipes.

Finally, the day arrived. A full day of sun, with no rain in the forecast, but the wind was a problem. I re-arranged stones around the campfire and set up the tripod. Not such an easy task.

A windy day and trying to get the tripod legs steady.

The legs need a fairly wide stance so that the large dutch oven will hang from the chain and you can get the lid off easily. Getting the proper stance took a few tries. Keeping the fire from burning out thanks to the wind was no easy task, either.

How many people does it take to keep a fire burning on a very windy day? Five! We each took turns. Mid-afternoon, the wind showed some mercy and stopped gusting long enough for nice hot coals to form and soon my first ever cast iron stew was bubbling contently.

Stew over a campfire

Cast iron lid lifter

I prepared the cornbread recipe three hours after setting the stew to the fire. Only three hours to cook a full pot of stew? I was skeptical. I raised the pot when the fire burned too hot which prevented the stew from getting burned, stirring about every 20 minutes. The pot lifter was a wise investment and proved to be a handy tool.

Thick, long gloves were necessary. Once cast iron gets hot, the cookware retains the heat. Cooking over a campfire isn't one of those "set it and forget it" things. I didn't stray far from the pit. Sure enough, in about 3.5 hours, the stew was done. What an aroma! It was time to make the cornbread.

In a deep skillet, I poured in about one-and-a-half tablespoons of canola oil and set the skillet on some coals. Only took a few minutes for the pan to heat up. I then added the cornbread mixture and set the skillet over coals, rotating the pan every 5 minutes in a clockwise direction so that all sides would cook evenly. In less than 25 minutes, all sides were thoroughly cooked, but the center was still runny. What to do? I inverted a large plate over the skillet and the half cooked cornbread plopped onto it, plus some on the ground. That didn't work out the way I had planned. I wondered how the pioneers got their cornbread to cook in the middle. If they could do it using minimal tools, so could I.

Back into the skillet on the coals, rotating every 5 minutes and it was done, albeit a bit burned on the edges. The entire process took about 35 minutes. Unfortunately, some parts did get burned as I was impatient and moved the skillet to open flame to cook the bread faster. The stew aroma was making me hungry and I couldn't wait any longer. The good thing about cornbread is that you can easily scrape off the burned parts and overall, it tasted pretty good. Note to self: Don't rush campfire cooking. Once cast iron heats up, things cook very fast.

The stew turned out great, enough to last us for several days, plus a few meals tucked into the freezer for those days when I just don't feel like whipping something up for dinner. The cornbread was OK, but I think I need a larger skillet so that the mixture cooks evenly and the bread isn't so thick. My two dinner companions enjoyed the meal, so my first outdoor cast iron cooking session was a success.  

Here are the recipes: Hearty Stew and Cornbread

I think my next feat will be to make bread in the dutch oven over the fire. Stay tuned for that one.

Hearty stew and cornbread - success!