Nice. Maybe head over to the Chili thread . I've always fancied a slow cooked stew in those. Nothing complicated just good old fashion slow cooked meal.
Chili is great in a Dutch oven Because chili is acidic (if you use tomatoes), you will need to re-season the Dutch oven afterwards. No big deal, I usually do a quick re-seasoning after each use, anyway.A couple of other ideas: Pot Roast: Lot of recipes for pot roast and it comes out well every time, if you go "low and slow". I use chuck roast and cook (braise) at 250ºF for 3-5 hours, depending on the size of the roast. The trick to good pot roast is to be sure there is liquid (beef stock, chicken broth, or beer) half way up the roast at all times and keep checking it for tenderness. Be sure to brown your roast first (in the bottom of the Dutch oven, of course). Add veggies, potatoes, mushrooms, garlic, bay leaves, oregano, thyme, etc....... Once the roast is tender--fork tender--I usually take the lid off and let it simmer in the oven for 20-30 minutes to help thicken the sauce and brown some of the veggies. Oh, be sure to season (salt) your beef before browning it, and then check the sauce for salt when you are done the long braise. You can thicken the sauce (now a gravy) with a couple spoons of corn starch 'melted' into cold water and then added to the pot for that last 20 minutes. Or just mash a few of the potatoes into the sauce. Yum!Biscuits and gravy: Making (American) biscuits is a classic thing to do in a Dutch oven. Cook your biscuits in the Dutch oven--I like to use a cake pan inside the Dutch oven to keep the bottom of the biscuits from scorching, but pros don't need to do this. Then remove the biscuits to a spot where they will stay warm, and fry up some sausage in the Dutch oven. When the sausage is browned up, remove some of the grease (or not). Then add some flour to the sausage and grease to form a thick paste (roux). When that paste starts to turn golden, add some warmed milk. Enough to make a thick gravy (or thin if you prefer...). At this point I like to add black pepper, cayenne pepper, and thyme. Add what you like, sage works well. Check for salt. Split a couple of biscuits and cover with the sausage gravy. A classic Dutch Oven dish, but you will need a nap.....
Baking bread in the Combo Cooker:(Image removed from quote.)For the first 30 minutes, I use the bottom of the Combo cooker as the lid and cover the dough. This creates a steamy environment and protects the loaf from burning. After 30 minutes I take the bottom (now the lid) off and let the loaf finish cooking and browning. Here, on the grill, but at this point, I use the same technique in Winter inside in the oven. It would work just as well on a camp fire, using a trivet or stand to keep the pan off the coals.
I read that cooking acidic combinations in cast iron destroys the conditioning and can damage the surface causing it to put. Tomatoes are to be the worst, like with chili Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
That is what I meant, you must re-season your cast iron after a thorough cleaning to prevent damage to your cast iron after cooking acidic foods. Yes, like not thoroughly cleaning knives after dressing out game or butchering. Blood is very acidic. My wife prepared a 4-alarm chili in her Dutch oven last summer. Toward the later part of the simmering black flakes began to appear in her mixture. The black flakes were the pan’s seasoning layer, a few years worth. My son is a devoted cast iron user (99%). He uses a large stainless pot for his chilli (5 or 6 alarm style), and also his coney sauce at the fire station when on shift. He says it is not practical to destroy his seasoned oven to have to start over again seasoning, for his novelty chilli. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk