Cooking Pictures

[Trinity]

Anybody reconize these?

[Delmonico]

Cone pones.

[Trinity]

They's litl rooster's biscuits. 

[Ozark Tracker]

They are litl rooster's biscuits. 

they look like they would eat pretty good with a little butter and honey on the side.

[Delmonico]

I set a new personal record yesterday, I had 15 ovens cooking at once.  Plus 4 of the ovens were double used because I baked bread in them and then emptied them and put in apples to bake.

[Ozark Tracker]

Del,  what do you have cooking in those ovens?  How often do you have to add new hot charcoal to maintain the heat?

[Delmonico]

1 14 inch deep with a country ham (real ham, not fluid injected)
4 12 inch deeps and a 14 inch deep with cut up chicken roasting
3 12 inch deeps and 1 10 deep with scalloped potatoes
2 12 in shallows and 2 14 inch shallows  and a 10 inch shallow with apples baking

Made a 12 and a 14 shallow of rye bread and the same of white bread

The charcoal I use is embers out of the fire and the real answer is as often as I need to, it was almost a day long dance of building up fire, adding coals to what oven needed it and prepping everthing back under the awning, it was about 90 yesterday.  I lite the fire about 7:30 yesterday morning and started the hame a little after 8 and just kept juggling and shoveling all day long till we ate about 6:30, about 50 showed up out of about 80 invited, so we had leftovers.

Maybe a dozen of the folks there were CAS/Living History/Real Cowboy types and had eaten both mine and other dutch oven cooking before, the rest it was a new experiance to them including a couple who had ran a resteraunt for 37 years. 

[Ozark Tracker]

I figured that would be the case, trying to keep the temperature constant and not letting it go up and down too much,  I guess when you've done it some, you kinda get the feel for it. not to much heat or burn it, but enough to cook it.

Is slower better?

Im sure keep a fire going and having all the coals you need is another job in itself.

[Delmonico]

Most things will cook at a variety of temps, so lower temps just take a little longer.  Keeping a fire going that you are always stealing the heat out of can be a problem when doing such large amounts.  A bigger fire is the answer, but that would burn lots of wood, and more important it would take a shovel with a very long handle to get the coals out. 

When I do multiple day demos the second day is better because the ground is very hot and I've had all night to build up a good bed of coals with large hunks of wood.

[Ozark Tracker]

Del, when you start out with your hot coals,  how deep is the  bed you make to start your pots? then the coals on top of the pot till is falls off or less?

do you make the spot where your going to put your ovens quite a bit larger than the pots to keep the ground hot back from it?

[Delmonico]

I use just a thin layer on the ground maybe about 1/2 inch thick and maybe 1/2 full on the top for most theings, that will get you in the 325-375 range.  Use about twice as many on top as on bottom for most things.  The type of wood will affect temps and length of time till you need to add coals.  Also ground moisture and temp will.

I'm at work right now, and it's hard to do a long post, but when I get time I'll do a basic Dutch Oven 101 for begainers, I've taught a lot of folks with this method.  Get a dutch oven, a hunk of beef about the size of the bottom of the oven, 12 inch deeps work real well with a 5 pound chuck roast, get what ever veggies you want to add to it and we'll go for it, this is the best start for a begainer and will make a complete meal for 3-12 folks, depending on their size and hunger.

[Camille Eonich]

I'm interested in the beginner class.    I was telling Stumpy last night that the best thing to start out with would be a roast.  I been reading about people cooking with charcoal and "put twelve coals on top and 10 under the bottom".  I was wonderin' how that would translate to wood coals.  You go by thickness of the bed of coals under and over then?


Huh huh huh?

[Delmonico]

I'm going to be home all morning tommorow, cleaning ovens and will have time to put up a long post with out being interupted by customers.  Also no bosses with silly problems will be botherin' me.

[Delmonico]

Customers of course are not a bother most times, it's just I get busy and the post times out or sumthin' and I lose what I typed.

But it is simpler than most folks seem to think, just don't start out trying to cook with 15 ovens.  Fact is next time I do that many I'm building two fires, one with lots of wood burning to make coals and one with the coals ready to go and swap back and forth.  I can make enough coals in one big fire, but I need a shovel with a 12 foot handle and Nomex clothing.

[Delmonico]

Ok I'll see if this works better for a better Picture.  My Turkish Coffee a makin' on Sat. morning

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/Delmonico_1885/TurkishCoffee.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

[Silver Creek Slim]

How's this?

Slim

[Silver Creek Slim]

If ya post the picture like I did, the CAS City software reduces it. If ya want it full size, ya need to post the link to the picture like this: http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/Delmonico_1885/TurkishCoffee.jpg .

Slim

[Silver Creek Slim]

Del,
I'm thinkin' that wood is elm or maple.

Slim

[Ozark Tracker]

that seems to have been an awful big fire for that little kettle.  you need 3 or 4  ovens on there

[Delmonico]

Burr Oak Slim.  That was a small fire, It was much bigger earlier, we were serving and I put it on idle in case we needed it for somthing else, I had to have coffee afore I could eat, worries folks though when everyone is eatin' but me and I'm sippin' coffee.

I think that size will do for what I need Slim, I will do some howto's here in Cosie's Corner and get back to my quilt thread.

If this works thats pot roast cookin' at Naper Nebraska in June of 2004.

Ok, I'll 'spearmint some more, maybe it won't work on my dial up.

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i200/Delmonico_1885/Cooking2026.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>