Tuesday, June 26, 2007

last chance for dutch oven rant

The HB wants to buy a dutch oven so this is my last chance to rant about them. I know I’ll have one soon, and I’ll enjoy it too (well not cleaning it and lugging it), but I just have to express how dumbfounded I am over their popularity. I grew up camping in Montana. Sometimes we’d catch fish and eat them for dinner. Most of my camp dinners these days trade off between some type of burrito and some type of foil dinner including meat and vegetables. I guess it could get boring considering that I’ve been going camping about once every three weeks the last couple of months, but it doesn’t. It seems to me we always have good food camping, we buy snacks that we normally wouldn’t like chips and keeblers. We bring fresh fruit and make our foil dinners with fresh vegetables. Sometimes we’ll bring homemade cookies and one time we heated a pie in our camp oven. So tell me, what is all the rage over dutch ovens?

I don’t have anything against dutch ovens, I’m sure they do make great cobbler, great lasagna, etc. My point is not that they’re bad, but that they’re not the end all. Many Utahns seem to believe that it’s a fact you can’t have a good camp meal without a dutch oven. They rave about their recipes like most men would about sexual conquests. I believe that these people are not true campers. Campers like good food, but dutch ovens are made for day-trips, for big dinners with big families that require huge amounts of preparation time. Overnight campers and multiple night campers may like the idea of the dutch oven, but not the reality of it. Frequent campers would dismiss it as a burden to their ability to impulsively depart for a trip.

Campers embrace the idea of cooking over the coals. Why not make a cobbler in a disposable tin foil pan and cook that on the coals? Is the dutch oven so superior? I just don’t understand what all the rage is in Utah over dutch ovens. I’m not saying they’re bad; I just don’t know what they’ve got on campfires.

6 comments:

Tyler Root said...

Remember, it's not just Utah, people raved about them in CA when I lived there too.

I guess Montana is just behind the times :-). Kidding.

Seriously though, I don't think it's fair to say if someone likes to dutch oven, they're not a camper. In my opinion, if they're out in God's country and enjoying it, they're camping. Who cares if a lot of though or a no thought at all went into their planning?

Still, I wouldn't bring a dutch oven to EVERY campout, but maybe every once in a while......still, I can respect your opinion on the matter.

How about this baby, we have a cook-off and see how long and how much better one's cobblers are. You make a tin-foil one and I'll do a dutch oven :-).

Tyler Root said...

Oh yeah, you are right about one thing, we always do bring WAY more food than we should when we camp. I eat more than I should when camping, which I think is wrong for sure.

Anonymous said...

Dude, it's funny that you mention this! When B-rock and I go camping with his family, they always do dutch oven, always! It's fine with us because all we do is eat the food. Brock and I agree that it's a lot of work and time and clean up for dinner. If Tyler wants a dutch so bad, make him do all of the dirty work and you just enjoy the yummy food.

Tyler Root said...

Amen, I'll gladly do the dirty work :-).

Anonymous said...

Nothing can compare to my Dad's dutch oven food. Dutch oven potatoes are so delicious. I think a dutch oven is comparable to a crock pot. When you cook meet slowly it makes it so much softer and better tasting. I never have enjoyed waiting around forever for the food to be finished, but during the time sitting and waiting my family enjoys the company of one another. The dutch really does bring us together and it has been a family tradition. It is like our version of a luau.

B said...

Not going to work out very well with a fire ban for the rest of the summer.