DwarvenChef

Being a cook, and a bit of a quirky one at that (so I'm told), I plan on cooking out as much as I can. Hitting local stands and all along the way to gather our grub. Now the biggest problem I'm having is leaving stuff out of the kit... Even though I'm pretty much sticking to one style of cooking, one pot dishes (go figure), I can't seem to give up the notion that I MUST have my dutch oven on the trip... My cast iron (brick) 4qt oven... knife, spoon, yada-yada yada...

While I'm not opposed to eating out now and again, I just can't get over the feeling of sitting around a DO while it cooks my dinner The smells that all can really cut threw the dust and grime of the road with the promis of good food just inches away

How many others have had this insane idea that the Dutch Oven MUST come with? I know it's comming on a few of my short runs I have planned this winter, but how about those long hauls???

drmweaver2

Can't say I've ever wanted to bring a Dutch Oven on a tour. Then again, I began to ligthen my load years ago while hiking. I'm not an ultra-ultralight backpacker by any means, that's too expensive for me. But I don't carry the full 12 piece great-for-a-family cooking pot set any more either (yeah, I did that once while solo hiking for a month - dumb). On bike, I carry at most 2 pots and a small skillet now. To each his/her own.

DwarvenChef

I made the mistake of looking at trailers... Ya that 2 wheeled one looks like a great kitchen on wheels I know i'm going to have a hard time NOT filling it up

John Bailey

I've had the same idea. Although I don't consider myself a "cook," I do enjoy doing my own cooking. Even at home I usually cook one pot meals and always use cast iron. However, there is a 7 lb. difference between camping pot and my small cast iron. That's a lot of extra weight as my normal camping pack is around 35-40 lbs. That being said, I still might try it sometime, so, no, I don't think you're crazy, you just have your own perspective. Also, I hope I camp with you sometime -- sounds like you eat well!!

John

valygrl

I saw someone towing a Bob trailer with a cast iron frying pan and an espresso maker. I thought he was an idiot. But, he was almost finished with his transam, so I guess it worked for him.

I would rather focus on having an enjoyable ride all day long, meaning a lighter load, than having every comfort at the camp site.

For me - titanium backpacking cookware works. I'm not much of a cook, I just want to make coffee in the morning and a simple one-pot meal at night.

In any case, by the end of a long touring day, you don't want to wait an hour or more for your dutch oven dinner to be ready.

prathmann

Dutch oven cooking isn't my style either, but I wonder if the OP has considered alternatives to his cast iron model. There are much lighter aluminum dutch ovens sold for backpacking use. They're still a bit heavy, but only a fraction of the cast iron ones. Seemed to work fine on a couple trips where the leader brought one along.

space49

The trailer serving as a portable kitchen sounds like a great idea. As the saying goes " Eat To Ride, Ride To Eat " .

mr geeker

i cant say i would take a dutch oven, but i can say i would follow someone who would.

steve0257

+++++Many More

mrpincher

Wow. I guess you're planning on cooking over a fire each evening. Sounds like a very time and energy consuming affair. Seems like the function of the dutch oven would be lost if you didn't have good quality food to put in it. Did you plan to carry a cooler? I think touring with you could be fun and tasty, especially if you're willing to put that much effort into a fine camp side meal.

Brings to mind the time I watched a caterer - Yes a restaurant catering service drove 35 miles out of town to a tent site to serve a dinner of four. That blew me away. Like the first time I saw some one watching TV in their tent.

Aquakitty

I would have to say, find a lighter solution. Bring a little aluminum one. While it sounds good in theory it is doubtful that after long days of riding you will want to cook up gourmet meals. At least I don't. Maybe once in a while but not enough to make carrying the weight around worthwhile.

fietsbob

well for high altitude climbers there are now small Pressure cookers.
that will get the food on the table pretty quickly, at lower altitudes.
and save fuel.

MSR's dragonfly stove has a simmer valve .. to do Crepes , pancakes, and such .
but still will bring things to a boil promptly.

fietsbob

Oh and dutch ovens AFAIK, are an Open fire pit kind of cooking, many places don't allow open fires,
particularly in high summer .. so then it really will be dead weight.

LeeG

do it and decide if it works for you

DwarvenChef

That would be a big plan changer and would require some research of the routes and regs, good point there by the way...

I really dispise aluminum cookware, tastes funny in the least, but understand there are a couple quality aluminum DO's out there. I can't see the difference right now (at this time anyway) from riding all day and working a 12 hour shift in a busy restraunt... than go home and cook for the famly. Again that would be a test I would have to try myself to see how it affects me.

As for food, I was planning on grabbing up what ever looked good while on the road. I love cooking that way, what do we have? I dunno, grab what you see and lets go Heck onion soup is easy and darn tasty when done right

This christmas break my wife, daughter and I will be doing a test run up into the foothills under Yosemite to test our load and hill climbing under a load. I'll bring my#6 DO on that trip, an over nighter, just to see what we are getting into lol. I'm already testing a form of granola bar for the main munchi for the trip. I like making my own as I know whats in them...

JeanM

Hauling the weight of a kitchen + that of a trailer + possibly some personal fat () uphill: what an appetite you are going to work out for yourself!

This is my lightweight, although somewhat expensive and sometimes limited, solution for one pot meals on the road. Bon appétit!

P.S. Don't forget that cast iron, if maintained as it should, i.e. without the use of soap/detergent, always smell of food for the refined noses out there in the woods.

Bekologist

for trail gourmands, i would add a lightweight, folding handle, spun steel saute pan to the cookset and call it good.

I had one made by Sigg but have lost track of it.

staehpj1

I can't imagine carrying a dutch oven. I strive to keep weight carried low and an item that weighs multiple pounds better be a necessity. I really like to keep the weight carried down to about 30 pounds including panniers, but not food or water. If you start taking stuff like a 6 pound dutch oven you will be up to 60-80 pounds pretty quick. Personally I would find that unacceptable.

I always advise new tourists to go light. You are way more likely to be miserable because you carried too much than because you carried too little. Witness the number of folks who wind up mailing stuff home sometimes multiple times. We mailed things home several times during the Trans America and even on subsequent trips where we carried much less to start with we have mailed things home to lighten the load.

If you later find that you like to carry more stuff do it after you have some experience with what it means to carry more.

Also, on any of the tours that I have done. Places where a fire was allowed were definitely the exception rather than the rule. Depending on where you tour this may or may not be the case.

I am pretty happy with a nice one pot meal. When there is more than one of us and we feel like going all out we accompany it with bread of some sort, a salad, and some wine. Typically our appetites are fired up enough when on tour that it doesn't even need to be all that exceptional to taste really good.

valygrl

Sounds like a cooking tour with a small amount of bike transportation, rather than a bike tour where you cook your own meals.

How long does it take to make granola bars in a DO? You'll have to trade off how many to make with how many you want to carry vs. how long it takes to make (and shop for) them. Remember, you may have to carry ingredients for more than a day before you can make them, you won't be able to just walk into the grocery store in those tiny little sierra tourist towns - even if there is one, it might be closed for the season!

Compare to how long does it take to buy a package of granola bars at 7-11?

I guess the short winter days mean you'll have plenty of time to hang out and cook in camp after dark.

To each his own, it sure wouldn't be for me.

Please do check back with this thread after your tour and tell us how it goes.

Torrilin

If you've got an experienced person to make cooking fires, it won't be totally exhausting. If not... figure it will take 1-2 weeks worth of practice to get to the point where you can reliably get a fire going and have it be as hot as you intended. As a novice, figure it will take at least 2 hours to get the fire to do what you planned, even if it's just boil water. Experienced and in practice seems to cut it down to about an hour if you're starting from scratch... and on tour you'll definitely be starting from scratch. Add an extra hour or two for green or wet wood.

After spending a week camping and doing open fire cooking... I'm planning to buy a little stove. I won't say never again, because I had fun and learned a lot. But there's a lot of skill and practice involved, and it is much harder manual labor than most restaurant style cooking. (unless for some reason your restaurant's kitchen is habitually moving around 20 gallon stockpots every hour or so, or doing multiple whole animal roasts per day)

Booger1

It all about utilty folks.........Turn the dutch oven into a trailer.

Then you would only look half crazy...

benajah

I cooked for a long time with a DO in the woods, at hunting cabins and the like. While it is a great way to cook, it is more of a stationary kind of thing for when you are in camp for awhile. It really takes a lot of time to burn wood big enough to get coals big enough for the lid. If you stop at 4 to make camp I don't see you eating till 8 easy.
Think about it,
Stop, begin making camp, get all set up, go cut wood...keep in mind you are looking for good sized wood, and hardwood too, softwood evergreen makes lousy Dutch Oven coals, cut it all up, get the fire going, let the big wood burn good till it burns down to coals,
Takes a lot of time.
Its fantastic if you are in a hunting camp or something where you spend a lot of time hanging around at camp, but on the move? Not so much.
Back in the day, the frontier days, people on horseback didn't carry them. Only when they had a wagon.

DwarvenChef

There are more ways to heat a DO than just coals. I have an older version of the stove ACA has on their site, Digging a shallow hole under the pot (with legs) I can get the burners fully under the pot. If making stews and such not alot of top heat is needed. Sure the coals would be traditional and defenatly taste better but you have to go with what you got.

As stated I'mm be using the #6 Camp DO from Lodge on several overnights as we train for larger trips. I figure that will be a good testing ground for my kitchen idea...

Plus if a group of people get together for a ride and would be willing to distribute some gear than I can see a "Crank-Waggon" being rather handy (Ya ok that was a random thought that sounded to fun to pass up on )

Machka 

No need for a Dutch oven on tour ......... although I must say we successfully used a Dutch oven in our fireplace as our only oven for a year from June 2009 to June 2010, when we lived in a very rustic cabin in the Australian bush after the bushfire here. I baked cakes, pies, pizza, and all sorts in it. (Fireplace Cuisine photo set: https://www.flickr.com/photos/1430288...7621039458509/ )

Rowan uses a pair of Trangias on our tours, and cooks up a wide variety of delicious meals. We eat well on tour!!

Bekologist

if not a saute pan, a small, spun steel wok with domed cover or an Outback Oven might satisfy the wandering gourmet without the preparation penalties and possible prohibitions from depending on fire.

No open fires is pretty common in the american west during dry season.

like valygirl says, dutch oven cookery might mesh well with winter touring and its short hours of daylight. but i doubt it.

hope the OP lets the forum know how it goes!

Secrets for homegrown campstove oven: heat exchanger made of waffle aluminum baffle, thick bottom pan, stove that can simmer, and a big tinfoil-insulated cover for the pot

makes a rudimentary oven to bake in. try one at home, you might be surprised at the results for a fraction of the weight.