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The Outdoor Dutch Oven Cookbook
(2nd edition)

by Sheila Mills

The Dutch oven accompanied pioneers west in the chuckwagon and was noted by Lewis and Clark as one of their most valued pieces of equipment. This remarkable cooking pot remains an efficient way to prepare food on an open fire and is considered essential by paddlers, car campers, RVers, and even backpackers (thanks to new, lightweight materials). A simple cast-iron or aluminum container with legs, the camp Dutch oven is incredibly versatile, taking the place of a host of outdoor cooking utensils. With its snugfitting lid, it becomes an oven when heated with charcoal briquettes and can be used for baking, braising, stewing, or roasting. With the lid removed, the oven becomes a kettle for boiling, deep-fat frying, or heating food quickly over a fire.

Marrying the traditional cast-iron pot with contemporary cooking styles and tastes, The Outdoor Dutch Oven Cookbook offers more than 200 creative, delicious, original recipes--each prepared, tested, and refined by Sheila Mills, one of America's finest outdoor cooks. This is not your usual cowboy kettle fare of meat, beans, and biscuits! Rather, these are healthy, innovative, gourmet recipes, developed by Sheila and her friends over twenty years and served to thousands of whitewater-rafting passengers on trips down the Middle Fork of the Salmon River.

Best of all, the recipes are easy to prepare, whether you're on a remote riverbank or in your own kitchen. Sheila has adapted the recipes for indoor cooking, providing alternative instructions, times, and temperatures for the conventional oven or stovetop.

Sheila and husband, David, have a great love and concern for the river environment. The Outdoor Dutch Oven Cookbook includes an invaluable section on low-impact camp cooking, providing techniques and rules of etiquette for gathering and burning firewood; disposing of waste water; keeping food cold, fresh, and safe to eat; and practicing no-kill, catch-and-release fishing. With handy lists of camp cooking equipment and time-saving tips, plus sections on the care and use of Dutch ovens and where to buy them, this truly is a one-stop reference for Dutch oven cooks.