What's the trivet for?

[ae6black]

Probably a dumb question, but what's the trivet for? Only time I ever used one was for home canning with a pressure cooker. Also do you need a lid support to cook with charcoal on the lid? Could you just prop the thing up on rocks or just nest it right on the charcoal coals? Since I've never cooked on the lid, I am of course clueless. But I thought cooking pan cakes on charcoal for the family while on vacation might be a fun touch. Also when is the best time to use parchment paper. Do you just use the stuff for bread, pizza and stuff like that? I thought the seasoning was supposed to make things come out if it was on right.

Art

[Tom Kurth]

A trivet is used inside the DO to support an interior pan such as a pie tin. If it were to sit directly on the bottom of the DO it would gain too much heat and probably burn the contents. I just use canning rings. Three wide-mouth rings make a good support for a round cake pan that I use for biscuits.

I'm not familiar with a lid support, but I'm guessing it is for the lid when it is removed from the DO. The lid might be removed to check or stir or add contents, or when the dish is done. My point of view is that you can set it on anything clean. I wouldn't set it on coals.

Pancakes would be difficult inside a DO. The deep sides would be a major pain. A CI griddle on a grate works great.

I've never used parchment in a DO, but I seem to remember the pizza makers use it. Lots of folks use liners or foil when doing stews, cobblers and the like just to save cleaning--never the most fun part of camping. Good seasoning make CI easy to clean, but in my experience CI is never the equivalent to non-stick cookware--not necessarily better or worse as a blanket rule, just different.

Best,
Tom

[bdosborn]

We use the trivet to set the DO lid on when checking the progress of the DO. You want to keep the lid level when you take it off so the coals don't roll off and you don't want dirt on the underside of the lid as it will get in your food. We set one next to the DOs when we're cooking.



Also, our 8" DO doesn't have feet on it so we have to use a trivet to keep it out of the coals.

Bruce

[bobhenry]

COOKIN ON THE LID ...............

I just let the lid handle slip between the rails on this griddle.

Here I raked the loose campfire coals in between two logs and rested the lid on them.

[ae6black]

by Trivet I mean that flat circular piece of metal with holes in it it usually some kind of design. As mentioned in the first response, it was mentioned that this is for setting a pie pan inside the dutch oven. Makes sense to me. Bob Henry, for cooking on the lid, do you mean that you use that lid holder thingy with the rivet in the middle that Lodge makes to sit under the inverted lid to hold if up off the coals? As mentioned in the second post, I suspect this thing is also used for keeping the coals from falling off the lid when you take the lid off to check on how things are going or to stir the contents of the DO.

Art

[ae6black]

Sorry Bob, your picture and complete post hadn't come through when I answered. Now I see what you mean. In the Welding for Dummies book, there is plans for a set up like you've got in your picture where you're cooking the pancakes. Unless, I was planing to be at a base camp for an extended period of time, this looks like a bit more than i would probably be getting into.

Art

[bobhenry]

If you need a stand for the flat bottom skillets of a flat bottom dutch oven there is always a tossed out gas stove grates.

Here is a link to the dutch oven seminar I gave in 2011 at the CRA gathering

For those of you that missed it or would like to review / share, here's a link of the video that Kurt posted to YouTube FOR ME of the Dutch Oven Seminar:
Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trowX9DxwVI
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxhhCz4Clwk
Part 4 (3): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O38LR0KeBQ

[bobhenry]

How about a real cheap deluxe set up................

[The Teardrop Nanny]

Hi Art,
Hope you are getting the info you need....here's my $0.02 worth

Trivets are very useful for elevating items, especially if you are baking. ( I have a collection of my Grandma's CI trivets that are various shapes and sizes which are currently used for decorative purposes). Lodge makes an insert trivet which is round with holes and is available for purchase, but as mentioned above you can you the rounds of canning jar lids together for the same purpose. I have also taken foil and rolled them in to small balls, set them down inside, and they work for me--like when I use a muffin tin to bake inside a larger dutch oven.

The item that looks like an X is what we call a lid inverter and is handy for placing the lid on when checking the pot contents to avoid setting it on the ground or other table top surface. I also use it to cook on when flipping the lid over as it works great for cooking up the bacon or chopped onions, that you'd normally put in a skillet to fry up. Sometimes when I am preparing my coals I place the inverted D.O. lid on top of the coal chimney and fry up the onions/peppers/etc. while waiting for the coals to get up to the desired heat. That way I am ready to proceed with the rest of the recipe and slid that stuff right in to the D.O.

As for parchment paper......I LOVE IT! We bought it in bulk, but now it's easily available at your local supermarket. I am a BIG fan and use if a lot It makes it easier to lift things out of the D.O. and really cuts down on the amount of clean up you have to do inside the D.O.

I invite you to watch one of the cooking shows my husband and I do. You can click on the link below to see a preview of what we do and where we Teardrop camp.

Joanie
TDN

[ae6black]

Thanks for all of your great replies. As You may have guessed I am a work in progress. I've got a supposedly new in the box 4 qt Lodge DO coming in the mail from EBay that I paid 15 dollars for. Even with 20 dollar shipping it was still cheaper than on the Amazon site. But last night I tried Bob Henry's famous volcano cherry concoction that was placed on parchment paper. Like you say, clean up was a breeze. I thank you all for the simple recipes that you submitted. Wife and kids think I am crazy, but I am having a good time cooking out in the back yard with the DO getting ready for the camping season next year. To Bob, I want to say thanks for being my inspiration. Because of your commitment to finding bargains at Good Will stores, I've been having fun making my own utentials. Made a bunch of wooden spoons and scrapers and from rebar made a bunch of lid lifters for myself and for a few friends. Everybody says that life is slower when you're on Teardrop Time. Some day I am going to figure that out for myself and quit rushing around when I am out camping. Seems like all I ever do is rush around with wife and kids to and from the beach with the kids. Some day I am going to slow down and just enjoy the camping experience itself.

Art

[bobhenry]

It is tough to keep up with everything happening on this forum and so I am a couple months late on this thread but here goes.

I have mentioned this a couple of other times but this is the best little starter dutch oven cooking book I have ever ran across.

http://www.amazon.com/Cast-Iron-Cooking-Inside-Out/dp/1563834235

There are enough great recipes to keep you entertained (and well fed) for a season of camping without ever repeating a recipe.

The banana upside down cake

was the CRA dutch oven cooking contest's first place prize winner at the 2013 CRA gathering. It was created and entered by my gal pal Nancy with very little help from me (to keep things fair) She was a novice cast iron cook but with the books help she came out a winner.





If you only buy one cast iron cookbook I highly recommend this one.