Oven lovin'

Columbia Basin Dutch Oven Society aims for tasty fun

COLUMBIA BASIN - Start with one Dutch oven, Ted DeWitt says, and pretty soon you have 10 to 12, all in different sizes.

"I started out with one and I've got about eight now, I think," said DeWitt, president of the Columbia Basin Dutch Oven Society. "It's just one of those things. There's so many different sizes. My wife doesn't eat a lot, so when I (cook) here at home I usually try to use an 8-inch, because if I use a 12-inch, I'll be looking at the stuff for a week."

When cooking for a group, the pot size gets larger, DeWitt said.

Longtime member Harold Boyer started with a 10-inch Dutch oven.

"Now I've got three 10s, seven 12s and two 14s," he said with a laugh. "It snowballs once you start cooking."

The society, a nonprofit organization, raises funds by cooking at events. The money is used for scholarships each year.

"Our main purpose is to have fun," DeWitt said of the society. "Families are involved, we just get together and have some good times."

DeWitt said the society plans this year to give $1,000 to a Big Bend Community College student going on to study in a culinary or food program.

"All money raised through our organization is given away, except for what we need for supplies or something like that," he said.

The organization was founded in the mid-1990s by Dan Middelstaedt. DeWitt said there are presently about 40 paying members from around the area, mostly from Moses Lake, Quincy, Ephrata, Warden and Royal City, and about 12 really active members, with periodic help from the remainder.

There are two theories for why the instrument is called a Dutch oven, DeWitt said. Back in the seventh and eighth centuries, the Dutch had a method for using sand to make pots. Or, when the immigrants landed on the shores of America, the Dutch were tradesmen selling the pots, which became known as "Dutch ovens."

One type of Dutch oven includes a lid with a rim around it, which holds charcoal and flames on the top and the bottom, DeWitt explained, while another has a rounded lid to hang over a fire.

Anything which can be cooked in a conventional oven can be cooked in a Dutch oven, DeWitt said.

"A lot of people think you can just do chili, some stews and that's it," he said. "That's so far wrong, you can cook so many things. We have experts in our club. One fellow, Harold Boyer, he specializes in pastries. He makes the greatest cinnamon rolls and breads. He does a great job."

Boyer started cooking for camping.

"Whenever we started cooking along a riverbank or lake somewhere, the people around us are eating hot dogs and beans and here I'm cooking up a casserole or cake," he said. "We'd always have company for supper."

When the society first organized, founder Middelstaedt placed an advertisement in the newspaper, Boyer remembered.

"Forty people showed up and it just knocked Dan for a loop," he said. "So we joined and, oh, it's been fun. Just the interaction with the public. They're amazed when you start cooking and dump out a cake or a set of cinnamon rolls out of one of these cast-iron pots. They're amazed at what kind of food you can put out."

Boyer tends to look for easy recipes.

"I just came to find a new one this spring: rhubarb sticky buns," he said. "That's one of the fun things. My wife gets Taste of Home and Country Woman, and I go through all these recipes. She has a hard time getting them from me. I go through there and say, 'I'm going to try that in the pot.'"

And when he tries out a new pot, Boyer said, there's more food than for just two people.

"I get on the phone and call," he said. "I don't get too many rejections."

Dutch ovens are commercially available all over, DeWitt said. He recommends Lodge products.

They are made of iron, although aluminum pots are made. They are one-fourth the weight of an iron pot, and DeWitt said they are good for backpacking and similar activities.

"The downside of aluminum is they don't hold their heat," he explained. "Iron Dutch pots, after you take them off the fire, 45 minutes later the stuff's still hot. Aluminum, it cools down right away. Plus aluminum has a lower melting point. You can actually melt aluminum if you get too many coals underneath, where iron has like twice the consistency."

There are a number of ways to regulate the heat on the ovens, DeWitt said, with a variety of opinions. He tends to double the number of coal briquettes needed per pot, like 24 for a 12-inch pot, he said, using 12 briquettes on top and 12 on bottom. To regulate, DeWitt takes three from the bottom, leaving nine, and adds them to the top for a total of 15.

"When it's done, you can always smell it," he said. "You have to consider wind, weather conditions, all those things. But it's always a good time. Anytime we have a cookout, we have way more food than we can eat."

Everybody tags their pots with a name, because many of them look alike, DeWitt added.

Most Dutch ovens come preseasoned, so DeWitt advises using water, although he said this is another subject where opinions vary.

"At our club, we never use soap," he said. "These things have almost like a Teflon coating, so basically you just rinse them with nice hot water, clean them out and put a little oil back in to oil them back up, and they're perfect, ready to go again."

Soap can get into the pores of the pots and leave a soapy taste with the food prepared next time.

For old pioneers crossing the West, water was a scarcity, so many of them would use sagebrush and sand to clean their pots, DeWitt noted.

The society recently purchased a new 16-foot trailer.

"We had an older trailer and come to find out by the time you carry your charcoal, some of your food product, tables and the wash basins, all of a sudden you run out of a lot of room," DeWitt explained. "This year we splurged and were able to make a real good deal on a new trailer."

DeWitt believes the trailer will help his society create a good first impression, and perhaps draw potential new members.

The organization draws a variety of people from different professions and different walks of life, DeWitt said.

Max Trowbridge said he has been a member of the society since it began.

"I got out there one day to go to the Spring Fair," Trowbridge remembered. "They were set up cooking, and I never saw anything but what they did. I sat there and watched all day, how they prepared the stuff and shortly after that I got right into it."

A longtime welder, Trowbridge sells several implements to go along with the pots, such as lid-lifters, horseshoe lid stands and triangle bells.

"I've welded for years, and it just comes like natural to me," he said.

"It's a fun thing to do, you meet a lot of people," Trowbridge added of the society. "They're all very interesting people. We got young ones, we got old ones and they do it for the fun of it, I believe, because they keep showing up."

Will Merrill and 10-year-old son Adam joined the society about four months ago.

"We'd been doing Dutch oven cooking for about eight years ago on our own, and we saw they had a group here and decided to try and track them down," Will Merrill said. "It's been a good experience so far. There's a wealth of knowledge to be had, especially if you're into cooking with Dutch ovens and stuff. There's a lot of people here willing to teach, give pointers and share recipes, and a lot of good food."

Adam Merrill agreed.

"I get to cook," he said. "I love to cook. They're fun and you get to help out a lot."

Adam said his favorite recipe is one for banana bread.

"Because my dad makes it as a treat all the time," he said.

Larry Wright has been a member for about three or four years.

"I like making stuff with a lot of spice in it, tamale pie and things of that sort," he said. "Last time we had a cookout just for our group, I made one called Texas rice that had a lot of spice in it."

Just how spicy are we talking about?

"Fairly hot," he said with a laugh. "I got my Texas rice a little hotter than I expected to. I was using some homemade chili powder my brother gave me. I knew it was fairly hot, so I used about half what the recipe called for for chili powder. Should have used a quarter."

Ivan Schultz has been a member for about three years.

"I'm a lifetime avid cooker," he said. "I've been cooking since I was a kid and it's just another thing to add to my repertoire of cooking skills."

Schultz enjoys the chance to meet people and the camaraderie involved in being a group. The society serves about 400 participants each year following the rodeo, he noted.

"That's our big main event," he said. "Of course all the cowboys now, they look forward to coming to Moses Lake just to eat our stuff."

Pat Weber joined the group about a year ago.

"I thought it looked like it would be something fun to do," she said. "Most everything we do is all volunteer work. I just think it's great. Getting together with people, doing things, feel like you're contributing something."

Longtime member Art Russell has a reputation amongst the society for tending to experiment with recipes, including French toast, which he said is "killer," and a whole chicken.

"I'm not afraid to, yeah," he said. "I'll try anything once."

Russell's favorite thing to cook is sourdough biscuits.

Four-year member Gary Ruiz first saw the group during a farmers' market.

"I liked the way everything was going and I joined right then and there, and I've been a member ever since," he said. "There ain't nothing that tastes as good as this kind of food. You learn to work with people, which I know how to work with people, but this is different. This is all about fun - enjoying your life, having fun, cooking and mingling with people. There ain't nothing better than that."

To become a member, contact a society member. Dues are $10 per year for a family, DeWitt said, with contact via e-mail.

For more information, call DeWitt at 509-764-4736 or society Treasurer Nancy Johnson at 509-765-2286. Access the group's Web site at www.cbdos.org.