Outdoor Cast Iron cooking a delicious Mountain Man Breakfast

Cooking over a campfire is one method of cooking outdoors. However, a campfire is hard to control making it extremely difficult, if not downright impossible to cook cakes, stews and a delicious mountain man breakfast inside a campsite cast iron Dutch oven. The better way is to use charcoal briquettes. However, not just any charcoal will work really well, which is to say burn in a predictable way every time.

The best burning charcoal by far is the Kingsford briquettes. None of that match lite crap mind you, just the plain ole Kingsford in the blue bag, works best. Simply get yourself a Weber chimney charcoal starter, a bit of newspaper some briquettes. Light the newspaper under the charcoal and in just a few minutes, you will be ready to cook a delicious meal.

Charcoal briquettes are an engineered product, which makes briquettes burn consistently every time. Ok I admit, there may be a little problem keeping the temperature constant when the wind is blowing down tall trees, and the temp outside is somewhere south of 40 degrees F. Nevertheless, winter survival cooking is a topic for another time.

Of course, we will need a good well-seasoned Dutch oven. The best choice here is the Lodge logic, 8 quart, measuring, 12 inches in diameter, and 5 inches deep with the flattop and legs on the bottom. Oh by the way, anyone needs to buy their own. I found this one for you. Simply click the Lodge Logic 8qt. buy button on this page. Select the free super saver shipping option at checkout and get free shipping, and have your new cast iron delivered to your door. You will love cooking with your new Lodge logic cast iron, made in the hills and hollers of good ole Tennessee, USA.

Lining the inside of the Dutch oven will make clean-up much easier. There are parchment paper liners, available from Coleman. Aluminum foil works well also, the trick here is to line the inside starting at the bottom and working up the sides. When using the 8qt lodge, start with a piece of foil about two-feet long.

Carefully mold the aluminum foil to fit and cover the entire inside area of the cast iron. Folding edges of the foil over the lip of the oven, and press it firmly against the pot. Do not be surprised when you need three pieces of foil to cover the inside, put the first bit in and form it to the pot, work around the inside of the cast iron clockwise overlapping until it is all covered and there is no shiny black cast iron showing inside the oven.

Ok, now check the charcoal in the chimney starter, it should be almost ready to cook, you are looking for that chalky gray or dirty white look covering the Kingsford briquettes.   

Preparation is the key to making a delicious mountain man breakfast quick and easy, ok, ok, quicker and easier. Let us back up to last night for a moment. When we fixed the evening meal, and sat around the campfire unwinding, telling stories etc...

Leftover baked potatoes work great the morning after. Use the potatoes to start filling the bottom of the Dutch oven. First, remove the aluminum foil from 10 to 12 average potatoes, and cut them into one half inch cubes. What is that you say do not have any leftover baked potatoes? That is all right, break out a bag of thawed frozen hash browns and use them instead.

Second ingredient, the protein, in the meat section in of all places, Wal-Mart you will find packages of pre-cooked pork sausage, mild, hot and even a sweet Italian sausage if you can believe that.  Any of these will save time you would otherwise spend browning raw meats. Simply open the package and pour in covering the potatoes.

Next, the chicken eggs crack and mix a dozen large eggs. Pour them over the sausage and potatoes.

Cover the eggs with a layer of shredded cheddar cheese. Again, use the prepackaged stuff, two cups is plenty; unless you like a lot of cheese in which case get cheesy.

Put the cover on your Dutch oven, and warn all the on lookers to leave it alone.

Let us start cooking, first we will need to find our Lodge Logic leather gloves, set of stainless bbq tongs and a good clear level area, next to an established fire ring is generally a good place. This is where we will set-up a bed of charcoal to set the Dutch oven directly over.

Now we are ready for the chimney starter full of Kingsford charcoal briquettes we lit earlier. Place a single layer of 15 charcoal briquettes directly on the ground. Use the stainless steel tongs to start arranging the charcoal, starting with  three of the briquettes lying flat, directly where the center of the cast iron Dutch oven will sit. Oh by the way, we are shooting for 350 degrees f, inside. The rule of thumb for determining how many briquettes to use is taking the diameter of the Dutch oven, in this case 12 inches. Multiply 12 X 2 = 24 briquettes.   

The Next step is to set the Dutch oven directly over the charcoal, arrange the remaining seven or so briquettes so they will be directly under the outside edge of the Dutch oven and between each leg. The legs must be sitting flat on the ground to ensure good heat transfer.

Now with the charcoal heating from the bottom, it is time to add heat to the top. Put 25 charcoal briquettes on top of the flat lid starting along the outside edge of the flat cast iron Dutch oven lid. That is all there is to it.

Next thing we will do, every fifteen minutes we will turn the Dutch oven one-quarter turn clockwise, and the lid one-quarter turn counter clockwise.  Use a Lodge logic lid lifter to gently lift the lid just enough to make it easy to turn. Repeat this step every fifteen minutes for forty-five minutes. After forty-five minutes of cooking, remove the lid and check for doneness. All we need is to cook the eggs thoroughly, everything else we had precooked and only needed reheating.

Remove from the heat, let stand for five minutes or so, break out the ole mess kit and enjoy your delicious Mountain man breakfast.

Add a chopped onion, sweet pepper or kick it up a few notches with a hand full of your favorite hot peppers.

Enjoy your outdoor cooking, Mike