The world's largest Dutch oven

I suppose this could be the house that Jack built. It's big enough for someone to live in it. This summer, whilst needing and undergoing back surgery, Jack (with the help of his granddaughter) built what he thinks may be the world's largest Dutch oven.

The base is a cauldron discovered abandoned on the ranch and the top is the end of a propane tank. I wish I had more pictures of the process, but here it is before:

 And here it is in action, doing what it was designed to do: cook an entire side of beef at once.

The fire was stoked at 4am to heat the oven in time to cook the steamboat round for a 6 pm serving time. It was cooked entirely with embers from a burning elm log.

At the party that night, the bonfire burned alone. We all gathered around the oven!

The oven weighs 540 pounds (per the cattle scale) and holds 72 gallons. The handle is a welded horseshoe. The base has three legs welded on to keep it off the heat. A pulley system had to be installed to lift the lid. Luckily, enough tractors were handy to move it!

His and hers vacations: day one

Jack and I spent the weekend in Salt Lake City, though his tale of his time there is far different from mine. We did what many like us (meaning in love but with our own set of interests) do when traveling: divide and enjoy.

We were there for the International Dutch Oven Society's World Championship Cook-off, where Jack was the on-site entertainment, spouting poetry to draw crowds into their corner of the International Sportsman's Expo, where the IDOS event is held.

The first couple of years we went I stayed, but I'll confess the folding chairs, camo-clad crowd, taxidermy decor and excruciating testosterone level were not my idea of a good time. They aren't for Jack, either, but for him the cooking and the Dutch oven bonding made up for it. For me, staying meant no time to appreciate being in the city.

So Friday morning I dropped him off at the back door and went off on my merry way. Stop one: Horse Crazy to find some breeches that weren't eight sizes too big. So sorry I didn't take a picture of the corgi puppy they had in the store. She was precious. All ears and feet. Scored a great Ariat vest from their consignment section. Exercised great restraint in the tack and footwear departments.

A store full of English riding apparel, tack and accoutrement? Not even in Jack's alley.


Stop two: Shopping. I know most women would probably use exclamation points for shopping, but I am NOT a fan of trying on clothes. I do what I have to do. For 15 years I have been shopping in the same store. Buying the same brands. I'm quite at a loss now, but I have to have new clothes. Nothing fits. I tried on approximately eighty-six thousand items and bought four.

I ask you - does your husband enjoy clothes shopping with you? I didn't think so.


That chore done, it was on to the fun stuff. Consignment stores! The treasures Joan at for the love of a house finds inspired me to do some of my own digging. In case you are ever in SLC and have the same predilection, here are some places to try: Now and Again, Secondhand Chic, and Vintage Butterfly.

As for Jack's day? He brought a woman to tears (of laughter) with "The Bra", noshed on the competitor's fare and bonded with Dutch oven celebrity Cee Dub.

Good day had by all. :)

Prosthelytizing

Jack was invited to speak about Dutch oven cooking to the local chapter of Back Country Horsemen last night. In addition to the Ode to the Dutch Oven poem by Bruce Kiskaddon, he shared some history and lore.
For example, did you know the rim on the lid was supposedly invented by Napoleon’s cook because the Emperor did not appreciate ashes in his food? Or that the legs on the bottom that allow it to stand in a bed of coals were supposedly added by Paul Revere?

Their inheritance

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Originally uploaded by coralinad

Some families pass down precious gems, metals, jewelry, works of art. All Jack's kids can hope for is cast iron. Seasoned to perfection and maybe even a bit historical if you count the brief two hundred years we call history out here.

On the left are the skillets, found at garage sales, abandoned in basements and gifted from people unwilling to move the behemoths. We use them every day. Every day. Often multiple skillets multiple times. That Saladmaster purchase was sort of a waste.

On the right are the Dutch ovens. Jack is a Dutch oven cook. He gives classes and even spouts poetry about it (see below). Most people can handle cobbler and beans, but Jack's motto is that anything that can go in a regular oven you can cook outside in a Dutch oven. He's done cheesecake, pizza, apple pie, ice cream, fish fillets and even a turducken.

Jack's afterlife plan is to divide his ashes into the Dutch ovens and give them to the kids. Good news kids - the price of cast iron doubled this summer. Your oven might buy you a new Wii!

Ode to the Dutch Oven (download Jack's recitation)
By Bruce Kiskaddon

Mind that Dutch oven,so greasy and black,
that you put in a wagon or tote in a pack,
the biscuits it makes aren't bad by no means,
and its got the world cheated for cooking up beans.

If you've got a Dutch oven you can always get by
you can bake, you can broil, you can stew, you can fry.
First you take that old oven and its thrown to the heat
while the cook peels some taters and cuts down some meat,
then he throws some fire down into a hole, next goes the oven
on top some more coals.

I'll always remember how old coose did
when he took that old gunchhook and lifted the lid.
He was mighty graceful about doing that trick;
the old greasy sackers, they just used a green stick.

Boy howdy we all made a general attack
when the horse with the oven went to slipping his pack.
We put our old ponies into a long lope
and built a big loop at the end of our rope.

Them old waddies, they knew what to expect:
no biscuits no more if that oven got wrecked.
We didn't know much about praying or loving,
but I reckon we worshiped that greasy old oven.

An old timer smiles as his memory turns back
to that old Dutch oven in wagon or pack.