What is a DOG? It’s a Dutch Oven Gathering, foo. A gathering of people who enjoy cooking with a camp style dutch oven. These fancy ovens are just like the ones we use in our kitchen, but they have 3 little stubby legs that allow coals to be layered underneath and a large lipped lid that assists in the same. And since you’re using coals, this is all done outside. You know? Where the bugs and leaves are? There’s even a Dutch Oven Society. It’s a club type thing you can join and get newsletters and they sanction events, such as the one in La Pine Oregon where Abram and E took 2nd place in early August. Heh, they’re winners. And I’m lucky because they live in the next city over and they mentioned some interest in getting together for some fun. Shuna wanted to come too, but ended up with tummy problems and wasn’t able to attend, feh. As soon as Chilebrown heard of the news, he was in. And his wife Ms. Goofy wasn’t to be left out. This put us at 6 adults for 5.5 hours of cooking, eating and relaxing. How’d it turn out? Click through to be stupified and drawn through about 16 images of mad craziness. It’s taken me 2 days to get my appetite back!

Here’s the scoop, September 25th we were to meet at Meathenge Labs (my house) around 2pm. The menu really didn’t set until the week before, that was when I knew we were in for it. Chilebrown wanted to do an Elk Chili with Venison Sausage sided with cornbread. I was to stuff my own lamb leg roast roasted with taters and veggies. Abram and E were going to do a gaggle of pan seared duck legs in fresh duck stock with shallots, leeks and parsnips. Then Abram mentioned something about doing some sausage simmered in duck stock with leeks and taters with very herby dumplings. Okay, well you can see where this is going. We needed some attendees just to sit and eat, maybe next time, eh?
Everyone showed up on time and oddly enough it was on the warmest day we’ve had this year, extra special.
I don’t know what hit, but Abram and E flew in like the wind and were totally self contained. The aprons went on and they got right to work, I just stood there for a while and watched. They had a tv tray filled with spices herbs and stuff that they needed close. There was a Handy Tote filled with supplies and 3 large cast iron camp dutch ovens. I guess that’s how you gotta do it if you win Dutch Oven cooking contests. Who’s up next?
Chilebrown and Ms. Goofy showed up with 4 large dutch ovens, a steel cooking table, a valcano charcoal stove and a cooler the size of Tiny E. This day would succeed, oh yes.
Here’s a pretty image of E’s fresh duck stock and the leg portions that were to be our meal or at least 1 of 4 meals.

She crisscross cut the fat and layed in some White Sarawak Peppercorns I’d purchased from Salt Traders. Prolly a little salt too, eh. And to make things a tad easier, they brought their butane stove and pan seared the little guys.

Sure it’s cheating, but we weren’t competing for today and it sped up the process. Besides, that’s my little cast iron fry pan that got all glistenny from duck fat. I’m the Lucky Boy.

Everyone was busy at their station, getting the veggies and herbs sliced up. I’d started 2 chimneys filled with charcoal briquettes, we were going to need a lot of coals throughout the day, fer sure. Here we find Chilebrown browning his venison sausage for the chile. Check out that cool Volcano stove. It’s so safe he cooked on top of my old wood picnic table. And check out that crazy dutch oven. It’s a Camp Chef Ultimate Dutch Oven. The damned thing weighs over 30 pounds! Check out that wicked spire thing in the center. That brings the heat to the center of the food and it’s vented so the heat from the fire below is brought in to the oven directly. Not only that, the lid doubles as a 3 legged fry pan, very handy (and heavy).
The cooking continues.

I’d stuffed my leg of lamb roast just before people arrived. I believe I get the award for the most pungeant sear of the day. The smells that came from my oven as I browned my roast were amazing. I used the zest from 2 lemons, scads of smooshed garlic, smoked paprika, salt, fresh thyme and grinds of the white Sarawak pepper. Here’s what it looked like after searing with uncooked veggies in.

Yes, the meat is sitting on a trivet, never without my trivet. Here’s what the oven looks like with the coals installed and ready to sit for an hour and a half. Ten coals underneath and maybe 12 above.

Ain’t that pretty? That’s my very own 12″ deep camp dutch oven, my first. I’m so proud. This makes 8 DO’s for the day, phew. I don’t think we used them all though, maybe 6 or even 7, I think.
At this point the work was going furiously, Abram was moving and adjusting this and that, then using canned air to poof off the coal dust. It’s all about ash management pally boy. E didn’t stop for a second, only to wipe her brow before she dug in to another vegetable or tending to her duck leg portions. Chilebrown was tending to his chile and had started up his corn bread. After I got my lamb on and set, the first course came off and was ready to eat. Can you guess? Even close? Comon, try. Nope. Baklava!

Careful there budro, slice nice. Everyone gathered ’round as the mesquite honey was drizzled over and we all dug in. It was crispy, rich and layered in fresh right there, perfectly brown too. HA !!!
Not long after we finished our first slice of pastry, my lamb roast was ready. I tested the internal temperature and it was just under 117 degrees, perfect. Pull and let rest a bit, man it smelled wonderful. The lemon zest & garlic really dialed it in. Here we find the roast sliced open.

Fresh, bright lamb done perfectly. Not bad for my first attempt using my new DO. I hadn’t eaten lunch and it was past 3pm at this point, so I had quite a bit of the lamb and some carrots. Everyone agreed, the lamb roast was a success. But we didn’t have time to just sit around talking about lamb all day, no. Abram was getting his sausage & dumpling meal together. Here we find Fatted Calf’s Calabrese browning, aren’t they pretty?

They smelled good too and rendered some nice fat to brown the taters and leeks in before the duck stock was added.
Okay, we’ve been through the baklava and then my lamb, excellent. CB (Chilebrown) asked me when and how to set everything out so we could try each thing, I looked around and asked Abram when he and E’s meals would be ready. Okay, we’d eat as we go and it was time for Elk Chile with Venison Sausage with a side of cornbread! Good thing too, because I was getting hungry.

Looks like we have a winner here, man it was so rich and yummy I had 3 servings. CB says he uses Gunpowder Chili Powder for the base. I’m sold, good stuff and not over priced either.

Check out the browning on the cornbread, perfection. CB has a secret ingredient, makes it special. Ha, we got to eat chili and cornbread made in a dutch oven, that’s really cool. Just think of how nice that would be to step outside on a summer’s evening to make supper. No heating up of the kitchen, er nothin’.
While we were all chowing down on meal #2, CB pulled out two salsas he made. One with purple tomatillos, onions, chile peppers, maters … you get the idea. It was fine, but what really tickled my zone was the habanero, carrot and lime squeeze salsa. Man, that was absolutely brilliant. Sure it was on the hot side, but damned if those little peppers don’t have a wonderful sweet flavor to them. I’m in love, this I know. Look out Torchbearer, CB is on yer tail.

Thank you to Abram for setting up this shot for me. I’d taken one, but he rearranged things and said I needed to go back for another shot. I think he was dead on.
Uh, I have to take a moment here and apologize to mama, it turns out I didn’t get a picture of her Mile High Butermilk Biscuits, whoops. Know this, E’s response was, “Hey, you should cook these for a contest.” Yeah, well, we’re lazy for the most part and will have to take a raincheck on that one. We’ll get there.
At this point Ms. Goofy and CB were making frequent trips to the garage to change the record and many cool refreshing beverages were being quaffed. The sun was going down and the shadows getting longer. The nice weather was holding and no winds to put a chill in the air, it was decidedly splendid.

Hey, take a look here. This is my smoker doubling as a grill and a dutch oven table, 3 things in 1! Our two boys needed something for dinner and grilling two burgers seemed to fit the bill perfectly. This means that when I’d like to move cooking dinner outside, I can use my smoker and not have to buy a metal cooking table, yay!
Okay, at this point most everyone was really quite well fed and doing very well. Was it time to rest? Oh no, E’s simmering seared duck legs were ready !!!

That, right there, is duck stock with duck leg portions with leeks and parsnips and peppercorns, oh my. We each quickly grabbed a leg and dove in. Wonderfully rich, skin was nicely caramelized and bright. The meat? Tender and very very good. I tried some of the broth, stellar.
It was at this point in the day I was finding it hard to breathe. The sun was nearly down and we had ONE, MORE, MEAL, to go. As we were smacking out lips with the duck, Abram was schlooping in the herbed dumplings in to his dish. Excellent, time to sit for a moment to gather my bearings. We all did, and it was well deserved. We’d spent about 4.5 hours cooking and eating. Time to reflect, relax and breathe.

DING !!! Dumplings are done and it’s time to get our soggy plates in line. The sausage held together nicely and stood the test of time. The simmering of it all in the stock really brought together all the flavors, and the herby dumplings gave it nice consistency. Breathe 123, breath 123. Man, I love dumplings, especially loaded with thyme. Time to rest? Nope. Time to clean up and get the leftovers delt out and/or put away. The dumpling dish was cooked in a 14″ DO and it was a beast in the sink, dang. Everyone pitched in and got it done.
What more can I add? What more can I say about our first DOG? Other than it was a complete and total success and everyone got to finally meet face to face. Good job everyone and I’m outta here!
Biggles
RESOURCE:
Byron’s Dutch Oven Cooking Page