The classic cast iron Dutch oven is the “Official State Cooking Pot of Utah.” It is the utility cooking tool for Boy Scout campouts and family reunions. And that is how Marlin Bodily first started learning how to use a Dutch oven when he was recruited to help cook at a scout camp in 1989. Now, the owner of The Dutch Oven Shoppe, a traveling catering company, and the Dutch oven cooking instructor at Utah State University.
When Bodily started out, there was a bit of trial and error. “I did a little bit of cooking at scout camps with the young man. We’d have 8 or 10 boys, and so I would experiment on them using the Dutch oven,” says Bodily. “I mean, when you go out to camp, you’ve got to eat. And so that’s what we did.” It is universally accepted that Boy Scouts will eat just about anything and so make the best test subjects.
After 14 years of cooking for church members, friends, and family, Bodily started his traveling catering business and has run it with his family for over 20 years. It started with small dinners catered from the back of a pickup truck and has steadily grown to big events with 500+ people lining up to eat. If you’ve ever been to the Peach Days celebration in Brigham City, you’ve likely had Bodily’s famous Dutch oven peach cobbler.
Marlin has his family-sized kitchen set up and ready to go at a moment’s notice. When the Bodily family goes camping, all the meals are planned in advance, and the food is packed. “I have what we call a camp kitchen. It is a little box. It’s about the size of a foot locker,” he explains. “It’s got legs on it, and it holds everything in there that I need to cook with. It has my tongue, spoon, spatulas, lighter, gloves and lid lifter for the Dutch oven. I never use any of that equipment anywhere else. When I grab that box, I know I have everything I need when I go cooking.” The impression is that no one else is allowed to touch the camp kitchen box either.
Charcoal is the other component of Dutch oven cooking. Bodily doesn’t really cook over an open flame. A Dutch oven is an oven, first and foremost. One of the first things he is asked in his classes is how much charcoal to use. “I tell them it’s all from experience. But to give a guideline to get started, I use circle briquettes. Each briquette equates to about 25 degrees. If you have a number 14 Dutch oven, you want to put 14 coals on top and 14 coals on bottom, and you’re looking at a 350-degree oven.”
Bodily had another particular tip for novice Dutch oven-ieers. “Cook inside a tent. I set up a 10-foot by 10-foot tent, and I cook inside there,” he advises. “You have to block the wind when cooking in a Dutch oven. If you don’t block the wind, that wind will take that heat away, and you’ll never get your food cooked.”
What can you make in a Dutch oven? According to Bodily, you can make anything in a regular oven at home. Lasagne, pizzas, fall-off-the-bone ribs, cobblers, even cinnamon rolls. But it is best to keep the recipes straightforward. “I keep my recipes very simple. I have seen recipes with 20 different ingredients,” Marlin says. “Don’t do that. I don’t do that. I don’t think you can pick up the flavor from each one of those ingredients. And that’s how I tell them at school when I’m teaching a class. Keep the recipe simple, then you won’t get so overwhelmed.”
For a beginner, Bodily says to start with a smaller oven and a recipe you are familiar with. A ten-quart oven is a good size to begin with so that it isn’t too heavy, and you’ll get to experiment and see if you like using it before buying bigger ones. Anything over 14 quarts can be hard to move solo once they are filled. He prefers the Lodge ovens. But recommends that you buy all the same brand.
“One advantage to having all the same brand is the lid will interchange,” he points out. “It doesn’t matter which size oven I have, the lid will fit. If you have a conglomeration of ovens, you got a problem.”
And the universal question: should you wash your Dutch oven? “Every time I use an oven, I wash it. I don’t always use soap, but I have hot water there,” Bodily says. “I’ll take a scraper, and I will scrape out all the big stuff and then wash out the oven until it’s clean, I rinse it and then let it dry. Once it’s dry, we spray it with the canola oil and wipe out the excess. Then that oven is ready for use next time.” He adds, “Sometimes you have to use soap in your oven, particularly if it’s a tomato-based product like baked beans or even barbecue sauce for ribs. Sometimes, you need soap to get that out of there.” Clean it right away, and the seasoning will stay intact. After all, that’s where the magic happens.
“The interesting thing,” finishes Bodily, “is you take, for example, lasagna. I can do lasagna in a Dutch oven, and it’s great. And you do lasagna in the oven at home, and it’s good, but there’s a different flavor to it. And I think that’s because of the Dutch oven itself and the seasoning in it that makes it special.” There is something special about a time, a place, and friends gathered ‘round a Dutch oven that adds another layer of seasoning.
Find more tips on cooking with flames with Park City chef and restaurant-owner John Murcko.
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