Dutch Oven Learning Blog

Lesson 3 - Cooking with Charcoal Briquets - Blueberry Muffins or Goop in Disguise?
For my latest Dutch Oven cooking class we continued to work on cooking different breads, but this time we were able to cook with charcoal briquets for the first time. Actually, due to time and limited equipment, we split the cooking between heating and cooking with the Dutch oven via briquets and heating and cooking with the Dutch oven via a conventional oven. We practiced making a sour dough bread, cheesy biscuits, jalapeno bread, and rolls. I was assigned to work on the rolls which-- if you have read my previous posts--is right up my alley in terms of prior knowledge that is procedural and automatic in nature for me. With David, the instructor, there to walk us through our steps, things went smoothly. The breads were evenly cooked and had a beautiful golden brown color all around--both top and bottom, which it can be tricky to brown the bottom of a bread without burning it when cooking in a Dutch oven. However, this bread making story has a slightly different ending when I attempted to transfer the knowledge of briquet cooking at home. (See pictures of the breads baked during the lesson below.)

Rolls I Made - This is Prior to Baking

Cooking with Briquets for Our Lesson

Cheesy Biscuits - Simply Made from a Pillsbury Dough "Pop Can"- Cheese was Added on Top Prior To Cooking


The Rolls are Baked and Ready to Eat

Personal Learning Experience - Attempt at Knowledge and Skill Transfer:
The instructor mentioned that when you are first trying to get the "hang of Dutch oven cooking" (which most often it's the temperature regulation and cook time that needs to be mastered) it's a good idea to simplify things with a mix versus cooking from scratch. This makes it more likely for you to continue to try when attempts at Dutch oven cooking don't go so well. You don't feel like you are throwing this huge time investment out the window if you have a disaster. Cooking from scratch can come later when you have a handle on the skill of temperature regulation and cook time. After my attempt to cook blueberry muffins--I now get what he means!
So, for my learning experience, I made blueberry muffins from a Lehi Roller Mills mix. (No recipe this week, sorry guys!) Having made this mix several times before, I moved with confidence through this portion of my learning experience--nothing new about this situation. Then it came time to cook with the charcoal briquets--never done this ever in my life. So, with my husband's help (remember he is my "learning buddy" through all of this) out came the Camp Chef stove, which I was able to pretty much set up and hook up the gas all by myself (thank you lesson number one). Then I turned the stove up to high and placed the charcoals (which I had placed into a charcoal lighter basket) on top. The bottom layer of briquets lit instantly. I left the charcoal lighter basket on the Camp Chef stove for about 7 minutes to allow all of the briquets to light. Then it came time to preheat the Dutch oven. So, I placed about 9 briquets on the Dutch oven cook table and then placed the Dutch oven on top of the coals to preheat it--in the last lesson, I left the lid off during a preheat because of the usage of a conventional oven. When preheating using briquets, you must leave the lid on because it performs the same function as the door of a conventional oven--heat entrapment. I let the Dutch oven preheat for about 5 to 10 minutes (recall that last time I did 30 minutes, which was too much time).
From here, I placed the blueberry muffin mix into aluminum cupcake liners. (I used the aluminum ones because the paper liners are more dependent on a muffin tin pan to hold their shape when cooking.) I then placed parchment paper (use the Dutch oven lid as a guide for size when cutting the parchment paper) inside of the preheated Dutch oven and placed the muffins on top.
David taught me to double the size of the Dutch oven to get the number of briquets needed to heat the Dutch oven to approximately 325 degrees, then add 5 degrees for each briquet beyond that. So, for my 12 inch Dutch oven to cook at the desired temperature of 375 degrees, I should have used at least 34 briquets, which I didn't. I am new to this, so I accidentally stopped at 24 briquets. Yep! That's 50 degrees below the cooking temperature--creates a problem. (A little tip, when cooking with a Dutch oven and briquets, to help with an even distribution of heat; every 10-15 minutes, rotate the whole Dutch oven clockwise a quarter turn and then the lid counter clockwise a quarter turn. I did remember to do this part.)
Well, the end result was that I had to cook the muffins about 15 extra minutes. The tops looked done and even a toothpick (when inserted into the muffins) came out clean. But, when I attempted to remove the cupcake liner, it was stuck to the bottom of the muffin. Every muffin had a goopy spot on the bottom from a lack of heat. So, instead of burning the bread -- I did the opposite due to a lack of required heat. Glad it was made from a blueberry muffin mix and not scratch--indeed, that kind of loss with that kind of a time investment would have frustrated me. Maybe I'll have better luck next time. (See pictures below).
Learning Theory Connections:
I started my lesson with some more tuning of schema. Last week I posted that the reason for cooking without a lid on the Dutch oven that has been placed inside of a conventional oven was to prevent burning the bread. This is incorrect. You see, I simply assimilated that the lid would trap in the heat and, combined with the heat of the conventional oven, it was too much and burning will occur. (Made sense to me.) Well, my instructor clarified this misinterpretation for me. You keep the lid off to avoid trapping in moisture which leads to soggy bread. (Tuning of schema)
Once again, prior knowledge, procedural knowledge and automaticity were also at work here this week. In my lesson, I knew how to activate the yeast, knead the dough, and roll out the rolls. Why? I grew up making homemade bread and rolls as a dietary staple. In my personal learning experience - I knew how to make the blueberry muffins because I've made them several time before. So, I was on "autopilot" for this part of the learning.
I believe some chunking went on with this week's learning. I had "practiced" setting up the Camp Chef stove, hooking up the gas, lighting the fuel, and controlling the fuel levels in lesson one. So, I didn't have to keep checking with my husband about this procedure. I merely performed a quick check of my understanding of the Camp Chef stove set up and went on my way performing the actions. Hence, I was able to focus on using the stove to light the charcoal briquets instead of focusing on just how to set up use the Camp Chef stove itself.
One embarrassing thing to admit to here is that I struggled with a mental model in my personal cooking experience. I kept telling my husband that the quarter turn of the entire Dutch oven and then a quarter turn of the lid didn't move the heat around because the lid and the oven ended up realigned anyway. I seriously couldn't see this "movement" in my head. He had to physically show me how this movement did indeed work to allow for even heating. Then I understood.
There was also some intrinsic and extrinsic motivation happening here. We actually bought a new Dutch oven for this learning experience (our other one isn't designed well for charcoal briquets usage) and I was excited and curious to use it. I also LOVE to eat blueberry muffins. So, I was motivationally geared up for this learning experience.
Finally, I believe I did some accommodation and schema building in my personal learning experience. I had never used charcoal briquets in my life. I also had to learn how to calculate cooking temperatures and times, which I goofed up a little on this time! I had to learn how to light them and then adequately distribute them both on top as well as on the bottom of the Dutch to prevent burning as well as safely dispose of them when I was finished cooking. By the way, just because they look grayish/white doesn't mean they have cooled down--I know that now and so does my burned finger tip!