By JACK SPAULDING
Spaulding Outdoors
Two weeks ago, my wife and I were invited to a gourmet outing in Jennings County, where we were to witness some of the finest cast iron culinary concoctions we have seen. It started back a few weeks ago when our friend, Bill Beville, asked if Chris and I could get away on a Friday night for dinner. Having sampled Bill’s wife Paula’s cooking and the Beville hospitality, there was no hesitation in accepting the invitation.
When I asked what to bring, Bill said his wife’s instructions were "any side dish to go with pizza." Bill continued by saying Steve and Becky Delph and Steve and Donna Reinholt would be there, as well. It was going to be a Dutch oven pizza fest, with the trio of conservation officers each turning out one or more of their favorites.
We got there early, and I watched Bill prepare his favorite Chicago deep dish. Bill put a layer of pizza dough on top of a parchment liner in the bottom of his Dutch oven. He carefully worked the dough to have a slightly thicker rim around the edge, which would later swell up and encase the cheese, toppings and sauce.
Handsful of mozzarella and cheddar were layered in with a full can of tomato sauce, a can of sliced black olives, a can of sliced mushrooms and a handful of sliced pepperoni. Setting the lid in place, Bill hung the Dutch oven on his cooking stand over hot coals and shoveled a layer of hot coals onto the lid.
Looking at me, Bill said, "About 35 minutes, and we’ll take a look."
No sooner did we get Bill’s deep dish rolling than Steve Reinholt pulled in and began preparing his meat lovers’ pizza. Steve has perfected his oven and uses what looked to be a 14-inch pizza pan on a trivet, set inside the Dutch oven.
Steve opted for the charcoal briquette method, where a number of briquettes are put underneath the Dutch oven while a certain number are put on top of the oven. I asked if there was a formula, and there is: "Twice as many white-hot coals as the diameter of the Dutch oven, with two-thirds of the coals on the bottom and the remaining third on the top for baking."
A third oven went down with a thin crust pineapple pizza, and Steve Delph prepped one of his famous desserts, Pineapple Dump Cake. He carefully lined the bottom and side of his Dutch oven with aluminum foil. He then dumped in the contents of one angel food cake mix.
Popping the top on a can of crushed pineapple, Steve poured in the entire contents, juice and all. Mixing it together in the oven, Steve looked at me and said, "There you go … ready for the coals."
Using the same recipe for baking with briquettes, Steve set the oven in alongside of Reinholt’s and said, "About 35 minutes." Needless to say, multiple piping-hot Dutch oven pizzas bearing a slight tinge of wood smoke hit the spot. Followed up by decadent chocolate and peanut butter-coated brownies from Paula’s oven and a Dutch oven rendition of crescent rolls wrapped with sugar and cinnamon, caramel sauce and butter-topped apple dumplings by Donna Reinholt, we were stuffed.
The three amigos of cast iron culinary endeavors and their wives had outdone themselves.
Bill confided he considered himself to be the junior of the three, as both Reinholt and Delph taught Dutch oven cooking at numerous Department of Natural Resources-sponsored (DNR) events, including the highly popular "Becoming an Outdoors Woman" program. On their annual hunting forays out to western states, Delph and Reinholt use their Dutch ovens at every meal, fixing hearty meals for hunting the mountainous terrain.
One year, Reinholt tagged his elk early in the trip and stayed back at camp to rest up and cook. Delph had been hunting the adjoining mountain and was returning from camp late in the evening.
Delph said, "I was still about 2,500 feet below camp when I got a whiff of Reinholt’s elk stew drifting down the mountain I was starved to death and I believe it was one of the best meals I have ever eaten."
After tasting Dutch oven gourmet pizza, I will attest that there’s a lot to be said for Dutch oven cooking!
