By Lee Henry,
Chuckwagon Cook, Alias “Ole’ Leather”
(ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)
4 cups flour
¾ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
½ cup shortening
1½
tablespoons baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
3½ cups
sourdough starter
Rub shortening generously over the
inside of your Dutch oven. Set the
Dutch by the fire to melt the shortening and to preheat.
Put all the flour in your sifter; on top of the
flour put the balance of the dry ingredients. Sift them all together at one time.
Using a fork cut the shortening into dry ingredients until blended well. Pour in all of the sourdough starter and mix until you can’t stir the dough anymore. This is where the Master’s touch is needed. Sourdough starters (also called sponge) come in many different consistencies; thin like milk to as thick as pancake batter. If yours is as thin as milk you won’t have to add much more but if it is thick as pancake dough you may have to add as much as 2 more cups of starter. You must add enough starter to the dough for it to get a shiny finish and slightly sticky the touch. All this can all be accomplished with a wooden spoon.
When putting the biscuits into the Dutch oven
(that’s the one with the lip on the lid.), I like to lay them in melted
shortening, (this causes the Sourdough biscuit to brown nicely); turn the
biscuits over as you gently crowd them into the Dutch until it is full.
They are now ready to bake. You don’t have to let these biscuits
rise, if you did it right they will rise as they bake. These should take 27 minutes at 400
degrees.
Just remember: Sourdough biscuits are heavier
and denser than store bought “whopping” biscuits (that’s the ones you buy in a
can and “whop” them on the counter to open), so they will take longer to cook no
matter what method you use.
The whole cooking process changes with
the weather and time of year you are cooking.
(That is dry ground and 70o with no rain)
With your shovel scoop out about ¼ shovel full
of red hot coals out of the bottom of a big roaring red oak or hickory
fire. Put them on the ground and
pat them down flat with your shovel about 5 feet up wind of your campfire. Set your Dutch full of biscuits on the
coals; scoop out of the fire enough red hot coals to fill the top of the lid
with the lip. Put as many coals on
as you can get, softly pat them down tight with the shovel. You have to move the
Dutch off the bottom coals in about 10 minutes or you will burn the bottom of
your biscuits. Move it about 3 feet
to the side directly on the ground. Then at about 23 minutes you will start to
smell that beautiful sourdough aroma, after about 25 minutes gently lift the
lid. Not much, just enough to make
sure your not burning them. You can tell by the smell if they are cooking to
hot. If they are remove all the
coals off the lid. After 27 minutes, remove the lid and get the biscuits out and
onto a serving platter.
Cookin'
in the Snow at round up!
(A cold winter day
with a little snow on the ground, but the cowboys still have to be fed.) Here’s how it’s done!
Clean back to the ground, a spot in
the snow about 3‘ in diameter 5’ to 6’ down wind of your camp fire. With your shovel scoop out about ½
shovel full of red hot coals from the bottom of a big roaring red oak or hickory
fire. Put them in the center of
that cleaned spot. Set your Dutch full of biscuits on the coals; then scoop out
of the fire enough red hot coals to fill the top of the lid with the lip. Put as
many coals on as you can get, softly pat them down tight with the shovel. You
know you’re going to have to move the Dutch off the bottom coals in about in
about 10 minutes or you will burn the bottom of your biscuits. So move over about 5 feet still down
wind of the fire and pull the snow back until you have bare ground about a 3’
circle.
Get yourself about a ½ scoop of hot
coals and spread them over the area you cleaned off. Then just before you are ready to remove
the Dutch from the bottom coals, move the remaining coals from the area that you
cleaned off by just raking them to one side. Now move the Dutch to this pre-warmed
area. Take your shovel and pack the
coals down tighter and again add as many red hot coals on top as you can.
In about 23 minutes you will start to smell that
beautiful sourdough aroma; at about 25 minutes gently but quickly lift the lid,
not much, just enough to make sure your not burning them (Try not to let your
heat escape). You can tell by the smell if they are cooking to hot. If they are, remove all the coals off
the lid, again move the oven to another spot on the ground that is cool not
cold. Check the biscuits again at 27 minutes, they should be done. Remove the
lid and serve the biscuits right from the Dutch.
If your going to feed the cowboys, you
better know how to cook with a Dutch in a blinding rainstorm. It’s done something like this
You have to dig deep enough into the
rain soaked soil to find you some dry dirt. Then upwind but within 5 feet of
your fire make you a mound of dirt tall enough to get your coals up and out of
the mud. Make it about 10 inches larger in diameter than your Dutch oven.
With your shovel scoop out about ½
shovel full of red hot coals, out of the bottom of a big roaring red oak or
hickory fire; put these in the center of your mound of dirt. Set your Dutch full
of biscuits on the coals, and scoop out of the fire enough red hot coals to fill
the top of the lid with the lip.
Put on as many coals as you can and softly pat them down tight with the
shovel. You’re going to have to add red hot coals about every 4-5 minutes as the
rain will keep extinguishing the coals.
About 12 minutes into the cook, have
your helper lift the Dutch off the hot bottom coals and with your shovel rake
the coals to the side then reset the Dutch back on the dry mound. Now take your shovel and pack the coals
down tighter and again add as many of the red hot coals on top as you can.
After about 23 minutes you will start
to smell that beautiful sourdough aroma; at about 25 minutes gently lift the
lid. Not much, just enough to make sure your not burning them. You can tell by
the smell if they are cooking to hot.
If they are remove all the coals off the lid. At 27 minutes lift the lid,
if the biscuits aren’t brown on top, replace the lid and add ½ a shovel of hot
coals; bake for 3 more minutes.
Serve the biscuits from the hot Dutch.
After you have set the Sourdough
biscuits in the pre-warmed Dutch oven, set the Dutch oven about 12 or 14 feet up
wind of your camp fire. With your shovel scoop out a shovel full of red hot
coals out of the bottom of a big roaring red oak or hickory fire. Pile these on top of the Dutch oven,
gently pat them down smooth. If
there is any wind the oven is going to come to full heat very Quickly! The
biscuits are going to cook much faster on the downwind side of the Dutch than the upwind side due to
the high wind.
Every 3 minutes pick the Dutch up and
rotate it 180 degrees and set it back down. This will keep the biscuits cooking
evenly on the inside of the Dutch. The higher the wind, the faster the biscuits
will cook. After about 15 minutes
walk down wind of the Dutch, test the air; if you can smell the sourdough by
then they are going to be ready in about 8 minutes. After about 20 minutes into
the cook, lift the lid and with a fork roll one of the biscuit’s over; look and
feel to see how close to being done they are. You will have to be the judge as
to how much more cooking they need.
As soon as they are done get them out
of the Dutch as they will keep on cookin in the extremely hot weather.
Note; The cowboy
that gripes about blowin’ sand in his biscuits.
“Make him
cook the next batch!”
If you don’t have coals from a outdoor
fire then you will need to use charcoal briquettes. However, there are some
rules to follow.
Briquettes rule of
thumb.
Put about a ¼ of the bag of charcoal
briquettes in your BBQer and light them up so they will be ready to use as soon
as you get the biscuits put together.
Preheat your shortening coated Dutch oven, by placing it over 6 hot
briquettes.
When the charcoal is burning thru and
thru start with the following formula:
Multiply the diameter of the Dutch oven times two, then on the
ground put one third of the total amount, place the Dutch oven full of biscuits
on these hot briquettes. Put the
balance on the lid with the lip. Example: 14” diameter Dutch X 2 = 28. Put approximately 9 briquettes under the
Dutch and 19 on top. You will have to practice with the numbers of briquettes
you cook with. You will under cook and over cook many a mess of biscuits before
you acquire the “MASTERS TOUCH”.
It’s high time you got started!
After the Sourdough biscuits have
started cooking, you will have to move the Dutch off the bottom briquettes in
about 10 minutes or you will burn the bottom of your biscuits. Move it about 3 feet to the side
directly on the ground. Here you go back to your BB-Q’er retrieve about 9 hot
briquettes and put them on top of the lid with the rest of the coals. After
about 23 minutes you will start to smell that beautiful sourdough aroma; after
about 25 minutes gently lift the lid.
Not much, just enough to make sure your not burning them. You can tell by
the smell if they are cooking to hot.
If they are remove all the briquettes off the lid. Check the biscuits
again; they should be done. Remove the lid and get the biscuits out and onto a
serving platter.
If your in your house kitchen and not
your chuckwagon kitchen, all you have to do is to pre-warm your Dutch oven, then
load the biscuits. Have your house
oven set at 425 degrees and the timer at 27 minutes, put em’ in the oven with
the lid off. When the bell rings
they are done.
Ole’Leather