Bring Dutch oven to fall hunting camps

Fall is rolling around fast. That means hunting season, the time for serious camping, is at hand. Aside from a coffee pot, cooking in hunting camp demands only one thing: a good Dutch oven. The first time I saw anybody cook with a Dutch oven was 25 years ago, when a friend's father let me tag along on a deer hunt on the sagebrush flats of northern Taos County, N.M. After hunting for the first few hours of the day, we returned to the trucks. One of the men took his cherished Dutch oven out of its burlap sack. He lighted a large, fast-burning, smoky fire from dead, gnarled, silver-gray sagebrush. He then dug a hole in the ground just big enough so he could bury his Dutch oven. He shoveled half the ashes into the hole and put the Dutch oven in to heat up. Next, he spooned in a generous dollop of lard that quickly liquefied and started to smoke. From his cooler he withdrew a plastic bag holding strips of meat marinated in red chili sauce. Those spattered and popped when they hit the hot grease and delicious smells started to rise. He tossed in a few potatoes that he had peeled and cubed. After mixing the potatoes with the meat, he put the lid on the oven and shoveled the rest of the coals on top. The buried pot soon baked the chili to perfection...AP