Dorcas Speer Does Camp Cooking with Debbie (WOI News Clip 352)

Not too long ago Debbie Paul our guest today talked about equipment that should be part of camping and she showed us the reflector oven and she showed us the Dutch oven but a lot of people actually don't know how to cook with him and so Debbie is back with us and she is a junior at Iowa State and you just finished getting the fire just about ready to the spot to work with the reflector oven right one of the things with a reflector fire is that you want bright flames because the whole point is is if the fire and the heat reflects off the inside and you can see how the oven is built so that it reflects and one thing it's easy to do is to build your fire down and then and then you want to back up here this can be done in several ways you can take two sticks and stretch aluminum foil across here or you can take two sticks and stack green logs up or another reflector oven variety of things you can get by without any of these other methods by just keeping a high enough hot and a fire here but you do have to be careful that when you don't have your reflector back here that you may have to adjust the distance that your oven is to your fire or move your fire a little bit because it can get too hot and then it burns without great without cooking it out on the interior now this uh reflector oven looks a little tiny bit different than some of the others right this oven is moved just by the handle on top and many ovens which I'll show you one later has a lid that lifts up in the back so that you can reach in from behind to turn your pan around instead of having to either move your oven out or reaching in front of the fire and turn your pan alright now you're going to fix some cornbread right then is this a mix or did you make yourself or does it really make any difference it doesn't really make any difference I find it easier to mix all the dry ingredients at home and then when you're out camping you can mix the other ingredients that would make it moist in and then you've got it all ready to put on and it's all pre measured now you're using one the tap on fire pan you have out of your camping equipment set I think right I like I like the Teflon pans just because they're easy to clean this is cornbread it's supposed to be then you just think I'm gonna out to take it out slip it in and then use such now we'll have to build the fire back up so that there's flames shooting up so that it'll be reflecting Debbie how long does it take to cook well it's kind of hard to say because every time you use a reflector oven or a Dutch oven the temperature fire is always gonna be a little bit different the reflection may not be the same wind will do strange things you kind of have to watch it and when you read your recipes at home or camping or whatever it'll tell you what to look for like a golden-brown crust and you use your knife just like you would at home when to stick it in the middle and I'd say this will probably take about half an hour and so now it should Brown in the same way to a certain extent like it does in the oven right it'll look it should look just exactly as it does if you take it out of your oven at home complete it now are you going to ever have to turn this one around within the oven right when you use it cooking like this especially without a reflector on this side you need to keep turning it because you don't want to get this side will become done err on the bottom where it's closer to the fire where the other side will tend to cook faster on top and you need to keep turning it it will also help keep it level and what does one do with such bees chocolate-covered ants and chocolate-covered bees will have a you keep feeding the fire right you want to keep a flame this is a fairly good flame it can be varying degrees of higher or not this one is almost too close but because of the confines of the fireplace we can't really move either one idea it should be about the main part of the fire should be right about here now you can't do this with charcoal can you this is hard to do with charcoal I've never been able to because you need a flame but you can use the Dutch oven which I'll show you later can be done with charcoal needless to say we've had about a 15-minute intermission here but wow the corn better baked and Debbie it now looks like it it's about time right and just like you do at home to test it you stick your knife down in the middle and since I can't get in from the back of this I'm just gonna lift it out just protect hands from getting burned which can rule on lots of camping trips I think it looks like it's done it looks good there's a finished product hmm then you just cut it and serve it now if you needed something very quickly in the oven you could set it on at the side and keep it warm until the time right and keep it into the booth as long as the stage if you didn't have any little kids now one thing that we wanted to would check let me reach this and this was the other reflector up in London a little more sturdy and this one is nice in terms of it won't fall apart on you because it's made to stay like this this one is collapsible so that it folds up into just a small box and it's easier for carrying for backpacking and just general camping for this one is a little more cumbersome yes now this one will fold up into this size box and it's a little bit larger it gives you a little more surface area to put your pan in here maybe I can show you by comparison under sort of you can get your pan further in which allows for a little even or baking and you did we should say that you did for a minute or two put some aluminium up to reflect into this particular fire but I think that can be done depending upon the a situation that you have to do what and we thank Debbie Paul very much she's a junior at Iowa State and this is the work with reflector oven now we will be moving on for one now the Dutch happen but they'll have to wait as far as you're concerned until tomorrow