Members of the Texas County Dutch Oven Cookers Club will present a demonstration Friday, July 4, at the Houston Farmers Market at the Lone Star Plaza between First Street and Grand Avenue in downtown Houston.
Chefs Jim Eckley, Jim Kidwell and Bob Roach will cook meat and produce provided by farmers market vendors during the event. Kidwell said each chef will have multiple ovens over fires simultaneously, with both savory and sweet selections simmering inside. Eckley’s wife Vanessa, Kidwell’s wife Karen and Roach’s wife Wilma will provide support.
“Behind every successful man there’s a woman telling him he’s wrong,” Kidwell said.
Attendees will have the opportunity to sample the end results of the cookers’ efforts. The club’s motto is “watch, learn, eat.”
Normally, the cookers have full control over what they produce at a demonstration. But that won’t be the case at the farmers market event, where they’ll use what’s given to them by vendors.
All three cookers have a lengthy history involving Dutch ovens. Kidwell started in 1981 and by 1986 was cooking for neighborhood watch groups since Dutch ovens are useful when electricity has gone out. The Eckleys bought a Dutch oven and went to a Gist Ranch cookout where they became hooked; they now have 11 pots and a cargo trailer to haul their equipment, and their kids also cook (their son does Dutch oven cooking in the Wyoming oil fields). The Roaches have owned various teepees used for camping at historically accurate rendezvous events, where they cook using Dutch ovens.
Kidwell said the cookers hope to go into the situation having some idea of what to expect by meeting ahead of time with market coordinator Steve Wilson.
“We’d like to at least have a rough list of what people might be bringing so we can go into our recipe vault or see what can come together by flying by the seat of our pants,” he said. “Normally when we go into these things we know exactly what we have, exactly what the proportions are, how much heat to use and everything else, so we feel real confident. Obviously, this will be different, and it will be a new challenge for us.
“But we carry enough spices that we could probably spice up oak leaves and make them taste good.”
The farmers market is open 2 to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and 7 a.m. to noon Fridays. The cookers expect to be busy by the time it opens July 4.
Kidwell said he plans to have his enormous enamel coffee pot on hand, with a batch of fresh hot coffee available to early arrivals. He also plans to produce a batch of his special watermelon pico de gallo dip.
The Texas County Dutch Oven Cookers will appear at more than one pioneer-style event this summer, and have approached officials at Montauk State Park about putting on a demonstration there. They plan to conduct a clinic this fall at the Big Piney Sportsman’s Club near Houston.
ABOUT DUTCH OVENS
Dutch ovens have been in use since the 1700s. The English improved on Dutch designs by adding a lip on the lid and legs to the pot. The Lodge Company and Griswald are old Dutch oven manufacturers that are still in business. Numbers etched on ovens correspond to the diameter of the pot in inches. Countless covered wagons headed west in the 1800s with Dutch ovens swinging beneath them.