Dutch Master Using A Dutch Oven, One Idaho Man Finds New Career As An Outdoor Cooking Expert

On a redwood deck overlooking the verdant South Fork of the Clearwater River canyon, C.W. “Butch” Welch stoops over a metal fire box and arranges some charcoal briquets on the top of a soot-black Dutch oven.

“Really it’s a lot easier than some people think,” Welch says of the ages-old cooking method. “It’s not like twisting a dial on a stove, but a Dutch oven is just another pot.”

For most of his life, the former Idaho Department of Fish and Game conservation officer has been stewing, baking, frying and steaming appetite-tweaking meals in settings such as this.

But it wasn’t until he began patrolling the Middle Fork of the Salmon River while stationed in Challis that he started developing his Dutch-oven cooking skills in earnest.

“I give a lot of the credit to the whitewater rafters for bringing Dutch oven cooking back into the mainstream,” Welch says.

“Before that a lot of people heard about it, but now if they’ve been on a river trip and been served a gourmet meal, they go back home and they want to try it.”

Welch started capitalizing on this Dutch-oven renaissance in 1996 when he published his first cookbook, “Cee Dub’s Dutch Oven and Other Camp Cookin’.”

Two years later Welch — noted for his lively storytelling — signed up to tape eight shows for PBS.

The producers immediately liked the pilots and extended the contract for 18 more shows, which were taped in four days.

Welch’s, “Dutch Oven and Camp Cooking” show is now broadcast across the country.

And he has followed the success of his first book with a second cookbook, “More Cee Dub’s Dutch Oven and Other Camp Cookin’,” published by his wife, Penny.

“My goal in the show is for someone to be able to watch that show and know what I did and do it themselves,” Welch says.

Welch’s audience includes mostly people who first learned about Dutch oven cooking in the Boy or Girl Scouts, but who haven’t practiced it for years.

Many of the recipes in the books are ones people have shared with him. After learning of a new recipe, Welch says he likes to go home, try it out and invite somebody over to dinner.

“There’s kind of a back-to-basics trend people are interested in and they want to experience this way of cooking. I’ve long been known as a good cook and it’s fun to try out new recipes. But it’s the teaching I enjoy the most.”