OK - we are not talking about anything that involves being forcibly closed up in a sleeping bag, so get your mind off that.  The dutch oven has been a classic piece of camp cooking kit for years.  But who likes to carry the equivalent of a dead dog across portage trails?  In this painting "Voyageurs in Labrador" by William G. R. Hind (Geological Survey of Canada) the blokes don't look too happy about it.

We are also in the age when all the "cool" outdoorsy people are going minimalist.  But you can't beat a dutch oven meal at the end of the day, and that's why we're keen about GSI's cast aluminum dutch oven: it weighs 66% less than a traditional cast iron of the same size.  It's rustproof, scratch resistant, heats evenly and washes up easily.  For $69.99 you get best of both worlds.

Just to get you started, here's a recipe you can use to wow your camping buddies.

Jeff's Dutch Oven Pizza

Ingredients:

• pizza dough ingredients (keep wet and dry separate)
• tomato sauce
• toppings (mushrooms, hot banana peppers, onions, olives, mosquitoes...)
• grated cheese

Before your trip, pack your dry dough ingredients in a Ziploc bag.  At camp, build a fire first so you can get some good coals going, then mix up your dough ingredients and pat the dough into the bottom of your oven.  Set it aside somewhere warm to rise a bit.

When your dough is ready spread tomato sauce on top and load it up with toppings.  Cover with grated cheese.  Put the lid on and place the oven near the fire.  Don't place it on hot coals - you'll burn the bottom of your meal.  Load the lid with coals and wait about 30 minutes for the pizza to bake.

Look at that camp creation!  You'll be invited on a whole lot more trips after this.  Now crack out your favourite camp beverage (Jeff suggests a nice smoky single malt) and enjoy the sunset while somebody else washes up.

For more of Jeff's Dutch Oven recipes, click here.