UPDATED APRIL 2018 Dutch Oven cooking can be the most delicious way to prepare food outdoors…if you know these beginner tips.
Welcome to Camp Cooking Week! We’ll be cooking outdoors all week long so come back tomorrow for more outdoor cooking tips and tricks.
Dutch Oven Cooking for Beginners
Dutch Oven Cooking makes some tasty outdoor food. I mean real good. Setting a cast iron pot directly in the coals is a great way to get some delicious dinner (or breakfast or lunch) and once you know the basics it’s a fairly straightforward process.
- Heat the coals.
- Prepare the food and place it in the dutch oven.
- Place the coals and let the food cook.
- Enjoy!
Heat the Coals
Before we get to the food, we’ve got to talk heat. Dutch ovens are great at staying warm for a long time, but getting them warm takes a while.
We start our charcoal briquettes in a charcoal chimney, a nifty metal tube with space at the bottom for a small fire. This heats the coals quicker – in 15 to 20 minutes – just enough time to get your ingredients together.
Anything you can bake in an oven or cook on a stove top you can make in a Dutch Oven as long as you heat things up right. But just how many coals do you need when dutch oven cooking?
A quick guide I’ve heard for how many coals you need – take your diameter and multiply by two. One third go on bottom, two thirds on top. The fact that more coals go on the dutch oven lid when baking throws a lot of people.
The most common dutch oven size is a 12 inch diameter. That’s the size we have so we need 24 coals total, 16 on top, 8 on bottom. Here’s a convenient chart from
Dutch Oven Mania that gets more precise.
Let it Cook
You put down some hot coals, put your dutch oven on then add more coals to the top. How long until you can eat that mouthwatering meal? Dutch oven cooking is for the patient.
Most recipes require at least 45 minutes of cooking time, rotating the oven and lid every 10-15 minutes for even heating. Rotating the oven and lid often during cooking prevents burn spots and gives more even heat for your food. Don’t forget to stir too!
I like to line up the lid handle with the pot handle when I begin cooking. When a ten minute timer goes off I rotate the lid a quarter turn in one direction and rotate the oven body a quarter turn in the other direction.
You may not want to wait 45 minutes or more for dinner, but there’s a benefit for having your food cooked this way – it stays warm for hours. The cast iron in a Dutch Oven holds its heat well so going back for seconds is never a problem.
Dutch Oven Features
You’ve waited patiently but now your ready to eat! How do you get those coals off without getting ash in your food? Trust me, it’s happened. Dutch Oven Cooking works best if you
have the right tools.
The most important gear item you need for dutch oven cooking is of course
a dutch oven. It should be cast iron, rust free (although you can clean and reseason it if you need to), have a holder handle on the pot, legs on the bottom and a flat top to hold coals.
They make
Cast Iron Dutch Ovens for regular kitchen use that may not have those features. Those still make tasty meals, but if you’re using the dutch oven outdoors the legs on the bottom, holder handle and flat top lid are essential.
More Dutch Oven Cooking Tools
After the Dutch Oven itself, the most important tool we use is
a lid lifter. When the dutch oven gets hot and the lid handle is surrounded by coals it is near impossible to move it without burning yourself. Hence
the lid lifter.
You can see all the outdoor gear our family uses and loves on our gear page.
Dutch Oven Cooking Pros and Cons
Dutch Oven Cooking is a great way to eat outdoors because the food is so delicious, but it takes a while and those ovens can be heavy.
Pros
- Baking – not many outdoor cooking options can do this easily.
- Food stays warm a long time.
- Delicious food. Really, really good.
Cons
- Heavy – you’ll be getting a work out.
- Clean up can be messy especially when camping. A food scraper (we use an old library card or national park pass) or aluminum dutch oven liners or parchment dutch oven liners help.
- Time. Dutch ovens are the original slow cookers.
Now you’re ready to try for yourself! Sign up for my camp cooking challenge in the box above for even more outdoor cooking tips then try our quick Dutch Oven Potatoes recipe below.
We make these potatoes in our home fire pit several times every summer.
Dutch Oven Potatoes
Ingredients:
1 onion, sliced
1 lb bacon
4-6 russet potatoes, peeled and sliced
1 T butter
salt and pepper to taste
1 c shredded cheese
Cut onion and bacon. Fry in uncovered dutch oven* until onions are translucent and bacon crisp. Remove bacon and grease. Add sliced potatoes, butter, salt and pepper. Stir. Cover and place coals. Cook for 40-50 minutes, rotating frequently until potatoes are tender. Crumble reserved bacon over potatoes, add cheese and serve.
*Sometimes I cook the bacon and onions in a frying pan on my stove if I’m trying to speed things up.
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