Troop 697

Tips to Successful Dutch Oven Cooking

Basics

A Dutch oven is a cast iron pot between 8 and 22 inches in diameter. It has 3 legs, a flat bottom, and a lid flanged to hold hot goals or briquettes. The lid has a low handle in the center and the Dutch oven has a bail similar to one on a bucket. These features are for convenience in cooking over an open fire. A 12” small shovel and tongs for moving coals around and a lid grabber are needed to complete your Dutch oven cooking kit.

Aluminum is lighter in weight (8 lbs.) that the same size iron (18 lbs for a No. 12) Dutch oven. They don’t rust but need more coals than a cast iron to maintain the same heat level. When buying a Dutch oven, go for quality, since you’re DO will last you a lifetime. You can use a DO to bake, deep fry, brown, stew, and boil foods. Anything you can buy in a restaurant or cook at home can be cooked in the field using a Dutch oven.

Care and Feeding

Breaking in a DO is called seasoning. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions closely. If you mess it up, do it again. By properly seasoning your DO, it will be easier to clean. Over time, the DO takes on a patina (or finish) that is a barrier to rust. Each time that you use your DO, remove any dust or foreign objects. Check to see that it has a light coat of oil on all inside surfaces. After use be sure that the inside surfaces a lightly oiled and stored with the lid off or use something to leave a gap between the lid and oven.

Cleanup is easy when the cooking surfaces have a light coat of oil on them. DO NOT USE SOAP to clean your oven. If wiping down the oven doesn’t clean it, fill the oven with water and place it back on the heat bringing the water to almost a boil. Use a soft scrubber, and gently scrub off the remaining food. Do not use a metal scrubber since it will scratch r remove the patina. After the oven is clean, place it near the fire to dry. When the oven has cooled re-apply a coating of oil to the cooking surface.

Cooking Basics

To use your Dutch oven as an oven for baking, place some metal tent pins on the bottom of a preheated oven and place the baking dish on top. The tent pins create a gap that allows the air to move around the baking dish.

For boiling, deep-frying, or stewing, a rule of thumb states that 2/3rds of the coals should be on the bottom and 1/3^rd on the top. When browning, the coals are on the bottom with the lid off. Baking requires that the lid be on with the coals on top. The following table gives the suggested number of coals to use when baking.

Briquettes Required to Give a Moderate to Hot Temperature

Dutch Oven Size	Number of Coals On Top	Number of Coals On Bottom
8”	6-8	4-6
10”	6-10	6-8
12”	10-12	8-10
14”	12-16	10-12
16”	16-18	12-16

To determine how hot your oven is, hold the palm of our hand over the coals. Count “one-and-one”, “two-and-two”, and so on for the number of seconds you can bear to hold your hand still. Be sure to circle around the coals “feeling” for hot and cold spots in the fire. Using the guide below you will know how hot your fire is.

Counts	Heat	Temperature
6-8	Slow	250° – 350° F
4 – 5	Moderate	250° – 400° F
2 – 3	Hot	400°– 450° F
1 or less	Very Hot	450° – 500° F

Cautions

New users tend to use too much heat. Practice corrects this. When stacking ovens be sure the surface is level. Don’t cook foods in your Dutch oven that you don’t eat already.