Camp Dutch ovens are an important tool for campfire/outdoor cooking. They can be used with briquettes, right in the coals, or hanging over the fire. Their legs allow them to stand over coals without smothering them, and their lipped lids hold more hot coals on top. Several sizes should be in every outdoor cook’s arsenal (and then you can do that cool stacking thing that makes you look more experienced than you are).
What you’ll need
- Camp Dutch ovens come in a variety of sizes for all kinds of cooking. Beginners won’t go wrong with one 12″ wide and 4″ deep. My favorite is 14″ wide and 3″ deep that doubles as a skillet.
- A lid lifter will save a lot of frustration when checking your food.
- Because they’re usually heated with briquettes, charcoal chimney starters and heavy-duty tongs are also needed.
- Cooking right in the campfire pit will require some sort of shovel or other coal-moving device.
Briquette cooking
This is the standard table that outlines how many briquettes to use on the lid and underneath to achieve certain temperatures for cooking (350 F is the most common, so is bolded). Depending on how long your food should be cooked, you’ll need to start replacing coals after about 20 minutes, so either include more briquettes in the first charcoal chimney starter, or start a second one right away.
Cooking in the coals
For non-briquette cooking, here are the rough estimates to get to 350 F:
- Double the diameter of your oven to get the number of coals
- Place 2/3 of the coals on top, and 1/3 underneath
- Though camp Dutch ovens contains legs, they will sink into ash and coals. Try not to smother the coals by cooking in a separate part of the firepit. In this case, a nice dirt foundation is your friend; shovel the coals to your cooking site.
Hanging over the fire
Hanging a camp Dutch oven over the fire is great for lower temperature recipes like long and slow pork shoulders, or to keep dinner warm, or to keep drinks warm. Tripods are a popular choice for hanging camp Dutch ovens over campfires, and offer flexibility and portability.