A thick walled (usu. 1/4"+) cast-iron
kettle or
pot used for
simmering,
baking,
frying and
slow-cooking food. The Dutch Oven was a fixture in our
Boy Scout troop for use on
camping trips. If you are using a Dutch Oven for baking in the outdoors (it works
surprisingly well), I would recommend heating it with
charcoal briquettes. Each briquette added to the bottom adds 30 deg (F), briquettes on the top add 25 deg (F). Mind you, this is not an
exact measure, it depends on ambient atmospheric
conditions and many other
variables, but is
good enough for government work.
For example, to bake a cake at 250 deg (F), place 4 briquettes on the bottom and five on the top. The briquettes must be fully
burning, which is indicated by a grey ashy outer coating with
cherry red hiding under the grey.
A dutch oven must be
seasoned for it to heat evenly and for food not to
stick to the interior. Seasoning is best accomplished by cooking fatty foods in it for fifty years or so (dutch ovens used to be passed down from
generation to generation.
The one I use today was my grandmother's), but if you got a new dutch oven and don't want to have to spend 10 years breaking it in, take a
paper towel and coat it in
lard or
Crisco and wipe the entire oven down with it until there is a thin coating of your substance of choice all over the oven (inside and out). Place this in a home
oven or use briquettes to heat this to 350 deg (F) for an hour. Repeat until the oven feels slightly greasy to the touch.
***CAUTION*** if you use too much shortening or lard and are seasoning in an oven, the shortening may drip from the outside of the dutch oven, land on the heating elements and catch
fire. Be sparing with your coatings.