The King of Cast Iron: The Dutch Oven

As I said in my blog about the wok the dutch oven is the standard for outdoor cooking. So although not something I ever want to bring on a hike it is a luxury to have when you can and I finally broke down and got one.

Nice fresh bread
There are many types of dutch ovens: cast iron, enameled cast iron or cast aluminum; legs or no legs; rimed lid or plain lid; new or used; small, medium or large; bail or no bail. I wanted something versatile that could be used at home or in the woods (This basically ruled out ones with legs). I wanted it to be traditional cast iron.

The lid ready to do some frying
I ultimately settled on the Lodge Double Dutch Oven. It is cast iron, 5 quart, no legs, no rim, no bail and new. The lid also serves as a frying pan giving more versatility like I wanted. At about 7kg or 14lb it is no ultra lite option however it makes some great food and allows you to cook about any way you want to other then microwaving.


The Dutch oven all together
For cooking over the open fire since there is no bail or legs I made a simple shelf bracket trivets and they have worked well.  I also made some hooks for moving it around over the fire and although they work I want to make something better sometime.  What cast iron do you use?


One of my trivets

The lid on the trivet

The hooks for moving it around on the fire

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