Dutch oven size??

[Rockit]

What size dutch oven do you all use? There is minimum 6 of us, and quite often 8. All very, ummmm, VERY big eaters.

I'm thinking either the Camp Chef 14" or 16". Too big?

Thanks.

[James86004]

We usually make a breakfast casserole thing in our 12" oven for 7 adults and 3 children and have leftovers.

[rambrush]

We started out to big and now use the 12" for everything. The 1 pot is so capable of so much different purposes.
Just get the hang/ feel for how much charcoal you need to get the heat correct.

[bigredpigdriver]

12 inch is more then enough...I have a 12 deep that gets most use for groups...I do a mt man in that with 30 AA eggs, 2lbs hashbrowns, 4lb bacon, 1lb of cheez, bunch of veggies, and feed about 10 folks (no one goes away hungery:sombrero: )with some leftover for lunch...start with either a 10" or a 12" then you can see if you need a bigger one...

[Rockit]

Also.....anyone use one of the aluminum ones? Or should I stick with good 'ol cast iron?

[James86004]

Also, we have a 12" Camp Chef one, and after using that for a while, decided to get a smaller one. We bought an 8" Lodge. The Lodge is much better quality, although the Camp Chef is perfectly serviceable. One nice feature was the Lodge was preseasoned. Seasoning a dutch oven for the first time is a big mess, and I think it is worth it to buy a preseasoned one.

[Buckru]

Forget the 16. You'll need a crane to lift it. I am a two oven guy for large crowds. A deep and a regular. The deep acommodates roasts and whole chickens better. The deep is also a little better for baking as when the bread rises it doesnt get so close to the top it burns.

For your needs, you might need a 12 deep and a regular 12. Or a 12 deep and 10 regular.

try asking here www.camp-cook.com

Buck

[Rockit]

Great link!
Lots of good grub info.
For those looking, this explains a bunch of basics:
http://www.camp-cook.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24
Thanks.

[Willman]

We usually make a breakfast casserole thing in our 12" oven for 7 adults and 3 children and have leftovers.

Sounds about right for me too!

I have a 12" deep dutch oven.....Love it!

Also got an 8" for smaller meals which is nice to have around!

:sombrero:

[RHINO]

i have fed as many as 16 guys big bowls of chili in a 14" deep, its too big for most occasions but i got it specially for baking since i can do alot in it.

my 12" deep is most used, i can feed 10-12 guys big bowls of chili in that oven. its a very flexible oven and i would recommend that size for a first oven or general purpose oven.

my next most used oven is a 10" regular, its perfect for a couple eaters or doing side dishes to compliment the bigger oven(s).

[Robert Bills]

My two cents:

Start with a 12" dutch oven. If you really get into dutch oven cooking, your second oven can be one size larger or smaller as your needs dictate.

Pre-seasoned ovens are great, but it's not that big a deal to season one yourself. I use my outdoor gas grill to do this (lid down, of course) so that there is no smoke or odor in the house.

Practice at home before using your dutch oven while camping. Its fun, and you will learn how many charcoal briquets to use top and bottom for various recipes. (The "temperature charts" in the product literature and dutch oven cookbooks are great, but no substitute for personal experience with your oven and the recipes you will actually be following.)

[btggraphix]

It does seem like a 12" shallow is very close to the ideal size as far as general use. It's the first one we got, and until recently the only one we had. I suppose it would be a little small for 8 people if all the food was coming from it....but if there are other parts of the meal coming elsewhere it would work for just the main course.

We woke up one Saturday morning early this summer to the sounds of an auction floating up the hill and out of curiosity traced the sounds back to where it was going on. I've never been to an auction but I couldn't resist signing in and waiting for a 14" deep Dutch Oven. I got it for $20, and also the dual propane burner from Cabella's with removable legs for $20.

It seems like having one deep and one shallow is a great combo. I can't wait to use the big one for doing a one-pot Gumbo from scratch in it.

What I need to do is get used to using charcoal; I learned by using coals from the fire like our friends do. Last camping trip I tried to use charcoal and I think they must have gotten wet at some point because they didn't burn very well at all. So on the night I was planning on cooking for about 10 I went with the tried and true and used coals. Here's the Enchiladas in the 12" shallow pan:

http://i34.tinypic.com/2mcg2ud.jpg

We used the two dutch ovens and people seemed to enjoy them (while sitting under the canopy in the rain, watching the CU_CSU game on a TV under our awning. Definitely 'roughing it'

http://i33.tinypic.com/16awhhg.jpg

Thanks for the links above too.....there's some great info there.

[GunnIt]

Getting back to an earler question: Has anyone experience with a hard anodized aluminum dutch oven? What are your thoughts on this oven compared to a cast iron oven?

I'm thinking of trying to keep the weight down in my Horizon.

Cooking for 3 people, would you go with a shallow 10" or 12"?

[RHINO]

i have seen aluminum in use, seems to be fine but a little bit temperamental with hot spots, and it doesnt quite season like cast. i dont like the idea of cooking with aluminum, i hear its safe from some and its not from others.
a single dutch oven isnt going to break the bank on weight, not when you consider everything you can do with it once you start using it.

cooking for 3, eh i like a 12" for its universal-ness, but you can make a fair bit of grub in a 10". maybe look at a 10" deep.

[paulj]

Getting back to an earler question: Has anyone experience with a hard anodized aluminum dutch oven? What are your thoughts on this oven compared to a cast iron oven?

I have the 10" GSI hard anodized. It's one on my favorite pots, at home and for use with coals. The 10" size does not have legs, but GSI sells a nice stand for it. Without legs I can use it on the stove top. In non-sticking quality it is similar to enameled steel, not quite as good as well seasoned iron; some sticking, but easy to clean.

The 10" is relatively shallow, about a 3 qt volume. That's about right for a 2 cups of flour scone or biscuit recipe. Or 1 cup of rice for a pilaf. It should be fine for 3 people. I usually cook for 2, and always have left overs with this pan.

My other dutch oven (with legs and rim) is an 8" Lodge, which is deeper, but some what less in volume. I haven't done a careful comparison using coals; overall they are about the same. With the separate stand, the 10" packs better, and is lighter.

One problem is that it isn't very stable when hung by the wire handle, especially if full of liquid. If I have to carry it, I need to use one hand with a hot pad to stabilize it. I'm not sure if it is a problem with how handle is mounted, or the fact that it is relatively shallow and light (and without the legs).

To lift the lid, I use a pair of vice grips. The conventional dutch oven lid hook isn't stable enough.

[whatcharterboat]

Hi If you're really into this type of cooking, there is an enormous range of books here on the subject but in Australia Jack Absalom is arguably the guru. Check out this link. We just call them camp ovens. Also used for making "damper" which is a type of bread. A "Dutch oven" is ......... well I'm not even going to admit what it means here.

http://www.exploroz.com/Shop/Books/Misc/Outback_Cooking_in_a_Camp_Oven.aspx

[JeepN95YJ]

A "Dutch oven" is ......... well I'm not even going to admit what it means here.



LOL. I looked it up. Found it here:

http://www.geocities.com/napavalley/4699/slang-atoe.htm

[whatcharterboat]

Yep . That's what it means allright. Guess you won't be asking for one in a camping store in Aus. Haha.

Seriously this book is great.
http://www.exploroz.com/Images/Shop/Items/309.jpg?19070

Also not sure about others but ours all have a raised lip around the lid for holding coals when you bury them in the fire and if you lift the lid it won't let the coals/ash drop into the pot.

[paulj]

In American usage, Dutch Oven traces back to cast iron pots either made with a Dutch sand-mold process or distributed by Dutch traders. The lid could be domed or rimmed, with or without legs. In modern usage it covers any heavy pot of similar size and shape, such as the enameled Le Creuset pots from France (some times these are called French Ovens). So you have to pay attention to context to determine what is being talked about.

Camp oven is a good term to clearly denote the pots designed for use with coals on top and below - one with the rim and optionally legs.

[Joanne]

What size dutch oven do you all use? There is minimum 6 of us, and quite often 8. All very, ummmm, VERY big eaters.

I'm thinking either the Camp Chef 14" or 16". Too big?

Thanks.

Oh heck, just go for a BIG oven! LOL! I got carried away last time I was in Reno and purchased a 20" oven at Cabellas.

A few months ago my friend Kelly came up with the recipe for a dish she calls the Coal Mine Breakfast. This dish is composed of a layer of biscuits, sausage, scrambled eggs and gravy. The sausage layer represents the coal that you have to dig down and scoop out.

At the recent International Redwood Teardrop Gathering, Kelly and I decided to try out my new 20" oven to get a feel for how it cooks. We weren't quite sure of the necessary coal counts so this was a good opportunity go give it a test run. I don't consider this recipe a real Dutch Oven recipe since the sausage, eggs, and gravy are precooked then assembled in the pot, but it's still a great camping recipe.

Ingredients:

3 tubes of Pillsbury Grands biscuits
4 pounds of country sausage
5 dozen eggs
5 packages of McCormick Country Gravy mix (makes 10 cups of gravy)
salt, pepper, granulated garlic

Procedure:

Here's how we did it. First we fried up the sausage and set aside. While Kelly scrambled all of the eggs, I baked the biscuits in the oven using 20 bottom coals and 25 on top. As the biscuits were baking I made up the gravy in my big pot. (This volume of sausage and eggs required us to cook the ingredients in batches) Once everything was cooked we layered in the sausage on top of the biscuits, followed by the eggs, sprinkled seasons to taste, and finally covered the entire dish with the gravy. We put the lid back on and let the meal heat for about 10 minutes.

http://www.camp-cook.com/postings/kelly_full.jpg http://www.camp-cook.com/postings/kelly_empty.jpg

I was surprised just how easily this recipe scaled up from the 12" and 14" ovens that we had previously done. The biggest surprise though was how quickly the folks emptied the oven. In about 10 to 15 minutes the oven was empty! I was concerned that we might have leftovers but in fact we could have made quite a bit more. I think if we announced this as an "official" group breakfast we could have made 2 of the 20s.

Here is a photo to give some perspective of just how big these ovens are!

http://www.camp-cook.com/postings/joanie_big20.jpg

The one thing I would change is to use regular sized biscuits rather than the Grands biscuits. People were using the spoon to cut the biscuits in half. Smaller biscuits would have been more appropriate for the serving size that most folks wanted.

Here's the same recipe scaled to a 12" oven.

Ingredients
2 tubes of biscuits (the small ones with 8 per tube)
12 eggs
1 lb sausage
2 packages of country gravy mix (2 cups per package)

Procedure
- Fry the sausage & set aside
- Scramble the eggs & set aside
- Bake the biscuits in the 12" oven
- Mix up the gravy while the biscuits are baking
- Layer the sausage, scrambled eggs, and gravy over the biscuits
- Heat until piping hot and serve


Seriously, a 12" is probably the best oven to start with since the majority of recipes that you will find are for 12" ovens. I personally prefer deep ovens since they hold more, but a 12" regular is also a great oven.

Joanne