On our camp out last weekend, a scouter and the boys made brownies, cobbler, and beef brisket in good, old fashioned cast iron dutch ovens, and it was all absolutely delicious. When we camp with the Boy Scouts, we do use Coleman stoves, also, but when we camp alone (just the three of us) we don’t use any propane, so it’s dutch oven cooking, aluminum foil cooking, or stick cooking for us (more on the last two options later). This post won’t include recipes, folks, because I have none original to me, but at the end you’ll find my recommendations for three cookbooks that you can’t go wrong with.

First of all, I’ll briefly go over the features you want in a dutch oven for camping: the best option comes with three stubby little legs, and the lid has a raised lip all around so you have a good surface for holding coals. The lid should also fit very snugly. Dutch ovens come in various sizes, and you’ll want to buy depending upon the number of people you plan to feed. If you really get into dutch oven cooking, you’ll want a number of them, in a variety of sizes, so you can make a full meal, from main dish to sides dishes and dessert.

(By the way, I’m suggesting Wal-Mart for this because they will ship product to your local store for free, and nobody wants to pay shipping on cast iron! Amazon.com will also ship for free on orders over $25.00– go here Lodge Logic 8 Quart Camp Dutch Oven.)

You’ll also want a dutch oven lid-lifter , which can be found very inexpensively, so you don’t risk touching or dumping your coals when
you check your food’s progress. A lid stand is cool,
because you can flip the lid over and use it as a griddle. Another handy accessory is a cast-iron meat rack, but halved onions work just as well and add a lot of flavor, even if they get singed in the cooking!

These days you can buy pre-seasoned ovens, but seasoning isn’t difficult. Just thoroughly clean the pot and its lid with soap and water (the ONLY time you’ll ever use soap on them), dry them (and let them sit for a bit so they’re completely dry), and then coat them with vegetable oil using a paper towel, inside and out, over every surface. Then pop them in a 250-degree oven for an hour and a half to two hours. Let them cool completely and they’re seasoned and ready for the campfire! After it’s been seasoned, cast iron should be cleaned out by scraping and with a little bit of water, NEVER soap. It should be dried out promptly, wiped with a light coat of vegetable oil, and packed away out of dew and potential rain, as it can rust, but with the lids ajar or completely off, so the seasoning oil doesn’t get rancid. That’s it for the care and feeding of your new cast iron dutch oven(s).

There are many cookbooks out there for using your dutch ovens while camping. Here are a few of the better ones available (just looking at them makes me hungry!):

In short, Dutch oven cookery is a dying art, but it’s so simple once you give it a try or two that it shouldn’t be. So bring your seasoned dutch oven and a bag of charcoal (wood coals don’t keep even enough temperature) with you on your next camp out, or try it in your backyard if you’ve never done this before– just give it a shot. I bet you’ll be hooked. (By the way, dutch ovens are good for slow cooking in your kitchen ovens at home, too!)