Serves: 5

Judging temperature is an important skill that needs to be practiced when cooking with a Dutch oven. First off, use only name brands of charcoal. Once you find a brand that you like, stick with that brand. That way you become familiar with how it burns, how long the coals last, etc.

When cooking in BIG Dutch ovens, use the “Ring method” as described by the Dinwiddles from the Lone Star Dutch oven Society in Texas. The definitions of rings are:

1-ring: If you make a circle of hot charcoal with all of the briquettes lying flat and touching each other, with spaces left out for the legs on the bottom rings, that is "one ring". The outside edge of the ring is lined up with the outside edge of the pot, top or bottom.

1/2-ring: A "half ring" is the same size circle, but with every other briquette missing.

2- rings: is simply a second ring just inside the first, with the rings touching.

Full spread: means to put all the briquettes you can (one layer deep, lying flat) either under (very rare, except in frying and boiling water) or on top of the pot. This ring technique is kind of self-correcting for the size of the briquettes used. If your charcoal has been burning for a while, the pieces will be smaller and will put out less heat. But, it will take more of them to make a ring, so you still get about the same temperature.

Dutch ovens were designed hundreds of years ago to cook food using coals from wood fires. Yes, of course you can cook with campfire coals using the ring method.

A Person can cook almost everything there is to cook with just four temperatures..... slow, medium, hot, and very hot. For a 16-inch oven, slow will have 1 ½ rings on top, and 1 ring under the pot and be 300 +/- 25 degrees F. Medium is 1-ring under and 2 rings on top and is 350 +/- 25 degrees F. A hot oven is 1 ½ rings under and 2 ½ rings on top and is 400 +/- 25 degrees F, and very hot is 2 rings under and 3 rings on top and is 450 to 500 degrees For so.

Notice with this method that you never change the number of rings under the pot. The exception is for frying or boiling, with a full spread under the pot, and cook with the lid on with a few coals on top just to keep the heat in. Once it is frying or boiling briskly, take a few coals out from under the pot until it is cooking properly. Add some back if it slows down too much. The above directions were given for a 16 inch Dutch oven. Temperature is controlled partly by how much (percentage) of the lid is covered with charcoal. A 16 inch Dutch oven with 2 rings on top will be considerably hotter than a 22 inch Dutch oven with 2 rings on top. This is because two rings on top of a 16-inch oven covers a lot more of the lid (percentage wise) than two rings on a 22 inch oven. It is very important to know that coals should be placed around the circumference of the bottom and top of the Dutch oven so there are no hot spots and burning of food is kept to a minimum.

Just remember that things like wind, moisture (rain), ambient temperature, etc. have effects on oven temperature. Wind and humidity or moisture cool the oven so, you need to add extra coals. A hot summer day will need fewer coals than a cool fall day. In the summer, when baking breads, I simply let the Dutch oven sit out in the sun and led the heat from the sun warm the oven to let the dough rise. The rest of the year, I use a few coals to warm the oven.

When frying in a Dutch oven, use only bottom heat. To simmer, remove a few less than half of the coals and cover. Using briquettes provides a consistent heat source and burn at the same temperature according to the brand. Different woods, when burned down to coals, burn at different rates and temperatures. So, practice with different wood sources to become familiar with each woods characteristics. Just remember when cooking in a camp fire, use only the coals, not the flame to cook with. Also, don’t use bottom heat; pile the coals around the Dutch oven and on the top.

More Recipes from the Cast Iron "Covered Wagon" Cookin Cooking for Crowds in BIG Ovens Cookbook:
Seasoning
Cleaning
Rust Removal and Stripping Rancid Seasoning
Storing
Temperature
Tools
Building a Seasoning Oven for BIG Dutch Ovens