Anyone use a cast iron Dutch oven for campfire cooking?

I was scoutmaster of a BSA troop in Mississippi for 12 years. We had maybe 20 Dutch ovens, all with legs and inverted lids, with hangers so they could be suspended over a bed of coals (better than a fire).

Best meals? Beef Stew, chili, Pot roasted chicken and chicken stew, Biscuits, roasted beef stew meat, pork chops, Dump cans of stuff into the pot soup, canned peaches and cake mix cobbler, sloppy joes, bla-bla-bla. All of our ovens had legs and inverted lids. Cook with a shovel of coals under the bottom and some coals on the top (inverted lid). You need a good Dutch oven hook to pick up the lid and the pot. I have three at home now, sadly none with legs. The legs make it easy to place the oven over coals, but also make it very difficult to cook on a gas stove, and impossible to cook on an electric stove top.



Never used the Le Creuset over a campfire.



I use the big oval mostly for frying fish





I'd love to have a large pot wit inverted lid and legs, but today, I'd hardly ever use it.

By the way, it is not an easy thing to cook over a campfire.

I use one of these

LINK

quote:

---

By the way, it is not an easy thing to cook over a campfire.

---

Yea, this would be a first for me. I enjoy camping a few times a year, but anticipate that growing in frequency over the next 5-10 years. But I also don't want to put myself in a position where this style cooking is frustrating and burning more than having tasty food.

I'm suspecting using coals below and on the lid would be easier to control cooking temps?

quote:

---

I have 60 Dollar brag

---

Idiot. I borrowed that from my wife.

Dutch oven cooking is fun. Buy one with legs and with a flat lid that has a lip around it. You get a chimney starter and get your charcoal white and then put the coals on top of the lid and under the pot. Google Dutch oven cooking and you’ll find plenty of recipes and instructions on how to cook using the coals. A Dutch oven cookbook would be helpful.

We purchased a Cook-it-All prior to our recent camping trip. We also have a #10 Dutch Oven with legs.

On our recent trip we didn’t use the Dutch oven portion of the Cook-it-All because it is pretty big and #10 was a better fit for what we were cooking.

We used the griddle portion for grilling hamburgers and fresh fish and it worked great.

I would also recommend getting a a couple “4 in 1” lid holders. This tool allows you to pick up top to of Dutch oven, a place to set lid down without getting it dirty, or a place support the griddle over a bed of coals.

The Lodge Dutch ovens will come with a recipe book that gives pretty good instruction on temp control with various size Dutch ovens.

Look up cowboy Kent Rollins on YouTube

Good recipes on this topic.....damn good

If you truly want to buy just one, the legless version is certainly more versatile. You can compensate for the lack of legs by setting it on a couple of firebricks to allow for coals beneath.