Hi, Debb. There are lots of Dutch oven recipes including many dessert recipes below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dutch Oven

Thank you so much for this site. I have been looking for something like this, but THIS site is exactly what I'm looking for.
Do you have a favorite from that site? They all look so good.
Thanks so much!

debb, I have used a cast iron dutch oven for years when camping. If your dutch oven doesn't have a flat lid, try turning it over and putting it on upside down. If that fits it's still usable that way, you need to put coals on top and underneath for things to bake properly.

I've made everything from apple pie (using my conventional recipe, although I found that it works better if I grate the apples instead of slicing them, it cooks the filling more quickly) to a huge chocolate chip cookie. My girls' favorite camp meal is/was Coke Chicken, an old Girl Scout recipe.

Wash and cut up some red potatoes, a couple of pounds. Add an onion, cut into wedges and some carrots, either those baby carrots or carrots cut into pieces about equivalent to the potatoes. Top with chicken pieces, I use a whole fryer but some people just like certain parts. Top the whole thing with a sauce made of 12 ounces of catsup and a 12 ounce can of cola, your choice but not diet.

Put the lid on the oven, set over coals and top with more coals. In an hour and a half or so, you'll have a sweet/sour one pot meal, courtesy of the girl scouts. If you have another dutch oven, you could use that to bake hot biscuits or dinner rolls...

Annie

If you're using briquetes, here's a handy trick: Take the number of your Dutch oven. Put three less briquetes underneath than that number, and three more on top.

Thus, if you're using a #12 Dutch oven, put 9 briquetes underneath, and 15 on top.

This maintains the Dutch oven at it's most efficient operating temperature (which, btw, is 350F).

If you're using wood coals or raw charcoal you just have to develop a feel for it. But there are always more coals on top than on the bottom.

Some other tips: Try to keep the oven elevated above the coals (that's what the legs are for). If coals touch the oven you will get hotspots. Being as it's nearly impossible to not have contact, use a trivet inside the oven, particularly for baking.

Dutch ovens can be stacked. This conserves both coals and space, and you can cook an entire meal in one of these towers.

Cold and/or damp ground can really suck the heat out of your coals. We always carry a portable hearth, in the form of a 16" square paver, to get around that problem.

Good luck. Dutch oven cooking opens up a whole new world for the outdoor cook.

hey debb,
For dutch oven deserts I love cobblers - ever since I learned to make them in the Boy Scouts a million years ago (a lot less messy now though). When it comes to cooking I'm much more of an eye-baller and don't stick to dutch oven specific recipes. For cobblers there's a bunch of good recipes here www.bhg.com/recipes, I use BHG for searching new recipes all the time.

Thanks so much for all this info. I do have access to a real dutch oven, so I will be trying out some of these recipes this week. Meanwhile, I will have to figure out how to use my cast iron pot.

If you mean over an open fire, it's best to suspend it. there are several ways:

1. A trivit or grate that the pot sits on. Nowadays this is the most common way. Basically, this is similar to using your grill, except the fire is on (usually in) the ground instead of contained by a firebox.

2. Hanging from a metal tripod. Picture the MacBeth witches stirring the cauldron. This is more commonly done with round-bottom kettles than with flat-bottom pots.

3. Suspended from special hooks off of either vertical or horizonal fire irons. You see this a lot at historical reenactments, because it simulates the way cooking was done on a hearth.

Hi All,
I Just thought I'd give you an update on my experince w/ the dutch oven. I was able to borrow a dutch oven, so I was able to make a couple recipes this past week.
We were in an area where we didn't have any shade, so cooking during the day was out of the question, but as soon as the sun went down and it cooled down, we started a fire. (I used charcoal for the dutchoven though.)
I made cherry dump cake and the pineapple upside down cake from the website mentioned above (from Ginger). By the way, that's a great site. Thanks Ginger. I will make a change to the recipe next time. I'd double the pineapple, butter, b sugar though...and use crushed pineapple. It was a tasty recipe, but want more of the pinnaple mixture. We also served it w/ whip cream which was a must.
I also used the dutch oven to rewarm some BBQ ribs.
I'm going to have to buy my own dutch oven now. Any suggestion on where to buy it?
Thanks again for all the tips and information. I actually printed out all of your comments and took it camping w/ us this week.
Thanks bunches!!