Dutch Oven Cooking Tips and Heating Chart

Dutch oven charcoal and campfire hot coals heating chart

How to Cook with a Dutch Oven
Cast Iron Dutch Oven Cooking Campfire Heating Chart

A ‘good ol’ cast iron Dutch oven is a must-have piece of cookware for experienced camp cooks, but mastering the art of using one for your camping recipes requires that you understand how to get the cooking and baking temperatures you need.

A camping Dutch oven, (there are home-use Dutch ovens too), is really just a big heavy pot with peg legs and a rimmed lid – but there is nothing simple about using one.

These Dutch oven cooking tips and included heating chart will give you the information you need to get the temperature you want.
3 Types of Dutch Oven Cooking
There are 3 basic ways to use a Dutch oven. Each style works for different kinds of camping recipes.

Tripod – Use a tripod to hang a Dutch oven directly over the campfire for fast direct heat from the flames, or slow cooking from the ambient heat of campfire coals. – Not for baking
Fire Grate – Using the Dutch oven sitting on a fire grate over the campfire flames, or even directly on the campfire without a grate, will give you the fastest most intense heating. – Not for baking
Hot Coals – Using hot coals for both cooking and baking with a Dutch oven is the most controllable type of cooking. You can cook slow or fast, and bake – just by adjusting the number of coals or briquettes under and on your Dutch oven.

Dutch Ovens and Hot Coals
Using just the right amount of hot campfire coals or charcoal briquettes to get the cooking temperatures you want, is almost an art. An experienced campfire cook will ‘just know’ how many coals or briquettes to use, but for new Dutch oven users – the coals and briquettes heating chart below will help.

Note: In the chart, the numbers represent charcoal briquettes, so use your own judgment comparing the numbers to hot campfire coals. Also, the amounts are conservative, especially for the temps above 375 degrees. You will probably have to add more coals/briquettes after the initial warm-up. Also, the air temperature and wind conditions will affect the number of coals/briquettes.

One charcoal briquette, or equally sized hot coal, will equate to approx. 15 – 25 degrees of heat on a fair camping day, (not real cold, rainy, or windy)
Generally, to get a 350-degree inside-oven temperature the number of coals would be 2 times the Dutch oven diameter. e.g. 12″ oven = 24 briquettes. (use a little judgment here, sometimes more – sometimes less)
For baking, put twice as many coals on top as under the bottom. For example, if your heat range calls for 15 briquettes, then put 10 on top and 5 underneath. For simmering, reverse this with 2/3 of the briquettes underneath.
For even heat, rotate oven and lid 90 degrees in opposite directions approx. halfway through the recipe cooking time.
Hot coal amounts are not a set-n-go thing, to maintain the desired temperature you will need to replenish coals/briquettes as they burn down.

Dutch Oven Sizes:
These size/serving guidelines are just that – guidelines. The type of recipe and appetites of your campers will affect these recommendations.
4 – 5 qt. – (8″-10″ dia. x 3″ – 4″ deep)………………….. serves: 2 – 4
6 qt. – (12″ – 13.5″ dia. x 3.5″ -5″ deep) ……………….. serves: 4 – 7
8 qt. – (12″ – 15.5″ dia. x 7″ deep)………………………. serves: 8 – 10
10 qt. – (14″ dia. x 7″ deep)………………………………. serves: 10 – 14
12 qt. – (14″ dia. x 7″ deep)………………………………. serves: 16 – 20
* There are many variations of these sizes. For example, you can get a 12″ Dutch oven that can be as shallow as 3.5″ or as deep as 7.5″, but the 12″ 8 qt. model is the standard size used by most outdoor campers.

*Note – the shopping links below are my own Amazon affiliate links – which I only use to recommend good-quality camping gear – Gus

Tip:
A good pair of campfire gloves is almost a must-have for campfire and Dutch oven cooking.
Here is a guide to some good choices for campfire cooking gloves.

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Here are some examples of the camping equipment discussed above.

Even if you are not interested in buying now, these examples will give you an idea of the choices you have and the prices you can expect.

Camping Cookbooks	Campfire Gloves
Dutch oven Lid Lifters	Dutch oven Liners

Notes and discussions:

Here are a few more pieces of camping gear you might be interested in:

Life is easier with campfire fire starters

Coleman Fire Starters

You can make your own wax-based fire starters for outdoor camping, (and for fireplaces and deck fire pits), but fire starters like these on the right, by Coleman, are so inexpensive and easy to use that you’ll never use paper or tinder again for your campfires. Coleman Strike-a-Fire Fire Starters

Voted Most Valuable Camp Tool

Compact Space-saving Folding Shovel

Once you use a folding camp shovel and discover all its uses around camp, you will wonder why you didn’t include one in your camp gear sooner. This sturdy but lightweight Coleman model is so compact it even fits in a 10″ carry bag. Here are some of the models available: Folding Camp Shovel

More samples of other campfire cooking gear you can find on Amazon. Just like the fire starters, once you have one of these camp tools you will wonder how you ever did without it. Especially when you see how inexpensive they are when you buy them online.