Basic Dutch Oven Cooking Accessories
You are just getting started with Dutch oven cooking. You have your first Dutch oven but what else is needed? While there are certainly quite a few things that you can use, keep in mind that whatever you plan on using also needs to be stored and transported. When getting started, it is best to stick to just the basic needs, tools and accessories. From there, you can grow your equipement list to match your own cooking style. Below are a few of the basics that you will need to get started.
Charcoal Chimney
You’re getting ready to cook some great food. Why dowse your charcoal with a petroleum-based lighter fluid when you don’t have to? Charcoal chimneys are the best way for starting both natural charcoal and charcoal briquettes. Simply fill the chimney with charcoal and place a few balled up sheets of newspaper in the bottom. Light the newspaper and you will have charcoal ready for cooking within 15 to 20 minutes.
Charcoal Tongs
Use a simple pair of metal tongs for placing and arranging charcoal briquettes under and on a Dutch oven. Tongs can be bought at your local store or made from heavy gauge wire.
High Temperature Gloves
A pair of high temperature gloves will really help to avoid burns when shuffling hot Dutch ovens and lids around.
Lid Lifter
There are a wide variety of lid lifters available ranging from plier-like tools to long handled gripping devices. All work quite well.
Wisk Broom
Wisk brooms are a necessity when dinner is ready so that one may brush the ashes off of the Dutch oven lids. It sure beats ashes in the food!
Ash Can
Hey, what can you say? One needs a place to store ash for proper disposal. You don’t want to leave it laying around your camp site. Minimize your impact and leave no trace.
Oven Stand
Dutch oven stands are useful for keeping Dutch ovens and burning charcoal off of the ground. Stands are available in many different shapes and sizes but are usually used with a single oven or stack of ovens.
Oven Table
For larger Dutch oven meals a Dutch oven table is a must have. Most tables will handle either two or three ovens abreast and one can always stack the ovens to get maximum use out of the table. Tables are available with various leg lengths. It is a good idea to use short legged tables if equipping for younger cooks.
Wind Screen
Wind screens become a real necessity when cooking in the outdoors. Winds carry away your heat requiring the use of more charcoal. Wind screens are simple to make or can be purchased with your Dutch oven table.
Lid Stand
Lid stands are a necessity if you don’t want to have anything sticking to the inside of your lid or to keep the hot lid from damaging a table or counter. It doesn’t have to be fancy – you can even use a trivet.
Trivets
Some styles of cooking require that the food be lifted off of the bottom of the Dutch oven making trivets a necessity. Cast iron trivets like those from Lodge work well but sometimes you will want to elevate what you are cooking a bit higher to keep it up out of the cooking juices and allow better airflow. If that is the case, simply use wire trivets that are available from some department stores and from kitchen supply stores.
