A Field Guide to Dutch Oven Cooking at its Best

Dutch oven cooking is an art.  The pioneers used it extensively and many considered their Dutch oven one of their prized possessions.  Now I have been involved in some Dutch oven cooking with some success and I have several of the Lodge Dutch ovens, but is has not been a real passion.

The other day I encounter a book published by Lodge.  It is the Field Guide to Dutch Oven Cooking.  One of my sons likes to use his Dutch oven and after reading this book, I am starting to see what I have been missing.

This book tells you everything you need to know to start using a Dutch oven.  It has recipes from novice to champion.  In addition, it covers the care and handling of the ovens.  There is information on how to roughly determine the cooking temperature of your stove.

The recipes in the book are amazing and I intend to try some in the next few days.  They cover everything from meatloaf to fancy cakes.  We have some other books on cooking with Dutch ovens, but this is the best that I have seen.  The price is good, it can be found on Amazon for under $12.00.

Now my son won’t use anything but Lodge Dutch ovens and other than a few older brands, you may encounter in garage sales, they have by far the best reputation.  Everybody I talk to that has had much experience with cast iron ovens says avoid all the new ones that are being manufactured in China.

Lodge has the following statement on their website about where their products are manufactured.

All of our foundry Seasoned Cast Iron and our Seasoned Carbon Steel products are manufactured in the USA and always will be. All Enameled Cast Iron products are made in China to our strict quality standards and overseen by an American owned 3rd party inspection company. Our accessories come from multiple sources, some of which are American, and some overseas. Our in-house Quality Assurance Department constantly inspects all items we produce and sell.

If you are interested in Dutch oven cooking you need to get a copy of this book.  In the near future, I will be trying some of these recipes and I will post the results.

Howard