Five Tips for Coal Placement in Dutch Ovens
When it comes to Dutch oven cooking, it’s very important to know how and where to place your coals. We’re cooking with hardwood charcoal or real wood, so we’ll walk through how to do that.
Now, Dutch ovens don’t come with a knob, so a trivet is the knob equivalent in a Dutch oven, and a big part of how you regulate your heat. So, you’ll need some sort of trivet. Shannon and I use our 5″ trivet the most, but they come in different sizes and you can get them online, even on our website. We recommend getting two different sizes, a tall and a short.
The biggest mistake we see is people loading up their coals on the underside of the Dutch oven.
This bring us to our first of eight tips when you are Dutch oven-cooking with real wood…
Tip #1 – Do not load coals directly under the Dutch oven
You want to set your coals in a ring around the oven. If you set your coals directly under the oven, it’s way too close. Remember, cast iron is fantastic at absorbing heat and distributing it evenly. Setting the coals in a ring will do exactly that. You can also bring your circle of coals out just a tad to control the heat if you’re using a really hot burning coal wood like mesquite.
Tip #2 – Use a tall trivet for dishes with more moisture
The more moisture you have in a dish, the slower you want to cook it. For example, pies, cakes, brownies, biscuits, and bread pudding would all need to be cooked slowly. Using a tall trivet will allow you to regulate your heat and cook your dish slowly.
Tip #3 – Use a short trivet for dishes you can stir easily
You can regulate your heat by stirring your dish. Things like a green chile casserole or stewed meat would be perfect with a short trivet. Anything about 2-3.5″ is what we use as our short trivet.
Tip #4 – Rotation
A great way to regulate your heat is by rotation. You want to rotate the bottom one way, and rotate the lid the opposite way. This will even out any hot spots.
Tip #5 – If the wind’s blowing, move your coals
Wind creates so much more heat so your coals can get crazy hot. Pull ’em away and put ’em back if you’re dealing with a really windy day. You’ll also want to rotate your oven more frequently if the wind is blowing.
Remember, you can always add more heat, but you can’t take it away if it’s already burned.