Does Dutch oven cooking interest you but you’re hesitant to jump into it?
You’ve seen some YouTube videos about Dutch oven cooking. Maybe you’ve been to a Dutch Oven Gathering, (D.O.G.), a Chuckwagon competition, attended a demo, a cooking class, or a chili cook-off and seen all kinds of various pieces of gear in use.
Sometimes it’s easy to be overwhelmed when one looks at a website, a cooking section in the store, or a cooking video and you see all the accessories being used.
Some love liners, especially with sticky food in the pot… 
… others find scrapers to be the trick to getting sticky food out.
True there is a lot of cool stuff to use as aides for Dutch oven cooks. There are cooking tables and stands. There are all kinds of lid lifters, lid stands, trivets, storage containers, carrying bags, tripods, and the list goes on.
A charcoal chimney efficiently lights plenty of coals. No lighter fluid ever needed again. 
Feed pans make a great tray to hold hot coals. 
Done cooking? Coals still hot? Some seal them in a can to suffocate them.
Wood coals or charcoal? Lighter fluid, charcoal chimney, or flamethrower? Starting charcoal can seem like a challenge. How do you keep from burning your fingers or getting ashes into the food? Another challenge. What do you do with spent coals and ashes?
When Lewis and Clark set out on their Corps of Discovery Expedition over 200 years ago, the above questions we’re not even on their radar. I know radar didn’t even exist then. But Dutch ovens were definitely part of their gear list. It’s been said of all of the pieces of equipment and supplies they took with them among that which they valued the most were their black iron pots. It was with those they could cook up anything that was trapped, caught, shot, foraged, traded or purchased and end up with an edible meal. Sometimes gear was traded along the way but their Dutch ovens were too valuable to even consider trading for something else.
The history of Dutch ovens actually goes back much further with some sources placing them on the supply list of the Mayflower in 1620. The first cast iron ovens molded in the fine texture of sand molds are recorded in the 17th century. So by the time Lewis and Clark took them, Dutch ovens were already a couple of hundred years old. One of the tidbits of history is that the concept of legs to keep the pot above the coals and a lip with which to hold coals in place on the lid was developed by a New England silversmith known more to history buffs for warning about the British coming.
We associate Dutch oven cooking with cowboy camps and the Chuck Wagon kitchen on cattle drives. With a Dutch oven as the main implement for cooking, Cookie, the Trail Drive chef could fix stews, beans, biscuits and the occasional dessert. In fact he could cook just about anything that grew or moved.
A wide selection of shiny gear wasn’t a prerequisite for any of these folks. They used what they had or developed tools and aids to help. No, they didn’t stress out over the options and accessories and neither should we.
At its most basic level, all that is needed for Dutch oven cooking is an iron pot with a lid, hot coals, and something to use to keep from burning yourself moving the pot and the coals.
Leather gloves were early hot pads and are still great for that purpose today. A piece of iron or camp tool served as a means of lifting a lid full of coals.
As folks became more civilized and grew weary of eating the grass and dirt stuck to the lid from resting off to the side while stirring the pot, the concept of lid stands made sense. When the winds whipped up, the heat of the coals or various types of wood produced more heat than wanted under a pot, trivets came on the scene. And, as backs began to feel the strain from stooping over a fire or folks cooked in places where scorched-earth was frowned upon, people began using various types of stands and tables.
Is that really true history? Maybe. Some is and some may be a bit of tale telling and embellishment. The point is, it doesn’t take a pick-up truck load of gear to put one of these pots to use. And, for those who do like gadgets and aides to simplify things, there are certainly many options.
What about the menu? Between cookbooks, videos, cooking shows, websites, blog posts, and family favorites, there’s a ton of options. Don’t think for a moment that to do Dutch oven cooking “right” that it’s necessary to find an untried recipe in a Dutch oven specific source. There’s not anything that can be cooked at home that can’t also be cooked outdoors in a Dutch oven, and don’t be surprised if the results aren’t even better. To start, pick something simple that you already like to make and give it a try in the iron pot over coals.
If we wait until we know everything or have every possible piece of gear or stress over all the menu options, we we might not ever get started. Pick something. Give it a try. If the result is not exactly what you want, note what worked and what didn’t, then try again. Sometimes the best way to get started is the “ready, fire, aim” approach and just get to cooking.
