**The Art of Dutch Oven Cooking**

For 99% of the time, I've used Hickory wood when cooking with my Dutch oven, which is really hot but also has its drawbacks. It's not bad for smoking, but it doesn't last very long as it ashes out. Oak is a pretty good alternative, with both red and white oak being popular choices. Hickory and pecan are also options, but they're more suited for smoking than cooking.

**Understanding Briquettes**

When it comes to briquettes, there are certain formulas that can be used to achieve the perfect temperature. However, these formulas can be unreliable due to factors like wind elevation and other environmental conditions. It's essential to take these variables into account when attempting to use briquettes for cooking.

**The 5-Second Rule**

One of my personal preferences is using a "5-second rule" to gauge the heat intensity in my Dutch oven. This means holding a piece of metal (the length and width of which can be roughly estimated by fitting it between the knuckles of your hand) over the heat for five seconds. If you can hold it more than five seconds, it's likely that the temperature is too high. Conversely, if you struggle to hold it for even five seconds, the temperature may be too low.

**Cooking with Dutch Ovens**

When it comes to cooking in a Dutch oven, wind plays a significant role in determining the perfect temperature. As a general rule, I find that food cooks faster in a Dutch oven than it would on a stovetop or in an oven. This is because the fire is closer to the pot, with less buffer from heat rising upwards. To achieve this effect, I use a tall trivet (approximately 5.5 feet tall) to elevate the cooking surface.

**Regulating Temperature**

When baking in a Dutch oven, it's essential to regulate temperature carefully. This means using a combination of cold and hot coals to maintain an even heat distribution. For most recipes, I find that a lighter ring of coals on the bottom provides better results than a heavier layer. Additionally, using a trivet allows me to adjust the cooking surface to suit different types of food.

**Time and Dutch Oven Cooking**

One common misconception about Dutch oven cooking is that there is no concept of time. However, this is far from the truth. By paying attention to visual cues (such as separation or shrinking), I can accurately gauge when a dish is near completion. The key is to understand the relationship between wind elevation, heat intensity, and cooking time.

**Outdoor Cooking**

Dutch oven cooking is an outdoor activity that's perfect for family gatherings. There's something special about sharing meals with loved ones over an open flame. Whether you're in Oklahoma or on a mountain top in Colorado, Dutch oven cooking allows you to adapt to different environments and variables.

**Indoor Cooking with Dutch Ovens**

While Dutch ovens are often associated with outdoor cooking, they can also be used indoors for delicious results. The key is to use the right techniques and equipment (such as cast iron pots) to replicate the effect of an open flame. With practice and patience, anyone can master Dutch oven cooking – regardless of their skill level or location.

**The Joy of Cooking**

At its core, Dutch oven cooking is about sharing meals with others. It's a way to connect with family and friends over food, rather than just enjoying a meal alone. When you cook with love and care, the results are always delicious and memorable. Whether you're an experienced chef or a beginner in the kitchen, Dutch oven cooking has something to offer everyone.

**Thank You**

Before we go, I want to thank each and every one of our readers for stopping by the backyard. We appreciate your support and don't take it for granted. Thank you again, and God bless you all!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enyes ma'am I'll get her out to you my gosh that's a 23rd call today everybody wanting to know how do you convert an inside recipe to an outside recipe in a dutch oven I'm going to go get shann and we're just going to make a video yes ma'am I get that question everywhere we go so what are we going to tell them I oh little product placement we have cooked everything in this cookbook in a dutch oven that can be cooked um but this is converted for indoor cooking and why did we do that because you can convert and pretty easily any recipe that calls for conventional oven cooking to a dutch oven you just need to know a few tricks and techniques and really just like with any Dutch oven cooking it's just about practice and getting comfortable with it and lightly grease a 9 by3 in casserole dish okay so for 9x13 casserole dish I would say use a 12in shallow or a 12in deep Dutch oven the Deep one here you can see is a little bit what do you call that concaved concaved and so you're you're losing a little bit of surface area from the top to the bottom 8 by 11 I recommend going into a 10in oven um another popular one is the loaf pan this same one can also go into a 10in oven any baked good that calls for a 99 by3 like a box cake or box brownie or any kind of cake in the house what I like to do is I actually like to cook that baked good in a 10 in of it because I like it a little thicker I don't recommend this for anybody that is just starting Dutch oven cooking or still kind of figuring out baked goods and Dutch ovens the reason for that being is you're going to get a lot closer to the top so you need to be able to know how to manage your top coals a lot better and then also what to look for so if you're just starting out I'd recommend starting in a 12in deep oven because as it's rising you've still got so much room from the top not as apt to burn it they also do make a 10in deep oven yes we don't have any of those um we just wouldn't use it a whole lot but there is that option as well we have a lot of people ask us about inserts just to give you kind of a quick idea let's say you want to do this this loaf pan but you don't want to pour the contents into a 10 in and have it be round you want it to actually be in a loaf pan you could stick this directly in it and cook it just like this the reason K wouldn't do this in the shallow one is because you are about an inch from the top so if you have any rise it's going to hit the oven so you want to put it in the Deep 12 oh and it does fit how many biscuits fit in this oven versus this oven I don't I I don't remember I know the answer so if you use like about a 2 and 1/2 in biscuit cutter the 10 in is going to give you about 9 to 10 biscuits the shallow 12 you'll get about 12 to 14 biscuits the 12in Deep oven you're going to be getting maybe 10 to 11 so another Direction in conventional oven cooking is temperature right there is no knob how are we going to regulate heat you're going to regulate heat with the Dutch oven and that is two different sizes of triet that we so happen to make right here at the Red River Ranch Shen so we use two different mainly two different sizes of tvets this is what we call kind of a medium or short tvet and this is our tall tvet we're going to we're going to cook casserole okay because it's a casserole yeah I'm assuming you can stir it yes anything that you can stir and that you can monitor and is not just going to sit there on the bottom and cook you can use a lower trivet because it's going to be a little closer to your heat Source we always do a coal placement in a circle around the Dutch oven never directly under what kind of coals are we using we're using hardwood that's what we prefer yeah and you can use a hardwood lump you're going to have something that makes more heat and lasts longer especially more than a briquette or something like a softwood we cook with mosqu yeah 80 99% of the time I've used H which is the bow dark it's really hot but it's really a la fire snap crackle pot you know been on a lot of wrenches and you have two with me where we had to use cedar it's not bad to cook with you know s it gives a good Heat at the beginning it just doesn't last very long it ashes out and the and the oak is pretty good the red and the White Oak and uh I've used it quite a bit I've used some hickory and pecan but it's more smoking wood than it is a cooking wood you just have to utilize what's ever in your area when you cook with it a couple times you'll figure out pretty quickly how it works some of you out there are briquette fans there are certain formulas that you can use for briquet you can look that up however do take in consideration wind elevations there's a lot of different factors that go into that so don't trust that once you get that formula it's 350° cuz it ain't going to happen right and always remember like we've told you so many times 5 Seconds a length width of your hand can you hold it more than 5 seconds it's probably not 350° if you can hold it more than 5 seconds and with touch oven cooking you and this this was a hangup for me you you're kind of obsessed with your watch and that 350° throw both of those ideas out the window you don't need to be concerned about 350° if you use that 5sec rule on the top and the bottom that'll give you the the heat intensity that you need and then from there you're just looking for Sight tips so let's say then though that we're switching and we're doing a recipe that's a cake and it's 350° for 45 minutes so how do we regulate that type of heat remember if it's baking it's not something that we can stir we can't see the bottom that's why you're always going to want to go with something with a more of a distance from your bottom fire to the top that's why we recommend a tall trivet the talls that we make this is about a 5 and 1/2 this is about a 3 and 1/2 but you can also regulate temperature by how many cold you actually place exactly but with this tall trivet and you're baking you want to bake slow right the and a kind of a general rule of thumb with baking the more moisture it has the slower you want to cook it because you want that to evenly cook through so you're not raw in the middle that's why we use the tall trivet and like Kent mentioned you want a lighter ring of coals around the bottom you can put an even layer on top you can always add heat but you can't take it away once you've burned something that is right 90% of the time you're going to cook on the bottom faster than you will on the top because the food is sitting right on the bottom you don't have that buffer from the top and you're closer to your heat so you'll probably have seen in a lot of our videos we'll end up taking it off the bottom and letting it continue to cook from the top all right so let's talk about time if you remember I say throw out your watch there is no time in Dutch oven cooking no I'd say 99 % of the time you're going to cook it faster here than you're ever going to cook it in the house exactly and and wind plays a big factor in time because it's fan in the fire dutch ovens will tell you when something is near done you do that by looking we've told you before in a lot of videos you see separation something shrinks from the outside pulling in that is time telling you that hey it's nearly done on the bottom once you figure out these tricks like we said you can easily convert it but you know we're here in Oklahoma but if up on a mountain top in Colorado there so many different variables that what works for us here isn't going to work for you so that's why you just need to make some adjustments take a couple practice rounds Dutch oven cooking is not a science it's an art cook bring your family together enjoy the food hit subscribe because we got a lot more information coming at you Cowboy recipes cast iron tips outdoor cooking indoor cooking you can't go wrong when you've got got a fire you got some iron and you got the people that you love get around you're getting a share of meal that's what this country was about so thank you so much for stopping by the backyard we appreciate it we don't take it for granted and uh God bless you each and every oneyes ma'am I'll get her out to you my gosh that's a 23rd call today everybody wanting to know how do you convert an inside recipe to an outside recipe in a dutch oven I'm going to go get shann and we're just going to make a video yes ma'am I get that question everywhere we go so what are we going to tell them I oh little product placement we have cooked everything in this cookbook in a dutch oven that can be cooked um but this is converted for indoor cooking and why did we do that because you can convert and pretty easily any recipe that calls for conventional oven cooking to a dutch oven you just need to know a few tricks and techniques and really just like with any Dutch oven cooking it's just about practice and getting comfortable with it and lightly grease a 9 by3 in casserole dish okay so for 9x13 casserole dish I would say use a 12in shallow or a 12in deep Dutch oven the Deep one here you can see is a little bit what do you call that concaved concaved and so you're you're losing a little bit of surface area from the top to the bottom 8 by 11 I recommend going into a 10in oven um another popular one is the loaf pan this same one can also go into a 10in oven any baked good that calls for a 99 by3 like a box cake or box brownie or any kind of cake in the house what I like to do is I actually like to cook that baked good in a 10 in of it because I like it a little thicker I don't recommend this for anybody that is just starting Dutch oven cooking or still kind of figuring out baked goods and Dutch ovens the reason for that being is you're going to get a lot closer to the top so you need to be able to know how to manage your top coals a lot better and then also what to look for so if you're just starting out I'd recommend starting in a 12in deep oven because as it's rising you've still got so much room from the top not as apt to burn it they also do make a 10in deep oven yes we don't have any of those um we just wouldn't use it a whole lot but there is that option as well we have a lot of people ask us about inserts just to give you kind of a quick idea let's say you want to do this this loaf pan but you don't want to pour the contents into a 10 in and have it be round you want it to actually be in a loaf pan you could stick this directly in it and cook it just like this the reason K wouldn't do this in the shallow one is because you are about an inch from the top so if you have any rise it's going to hit the oven so you want to put it in the Deep 12 oh and it does fit how many biscuits fit in this oven versus this oven I don't I I don't remember I know the answer so if you use like about a 2 and 1/2 in biscuit cutter the 10 in is going to give you about 9 to 10 biscuits the shallow 12 you'll get about 12 to 14 biscuits the 12in Deep oven you're going to be getting maybe 10 to 11 so another Direction in conventional oven cooking is temperature right there is no knob how are we going to regulate heat you're going to regulate heat with the Dutch oven and that is two different sizes of triet that we so happen to make right here at the Red River Ranch Shen so we use two different mainly two different sizes of tvets this is what we call kind of a medium or short tvet and this is our tall tvet we're going to we're going to cook casserole okay because it's a casserole yeah I'm assuming you can stir it yes anything that you can stir and that you can monitor and is not just going to sit there on the bottom and cook you can use a lower trivet because it's going to be a little closer to your heat Source we always do a coal placement in a circle around the Dutch oven never directly under what kind of coals are we using we're using hardwood that's what we prefer yeah and you can use a hardwood lump you're going to have something that makes more heat and lasts longer especially more than a briquette or something like a softwood we cook with mosqu yeah 80 99% of the time I've used H which is the bow dark it's really hot but it's really a la fire snap crackle pot you know been on a lot of wrenches and you have two with me where we had to use cedar it's not bad to cook with you know s it gives a good Heat at the beginning it just doesn't last very long it ashes out and the and the oak is pretty good the red and the White Oak and uh I've used it quite a bit I've used some hickory and pecan but it's more smoking wood than it is a cooking wood you just have to utilize what's ever in your area when you cook with it a couple times you'll figure out pretty quickly how it works some of you out there are briquette fans there are certain formulas that you can use for briquet you can look that up however do take in consideration wind elevations there's a lot of different factors that go into that so don't trust that once you get that formula it's 350° cuz it ain't going to happen right and always remember like we've told you so many times 5 Seconds a length width of your hand can you hold it more than 5 seconds it's probably not 350° if you can hold it more than 5 seconds and with touch oven cooking you and this this was a hangup for me you you're kind of obsessed with your watch and that 350° throw both of those ideas out the window you don't need to be concerned about 350° if you use that 5sec rule on the top and the bottom that'll give you the the heat intensity that you need and then from there you're just looking for Sight tips so let's say then though that we're switching and we're doing a recipe that's a cake and it's 350° for 45 minutes so how do we regulate that type of heat remember if it's baking it's not something that we can stir we can't see the bottom that's why you're always going to want to go with something with a more of a distance from your bottom fire to the top that's why we recommend a tall trivet the talls that we make this is about a 5 and 1/2 this is about a 3 and 1/2 but you can also regulate temperature by how many cold you actually place exactly but with this tall trivet and you're baking you want to bake slow right the and a kind of a general rule of thumb with baking the more moisture it has the slower you want to cook it because you want that to evenly cook through so you're not raw in the middle that's why we use the tall trivet and like Kent mentioned you want a lighter ring of coals around the bottom you can put an even layer on top you can always add heat but you can't take it away once you've burned something that is right 90% of the time you're going to cook on the bottom faster than you will on the top because the food is sitting right on the bottom you don't have that buffer from the top and you're closer to your heat so you'll probably have seen in a lot of our videos we'll end up taking it off the bottom and letting it continue to cook from the top all right so let's talk about time if you remember I say throw out your watch there is no time in Dutch oven cooking no I'd say 99 % of the time you're going to cook it faster here than you're ever going to cook it in the house exactly and and wind plays a big factor in time because it's fan in the fire dutch ovens will tell you when something is near done you do that by looking we've told you before in a lot of videos you see separation something shrinks from the outside pulling in that is time telling you that hey it's nearly done on the bottom once you figure out these tricks like we said you can easily convert it but you know we're here in Oklahoma but if up on a mountain top in Colorado there so many different variables that what works for us here isn't going to work for you so that's why you just need to make some adjustments take a couple practice rounds Dutch oven cooking is not a science it's an art cook bring your family together enjoy the food hit subscribe because we got a lot more information coming at you Cowboy recipes cast iron tips outdoor cooking indoor cooking you can't go wrong when you've got got a fire you got some iron and you got the people that you love get around you're getting a share of meal that's what this country was about so thank you so much for stopping by the backyard we appreciate it we don't take it for granted and uh God bless you each and every one\n"