In article .com>,
"Sheldon" > wrote:

> Islands wrote:
> >
> > What is a dutch oven?
>
> It's a type of oven of course, ergo the name... it's a vessel of a
> configuration that is used for baking directly in an open fire,
> typically when no other oven is available or in conjunction with a
> stationery chambered oven. However nowadays the name "Dutch Oven" is
> really used as a misnomer, as it's used to describe any large pot
> (which is really a sauce pot and not a dutch oven at all, has no
> semblence to a dutch oven at all) typically used to cook stews and
> soups, not for baking. Hardly anyone these days owns an actual dutch
> oven, and even if they did they'd have no way to properly use it in
> their home... modern homes don't have open cooking hearths. The last
> time homes in the US were built with open cooking hearths (which also
> served as central heating) was about 1850.

A REAL dutch oven has an indented lid made for holding hot coals.
I actually do have one for camping, and intend to eventually build a
legal pit fireplace out in the back yard. I have to get together with
the local fire chief to see what is legal as bonfires aren't,

>
> > If a recipe requires one is there something else I can use?
>
> There are no recipes whatsoever that "require" a dutch oven... just
> bake in whatever oven you have in your kitchen. A dutch oven is not a
> stew pot... even hundreds of years ago when all cooking was over an
> open fire stew pots were very different from dutch ovens.
>
> Sheldon

A nice cast iron stew pot will do. I have what I consider to be a deep
cast iron 10" "skillet" with a lid that I use for braising and such. I'd
not call it a dutch oven. This pot is about 8" deep.


>
--
Peace, Om.

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a son-of-a-bitch." -Jack Nicholson