Lodge Dutch Oven - 5 Qt or 7 Qt?

grill4us said:

@GOGOGORDY - Those short ribs look great - but I'm confused.  Is the lump in the very bottom of the egg?  And what type of lump is that on the lid?  

Thanks and yes it was tasty. That's Kamado brand coconut lump you see. Made in the Phillipines. This summer I made a fantastic buy on 30 16+ lb boxes of it off of CL. I gave half to my son, also a serial griller. The Lodge camp dutch oven I have is designed to sit over some lump AND hold some (2/3rds of the total) on its lid. The unit of measure is "briquets" as in Kingsford for this type of DO but these work just fine. Have also used for pizzas and even meat, and they're perfect for my Lodge Sportsmanship grill as well. They burn hot and....slow and are flavor/fragrance neutral unlike wood based fuels.

Good decision.

grill4us said:

Now I'm leaning toward the Lodge 9 qt. L12D03 from KaTom.  That way I think I should have enough room for anything I'm interested in making.  And it should still fit on a Large Egg.  Have to sleep on it, but I'm pretty sure!  I only want to buy one of these babies.  Room for all my toys is a problem.  

I saw this "Have to sleep on it"....WTF

Why in the hell would you want to put that in your bed in order to determine if you want one or not?????? ...

I broke in the new Lodge 5qt DO with a chili cook yesterday (my first chili of any kind, BGE or otherwise). The 5 quart was just big enough (my kids didn't want to try it, so it was just for me and my wife). If I ever need to cook for a large crowd, I kit need something a little bigger. As Alton Brown said, the good thing about cast iron is that it's relatively cheap, so you can have one in every size. Pic of the chili...

Dobie said:

Wait until those Texas boys see those beans )

That was the topic of some heated conversations last week. My wife is of the opinion that without beans it's "meat sauce", and I'm in the "if it has beans it's not chili, it's bean soup" camp. So I decided that as I live with my wife and I don't live with any Texans, one can of beans in the mix was a good compromise.

Man  the Lodge 7qt. is a big ....gonna make a large boule

I made a double batch of smoked chicken and deer sausage gumbo this weekend. It took 3 quarts of liquids and about 3 lbs of meat. The 7 quart was the perfect size for this cook. Glad I got the 7 in the Dutch. I picked up a 2 quart chicken fryer, with a lid, for the small batches. It's perfect.

KiterTodd said:

Gogogordy said:

Cooked these short ribs in my 12 qt "camp Dutch oven" this weekend....

Gordy, came back to your photos which I had overlooked last time.  I was originally thinking that a camp DO with legs would not work on top of the grates (is that correct?)  I just figured all the legs would never fit through equally and I wouldn't end up with it resting flat.   However...

...the reason I am interested in legs is for actually campfire cooking, which you recreate nicely here in the egg.  That's great!  Is there a science to the amount of lump above and below the DO or can I just build a fire in my LBGE, let the lump light equally and then just set the DO down in the lump, picking up some pieces to put on the lid?  Seems to work in a campfire, anyway.   Thanks for any tips.

Funny you ask....there are Dutch oven/Camp oven forums aplenty....as well as numerous Camp Oven and Dutch Oven "societies". Serious bunch about cooking with cast iron....makes even the most OCD egger look like a mere first-timer to egging in comparison. Anyway, from my many hours of leisurely research I found that there are numerous charts in relation to temps, and cook methods: fry, sauté, bake, braise etc but to boil it down (pun intended) each "briquet" contributes between 10-20 degrees of heat. -and yes the Kingsford briquet is king in that world. The trick is whether the coals go under, over, or a combination of both (most typical it seems). Underneath is best for fry/sauté, and almost all slow cooking/baking is 2/3rds on top and 1/3 below. The upper lump is a much bigger deal than I previously thought, hence the flanged lid! For my short ribs, I used 15 or 16 coconut lump briquettes (consistently sized but slightly larger than Kingsford coals) with my 8 qt Lodge Camp Oven...initially all below for the browning process, then moved and kept 10 on the top, and 5 or 6 below. (This equated to roughly 350 deg.) I more recently cooked an Italian Porketta in the same fashion, but since it did not involve any liquids I used 12 coals, 4 below and 8 on top....no initial browning. It was delicious and moist doing another this weekend in fact....Tongs are imperative for coal tending and moving them around, etc. and adding new as they expire etc is also part of the deal, and part of the fun. This is largely "not a set it and forget it" process I'm finding out. I hope this long winded reply didn't put you to sleep.

KiterTodd said:

Gogogordy said:

...This is largely "not a set it and forget it" process I'm finding out. I hope this long winded reply didn't put you to sleep.

No, VERY interesting.  Thanks.   I had not idea people tech'd out so much on DO cooking.   I figured it was just a boy scout thing...you know, what kind of cake mix and random canned fruit can you throw in cast iron and get something decent to come out.   )  I also didn't realize you could get a complete cook out of so few briquettes laid down with precision like that!   That's not how I cook....I'm more of the "set it and forget it" and was thinking of this as more of a crock pot on top of coals.  Which is how I'll use it...or attempt to!

At the end of the day, like with these Kamados, it's probably hard to screw up so bad you produce something less then delicious (ok....maybe tasty+) so have at it. I'm not real detailed either, more of a seat of the pants type but the temp info was useful. Pictures or it didn't happen.......