If you are interested in cooking outdoors and want to do more than cooking on a grill, the next thing you really, really need to get is a dutch oven. Dutch ovens are so incredibly versatile that you can cook just about anything in them. When I recommend a Dutch oven, there are two brands that stand out, Lodge and Camp Chef. You generally can't go wrong with either one of those. I'm going to focus on the Lodge brand here and particularly the Lodge Logic 8 Quart Dutch Oven and let you know all I know about it.
Here are 5 reasons to buy Lodge Dutch ovens:
Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Ovens are made in the USA
The Lodge foundry in the small town of South Pittsburg, Tennessee (population: 3,300!) makes some of the finest cast iron in the world. If you want to buy American, buy Lodge!
Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Ovens are great quality
The Lodge Logic 8 Quart Dutch Oven is Preseasoned
When you get a Dutch oven, you want to cook in it, right? It used to be that you had to spend several hours seasoning cast iron cookware that you bought. It was a time consuming, messy, smelly, but absolutely necessary process. No more! The Lodge Logic 8 Quart Dutch Oven, like most of the other Lodge Dutch Ovens come pre-seasoned, so you can take it straight out of the box, rinse with hot water, apply a thin coat of oil, and start cooking!
The Lodge Logic 8 Quart Dutch Oven is a Great Size
Ok, so maybe it isn't perfect. But it's probably one of the best sizes, unless you are just cooking for a couple of people. It holds enough for you to be able to cook for 8 people. At 12" in diameter and 5" deep, it's perfect for doing desserts, breads, stews, whole chickens, just about anything that you want to cook. When you get much larger, the dutch oven gets reaaaaally heavy, and when you get too much smaller, you can't cook much in them. The 8 quart, 12" diameter, 5" deep Lodge Logic Dutch Oven is as close as you can get to the perfect size.
The Lodge Logic 8 Quart Dutch Oven Works Great with the Volcano Grill
The Volcano Grill is probably the best accessory to add to your dutch oven outdoor cooking arsenal. It provides the best environment for cooking with a Dutch oven. And the Lodge Logic 8 Quart Dutch oven fits into the Volcano Grill perfectly. They are an ideal match.
Well, that's five GREAT reasons to get the Lodge Logic 8 Quart Dutch oven for your outdoor dutch oven cooking needs. And there are lot's more. Let's just say that you can't go wrong buying a Lodge. Just make sure that you get the Lodge Dutch Oven that has a rimmed lid, like the Lodge Logic and you'll have the ideal outdoor cooking piece of equipment.
P.S. Check out the other great Lodge Dutch Oven products below:
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I am very fortunate that I live just around the corner from a Lodge Outlet Store. They sell seconds there. In cast iron, if there is a micro pit somewhere in the surface of the cast iron item, it becomes a second. Of course if it gets seasoned, that pit that you may never see, fills in. I have a bunch of Lodge cast iron and never had a problem. A 5 or 6 qt pot does my wife and I just fine. The best part about a second is it is about half price.
I use a Wok. Not one of those hand hammered ones. A cast iron one. It weighs as much as two bricks, but it cooks oriental food like a dream. I use it on my range top, but it works great in the coals too. A cast iron pot with no legs is called a casserole. I put mine in a microwave/convection over all of the time. I also use it on the range top. Just because they are called cast iron, you can’t cast them across the kitchen at a wayward husband’s head, but they are dent proof and won’t usually break.
If you do yard sales and you come upon an old cast iron pot or skillet for a couple of dollars, all you will need to do to get it ready for use is clean it up with a little steel wool and then reseason it. Your grand kids will be giving it to their grand kids. Cast Iron is so forgiving. Maybe that is why Boy Scouts use it so much.
Most people think a cast iron pot is only for making cobblers in. You can make stews, beans, boiled dinners, soup, and lots more. You can even bake bread or cake in them and for the kids, a pizza in a pot is great. There are lots of great recipes available from simple items or very complex meals. Well worth the money.
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Rick,
Thanks for those thoughts about Lodge Dutch ovens and Dutch oven cooking in general. I agree with your last statement. You can cooking just about anything in a dutch oven. It is so versatile. I’ve used some of Dutch ovens in the oven or range top also, but microwave? Never heard of doing that.
Microwave/convection oven.
Right, don’t stick it in a microwave! I use the convection side of our Microwave/convection oven. It is a nice size and saves energy. My 6 qt oven fits nicely in the convection part of my Microwave/convection oven. Of course, you can use a conventional oven with a Dutch oven but it wastes a lot of heat and warms up the house in the summer. You can use this method to bake bread. I use the rectangular grill as a pizza stone or you can use the smaller (about 9 inches) round cast iron pizza stone from Lodge for a personal size pizza. The larger one doesn’t fit in my Microwave/convection oven. It isn’t deep enough. If you use the “Pizza in 5 Minutes a Day” book, there dough works well on either the round pizza stone or the rectangular griddle (smooth side up of course). You can use their bread dough in the Dutch Oven. Some people use the larger pizza stone in their bar-b-que and grill the pizza with the grill hood closed. If you have the aluminum wok cover, it fits nicely in the the larger pizza stone so you could use it as an oven and cook the burgers and dogs along side it.
Author
Good! I couldn’t imagine sticking it in a microwave! But now I understand what you meant. Thanks for the update.