6 Tips to Dutch Oven Cooking with Charcoal

Learning how to handle charcoal is an essential part of outdoor cooking. Whether you're a Scout looking to earn the Cooking Merit Badge or a parent learning how to prepare family meals in the great outdoors, here are six helpful tips for Dutch oven cooking with charcoal.

When I first started Scout Chef Kitchen, I'll admit I had never cooked with charcoal. My husband does most of the cooking in our house because he loves it, and I have never been one to take away one's passions. But then I started Scout Chef Kitchen. I got to learn how to cook on camp stoves and with charcoal, and I have tackled quite a few recipes that I would never have tried if it hadn't been for the Scouting America, which is really what Scouting is all about! To help you on your outdoor cooking journey, I thought I'd gather a few tips for cooking with charcoal that will make your life a little easier when making meals in the great outdoors for all the hungry campers in your life. Here’s my crash course around getting started cooking with charcoal – if you have your best practices or tips, be sure to drop them in the comments!

1. Safety first. Always. Be sure to check out our Safety Moment on charcoal – I found it very helpful to read, and it also had a few tidbits in there that I didn’t know before (like did you know you can use processed corn chips like Frito’s for fire starter?).
2. We always use a charcoal chimney – as I go through in the Scout Chef Kitchen video, they allow for lots of concentrated air flow, resulting in pretty fast results when it comes to getting the briquettes ready for cooking. This Campmaid Charcoal Chimney is collapsible, making it PERFECT for camping!
3. Grab yourself some fire gloves. Chances are you can find some at your local Scout Shop, and they do wonders around making the cooking a little more comfortable.
4. Always prep more charcoal than you think you will need. I learned this the hard way when I cooked turkey legs for Campsgiving… the part you didn’t get to see between filming was when I had to start a bunch of charcoal from scratch halfway through because I ran out, haha.
5. Know when your charcoal is ready. Charcoal is ready for cooking when it is covered in grey ash – it takes about 10 minutes to get there when using a chimney.
6. Invest in some good matches. I use the UCO Stormproof matches – they are reliable, and I love how big they are, which makes it easy to light my starter under the chimney!

To take it a step further, I thought I'd find a few images for visual learners like myself. I found these general guides to help plan my charcoal use – keep in mind that as you get more comfortable cooking with charcoal, you will find that you may need to adjust the ratios or amounts; there are lots of factors that contribute to needing to diverge from the plan.

Do you have recommendations for cooking with charcoal in a Dutch oven? Drop them in the comments below! For more outdoor cooking equipment like mess kits, Dutch ovens, tableware sets, and knife kits visit ScoutShop.org—the official online retail store of the Scouting America!