New must-have Dutch oven accessory?

[Hilldweller]

Picked one of these up on my trip to Phoenix. Had a fifty dollar gift cert so I have a whole 6 bucks into it. Overall I think it is a quality product from initial out of the box look at it. It fits well into a 12" dutch oven. Every thing appears to be fairly sturdy. Kind of interesting you can use the lids as a frying pan. Out of the box I am pleased. Will fire it up this weekend and give it a shot.

I have an aluminum Dutch that comes up to temperature quickly --- still needed lots of charcoal in the pan to get the lid hot enough to crisp the pizza crust.
Give yourself warm-up time and start a second round of coals to replenish the pan if you want to have a good skillet experience.

 

[THATSALEXUS?]

Back on Woot again

http://sellout.woot.com/plus/outdoor-cooking?ref=so_gh_so_11_wp_4

 

[Herbie]

* As I mentioned upthread, the spring-loaded handle-bit is easily removable - I'm going to experiment with a couple of single-burner stoves to see if any are a good height-match to let them slide under the tripod - could be a way to more safely use a DO or lid with a gas heat source.
!

I owed this thread an update on this subject. The stand is not tall enough to use directly with a single burner under the DO lid to make a "tabletop skottle". HOWEVER, I happened to have some 1/2" tubing scraps lying around, so I quickly mocked up some "leg extenders" and was able to do this:

Ignore the crud on my DO lid, it got put away dirty after a late night of peach cobbler. I haven't actually cooked with this setup yet, but since throwing three pieces of tubing into the kit takes up very little space (and the burner goes in my chuckbox), I may attempt this method at some point. For reference, the tubing is, IIRC, 2x 7" pieces, and one 3" or 4" piece on the #2 leg that has the extra loop welded on (foreground).

You can fit 2 of the 3 big items (any two of charcoal holder, grill, and main tripod), and the kickstand, but not all four pieces. The problem is the depth, since the the pieces don't really nest and each ends up a couple of inches tall.

As it stands, probably not the end of the world - I'll carry the main tripod and kickstand inside the DO, and the grill and charcoal holder (possibly) inside my firepot (galvanized feed pan that I use as a DO table and grill).

Another minor update to correct myself on this point. After some fiddling, I realized that the grill attachment is a bit more clever than I first thought. With the correct orientation, it will nest nicely with the main tripod ring - it just has to be clocked correctly so the numbered cutouts align with the appropriate legs. This takes a bit more than an inch off the vertical "stack height" of all the accessories, and should make it easier to fit most of the kit inside the oven for transport.

 

[ab1985]

Glad to hear this latest update! I cancelled my order due to the second issue. Happy you got this resolved and I may jump back on the bandwagon.

 

[Scoutman]

Another minor update to correct myself on this point. After some fiddling, I realized that the grill attachment is a bit more clever than I first thought. With the correct orientation, it will nest nicely with the main tripod ring - it just has to be clocked correctly so the numbered cutouts align with the appropriate legs. This takes a bit more than an inch off the vertical "stack height" of all the accessories, and should make it easier to fit most of the kit inside the oven for transport.

I will have to play around with that some more as I was unable to get all three items in mine and have the lid completely seated and I even have a deep 12" DO. Can you take a picture of the stack correctly oriented?

Good idea on the leg extensions too.

 

[irish_11]

They are back on woot incase anyone is interested. http://sport.woot.com/offers/3-piece-grill-smoker-combo-2?ref=sp_cnt_wp_2_5

 

[Hilldweller]

Herbie ---- when I use the grill, the firepan sits crooked.
What am I doing wrong? The grill is nice and level though...

Other than that, this thing works great. The pizza oven is the bomb. Tried it again 2 weeks ago and the pizza came out even better than the first time.
Takes about twice as much charcoal as traditional Dutch cooking to get the right temperature.

 

[Scoutman]

I still am not able to get all my items to nest into the 12" deep DO and have the lid close. Does anyone know if the draft (side walls angled in towards the bottom) is steeper on the deep than the standard depth DO?

 

[Scoutman]

Tried it out as a smoker the other evening. Made some pretty good smoked Scottish Salmon using hickory chips.

 

[damon1272]

So I finally was able to use my camp maid set up. Cooked a double batch of upside down cake for cub scouts. All in all it worked well but it took longer than it should have to cook. A couple of reasons for this was just to get the cast iron hot enough, elevation, and it was a double batch. Overall it worked as advertised. The upside down cake was excellent. I do think I will try doing a pizza. That looks like it will be great out in the desert after a day of riding. Fairly happy with cooking with a dutch over an I will begin to branch out and see what else I can do. As for the camp maid. Pretty happy with the results.

 

[Brewtus]

Damon,

My experience was largely the same... everything worked well in concept, but without having the briquettes in a closed container to retain heat, most of the heat just went around the DO and it took quite a long time and a lot of coal to cook even small portions. Still like the concept, but perhaps a propane option would make more sense than the briquettes for dutch oven use.

 

[damon1272]

Brewtus,
Hey great comment on the lack of containment. I think I will play with a solution this weekend. One other issue is I do not think the coals on the bottom are close enough. I think some experimentation and cooking will take place this weekend.

 

[ab1985]

Looks like they are coming out with a collapsible chimney that nests in the DO.

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...y&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=41dsa.fnd.to

 

[Beowulf]

Any updates? Are you guys still using this stuff, or did the newness die and your back to just normal use of the DO?

 

[Herbie]

I use parts of mine.

I found the clamp-on charcoal holder tray to be a bit undersized to use as a heat source for direct-heat cooking (like trying to get the DO hot enough to sautee onions), but it's enough to bake if you also are putting coals on the lid. The lid-lifter/kickstand thing is great and I use it all the time. I have other/bigger cooking crates in my kit, so I would probably only use that if I was going solo. Still want to experiment with using a propane burner under the lid as a mini-skottle. Wife got me a real skottle not long after I posted that photo upthread so I didn't actually go down that path, but there are trips where I may want to leave the fullsize skottle at home.