Baking without an oven: in a pot and a Dutch oven

In an oven, the baked item is surrounded by hot air and by radiant heat from the walls. That is why it cooks evenly from all sides. A closed pot imitates this: the lid keeps the hot air inside, and the thick walls give off heat inwards. The heavier and thicker the pot, the more evenly it spreads the heat.

On a stove, the heat only comes from below. Without a gap, the dough would burn there. A spacer – a small rack, a metal ring or a few clean, dry stones – lifts the baking tin off the base so that there is a layer of air in between. The hot air then rises around the tin.

With a Dutch oven, a cast-iron pot with legs and a lid with a raised rim, embers under the pot provide the bottom heat and embers on the lid provide the top heat. Because heat rises and the base gets hottest anyway, bread usually gets more embers on the lid than underneath.

The most common mistake is too much heat from below: the bread is black underneath and still sticky inside. With a stove, that means the lowest stable flame and preheating the pot. With a Dutch oven: a few embers below, more on the lid. Better to bake a little longer at moderate heat than briefly and too hot.

Open the lid as rarely as possible, because the hot air escapes every time. Instead, turn the pot a little roughly every 10 to 15 minutes, and with a Dutch oven turn the lid the other way too. This evens out hot spots caused by wind or uneven embers. Expect baking to take considerably longer than in an oven.

Whether the item is done is shown by a doneness test: bread sounds hollow when you tap the underside. With cakes and bakes, a wooden skewer pushed in comes out clean. If in doubt, bake a little longer. When very little fuel is available, thin flatbreads in a pan are the more economical choice.

Charcoal, embers, grills and camping stoves are never used in a home, tent, garage or basement. They produce carbon monoxide, a gas you cannot smell or see and which can be deadly. Even an open window does not make an indoor space safe. Pot baking with embers is therefore always an outdoor job.

Cast iron, lids and embers cause severe burns, and cast iron stays hot for a long time. Lift the lid with a lid lifter or tongs, wear heat-resistant gloves and sturdy shoes and keep children away. Put the hot pot down only on a heat-resistant surface. Stones from streams or lakes are off-limits as spacers: trapped water can make them burst when heated.

Before any fire, check the local rules on fires and wildfire danger; under a fire ban, the embers stay unlit. Work on non-combustible ground and keep water or sand ready for extinguishing. Embers are put out completely before you leave the site, and ash is disposed of only when it is cold. Non-stick pots are unsuitable, because they should not be heated strongly when empty.

Do not bake for the first time in a real emergency. Try a simple recipe, such as a bread with baking powder or a small bake, on a quiet day in the garden or at a barbecue site. Note how many embers or what flame level worked and how long it took – this depends heavily on pot, wind and fuel.

A good exercise is also to bake the same recipe once in a pot on a stove and once in a Dutch oven. That way you learn how differently the heat behaves. If a fitting lid is missing, several layers of aluminium foil can keep the heat in the pot; it gets very hot, though.

Cast-iron pots with legs and a rimmed lid have been in use for centuries and are found in many camp kitchens today. The principle is the same as in the old wood-fired oven: stored, surrounding heat instead of a direct flame. Well-cared-for cast iron lasts for decades.

Far more than bread can be made in a pot: bakes, stews, potatoes or simple cakes. The downside is the weight – a cast-iron pot is usually too heavy for a rucksack and is more something for the house, the garden or a camp reached by car.