Hey Dean, and anyone else who could help!
I was breaking in some new iron tonight and ran into something I have not seen before. I was baking a cobbler in a new Lodge 10 deep, eight on bottom and 12 on top. For the first 45 min of the cook everything seemed fine. At 45 min, I added a few additional coals to replace those that had burned down. At one hour, normally I am done, so I checked and the crust was still very soft and not at all brown. I started adding coals and checking every 15 min. Eventually, the entire top was covered in coals. Finally at about an hour and a half I saw a little browning. More coals. It was lightly golden brown right at 2 hours. I have never had a cobbler take anywhere near that long.
There were two things about tonight that were different. This was my first time using a deep oven. Could that have made a difference? The oven was only about half full, so there was some distance between the crust and the heat. The other difference is that this is the first Lodge DO I have ever seen where the lid does not fit really well. There is a little bit of rock when the oven is cold and it only gets worse as the oven heats up. Could an ill-fitting lid have caused my issues?
I am stumped so I hope someone has some ideas that can help.