Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Made my first DO meal earlier in the week, a roast chicken attempt with carrots and potatoes. I could have done better, but I'm learning. Downward placed breasts burned some, although the DO had plenty of liquid in it. Our oven has no legs, and had to be placed directly on the coals the way I have to put it inside our small hinge lid grill. Ended up with the chicken being essentially simmered in its own juices, and it was good, but not what I had planned.
Read in a few posts about using various things to keep the chicken (or roast, or chops, etc.) up off the bottom of the DO when cooking like canning jar rings, flat rocks, and upside down aluminum cake pans. I try to avoid aluminum in cooking last few years, so I've recently been on a search for an inner pan or tray to fit inside my DO. Penny yesterday said "Hey Don, what about this old too-small stainless fry pan?"
Great idea I said (she's an extremely intelligent, witty and practical Lady). I ground off the rivets attaching the handle, and am drilling and tapping four 1/4-28 holes through the bottom at 4 equally spaced spots. This particular pan has a very thick 3/16 inch bottom, and came in an inexpensive Chinese set bought at Aldi's grocery store. "Crofton" brand. I'll screw in from the bottom and peen over on the inside 4 stainless steel socket head bolts, then drill and chamfer a series of 1/4 inch drain holes in the bottom of the fry pan for juices to drain down into the DO bottom.The bolt heads will serve as "legs" to keep it off the bottom. This should keep my meats and vegetables up off the bottom of the DO about 1/4 to 5/16 inch and I'm hoping prevent scorching and burning.
I'll be using it in our 10 inch no-name DO, but really am hoping that we can downsize to a 2 quart DO because of lifting restrictions I had since back surgery. The fry pan liner measures exactly 8 3/8 inch across at the widest diameter, the top lip. The lip is 1 3/4 inch from the bottom surface of the pan. If someone with the 2 qt Lodge could take a moment and measure as best as they can the inside diameter of their oven about 2 inches off the inner bottom, I'd have an idea if this gizmo will fit that too.
The thing about the 2 qt size Lodge is that it's only 3 inches deep. If I go with a liner that sits up any more than 1/4 inch or so, I'll lose a lot of cooking space with the lid on.
Thanks so much in advance. I'll post a photo when I finish the liner if anyone wants to see it. Don.

Try raising the DO above the coals with 3 equal size rocks. Also you may try placing the coals only around the outside ring on the bottom. No coals directly under the bottom. I don't know what you are doing on the top as most DO without legs have a dome top. But if you have a flat top you can also just run a ring around the outside lip of the top. This method works well. Good luck and have fun!

Thanks for the reply. Honestly, our DO has no legs and does have the rimmed lid, not domed. Brand new from a Chinese set bought several years ago. As to raising it above the coals, our trouble is that we have to use a small drum-type hinge lid smoker grill to cook in our DO. There's no room to raise the oven higher than it is and be able to get it in or out. Hence the desire for a 2 quart oven.......and the reason for my question. Thanks again. Don

In my dutch oven adventures I have gone almost exclusively to the bake mode. 3 coals up for every one down. I got real tired of brown or black bottomed creations.




Flat bottom pan no problem



no black bottom meatloaf

Ummmmmmm. Meatloaf and rolls. What is the liner under the meatloaf, is it available in different sizes, and where did you buy it? Don.

To hold your chicken out of the juices, have you tried one of those stainless steel steamer baskets that opens up like a flower? They are pretty handy around a campsite as well. We have used them to drain vegetables, as a collander in a pinch, lined with paper towels to drain grease, etc...

Pat

Now that steamer basket is a good idea! Don

Lodge makes this trivet which is just slightly to large to fit in the bottom of your 8 inch (you can see the bump outs which is all you really need to remove) but if you have a grinder/file it can be made to fit. Thats what I did and it works great and only takes up about that 1/4 inch you are looking for.

http://www.amazon.com/Lodge-Pre-Seasone ... B00063RXKQ

Gary

Tallbald wrote:Ummmmmmm. Meatloaf and rolls. What is the liner under the meatloaf, is it available in different sizes, and where did you buy it? Don.

Don: As always, I fell over it on a shelf at Goodwill marked $2.00 it was old farts day so I got it for $1.40 I see them in ther quite often. It has little tiny feet that hold the flat bottomed basket maybe 1/4" off of the bottom of the dutch oven.

Bob....your dutch oven stuff always looks great! Doug

I also have the 2 qt lodge DO, and have been looking for a trivet for the same reason. This one is 7.75 inches diameter with no grinding

http://www.amazon.com/Old-Mountain-0166 ... 26&sr=1-33

Catherine