A Dutch oven is a large metal cooking pot with a lid used for cooking special recipes.
Dutch ovens can be used without an actual oven; they are often used outdoors over an open fire, in modern times especially by people who are camping.
The Dutch oven is designed with a tight-fitting lid with a rim so that burning wood or charcoal can be heaped on top of it when it is placed in the fire. They are ordinarily made of cast iron (some are made of aluminum), and often have legs attached so they may more easily be set amid the coals.
See also: Cooking on a campfire
Secondary meanings
The term is also used for two other cooking devices: a metal shield used before an open fire for roasting, and a brick oven in which the preheated walls do the cooking.
Modern dutch ovens consist of a covered, shallow cooking pan set on legs and heated from below with a built-in electrical heating element.
The dutch oven is also a slang name for a practical joke played on bedmates by restraining them under the covers after you have passed gas.
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