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[Karen Lyons-McGann]

>>Actually, I do own a couple of Dutch Ovens, but the way I learned to 
bake in
>>them is to bury them on a bed of coals, and all the sites out here 
frown upon
>>fires not raised above the ground.
>>
>>Wonder how well it would work to dig a hole, fill it with coals from a 
raised
>>fire, and bake that way?  I'd fill the hole back in later, of course.
>
>If you have to bake on a raised fire, try to get a good bed of coals,
>then put more coals on the lid of the Dutch oven (if you can).

We had need to make a simple home kiln to fire one single item from a 
hands on type crafts fair.   This entire "pit" arrangement maintained 
heat enough,  long enough to fire clay so  I think you could adapt this 
idea to get a dutch oven hot enough for long enough to bake.  

We used big chunks of oak (remains of Hurricane Fran) to create a "pit" 
around the piece to be fired, which was sitting on a fire brick. The 
"pit" was about the size of a five gallon bucket.  We filled the pit with 
smaller bits of that oak and also with pine and lit it so as to bring the 
heat up gradually.  We kept adding more wood until the entire container 
was filled with glowing coals.  We then covered the top with soaked 
newspaper and hay, lifting that carefully with tongs and resoaking it 
when we needed to add coals from a separate fire.   Naturally, the logs 
had also begun turning to coal, but they were about a foot thick so it 
wasn't a problem.

Anne

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