Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I made a pumpkin Pie in a 12 inch oven in a regular glass pie pan that didn't have those handles molded onto the rim. While I did use my generic Tractor Supply dutch oven because I didn't want to risk harming my Lodge Ovens, the Pie turned out really well. I did use a lodge trivet under the pie plate but it did turn out well. I've never seen the question addressed before: can heating up a dutch oven with so much dead air space harm the oven? Since I've done this twice now with the oven and it hasn't yet warped or cracked I am thinking that you might get away with this sort of thing once in a while. The question is how safe is this with a dutch oven? I'd love to hear Bob Henry chime in as well as others have have been using cast iron much longer than me.

Did you do this in an oven at home or with charcoal from the top?

But wading through your paragraph, “nope.”

Tony

cowboys have been cooking pans of biscuits in DO's for way over 100 years

the pan typically sits on top of a horse shoe



no difference than your pie on a trivet

your Lodge will have better heat distribution

an old antique vessel(Griswold or Wagner...) will do even better

that's why you buy good DO's and other cast iron vessels

when used properly they out cook virtually anything else you can buy

sw

I'm back ( finally) password wars be damned I am here !

Cast iron is good to about 1400 degrees so if you are cooking over coals with some dead air space you have no fears.

Thanks for the reply. I just used about 26 coals for the pie, 9 on bottom, rest on top. I figured since you start some pies hotter than 350 and then reduce heat this could work. It did.

Here is a peach rhubarb pie I just cooked. I used a 7 inch pie pan and cooked it in an 8 inch DO.
I planned on a start temperature of 450 °F using 14 coals on top and 6 below. I preheated with those coals for 15 min before putting in the pie.
I assume the temperature fell while cooking. The high starting temperature is critical to achieve a flaky crust.
Cook time was 45 min.

I got the idea of adding ingredient identifying letters from the pie shop in Whalan, Minn on the Root River bike trail.

Tom