What's the Difference Between a Dutch Oven and a Cooking Pot

Beef seared in bacon grease, simmered slowly in a Dutch oven with beans, carrots and potatoes has long been a staple of cowhands and modern day campers. A Dutch oven is placed over hot coals and those coals shoveled on the top of the oven. It slow cooks foods with liquids and bakes foods as well. A cooking pot cooks food rapidly or slowly when placed over the heat source.

Shape and Lids
A cooking pot doesn't have to have a lid to do its job. If it does, the lid may be glass or the same material the pot is made of. Cooking pot lids are often domed with a protruding round doorknob-shaped handle in the middle. An oven requires a tight fitting, thick lid made of the same material as the oven. The lid is flat across with a handle in the middle. The handle is made so a hook can be used to lift it off, since the lid and handle get very hot. Dutch ovens have a flat bottom with straight sides. The oven stands on legs so chunks of wood, or charcoal briquettes, have room to burn directly underneath the pot. The ovens also have a bail, a wire loop, attached to opposite sides of the pot near the top. The bail is used to carry the full hot Dutch oven off the fire. Cooking pots have handles, either one long handle or two shorter handles. The handles, in most cases, are not meant to be exposed to heat.

Materials and Shape
Cooking pots are made of various materials, or combination of materials, including aluminum, copper, stainless steel and enamel over steel. Dutch ovens are made of cast iron or aluminum. Cast iron conducts heat more evenly but aluminum is lighter. Cast iron has to be cured before using by rubbing with oil and heating while aluminum does not. Cooking pots do not have to be cured before using either.

Cleaning
Clean a Dutch oven by burning off any leftover food by turning the pot upside down over hot coals. Another method is to wash the oven with hot soapy water. Dry and then spread a thin coat of oil on the oven. Cooking pots may be scoured with steel wool, a plastic scrub sponge, soap and water or put in the dish washer. The cooking pots do not need a coat of oil.

Baking
While both ovens and cooking pots are used to cook foods, only Dutch ovens are used to successfully bake. The prime temperature for cooking in a Dutch oven is 350 F. which is the temperature often used for baking cakes and pies. Both the top and bottom of biscuits brown evenly in an oven. Cooking pots fry or steam but don't have the ability to bake. The temperature is hottest closest to the heat source which is at the bottom of the pot. A Dutch oven disperses the heat evenly throughout the interior of the oven.

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