Same here. Only know the expression Dutch oven from EF.
A Dutch oven actually has three legs and-as you mentioned - is put straight into the fire. Apparently it was brought to the US by immigrants from Germany and the Netherlands who spoke "Niederdeutsch". Guess that's where the name originates from.

I've never heard it used to refer to a casserole dish until this thread, actually. We used the term when I was in the Scouts to refer to a home-made oven made from a ~30cm cube biscuit tin, covered with mud and straw, placed above a fire. The lid would become the door, which you'd then also seal with more mud once the food was inside and just guess how hot the fire needed to be kept.

I remember on scout camp one time, one patrol, always keen to outdo the others, made theirs so hot that the aluminium tray (a billy-can lid, as I recall) actually melted, so their roast-to-a-crisp leg of lamb had to be carefully separated from the chunks of molten metal.

Happy days.

I always thought a "dutch oven" was when you release a gruesome and possibly deadly fart in a confined space where people can´t escape, like an elevator for instance.

Ah, just seen that a few posters have already "dropped" the reference.

I thought it was only when you did it in bed and held the blankets tight over the top, with your victim trapped under them.

Same here, I’ve always called them (cast iron) casserole dishes.

They still did that at scout camps when I was a scout leader with the British scouts back in Belgium.
It certainly made for some interesting meals.

hahaha, than this thread is an excellent case-study of how "fake news" come to life. I mean, a long debate, where no one challenged imprecise definition of the main object. And than we just need a researcher (or AI) that would range definitions by incidence . And puf, "google translate" is born, together with unnecessary informatics noise.

That sounds really complicated.

I just wanna get the pot to make an awesome goulash. I don't care if the pot is a cheap knock-off. As long as the goulash is great.

The goulashes I cooked with my scouts over the fire were in giant cheap aluminum pots.

not sure what you're on about, I quiet like knowing where names come from etc. but of course that's not everybody.
Dutch oven is not an imprecise definition, it's an umbrella term in colloquial speech for the basic system. There are different qualities of it though (cast iron, the only one I go for, but also wrought iron or even aluminium ) as well as different styles (enamel coating, ....). So yes, it can be specified further yet "car" is not a imprecise definition either when you just want to mention type of transport.
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Then you can take any pot with a lid and save a lot of money.

__________________
It's all a matter or perspective.
So move your butt and look at it from the other side

Or do it as Hungarians do, cook it in a cauldron hanging above a fire. "Bogracsozas" for beginners.

Thanks, funnypants. The cheap tinny pots were great for hungry kids, they did not keep the food too hot for long and kids could eat right away. The reason why I want the cast iron stuff is the exact opposite, it insulates better, keeps it nice and warm for long. And the meat even more tender, yum. I kinda like the oldschoolness of it, too. Plus I read that iron leaks into the food? I am not sure about it but sounds good. Maybe I am just hungry right now.

Absolutely. Only these great big fireplaces to hang the pots above are quiet hard to come by around here these days.
The other thing that just crossed my mind is: How the heck do they get them down without spilling the food once it's ready to eat? Or do they just invite a lot of people and it's a group-effort to get to it?

You must be every household appliance store sales-person's delight.

hm, for me it looks more like this whole tread was about how dutch oven and casserole are the same, but actually they are not?

Casserole dish: a heavy pan with a lid that can be used on a hob or in the oven


Dutch oven: a heavy pan that you use on open fire and in the oven


For me those two are not the same. The first one has much nicer finish, that is also more delicate. Second one has more robust finish, and an edge on the lid to keep coals on it? Did I understand it wrong?

You can of course mix those uses, but so you can with other pans an pots, you can use a wok with a lid as an Dutch oven.

No, no worries, the opposite, hahahaha.

I like that robustness of Dutch oven, nejc.

Dutch oven is the term used in the US. Casserole dish is the term used in the UK.

https://www.lecreuset.com/cookware/dutch-ovens
https://www.lecreuset.co.uk/en_GB/c/...ing/casseroles

Or let's say, the Brits don't have a name and just use the French one.

The Germans call them "Bräter", not very elegant.

https://www.petromax.de/

They have really nice gusseisen things for open fire, when I will grow up, have a rusticco and too much money I will buy a cast iron potato cooker:

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Except that a french casserole is actually a saucepan in English.

Ah, you too have plans for when you grow up, we might become neighbours by then.

I have a petromax frying pan now, I'll try it out in a fire when summer comes. Works on the stove too, thankfully.

I know. Long live the Tower of Babel.