Reader question: wonderful book – I found it in the library. Can I use the dutch oven in an electric oven? – Michelle A., Pennsylvania
Of course you can use an electric oven to cook in a cast iron Dutch oven. In fact, I often prepare my GOPMs in an electric toaster oven because the smaller oven space preheats faster and uses less energy to keep hot during cooking. Best of all, it’s portable, so in the summer I can plug it in on my front porch and keep the heat out of the kitchen while still enjoying a quick and easy hot meal.
Glorious One-Pot Meal recipes layered in cast iron Dutch ovens have been successfully prepared in gas and electric ovens, conventional and convection ovens, buried in campfires coals, inside barbecue grills, in roasters, and even on stovetop burners. Someone once mentioned that they were going to use a solar oven to make these dinners, but I never heard what happened of that experiment. If you know more about solar ovens, by all means please leave a comment and enlighten us all.
The patented Glorious One-Pot Meals infusion cooking method only needs two elements to work perfectly: a cast iron Dutch oven and 450 degrees F heat. The heat source does not seem to matter much, though when possible it is good to control for exactly 450 F with an oven thermometer. When controlling the heat is not possible (in a campfire, for instance), you may want to stick with recipes that do not contain dry goods like rice or pasta for better results.
The only type of oven I know that you should NOT use with a cast iron Dutch oven is a microwave oven.
Happy cooking, and please pass along a thank you to your library for stocking my book!