When cooking over coals or campfires was more common the Dutch oven would have come with stubby legs and a lid with a wide lip. The legs held the pot up so that the coals could be used to heat underneath. The lip on the lid would have held the coals on top so that heat could cook from both the bottom and the top. When modern wood stoves came along and even later when electric and gas stoves followed, dutch ovens without legs and plain lids became popular because they could sit flat on the stove. Whether they have legs or not they are both called Dutch ovens. I was always taught that the ones with legs were called dutch ovens and the ones without were called bean pots but that may have been just a regional thing at the time. Either way they are both great pieces of cast iron but if you want to cook with charcoal then its best to have the one with the legs.
Today I brought out my dutch oven and decided to bake some macaroni and cheese with ham. Its a meal all in one pot that requires very little fuel to prepare. Cooking in a Dutch oven is something that is easy to learn and an alternate cooking method for WTSHTF. Its a good idea to have multiple ways to cook just in case one method becomes unavailable due to a power outage or inability to get fuels.
Cooking the Mac and cheese today was very easy and in case you're not familiar with doing it in a Dutch oven, I thought I would share how I did it today.
Its a good idea to have a charcoal chimney for starting coals. They sell them wherever they sell grills or you can easily make one from an empty #10 can. I also have a lid lifter but you can use oven mitts if you don't have one. So the first thing I do is to fill the charcoal chimney with coals, put balled up paper underneath and light it. By the time the coals are going it will be time to cook the meal.
I boiled some noodles. Then I diced up some ham and an onion. I also had some grated cheese but I cut some in small chunks too.
After about 30 minutes this was what it looked like.
Southern Wood Elf