Homemade License Plate Windshield for Outdoor Camp Cast Iron Dutch Oven Cooking
Create your own universal, one-size-fits-all, foldable, portable, easy-to-make wind screen that is as handy as a latch on an outhouse door! Maybe that’s not the perfect comparison but you get the gist.
There are many challenges in cooking outdoors. First and foremost, weather happens outside. Cold, hot, rain, wind, and all kinds of natural challenges. Hey! It’s what makes a good meal great. Yeah, flavor, right? Yes, you’ll be amazed at how delicious nostalgia tastes.
The biggest challenge with weather is usually managing the heat that “heats” the cast iron camp Dutch oven. That heat from your coals or charcoal briquettes is known as thermal heat. The heat from the charcoal briquettes travels outward in all directions (including down). Thermal heat or thermal radiation is like rivers of electromagnetic waves of heat.
These waves of heat hit the Dutch oven and are absorbed by the cast iron. In a windless environment, the thermal radiation waves of heat are “flowing” out from the charcoal briquettes and only the heat in the direct path of the “wave” is absorbed by the cast iron. The heat flowing up, warms the Dutch oven. The “waves” flowing down heat the base and help heat the Dutch oven as well. The “waves” of heat that are flowing out and away from the Dutch oven is energy that, for a lack of a better definition, is wasted energy.
Even on a windless day, the windshield could be thought of as a heat shield and helps the “waves” of heat find their way back to the Dutch oven at some level or another.
When we throw environmental wind into the cooking scene, we create a form of convection…kinda and sorta but not really. Let me quickly explain. Convection heat, the heated air or “waves” of heat are usually directed toward the object that we need to heat. BUT! When the wind blows over our camp cast Iron Dutch oven, that wind will “move” those waves of heat off into other directions. Think blowing on a spoon of hot soup. Only, we don’t want our soup cooled just yet.
There’s more to it for sure. For the most part, we get the concept of a windshield or a windscreen when we cook outside. And, we also get the concept of packing efficiently and at a minimum. And…this is most important (tongue-in-cheek)…we want to be the coolest Dutch oven chef in camp. This homemade license plate windshield is just the thing that will turn those heads and get those nods. You are about to be the coolest in camp.
Let’s Make Our Windshield
There’s more to this design than putting the windshield together with a bunch of key rings. It’s both that simple and a bit complex at the same time. First, here are the things you need:
- Ten (10) license plates (the USA versions).
- This is important: Use eighteen (18) 1 ¼ inch large key rings. I’ll explain why this size is important.
You can get a 100 Pack of Extra-Large Key Rings right here (affiliate link): https://amzn.to/41dYTPX
The first question is: Why do we have to use 1.25 inch (1 ¼”) key rings?
This is the perfect size for holding the license plates close enough to block most of the wind and allow some air movement. Fire will only be fire with air…oxygen.
Second, key rings that are smaller will not allow the windshield to fold. It will just bunch up and make you say ugly words. We can’t have that.
Third, if the rings are too big, that will let too much air in between the spaces and defeat the purpose of the windshield (though it will provide some shielding).
10 license plates are all you’ll need for your all your Camp Cast Iron Dutch Oven sizes.
There are a few sizes you will be cooking with. Likely you cook with a 10-inch or a 12-inch or have a few of these that you cook with. Some of you will have an 8-inch and/or a 14-inch camp cast iron Dutch oven. And fewer of you will have a size bigger than a 14-inch like the coveted 16-inch oven from Lodge (now go say a prayer and ask for forgiveness ye who covets…I’m joking…I have two of them dudes).
Now we know how many license plates we need, how do we put it together. HEY! If you can cook in a cast iron Dutch oven in the great outdoors, you’ve likely half done with your windscreen already. Nonetheless, I’ll show you the technique:
- Feed two key rings through the top two holes on one license plate.
- Take the second license plate and feed those two key rings though the bottom holes of the second license plate.
- Keep adding rings and license plates until you have a windscreen that suits the size of the Dutch oven you cook with.
Chef Tip: I didn’t do this with my windscreens until I realized what I did. I kinda like my license plates to be dress-right-dress. So, when I make windscreens now, I attach them top and bottom. When I hold the screen up, all of the plates are right-side-up and not with some that are upside-down.
Where to Get License Plates
There’s two truths from this point forward. First, you’ll start looking and find none. You’ll swear that you’ve seen 1000’s of them “in the wild” but now it seems they’ve all been found. Second, when you do find some, you’ll be a bit giddy and almost like a 6-year-old girl with a new Barbie Doll. I know I’ve given a bit of a girlish giggle when I find plates out and about. But, we’ll keep that to ourselves.
Mine have come from two places. First, we’ve moved a whole heck of a lot over the years. From Louisiana and Mississippi, to Alaska, to Idaho, and then back to Louisiana that year I gave my wife that Emmy Lou Harris CD, “Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town.”
After that fella got stabbed in the butt by another fella’s Old Timer in the parking of our Motel 6, we headed back to Idaho.
Then, a few years later and a son-in-tow, we moved over to Tennessee to be near our relocating family. Why not? Murfreesboro is a nice town. And, after a couple of Christmases spent as alone as we did in Idaho, back to Idaho we went. Been here ever since…with all of our old license plates.
Emmy Lou Harris music and a fella stabbed in the butt with a pocket knife…those are stories for another day.
The other places have been garage sales (usually a buck-a-plate but I’m willing to go up to 3 bucks unless it’s a good one and maybe a bit more). Keep an eye on the road and your peripheral vision to the side of the road. There are two things that are fair game if you find them in the road: License Plates and Metal Garbage Can lids. If you are not sure of who the owner is, then finders-keepers-losers-weepers!
Other suggestions: Ask your family. I am sure there are a few of them who still hold on to old plates. There’s something about license plates and privacy. Everyone and their mother can see your license plate when zooming around like a wild banshee out of heck while picking your noses and eating Taco Bell (not you but folks I know)! But we still tend to hide them in photos and keep them like old identification markers that will lead all the hooligans straight to our front door if those numbers and letters were to ever find their way to a social media post.
Speaking of social media posts, put out a Facebook post or a Tweet. Ask your friends for their plates and let them know they are for “art materials.” Do not tell them about this cool article until after you have their plates. Just sayin’! Not, really. Don’t do that to your friends…well…don’t do that to some of your friends. There are those others who…well… Never mind. Mamma always said if you ain’t got nothin’ nice to say… You finish that sentence. And…their plates (if they give them to you) are fair game!
Did You See that Crack?
Did you see that crack in the lid of my 16-inch cast iron Dutch oven? This was a Dutch oven that I found on Facebook market and paid $80.00 for it. Want to read the story of my cracked cast iron Dutch oven? Sure, you do. Here’s the link: https://beerandiron.com/2023/05/what-is-my-cast-iron-worth
Summary
There. You’ve got it!! It’s that easy. If you show off your awesomeness at camp and post your license plate windscreens, I’d love the tag.
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Hey. My name is Sulae. And I love to share the magic that comes out of my black pots and pans. Y’all keep hanging out here at BeerAndIron.com and take a moment to sign up for the newsletter. Trust me, I ain’t gonna bug you.
We’ll see you all next time. And keep on cooking in those black cast iron beauties and enjoying those frosted glasses of that fermented barley pop! Que the pop, hiss, and gurgle-gurgle of beer pouring into your frosted Shaker Pint!
