I often cook rice or beans in a light weight stainless steel bowl with a folded band of aluminum foil under it to lift bowl when food cooked. Water is added to the bottom of the pot, a rack inserted, and foil covers bowl and contents. If the rice bean calls for 2 cups water to one cup rice or beans, I add that to bowl before covering it with foil. I also season bowl before doing this. Reason - I am a 2 person family. If I want to cook rice or beans for one meal, I cannot cook this small amount in my 6 quart Presto cooker. Cooking it in a bowl means I can still cook my rice or beans in 7 to 15 minutes, remove the stainless bowl and present for serving, and dump and rinse out the Presto in half a minute. No chances of drying out or burning small quantities of food on the bottom of my Presto. This higher and better use of a pressure cooker comes from Miss Vickie. Her cookbook on pressure cooking is wonderful. Her advise is given freely and well thought out also (on her website). Just my observations based on implementation. Jim in So Calif

In the days before modern ovens, cast iron dutch ovens were used for baking, I believe, and used in wood fires, either outdoors or in a fireplace. Cast iron dutch ovens of that design are still being sold for use in campfires. They have three small legs which allow them to stand stably in a bed of coals and a rim around the top of the lid to retain a layer of coals heaped on top. Dutch ovens are being used in some bread baking methods, however this is done inside the regular oven, not on the stove top. The dutch oven serves as a cloche to hold in steam. That's a long way of saying, "Yes, dutch ovens can be used for baking, but probably not for stove top baking because a stove top burner will apply heat only to the bottom". Jim

Actually, I have heard really good things -- cooks illustrated tested and recommended the Savu smoker bags (see the second paragraph in the link below)... Never got around to trying them myself, but this is inspiring me... Here is a link that might be useful: Cooks Illustrated on smoker bags

Let me see if I can help. And noooo, you're not dense. In fact you're very astute! Keep in mind, this is my version and what works for me. Typically, I don't flour the inside of the bag. Never saw the need really. And one tiny slit is about all you need. The bags expand when heated so you want the steam to escape. If you are layering in the crockpot, place your slit strategically. As for layering, this depends on the size of your crockpot. Don't overcrowd. I don't know that the bags reduce time in the crockpot. I never paid attention to that. I guess I will now :) Hope this helps. Happy cooking!