When a recipe says to heat something in a dutch oven what does that mean?

A dutch oven is a big piece of cookware and lid that you can use on the stove top and in the oven. It's shallower than a soup pot, more like a roasting dish. I've got a plain cast-iron one, but a lot of them are cast iron coated in enamel.





Here's some pictures:





http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10鈥?/a>