Got my first DO, now what?

[curiouswill]

By a stroke of luck I took a wrong turn and found a Harbor Frieght store. I had time today so I decided to go and look to see if they have the DO that i've heard about and wow they was having a store-wide clearance sale. Luckily I found a last DO there was and it was a 12" DO that costed the same as a 10" (around $13 with discount) so I decided to buy it right there Click here to see exactly which DO I got

I may come back later to buy it's 15" cast iron frying pan I saw (alas I couldn't afford to waste any more money on unneccessary items).


Now I got one, I have to admit that I've never had eaten anything made in dutch oven or even looked closely at one until today So now I have to ask to see if anybody knows of a site or something that have a good amount of info for DO newbies?

for example,
what exactly do seasoning mean?
is there a chart explaining how to calculate the use of charcoal for certain cooking condition or what?
what is the do and don't of DO?
how to use it in a convential kitchen? (I want to be able to use it and learn how to cook stuffs before I go camping with it for real.)


Thanks in advance for any and all responses

[Kevin A]

By a stroke of luck I took a wrong turn and found a Harbor Frieght store. I had time today so I decided to go and look to see if they have the DO that i've heard about and wow they was having a store-wide clearance sale. Luckily I found a last DO there was and it was a 12" DO that costed the same as a 10" (around $13 with discount) so I decided to buy it right there Click here to see exactly which DO I got

I may come back later to buy it's 15" cast iron frying pan I saw (alas I couldn't afford to waste any more money on unneccessary items).


Now I got one, I have to admit that I've never had eaten anything made in dutch oven or even looked closely at one until today So now I have to ask to see if anybody knows of a site or something that have a good amount of info for DO newbies?

for example,
what exactly do seasoning mean?
is there a chart explaining how to calculate the use of charcoal for certain cooking condition or what?
what is the do and don't of DO?
how to use it in a convential kitchen? (I want to be able to use it and learn how to cook stuffs before I go camping with it for real.)


Thanks in advance for any and all responses

Will, here's a great Dutch Oven website. http://papadutch.home.comcast.net/

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

Will,
1. Wash DO and lid real good in hot water to remove the wax coating.
2. Pat dry with a towel and stick it in the kitchen oven for a while at about 350 or so.
3. Cool in kitchen oven to room temerature.
4. Lightly coat DO and lid with a thin layer of crisco. (The white stuff)
5. Place DO in the kitchen oven upside down and place the lid on top of the legs.
6. Set kitchen oven to about 500 F and bake it for an hour or so, until the smoke stops.
7. Let it cool in kitchen oven to room temperature.
8. Repeat steps 4 thru 7 if so desired... Check to make sure all the oil has carbonized, leaving no wet or soft sticky spots.

Your dutch oven is now seasoned and ready to go!

NOTE: Outdoor gas fired bbq's work good too, if smoke in the kitchen is gonna be a problem...

[TomS]

Welcome to the wonderful world of DO cooking.

Using the kitchen oven tends to smoke up the house and piss off the wife in the process. You might want to use an outdoor gas grill to season that DO.

Here's somee DO links to get you started.

http://papadutch.home.comcast.net/

http://www.macscouter.com/Cooking/DutchOven.html

http://www.mydutchoven.com/recipes.php

http://www.asolidfoundation.com/do101_equipment.shtml

[asianflava]

They explained what "seasoning" is but what it does is make the pot "non-stick" almost teflon coating it. The more you use it, the better it gets (unless you wash it off)

Ms Flava sat in on a couple DO workshops at IRG both fromal and informal (thanks Joanne and Kelly) she mentioned a rule of 3s (or something like that). She didn't do a great job explaining it to me but I found it in the Lodge paperwork that came with the ovens.

This is just a rule of thumb, there are several factors that will influence how hot the oven actually gets. The number of coals you will need also depends on what you are cooking. Take the size of oven and SUBTRACT 3 from it, that is how many coals you put on the bottom. Then take the oven size and ADD 3 to it, that is how many coals to put on top of the oven.

For example: a 12in oven will need 9 coals underneath and 15 coals on top.

Dos and Dont's: The biggie is: Don't thernally shock the oven, i.e. put a hot oven in water, you will crack it. Don't get ashes in the food. Don't leave water in the oven. This next one is a little controversial, don't use soap to wash it out, it will remove the seasoning.

What I do to wash it is, put hot water into it to soften up whatever is in it. Then I use a plastic scraper to get the big stuff off, then a scrub brush to get off the rest. Afterwards, I'll either put it on the stove or BBQ for a short time to warm it up so that the water evaporates off.

I'm just a novice but I've found this information invaluable. Maybe some of the "seasoned" veterans can give you better advice.

[Laredo]

For cast iron cleaning I like this method -- if it was something I fried, I'll wipe out the pan with a clean soft rag and then put it over a low fire with about a tablespoon of coarse non-iodized salt, which I will shove around the bottom of the pan with a rubber spatula to absorb all the grease, etc.

If it was something soupy I'll bring a cupful of water to a simmer in the pan and brush it around the inside with a nylon scrubbee until everything I want out is in the water, then I'll dump that down the drain and rinse with clean hot water.

Then I'll set it back over low heat, wipe it dry, and add a teaspoon of peanut oil which gets wiped over the entire inside of the pan with a folded paper towel. The pan then gets set inside the (turned off) oven until next use.

Soap works into the pores of cast iron -- you can get sick from it!

[sjptak]

All of the above is right on. Resist trying to do chili or anything that is tomatoe based because of the acid for a while. Use it to cook bacon and fatty foods to give it that blackened patina and the desired nonstick features of cast iron. Once it is truly seasoned, then cook all the chili you want.

I agree with the "no soap" for cleaning. I use nothing but water and a plastic scraper, then put a light layer of oil on before putting it away.

The first time I tried to cook with cast iron, I tried to fry bacon and eggs. The fry pans were right out of the box. I didn't know anything about seasoning. Even the bacon stuck! That was 20 years ago and I still have those fry pans. They are better than any teflon pan could be.

You're gonna love cast iron cooking.