Garage Sale Iron Kettle and Holder

[Catoosa Grani]

My neighbor goes to a lot of garage sales and yesterday she came home with this pot and some kind of holder. Does it look familiar to anyone? I suspect the holder was used in the fireplace inside to hold the kettle. It can be raised up or down the full length of the hinge part. The swing arm has about 4 indentations to hang a handle from. Anyone got any ideas? It is a cute little kettle, no names on it only a No.7 on the lid.





Grani B

[Coca Cola Teardrop]

Hi Betty, I'm no expert but I like those kind of finds at garage sales. Maybe one of the Dutch Oven experts will be of help. I haven't been to garage sales lately cause I live so far out and gas is too high. I think the last garage sale I went to I bought a brand new level jack for the next teardrop for $1.00.

Maybe you can join in on some dutch oven cooking.

Linda

[Catoosa Grani]

Thanks Linda! Yes, I was hopeing that some of those guys that do all the cooking or have all those iron things would tell me.

Say, were you the one that wanted those clips I had to hold the table cloth on? Someone asked about them and I have found some more.

How is the trailer coming?

See you in Minden.
Grani B

[Coca Cola Teardrop]

Yes Betty it was me but I found some at Dollar Tree. I like yours better (the metal ones) but mine work just fine. I used them when Charles and I went to Inks Lake.
The 3rd build is coming along again. We got side tracked for a few weeks but are back building. I worked on building shelves inside galley cabinets and Charles has built the cabin cabinets today.
Charles sold his horse and then bought a Shopsmith Woodworking tool and played with it for a while.
Then he bought himself a new compound miter saw and of course had to build a shelf for it.
Then he bought a new Arctic Cat 650 4x4 with a dump bed (3 days ago)
We cleared a fence row and I used the 4 wheeler with my big wagon in tow to haul limbs etc to our burn pile.
I'm hoping to get back to posting pics in our Yahoo album daily.
Thanks for asking about the build.
Linda

[Ma3tt]

WOW I mean virtually worthless just pack it up and send it to me. nice pot, because of the legs it was probably meant to be in a fire, but being narrow bottom it is hard to say what you would cook in it ON a fire. The hook is nice too. Is there a name on it anywhere, if there is a name I have lots of links to cast iron collector sites, just trying to narrow the search a bit.

[Catoosa Grani]

Matt, I was depending on you to know something. Thanks any way. No there is no name anywhere. I think I will take it to Minden for "show & tell", surely there will be someone who has seen something like them before. Even if I can't use them they are neat to have I think.

Thanks!
Grani B

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

Looks like a bean pot... probably has a self basting lid. (Little dimples underneath the lid)

[Catoosa Grani]

O.K. Dean, you were the other one I was waiting to hear from. The lid has two circles of slotted lines, (each line 1" long), in the center of the lid. Does that mean anything to you?

Thanks!
Grani B.

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

Grani B,
The lines/slots on the inside of the lid sound like they would make the lid a self baster. The condensation would collect and drip off of them, which would baste the food.
Many moons ago back in the Boy Scouts, the troop I was in started doing bean bake campouts with dutch ovens at Big Lagoon, except we were required to bury the oven in the ground. The event was well received in the scouting community and turned into an annual event, bringing troops from far away. I remember one year a troop from out of our area asked if they could just dig a bean hole, leaving the lid exposed above ground... They had a pot like yours.

[GregB]

Grani,

I believe that your bean pot is also known as a potje or potjie (pronounced poi-kei). It is a traditional African cooking pot used for stews and casseroles. Potjes have a rounded belly with three legs so they can sit directly in the fire. Most of ones that I have seen have longer legs, so I'm guessing yours is for the coals. An old friend of mine cooked poi in his to demonstrate African cooking for me once. Nasty stuff, tastes like paste gone bad.

I'm hoping that your pot sees more beans than poi!

Cheers,

GB

PS - BTW, Dean they make potjie kettles as large as 85 gallons! That's 35" wide, 30" high, and 24" deep. These critters weigh as much as my barbecue, a backbreaking 470 lbs.!!

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

Greg,
When TDN took me to Hawaii, I was given poi and I loved it... It was great tasting paste.

I aslo had a Hawaiian man, who I later befriended, tell me that he could tell that I was a Great Hawaiian Warrior in a past life of mine... Maybe that had something to do with liking poi.

Grani B,
Something to be careful about, when buying used cast iron, is whether or not it was used to melt lead at one time or another...

[Catoosa Grani]

Dean, how can you tell if it has been used for melting lead? I am not sure I will ever use it but need to know.

Thanks Greg. That is interesting. I doubt if I would ever fix Poi.

Is there a special way to clean these pots when bought at garage sales, not knowing what they were used for?

Grani

[Catoosa Grani]

Dean, did the scouts put coals in the hole and on top of the pot when they buried them?

Grani

[Dean in Eureka, CA]

Grani B,
If you can't find a lead test kit locally, they can be had online, like this one...
http://www.leadinspector.com/?gclid=CPLFqveGtIwCFRE9VAodlUBoSA
For twelve bucks, you get eight tests and it's easy... Just wipe a cotton swab of the surface for 30 seconds or so and if it changes color, lead is present.

Back in the scouts, I opted for a kitchen type dutch oven for the underground bean bakes... I wanted the dirt, ash and coals to roll off the top of the lid when I dug the pot out of the ground. Not having the three legs like the camp style ovens do, I used three stones to elevate the oven bottom up off of the coals. We'd dig a hole, make a fire next to the hole and let it burn down, add coals to the bottom of the hole, place the rocks and the oven, cover the oven with more coals, then fill the rest of the hole with dirt.
I learned right out of the gate that I needed more water in the mix... My first attempt got scorched. Dinner that first time was pretty tough... My patrol sat around with the other patrols pretending to enjoy our scorched beans.

[Catoosa Grani]

I can imagine them not wanting to admit they were bad. I'm not sure how you can keep a straight face with scorched beans. I bet your next ones were great.

Grani B.