Subject: Re: Dutch oven - new

From: [email-masked] (Vampire)
Date: 14 Mar 95 19:43:57 CST

JeffPMil ([email-masked]) wrote:
: How does one "cure" an iron Dutch Oven?  We lost the directions!

: Thanks
Rub it down with cooking oil, crisco, something like that. Get the grease      rubbed in real well, and wipe off the excess. Then heat it for about an hour,
preferably in a relatively "clean" heating oven (I forgot the temp, but I think it's about 300 or so Farenheit), and wipe off any grease that comes out during the heating. (You may want to double-check this-Use a Boy Scout Handbook or   the like)  
: Public/private okay
: Be seeing you,
: Number 6

--
Mike S. Medintz
currently a student, future DUI on the Information Superhighway
Drinker of Coffee, rent-a-cop, working Philosopher
The opinions in this article are MINE!(admit it! You want them too!)

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From: [email-masked] (Dave bd Hsu)
Date: 15 Mar 1995 10:38:40 -0500

In article <[email-masked]>,
>preferably in a relatively "clean" heating oven (I forgot the temp, but I think it's about 300 or so Farenheit), and wipe off any grease that comes out during the heating. (You may want to double-ch…

And don't forget the old Boy Scout prohibition against using steel wool on
cast iron.  Plastic pads are okay.

-dave

-- 
Dave Hsu    <[email-masked]>

"The only way to deal with bureaucrats is with stealth and sudden violence."
                                - UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 1995 16:24:26 GMT

In article <[email-masked]> [email-masked] (Dave bd Hsu) writes:

>>Rub it down with cooking oil, crisco, something like that. Get the grease     
>rubbed in real well, and wipe off the excess. Then heat it for about an hour,
>>preferably in a relatively "clean" heating oven (I forgot the temp, but I think
>it's about 300 or so Farenheit), and wipe off any grease that comes out during
>the heating. (You may want to double-check this-Use a Boy Scout Handbook or  
>the like)  

>                                - UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali

Dutches are shipped from the factory w/ a layer of wax which, IMHE, must be 
removed w/ steel wool.  That is the last time you use steel wool on it until 
you're ready to reseason it, cause after a good scrubbing you must either 
reseason it or use it for a doorstop.

After the scrubbing, as I recall the directions, it's rubdown w/ a good 
cooking oil or shortening (many self-proclaimed sourdoughs decry one or the 
other, I can't find the difference).  Place in a household oven so excess 
drains freely (body upside down, lid right side up).  Bake for 
1-3 hours at about 350 deg F.

Rather than rely on my memory, call Lodge Manufacturing in South Pittsburg, TN 
and ask.

Logan VanLeigh
Dutchman and Dutch-Oven Cooker
(I don't know enough to be a chef yet)

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From: [email-masked] (Dave bd Hsu)
Date: 17 Mar 1995 15:55:34 -0500

>reseason it or use it for a doorstop.

True...once cast iron is properly seasoned, a good wipe and a light rubdown
with oil/Crisco/whatever is all it needs.  And as we all know, it gets
better the more you use it.

I find that Scotchbrite does an adequate job when scrubbing is needed.
But the reason for the "no steel wool" prohibition is the porosity of
cast-iron...it loves to soak up lipids, but it also likes to trap
microscopic fuzz from the steel wool.  This eventually gets released
back into your food, and eventually you die a premature and agonizing
death of fibrosis!

Sorry...I was only kidding about that last part.  Sounds more dramatic
that way, don't you think?  Anyway, the rest of it is how it's always
been explained to me.

-dave