I have made it through the first week! HOORAY!! It went by so fast and I have learned so much. I am still a little overwhelmed by what I am doing, but it has been really fun. I hope someone out there is cooking along with me and enjoying my recipes as much as we do.I have been looking into ways to clean my dutch oven and I wanted to try several different ways, but what I have been doing is so easy that I don't really want to try any other ways. But I will. So far, I have been scraping my warm dutch oven out with a small, square plastic scraper. If anyone has used Pampered Chef's stoneware then you know the scraper I am talking about. It is small with rounded corners that are different sizes and can fit into the corners of almost any pan. With a little bit of elbow grease I can get almost everything out. After it is scraped and I have removed the excess food, I spray the inside of my oven with a mixture of 1 part cider vinegar and 4 parts water and let it sit for just a minute. If the oven is warm, it won't take long. Then I just wipe it out with paper towels. It is that easy. After the oven is clean I put on a light coating of oil. I have found a nifty tool that makes oiling your oven really easy and prevents using too much oil. It is a kitchen spritzer (see the picture below). This one is from Pampered Chef. I fill it with vegetable oil, pump air into it with the special cap and then just spray. It is like using Pam spray, but without the preservatives and propellants that can cause a sticky build up on your oven. It has become one of my favorite tools. I have also seen them at local big box retailers.
One of the other ways I have seen people clean dutch ovens is by boiling them out. I can see needing to do that on rare occasions, like when I char my first batch of biscuits--Ha! Ha!--but overall, it doesn't seem healthy for the oven to do it on a regular basis. Please correct me if I'm wrong. It also seems like a royal pain. I have enough problems with having the coals right to want to mess around making sure I have enough hot coals left to boil out my oven. I think I will skip this method unless I really burn s
omething and it won't scrape out.
omething and it won't scrape out.
My kitchen spritzer My cleaning supplies
If anyone has a method they really like let me know and I will try it. Meanwhile, I will try something different this week.
Those methods probably work fairly well. I love food cooked in a Dutch Oven! Some good ones and tips on cleaning is at http://www.sightseeingreview.com/castirondutchoven.php
ReplyDeleteI pour hot water into my hot pots/skillets as soon as I can to soak when I'm not cleaning them right away - I'm lazy like that...
ReplyDeleteI use a small can of Crisco and a cheap natural paintbrush to coat my cast iron. I just brush on the shortening let sit for a few then wipe off what wasn't absorbed.
My dear friend's mama will never clean her cast iron with water. She uses rock salt, a little veggie oil, and a rag to scrub her cast iron clean. She says when the salt stays clearish-white it's clean.
I do use the outdoor dutch oven quite a bit and I use kosher salt and whatever oil is left in the pan. It gives it just enough abrasive to break loose anything stuck on. They I rinse and scrub with hot water and a stiff, very stiff brush. Rinse and light coat of Canola oil. I also put a cloth between the lid and the pot so it can breathe.
ReplyDeleteLike your site. If you have time check out my recent souffle http://pbetouffee.blogspot.com/2010/03/cast-iron-souffle_16.html
I scrub mine with hot water, not boiling, and either scrape with a scraper like you mentioned, then the stiff scrub brush. Then I dry, spray with the vinegar mix and dry again. Then I coat with mineral oil. It does not leave a taste and does not turn rancid. I store them with one small coffee filter inside and one small coffee filter folded several times and put between the lid and pot, to wick out any additional moisture that might be left or forming. I do spray with vinegar mixture and wipe out before using too.
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