Dutch oven clean-up

someone will be by and tell ya all about d.o. in the mean time stop by roll call and tell us about all the neat thing ya got

heat up your Dutch oven slowly on the stove and wash it hot with mild soap and water on the outside. it will take the smoke and grease right off and not hurt your seasoning. I use my D.o. in my smoker all the time and washing it hot cleans it up in less than 5 minutes. heres some more info from my Dutch oven cook books i have published.

Cleaning: Cleaning cast iron is really quite easy and simple. As the same principal with seasoning, there are as many opinions as there are cooks. The methods I have found to work for me, are written here to share with you. However, as you cook more and more with cast iron and camp Dutch ovens, you will find a method that works best for you and your style of cooking.
Right after I am finished cooking in my Dutch ovens, I like to use a spray bottle filled with a solution of 4 parts of water to 1 part of apple cider vinegar to clean and sanitize with. First, scrape out all the extra bits of food with a plastic scraper; then spray the vinegar solution into the hot Dutch oven and wipe it out with a couple of paper towels. Sometimes, I need to spray and wipe out the oven several times to get it clean. But, it works well and the cider vinegar has other uses as well.
Many people will tell you to never clean cast iron with soap and water. I have found this to be an excellent way to clean cast iron and, sometimes use soap and water myself. Be sure that cast iron is warm to free the food from the pores easily, and rinse the cast iron with hot water, very well, to remove all of the soap.
The last and most important thing to do after cleaning your cast iron is not applying more oil to the iron; but, to dry it completely over, or in a heat source, to keep it from rusting. When drying cast iron, don’t get it to hot. It only needs to be about 225o for the moisture to evaporate and dry out. Once the pot, pan, or Dutch oven is cleaned and dried, place a paper towel inside with a little of the paper towel going to the outside to “wick” out any moisture from inside the pot and lid. Be sure to store your cast iron dry, without oil to keep it from turning rancid.
Rust Removal and Stripping Rancid Seasoning: Many people I have met over the many years of teaching camp Dutch oven cooking classes have asked me how to remove seasoning that is rancid or how to remove rust from cast iron. Removing rust can be as simple as using an S.O.S. pad or can get as involved as building an electrolysis tank for heavy rust. I will tell you about two simple methods and for electrolysis information you can search the internet for one of many sites telling you how from A to Z.
There are two main methods I use for rust removal which are both safe and effective. The first is for light rust and is quick and easy, usually taking less than 10 minutes before baking on a new layer of seasoning over the pot or pan. Simply take a S.O.S. pad and scrub the warmed cast iron with the S.O.S. pad and rinse with very hot water. Dry with towels and place the iron back into a 500° to 550° oven and proceed with the seasoning instructions above.
The second is a little slower but does a great job on removing moderate to heavy rust. In a time span of 24 to 48 hours the rust is consumed through a chemical reaction between alfalfa hay and apple cider vinegar. You need a large non metallic tub like a Rubbermaid storage container or plastic barrel, some alfalfa hay or cubes and apple cider vinegar with some boiling water. Place a 1” layer of alfalfa hay or ½” layer of cubes or pellets in the bottom of the tub. Place the rusted iron on top of the bed of alfalfa and bring the layer of alfalfa to 1” over the top of the iron and inside the iron also. Lastly boil enough water to cover the iron 1” over the top of the iron. You want to use a 3:1 ratio of boiling water to apple cider vinegar. Let the iron set in the tub for 24 hours then the next day, take it out of the tub and spray it off with a hose and check it out. Scrub it with an S.O.S. pad and wash with hot soap and water, rinsing well. Toss it in a hot oven and follow seasoning instructions. If you have heavy rust use a steel brush on a drill and brush all the rust off you can then soak in the alfalfa solution. When the iron dries in the oven it is common to see a light orange powdery rust layer, this is normal and in not a reason to panic. Just Season the cast iron and you are ready to cook in your re-conditioned cast iron.
be sure to dry it in the oven at 250 for 30 minutes and let it cool before putting it away.

The way I always clean the inside my dutch oven is to wipe it out with paper towels, then dump a bunch of salt into it, let it sit for a couple minutes, then get more paper towels and scrub it around. The salt is abrasive enough to get the food and grease out without giving it a funky soap taste or ruining the seasoned dutch oven. Works every time. As far as the outside goes, de-greasing liquid and rags work well. Just make sure it doesn't get near the opening and make sure to wipe it clean before cooking again.

the problem with salt scrubbing without any water, or vinegar, ets is that the cast iron is still oily and that oil if the oven is not used frequently turns rancid and the possibility of germs and other nasties to contaminate the utinsel is very high. Using water with cider vinegar not only removes any oily residue, but also takes care of the nasties because of the acidic nature of the vinegar and the steam produced through heat and evaporation kills those nasty little critters that can be detrimental to one's health. I personally dont always use soap but its a fact of life when I'm doing a public event and the health department requires its use. Otherwise its the 3 parts of water to 1 part of pure apple cider vinegar for a cleaning solution. Cleaning time for a Dutch oven for me is 30 seconds to 60 seconds, using the above methods i posted previously.

If you're just talking about the outside getting sooty, the way we used to solve that when we cooked DO in the campfire was to coat the outside with dishwashing soap before putting it in the fire. the soot just wipes off then. But you have to be careful so as not to get it in whatever you're cooking.

Now, if it's already sooty, then elbow grease is in order.

We clean our DO's after camp cooking the same way as our pans. Hot water and a soft scrubber. Just make sure you dry and season everything real good before storage.

When cleaning, heating the DO with water in it will loosen everything enough to wipe it clean. Then heat it again to get it dry and wipe a thin coat of lard or veggie shortening over it inside and out to keep it seasoned.

Good seasoning is key to using and storing any cast iron cooking item.

Jon.

I may be wrong here but on my pans I always wipe out with paper towel, get the pan good and hot and then dump 1/2 cup water in the pan. instant deglaze and using a spatula gets all the gunk off the pan...Then hot water and a washcloth...dry and done.

Do as we do with all our pans in Boy Scouts to help in clean up.....coat the outside of the pan (DO) with liquid hand soap......makes cleaning off that soot one heck of a lot easier......

Rick

I leave mine on the counter and my wife cleans em up!

Oh Badfrog! He's got it! lol

I had one that set for a year and I "soda blasted" it. Soda Blasting is the same as sand blasting, but you use bicarbonate of soda instead of sand. It is much softer and much less abrasive than sand, so it is perfect for cleaning.

I got my 10# capacity soda blaster at Harbor Freight for $35. A 50# bag of soda is $35, but you can clean a lot of stuff for the money, well worth it IMHO.

I wipe the excess with paper towels pour in salt spread it around then let it sit to finish absorbing excess grease. the wipe out. As far as the out side prior to cooking I spray the outside with PAM. Then clean up is just a damp paper towel away. Dry completely and if I need to re-season the outside I do. Used this method back some 30 years ago in the boy scouts Still using the same dutch oven today looks good as ever.

How about one of these chain mail cast iron pan cleaners?

The key to cleaning a dutch oven, inside and out, is dish soap.  Lots and lots of dish soap.

Just kidding.  I just hope I didn't cause too many aneurysms with that comment.

These are all solid ideas if you ask me.

ThsMormonSmokes said:

The key to cleaning a dutch oven, inside and out, is dish soap.  Lots and lots of dish soap.

Just kidding.  I just hope I didn't cause too many aneurysms with that comment.

These are all solid ideas if you ask me.

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I was starting to get an aneurysm reading what you wrote..... don't do that to me........   

Acid contents in the foods cooked in DO's are what can make rust happen too. Don't ever make the mistake I did and do spaghetti sauce in one that is not seasoned well. I agree with the brillo pads- hot water....elbow grease....rinse and repeat! I have my Grandmothers.

I scrape out as much food as possible and then boil water and wood ash for about 10 min. The alkaline in the ash eats off most everything in the pan. After boiling I just dump it out and wipe everything down with hot water paper towels while the DO is hot.
 

Once they are well seasoned, they don't need that much care.

Cook with tomatoes all you want, just don't store that stuff in them.

Hot water, a brush, and a gentle warm up on the stove or in the oven will do it.

Best thing you could do is to fry in them often.

Mine is about 80 years old.  I love the look, and I still feel the loving hands of those who went before me!

Good luck and good smoking.

DaveOmak said:

I was starting to get an aneurysm reading what you wrote..... don't do that to me........  

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I joke, but I was car camping in Yellowstone last year with some friends.  I did a big dutch oven potato meal, and some dude volunteered to go clean the dutch oven.  I was just happy that someone was volunteering to help with clean up, so I asked if he knew how to clean a dutch oven and he told me he did.  Turns out I should have pressed the issue with him a little further.  Dude was a total idiot, as I found out later on in the trip.  When he came back, my oven wreaked of Dawn dish soap.  I asked him if he used dish soap on it, and he just said, "Yup." as he walked away, obviously not knowing or caring what he had just done.  It also looked like he'd used steel wool on the bottom.  Completely destroyed the patina that I've taken so much time to build up.

I've scrubbed the sin out of that thing and re-seasoned it twice since then.  It's still not quite back to where it needs to be, but it's at least producing decent food.  I did a peach cobbler with it recently, and I've at least gotten rid of the soap taste.  But it has been a ton of work and it's still not back to where it was.