Dutch Oven Advice Please

[keltin]

Originally Posted by Callisto in NC

Ah, okay. I guess 50 years of seasoning has fixed that little problem with her pans.

Very true. A well seasoned cast iron piece has no problems with cooking acidic foods. Just don’t store the food in the CI! I cook tomato based dishes all the time in my CI, and for the really well seasoned pieces, I rarely do anything but wipe it clean and store. For my newer DO, I like to wipe it with some oil after cooking acidic foods.

The only time I’ve heard of anyone having a problem is with a new CI piece that wasn’t seasoned right, and even regular food can taste off in that case.

[David Cottrell]

Quote:
I was right down the hall talkihg with Roxy about her Pizza Casserole. Keltin gave me some good first hand advice so I just copied it and brought it here to add to the Dutch Oven discussion. Thanks Keltin!

Originally Posted by David Cottrell Re Pizza Casserole - had to copy it off - Roxy you better slow down girl, I can't keep up with your good ideas - looks like I will have to make a Roxy notebook cookbook. Question, to go along with all the good advice I'm getting on Dutch Ovens - with the tomato sauce type ingredients in this, can I do it in my proposed to-buy plain cast iron Dutch Oven? Or will I need one of the enameled jobs?

You can use the cast iron DO as long as you have seasoned it. Once you’ve cooked this, I’d suggest lightly seasoning the DO again by heating it in the oven and just wipe some oil on the inside and let it cool. With new cast iron, I typically heat it and apply oil after every use for the first month or so, after that, I just add a little oil every now and then depending on what I’ve cooked.

I’ve got a fairly new DO, and the thirds or fourth thing I cooked was Chili (lots of tomatoes!) and I had no problems at all, and it tasted great!
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We can often do more for other men by trying to correct our own faults than by trying to correct theirs. -- Francois Fenelon

[ribs and steak]

Heres what I've read about purchasing a Dutch Oven: First, how many people are you cooking for?

Cast Iron or aluminium- I prefer cast iron because it cooks evenly, holds heat well and I dont have to worry about burning things.

Look over the oven, make sure the lid sits on top without any wobbling, check for openings that could mean the oven or lid is warped.

Check that the walls and bottom are the same thickness, this makes for even cooking.

Inspect the whole thing for defects inside & out.

If considering a camp oven, pick it up to see how the bail moves, putting it on the floor & lifting it like its coming out of the fire is a good test.

[ribs and steak]

In my last posting the first question was to help you decide the quart size of the Dutch oven.