Dutch Oven Maintenance

[Hilditch]

Unless you have ruined the seasoning, there should never be such a thing as re-seasoning required for your DO. Simply use it. There is no law that says you can only use it when camping.

If it is only used to cook liquid dishes, you will ruin the seasoning. When at home fry in it. Hamburgers, bacon, sausage, steak, pork chops, etc. Anything/everything that you can fry in it will build that precious seasoning so the stew will not hurt the seasoning as much. Remember to follow all ci rules or you can still ruin it.

My DO loves to fry peameal bacon.

Side note: If you have a desire or miss a certain food, do your homework and learn how to make it. That is what I had to do to get real peameal bacon and flavorful Italian bread, so I make my own. They go great together. If you are lucky you will find what you want for sale on line. (Many years ago I wanted a real key lime pie. From Key West they shipped me 5 gallons of filling. My urge has been satisfied to this day.) I find very few folks willing to make what they claim to want. For some reason they would rather whine about it than go through the effort to enjoy it.

Hilditch

 

[Hilditch]

Stelena or ?? (With no signature I don't know which of the three of you wrote the question.) I preheat my cast iron on simmer on a gas stove or just a few coals from a fire. You want to do it slow so as not to shock the ci. When the upper rim is too hot to keep your finger on (200o) it is safe to turn up the heat. It will heat up quickly from there. When a little oil starts smoking you are about 400o. If you think Slow, Moderate, or Hot you can cook anything great, great grandma did without having an exact temperature in degrees. You adjust as you go. It's called cooking.

Cathy, I love my SK14 (15") frying pan. I ground the inside bottom smooth and it's like having my own grill from the Waffle House that contains all the splatters. It needs an 8" ci trivet to spread the heat evenly on a gas stove. If you don't have a cracked trivet, the heat will crack it for you. You still can move it around to get cooler areas in the pan if you wish. It is too big for the CI, heavy and will fit in most closets for storage. Five hamburger patties at once? Straight bacon, hash browns and eggs in the same pan. That monster t-bone and two fillets also, or that big fish you caught. Three or four big pork chops. All fun with the SK14, the largest skillet you would want on a home stove.