How, my wife asks, do you clean a sticky old dutch oven--a gift?

Question

Baked on caked on crud!

Answer 1

If you can start a wood fire out side. When you have a good amount of coals place the pot in it, and burn it all up. The torch idea sounds good to. When you season it use lard or bacon grease. DO NOT use oil. Veg oil will turn into a nasty sticky mess. Lard is lower than butter when it comes saturated fat and cholesterol. Use low heat when cooking, cast iron transfers heat vary well. I don't wash mine I just wipe it out until next time. Don't cook tomato products in it the acid eats the seasoning off the pot. I have 71 pieces of castiron from 241 years old to 10 years old. Check out my 360.

Answer 2

If it is stainless steel, Cameo Aluminum and Stainless steel cleaner is good to use and will even give a nice extra sheen to the metal. She may also want to try and fill it with water and put on top of the stove and bring to a rolling boil and let it set and scrape out as much as possible, then use the Cameo. Which, by the way, Cameo can be bought in your grocery store in the same isle as dish soap.

Here is a look up site, to show you what it looks like, but this product can be bought at any grocery store, Wal-Mart, etc. It is a very easy product to find and get.

Answer 3

I inherited an ancient cast iron fry pan in the same condition. Even though cast iron ware is supposed to have a given amount of 'caked on food' to make it work properly, I wanted this thing cleaned down to original. After trying an assortment of elbow grease methods, I got cranky and took out my propane torch and BURNED off the excess. Worked almost like a self cleaning oven.

Of course, you WILL want to do this outdoors, since it creates smoke and a bit of soot. My skillet was about eighty years old, and came out like new. With enough heat, you simply incinerate the caked on food. Just go at it slowly. Takes a bit of time, but it works. Cast Iron can handle a great amount of heat.

You will need to 're-season' the pan after this procedure, since it's now back to new condition.

Answer 4

Kaboom is wonderful for cleaning anything in the kitchen! It will take all the baked on crud on the dutch oven and stove and you fridge. Good luck!

Answer 5

Soak in hot water and baking soda. I just read that somewhere and it gets baked on stuff off no problem! You may need to leave in the sink overnight. I swear by Dawn for getting grease off anything. Again let it soak. Wow, nice gift =)

Answer 6

As long as it's not non-stick you can scrub it with a metal scrubber. Also, you might want to try Brillo pads or SOS pads. They will scrub and already have the cleaner in them. Let it soak for a while before you start scrubbing.

Answer 7

Is it cast iron? If so, you do not want to give it a good scrubbing with soap or you will ruin it!
If its stainless or other metal, you can clean with SOS pad to get it clean.