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Dutch Oven - Storing and Stripping Rusty
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March 21, 2012 - 11:13 pm
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Storing Your Dutch Ovens:
It is important when storing your Dutch ovens to keep the lid cracked so that air can circulate into it. This can be accomplished by laying a paper wick, made from a napkin or paper towel folded accordion style, across the rim of the oven leaving a small amount outside, and then setting the lid down on top of it. The wick also acts to draw any moisture out of the oven. If air cannot circulate into the Dutch oven, the oil used to protect it will turn rancid and will permeate the pores of the metal with a sour odor. DO NOT cook anything in a rancid oven, you will not be able to stomach the food! A rancid oven must be stripped of its protective coating and then be re-seasoned again.

When storing my Dutch ovens I like to put them in a protective cover to keep them from collecting dust, and to keep anything that might brush up against them from getting dirty. The covers also help protect the outside finish on the ovens from being scratched up in transit when camping or transporting ovens.
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Stripping Rusty Or Rancid:
Inevitably there will come a time when you will need to strip and re-season a rusting or rancid Dutch oven. Relax! It's not that difficult. I've found the easiest way to strip an oven is to place it upside down on the bottom rack of a self cleaning oven with the lid placed on top of the legs. Set the oven to self clean for 2 hours and let it be. Allow the oven to cool completely before removing the Dutch oven.

If you don't have a self cleaning oven or would prefer not to heat up your house then you can use an outdoor propane stove to accomplish the same thing. I like to use my Cache Cooker for this because it has a large burner that generates a lot of heat. The secret to successfully stripping an oven over a propane burner is to keep moving the oven around so every surface of the oven has a chance to be diretly over the burner, this also helps prevent warping should the metal become to hot. Light the burner and adjust it to generate a medium blue flame. Place the Dutch oven upside down over the flame and let it slowly heat for 10 minutes or so. Once the oven is hot turn up the burner to it's hottest setting and let the oven heat until it smokes heavily for about 5 minutes then rotate the oven to burn a new surface. Make sure to burn both the inside and the outside of the oven. As the metal burns it will take on a shiny oily look and may look white in some areas which is fine, keep heating the oven until all surfaces inside and out have this look then remove the oven from heat and allow it to cool slowly.

Once the Dutch oven has been burned and allowed to cool the remaining detritus must be removed from the oven surfaces. This is done by scrubbing the oven with a piece of steel wool or a metal scouring pad under hot running water until all surfaces are clean. Once clean, towel dry the oven then allow it to air dry. The Dutch oven is now ready to re-season.

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41 Posts
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April 3, 2012 - 11:47 pm
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These dutch oven threads are great information, thank you

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April 10, 2012 - 1:34 pm
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I'm glad this got bumped so I could see it.  We just got a DO last week and used it for the first time over the weekend. It's been cleaned and re-oiled, but I never thought about the oil going rancid. 

I need to go put some paper towels in the there tonight. 

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