Cleaning Dutch Ovens and Other Cast Iron

Of the five homes my husband and I have owned, the largest kitchen was in our 1186 square foot starter house.  A close second was in our third house, the one with a perfect floor plan in a perfect suburban neighborhood.  We're now in the most expensive house we've purchased, the major flaw of which was its tiny kitchen.  My husband was dead set against getting this house because he was sure I'd eventually become really unhappy with it.

I haven't.  We're on almost 14 acres on the side of a mountain with beautiful views and a wrap-around deck.  It's so peaceful here.  If I can avoid going into town, it's like I'm on vacation (until it's time to make dinner, anyway).

But the kitchen is still small.  So the only place to store the cast iron pans is in the oven.  And one day when I needed to clean the oven, I just turned the oven clean setting on, forgetting that the cast iron pans were still in there.

When I opened the oven, the cast iron pans were still there.  (Believe it or not!)  But the seasoning had been turned to ash.  Ugh.  They had to be seasoned again.  All six pans.  Which I started in on the next day, wiping the ash away.  And then I realized that the pans were all as clean as the day they came home from the store (the ones that came from garage sales were much cleaner).

So there you have it.  All that backstory just to learn that you can clean cast iron pans incredibly easily in your oven on the oven-clean setting.  Of course, they have to be re-seasoned, but if your pan has burnt-on gunkus, it has to be re-seasoned anyway, right?  But this way, you don't have to cry; you don't have to use any elbow grease; and, you don't have to find something on Netflix to binge-watch while you scrub for the rest of the day.

It's a win all around.

(Side note:  I decided to try this with a couple of cookie sheets that had some baked-on gunk.  You know, the kind that only comes off with a lot of cleanser and steel wool.  And Netflix.  Perfectly clean.  So I tried glass pans next.  Same result.  My stainless steel pots came out perfectly, too, but not quite so shiny as they used to be.  I'll take clean over shiny.  I would definitely not try this with any Teflon pans.  Of course, if it were up to me, I wouldn't have any Teflon pans at all in my kitchen.)

Update to the side note:  Unfortunately, the pots now leak a little bit from the holes where the handle is attached to the pot.  So I probably wouldn't put any other stainless steel pots in the oven again.

Links to related posts:
Dutch Oven Temperature Chart and Guidelines
15 Cent Baking Rack for Dutch Oven 

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