How To Season a Dutch Oven in 4 Simple Steps
Here is everything you need to know to master seasoning your dutch oven or other cast iron cookware.
Why you should season a dutch oven
In order for your cast iron dutch oven to not rust, it is necessary that you season it. Seasoning it will create a protective layer between the metal and oxygen in the air, which prevents rusting, and furthermore creates a non-stick smooth surface.
You can always tell whether or not a dutch oven, or other cast iron cookware for that matter, is seasoned by looking at the color. Is the color a dull, light grey? Then it’s not seasoned. Is the color a deep, rich black? Then it is seasoned.
In the same way, you can always tell if your dutch oven seasoning starts to fade. So now you know how to tell when it’s time for a re-season, and that time will come sooner or later.
What is cast iron seasoning?
As mentioned above seasoning means you create a protective layer over the iron, but what actually does that mean?
By coating the cast iron with an oil, and heating it to a certain temperature for a certain amount of time, you cause a reaction between the oil and iron called polymerization. Basically what is happening during this process is two things:
- As the iron heats up, all the tiny pores open up more and allow the oil to fill them.
- Smaller molecules combine into larger molecules
Polymerization is a process used to create polymer. Polymers can also then be processed in lots of different ways, to create different kinds of plastic. But don’t worry, your dutch oven season is not a plastic as we know it, those are made from crude oils and with lots more steps. But the general polymerization process, which is combining monomers to create polymers, is the same.
If it helps you, think of the oil as hardening and becoming a plastic-like, texture, which is what your non-stick, protective layer is.
How To Season a Dutch Oven
So, how do you get started? First of all, I want to make it very clear that there are several roads to Rome here. If you’re someone like me who wants to know and understand every single little aspect first, you could get stuck in research for literal weeks or months. I’m passing on my research and experience in this article, so that doesn’t happen to you. After this, all there’s left to do is try it out for yourself!
What oil and temperature to use
The dreaded question, what oil to use? What temperature? There’s a lot of confusion and vague answers out there, but let me make this really simple for you.
- Use any cooking oil.
- Use temperatures of 68 degrees Fahrenheit or 20 degrees Celcius below the smoking point of the oil you picked.
Oils
To pick the best oils for seasoning a dutch oven, there are a few factors to keep in mind, those are:
- Get a high smoke point oil. Some people recommend low smoke point oils, such as flaxseed oil, but there are only downsides to this, because you have to be really careful not to burn it during seasoning, it will not be able to tolerate high heat cooking as it will crack easily, and if you do burn it, it may add a bitter taste to your cooking.
A high smoke point oil will give you more freedom and margin of inaccuracy. It will be able to tolerate high heat cooking and therefore last longer. Do note that it will also need a matching higher temperature to trigger the polymerization. - Get a neutral flavored oil. An oil with a strong flavor, such as coconut oil, sesame oil, lard or (clarified) butter will add its taste to your cooking. You may not always want that specific flavour in your various dishes.
- Use an oil that’s primarily unsaturated fat, as these will be liquid at room temperature, which will make your life a lot easier, when seasoning your dutch oven.
- Don’t use butter. Butter is not 100% fat, as it also contains water and milk proteins. These will burn and leave a bad taste and smell. If you are intent on using butter, make sure you clarify it first. This means getting it as close as possible to 100% fat. Smoke point will then be around 450F / 232C, but still solidifies at room temperature.
Temperature
As mentioned above, best practice and rule of thumb is 68F / 20C below the smoking point of the oil you picked. However this is practically impossible if you don’t use the oven or a grill with a thermometer.
So, in reality, just make sure you get it as hot as possible, but below the point where you see smoke or steam. If you do, turn down the heat to find your sweet spot. If you’re seasoning a dutch oven over a campfire, I recommend hanging it from a tripod, either bought or bushcrafted, so you can adjust the heat by getting it closer to or further from the flames.
As always, if you panic, turn off the heat and/or remove it from the heatsource.
Also make sure if you do this indoors, that you keep a well-ventilated room the whole time.
4 Simple Steps to Seasoning
- Preheat your dutch oven in the oven or over the stove, campfire or grill. (This step is very important to open up the pores in the iron, if you skip this step, you will soon end up with a sticky mess).
- With an old rag or similar, coat the dutch oven in a layer of your chosen cooking oil, as thin as possible! (If not thin enough, the layer will also turn out sticky).
- Put your dutch oven over the flames, or upside down in the oven, and let it do its thing for about an hour. You can get prettier results and more accurate temperature control in an oven, but I found that it’s more simple on a stovetop.
- Repeat step 2 and 3 about 3 – 6 times for ideal results, but once or twice works too. You can always give it another coat another day. Make sure to judge if you should let it cool off a bit before applying the new layer of oil, but remember it does need to be warm to open the pores.
Here’s what you’ll need: A dutch oven, an old rag, and some oil (I used Sunflower Oil for this one). Simple, right? You got this.
If you’re curious about this dutch oven, I’ll link it here. Or if you plan on bringing it on camping trips, have a look at our CampChef Dutch Oven Article.
How To Take Care of Your Dutch Oven
Taking care of your dutch oven after seasoning is really not complicated at all, once you get into the habit of it. But I know it can seem confusing beforehand and there is a lot of discussion about whether or not you can clean it with dish soap. Well,
You can.
Like you learned above, the seasoning is no longer an oil, it’s a plastic-like material. The actual ingredients in dish soap that removes the seasoning are lye and vinegar, but those are not commonly used in dish soaps anymore, as they are too harsh for the skin and no longer necessary. Be sure to check the ingredients list of your specific dish soap to know if it will strip the seasoning or not.
However a thing to notice is that, while the common dish soap may not remove the polymerized oil, it will remove the actual oil. If you have weak spots or even non-seasoned spots, the oil does act as an extra protection and by removing it, you introduce increased risk of exposing those weak spots. This is mostly only something to pay attention to in the beginning when you haven’t seasoned your dutch oven so many times, but there may also be weak spots if you’ve cooked with too high heat.
After cooking, make sure to store leftovers in a different container. While the dutch oven is still warm, clean it with some hot water, a chain mail scrubber and a non-metal scrub brush. It is important that you don’t use steel wool or a steel brush etc, as these will indeed scrape away at your seasoning. So it’s okay to use metal, but use something bigger and less abrasive that can just slide over the seasoning, while removing the food gunk that gets stuck. You can judge whether or not you find dish soap necessary when cleaning it.
The next step is to dry it. It’s very important to dry it completely, which cannot be done with a dishtowel, so instead just put it back on the stove for a minute or two and you can literally see the water evaporating.
Last but not least, store it in a dry place indoors. Don’t put it in shed outside or in the cabinet above your electric boiler.
That’s it. You’re done! Everything you need to know about how to season a dutch oven. If you have any further questions, send us an email and we will update the post to include your answer.
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