The Easiest Way to Restore Your Cast Iron Dutch Oven

The likelihood that you have cooked or eaten a meal from a cast-iron Dutch oven is high. Over the years, we here in Texas have learned how to make some pretty epic meals from these things. Our grandparents and maybe even some of our great-grandparents cooked using them, and they’ve hung in our kitchens and pantries, or sat in our cupboards for years. But do you know how best to prepare them for cooking? Do you know how to restore a Dutch oven?

Known for their non-stick cooking and their durability, well before many of today’s higher-end pots and pans came about, these little numbers are extremely sturdy and will actually shine when you first get one. But over the years and with little use, they can eventually lose their finish. If they are not kept or stored properly, they tend to corrode and look more like something you would find in a local yard sale instead. To restore a Dutch oven is to bring it back to its glory and to its useful life. It will protect it once again from rust and will make it easier with which to bake. Hickory Ridge Homestead shared a video on their YouTube channel on how to do just that, and you can watch it below for the easy instructions.

Video: Hickory Ridge Homestead

Once you follow the steps to restore a Dutch oven, it will become a more valued piece of your cookware, be it for dinners at home or for camping. When they are properly seasoned, they become almost maintenance-free. Their useful life then becomes extended for years to come.

Recipes for Dutch oven cooking aren’t actually that hard to come by either, and they taste so good! Back in 2018, we shared a link to a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department video that taught the small details that would make the same style of cooking and baking a breeze. They made gourmet-type of meals, including a peach cobbler that looked to die for! Peaches being a local crop of the Texas Hill Country that we look for each year, you know it was an amazingly fresh tasting dessert!