A Short History Of The Dutch Oven

A short history of the Dutch oven, a particularly famous cooking device made of cast

iron and used through much of the history of the United States, to cite just one country where it's famous, reveals quite a few interesting tales and facts. Specifically, this kind of oven is a thick-walled cook pot that comes with a lid that fits tightly over the top of the pot.

Many people in the US do, in fact, know of this famous oven but they probably don't know that it's been around since sometime in the 17th century. It was, of course, the Dutch who pioneered the creation and then use of this cooking device, and it was they who figured out how to use cast iron properly to create the pot itself.

Soon thereafter, the ever-resourceful Dutch began exporting the newfangled cooking vessel to other nearby countries, including Britain. By 1708, the English had developed a specific process for creating these ovens and had patented a design. They were particularly interested in making them widely available to not only British households but also to households over in their American colonies.

With the passage of time over in America, the oven began to take on a slightly different shape from its original design. Enterprising makers of the oven in the colonies added legs to the bottom of the pot so that it could be put down upon a bed of coals while the pot itself was made shallower. Soon enough, almost no household worth its salt didn't have one of these ovens within it.

In fact, American colonists of the day came to prize the oven very highly, perhaps because of its sturdy and durable cast iron construction as well as its extreme versatility. This was evidenced by the fact that a housewife could stew food within it, could also boil foods in it and could fry, roast and even bake in it, if need be.

Eventually, a family that possessed a well-made Dutch oven considered it to be of heirloom quality, often including it in wills that specified just who in the family would be the lucky recipient of the oven when its current owner would pass away. The famous American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark made sure to take a number of them with them as they struck westward.

These days, a well-made Dutch oven is still prized highly for its versatility and durability. Many a home in the American southwest and west counts itself lucky to have such an oven within its household, to tell the truth. They come in a number of different sizes, shapes and styles nowadays and they can be relatively inexpensive or very expensive, depending on the quality of the oven and its construction.

by: Peter Gitundu

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