Dutch Ovens And Fascinating Facts About Them

Dutch ovens and fascinating facts about them tend to reveal a very famous

, and historical, kind of cook pot that's been well-known in America and parts of Europe for centuries. Made of cast iron and featuring thick walls, it comes with a top that fit tightly over the open pot. It's still popular to this day and learning a bit about the oven might even prove to be somewhat entertaining.

The oven itself is, of course, the product of 17th-century Dutch ingenuity, not only because of its design but also because of the use of cast iron in its manufacture. The Dutch being the Dutch, and oriented towards marketing and mercantilism, began to export the oven in great numbers all across Europe, including to nearby Great Britain, where it was an instant hit.

The British, being equally as oriented towards mercantilism, began to experiment with new design and manufacturing processes and it was in 1708 that an English inventor patented his own version of the oven. Soon thereafter, that particular oven was being shipped across the seas to Britain's American colonies, who became equally as infatuated with this new and versatile cooking tool, by the way.

Gradually, with the Americans being no slouches themselves when it came to innovation and design, certain changes to a Dutch oven appeared, including the addition of short legs on the bottom of the pot. This was to enable users of the pot to set it down on a bed of hot coals. As well, the pot itself became a bit shallower and the top was redesigned so that coals could be placed over it.

Cast iron itself is susceptible to rusting, which the colonists of the day knew was a likely outcome if the metal was left "unseasoned, " by the way. After a period of experimentation with various substances, the colonists developed a solution that consisted of applying certain edible oils or fats to the oven so that it wouldn't rust, both on the outside and in its cooking surfaces.

Basically, people back then would take some sort of animal fat (although cooking oil or vegetable oil is used today) and liberally coat the cooking surface with it. After that was done, the oven would be heated, which had the effect of searing and sealing into the metal this protective, and edible, layer of fat or oil. After that, periodic re-applications of the fat would be carried out.

This process of seasoning has survived pretty much unchanged to this day, and many owners of Dutch ovens believe in getting ovens made of bare cast iron so that their own special mixture of seasoning can be applied to them. Many also say that that's one of the pleasurable aspects of owning such an oven, which is still prized and still versatile in that it can cook, stew, fry and roast almost anything.

by: Peter Gitundu

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