How to Rescue a dirty Dutch Oven

Sometimes through a number of reasons your Dutch Oven can become unusable. But you do not have to throw it out. You can save it and use again. Here is a series of steps to resurrect your Dutch Oven and will work in most cases.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Coke
• Steel wool
• Power wire brush
• Time
• Patience
• Shortening
• Paper Towels

1. Using hot water and a scrub brush clean as well as you can.
2. If there is still material in the Dutch Oven, then you can pour a 2 liter bottle of coke inside and let it sit for about 30 minutes. Using steel wool and scrub brush remove as much debris as possible.
3. Drain and rinse.
4. If there is still food repeat steps 2 & 3. If it seems impossible to clean this way, then pull out the power tools.
5. If there is still a lot of debris, you will need to use a powered wire brush to clean the inside of the Dutch Oven. This may take a lot of time.
6. Rinse out. Once you feel that it is back to bare metal or all of the debris is gone then you can start the seasoning process.
7. See How To Season a Dutch Oven

Tips & Warnings

• Some times it works best to let it sit for a day or two before proceeding.