Cooks: So I scored this cast iron dutch oven with lid.

[TNDemo]

What shall I cook in it? I will be using the oven.

[KitchenWitch]

1. New York Times bread

See the Cooking and Baking forum here on DU for the recipe.

[yellowdogintexas]

2. pot roast. Stew, however avoid anything with acid as it will develop

an 'off' taste from the iron, and mess with the seasoning of the utensil

no tomato
no wine
no vinegar
no lemon or lime

baked goods however may contain lemon, lime or other fruits.

[TNDemo]

6. Thanks for that info.

I guess no baked spaghetti...

[jobycom]

8. Interesting. I cook ratatouille in mine.

Then again, I like Olive Garden, so maybe my taste buds ain't up to par, anyway! :rofl:

[reyd reid reed]

13. I use mine for pasta sauce and chili

all the time and it seems to be fine.

:shrug:

[Kali]

15. it will work if the pot is well seasoned and the food is not stored in it for a long time.

I do tomato lots of times - wines and citrus too. No problem - just make sure the finish is good and maybe wipe a little more oil/fat first.

[AngryAmish]

4. Double, triple, quadruple recommendation re NY Times bread

I am a bread snob and this is better than 98% of the bread out there.

[TNDemo]

5. Where is the cooking and baking forum?

I found gardening but that was about as close as I could get to cooking.

[bicentennial_baby]

7. On the Groups list, it's 7 above Gardening

:)

[TNDemo]

9. Oh wow. After all these years on DU I am just now discovering

all these groups. I had no idea there were so many. I was just looking at the list on the front page. I may never get any work done...

[NMDemDist2]

11. oh man, you just don't know!!! and that NYtimes bread is the best!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=236&topic_id=29987&mesg_id=32335

[trackfan]

17. Oh yeah!

I made a version of this last week. It's the best bread I've ever made at home, at least as far as texture is concerned.

[VenusRising]

3. Pulled pork shoulder.

We do ours in the dutch oven at 250 for about 8 hours. It is amazing!!

Enjoy! :9

[jobycom]

10. Beans and/or corn bread.

Any bean recipe to me is better in a dutch oven, either in the oven or on the stove. Leave the beans in the pot as leftovers (four days in the pot is supposed to be the limit, thought the old saying was seven), and reheat in the pot. They'll taste best around two to three days in the pot. (Use food sense--heat the pot slowly until it's warm enough to not worry about cracking, then heat enough to kill germs. Also, let the pot cool a bit before putting in the fridge, but don't leave it out long enough for bacterial nasties to infest it).

Corn bread: Pick your favorite recipe. Preheat the oven with the dutch oven in it, and instead of mixing the butter/oil/whatever you use into the recipe, heat it in the dutch even as it's preheating.

Mix your dry ingredients in a bowl, and the wet (at room temp, minus the butter) in another. Then, pull out the hot dutch oven, dump the wet ingredients in (watch for splashing oil, obviously), then the dry, and combine swiftly with as few strokes as possible. The heat and oil of the pan will begin forming an outer crust before the rest begins to cook, and the hot oil will begin to cook the bread from the inside. Cook per recipe. The bread will have a firmer crust, with almost a hint of being fried.

[reyd reid reed]

12. Pot roast

and stew. And chili. And lasagna sauce. And damn near anything and everything. I absolutely adore mine -- couldn't live without it. And for pot roast -- it rocks. I just take a rump roast, braise it in a couple of tablespoons of oil with some garlic, then I slice a few onions, add about two inches of water, cover it and put it in a 325 over for a couple of hours (depends on the size of the roast -- there are a lot of us so I tend to do a large roast and I cook it for about four hours, give or take). After about two hours, start to check the level of liquid and, when it's *almost* gone, add another inch or two of water, cover it and put it back in for another hour or so. At this point you want to check it more often 'cause now it'll reduce faster. When the roast is fork tender, take the roast out, put the pot back on the burner, add a little more water, bring it to a boil and then whisk in cornstarch/water and you will have the richest, darkest gravy you can imagine.

Yummmmmmmmmm.

[Rabrrrrrr]

14. Cassoulet

Yummy!!

[trackfan]

16. Anything braised that doesn't have a lot of added acids.

Lamb chops & potatoes. Pork chops.

Dover Sole using the Leone recipe, which is basically with butter and chives and braised in a little white wine for 15-20 minutes after browning the flour-dipped fillets.