Thread: Dutch Oven Metallic Smell and Taste

Hi all. Few weekends ago I decided to refurbish and old dutch oven which had a bit of rust and even mould growing in it. I started with taking to it with a wire brush on a drill to remove to rust, mould and old seasoning. Once done I gave it a good wash out with hot soupy water, about half dozen times then seasoned on the BBQ three times using grapeseed oil, the oven didn't go black but went a dark bronze colour. Problem is it has a strong metallic smell and today I decide to cook some sausages and veges in it which had a bit of a metallic taste. I gave it a good wash out after, the water had a rusty colour and when I wiped it dry and the cloth was black and stuck of metal. A skillet I de-rusted and reseasoned a month ago is like this, what have I done wrong? I'm wondering if I didn't clean all the rust and metal dust out before I seasoned it? Any advice will be much appreciated

Use something with a lower flame point when seasoning. What ever you use has to ‘burn’ into top metal layer and reform the skin that you removed with wire brush/ scoured. Roast a fatty goat or mutton leg in it. Many a cast iron pan/camp oven has been fucked by overzealous cleaning.

Get rid of the grapeseed oil by boiling water in it for a while.

Then do as @woods223 said, and roast a greasy leg of something in it.

I use cast iron pretty much every day, and twice a day in winter. If I have had to clean then cause I used tomato in a stew concoction, I will heat the pan/pot till dry and use lard on a paper towel to recoat it.

Thats until I cook bacon in it the next day

XR500 onto it - avoid the detergent - boil some lemons or rhubarb ( bout the only good use for that crap ) in it for awhile to clean it - then roast something fatty - bacon hocks would be great or a mutton leg - after that no matter what others say - dont use detergent - wipe clean and regrease - if none of that works and still tasting rusty metallic have it sand blasted and start again - with fat

I was talking to my mother this morning and she said to start again by boiling water in it for a hour to push out everything in the pores of the steel then go through the seasoning process again. Now I'm pissed off with myself because that's what I did with the skillet I had previously cleaned up several weeks prier but forgot to do with the oven.

boiling some lemons will speed up the process of getting rid of the rusty taste

I used canola oil on paper towel when put my camp oven away a few weeks ago..reading this made me get it back out and redo with mutton fat off chops for tea two nights ago.... much betterer.

yes I once stuffed a cast iron one by coating it with cooking oil and putting it away - the cooking oil went like varnish - never did that again - I use an alloy camp oven around 3-4 times a week - we always had alloy in Forest Service - some don't like them but a lot easier to look after

mine is a campmaster cast iron jobbie purchased from the warehouse 20 odd years ago.

Looks like animal fat is where its at

I've read on Facebook camp oven cooking page that a lot of old camp ovens were used for melting down lead. Apparently you can get a testing kit to check this. Be careful you're not poisoning yourself and family.

Am I the only one that looked at the title of this thread and saw "Dutch Oven" followed by metallic taste and retched and could taste it in the back of my throat? Had a few really bad experiences with females in 'that time of the month' in my past - they are not all 'sweetness and light' like it says on the label. Some of them are either feral or savage!

Originally Posted by No.3

Am I the only one that looked at the title of this thread and saw "Dutch Oven" followed by metallic taste and retched and could taste it in the back of my throat? Had a few really bad experiences with females in 'that time of the month' in my past - they are not all 'sweetness and light' like it says on the label. Some of them are either feral or savage!

I believe that is called getting your red wings or wearing the Dolmio grin

Originally Posted by 308

I believe that is called getting your red wings or wearing the Dolmio grin

And geez, that went somewhere I wasn't meaning - it was the farts and the duvet over the head trick I was thinking of!

Originally Posted by RUMPY

I've read on Facebook camp oven cooking page that a lot of old camp ovens were used for melting down lead. Apparently you can get a testing kit to check this. Be careful you're not poisoning yourself and family.

This one was a X-mas prezzie from 10 years ago that I never used and had stored away.