cleaning cast iron cook ovens

If at home I treat ours like a new one when its not looking too good. Wash in hot soapy water rinse well place in a very hot oven to dry then spray with good quality oil spray. Put back in hot oven for about half an hour. Its then seasoned ready. When away we do the same only use the fire every time we use it. I cant do with out news paper or paper towel.

Jezza,

I am a bit precious with the camp oven and have had one for over 10yrs.
It is cast iron Furphy model but I rarely ever use soapy water or wash it like a normal kitchen appliance.
After use I have found just putting a little water into the oven whislt it is hot and then most times I use a bit of grass or a rag to wipe it. This cleans it and also keeps the oven oily and ready for use. I have never had it rust using this method. In the outback a bit of spinifex is as good as anything to just wipe the warm water over the oven.
I use this method after cooking a roast then to clean it prior to putting some scones or bread rolls in.
Works a treat and is in line with what the old drovers did many a year ago.
Regards Will

your link .... Shannon Lush ... Queen of clean ..LOL

cheers nick

I am tipping that this method doesn't have the "housewives seal of approval"!
Anyway, after cooking, invert on top of a hot fire, heat to cherry red, take off fire & after it's cooled, wire brush out the inside, coat with oil & heat on fire.
That is all we have done for years, & never had rust or sticking problems.

hi jezza, i am pretty fussy with mine, after use it always get wiped out with grass, dogs blanket, wheat bag, dunny paper or what ever is handy. Have got a 7inch through to a 18 inch oven which will make over 20 litres of stew or roast 3 or four ducks, a roast of lamb, peice of beef and maybe a rabbit iff your not sure you got enough. My kids are now all over 30 an none have been poisened yet. Dont get to fussy other wise you will wash all the flavour out of it and you will have to start again. I havnt got another 30 years in me to start again so i dont want to spoil it. cheers mm

Ive always been a bit dubious about all the "special treatment" that cast iron ovens are supposed to require. We have a couple of cheapies but they work fine, and we use them quite a bit when we are on the road. When we finish cooking in them we soak with a bit of water and wash them with the washing up water, and rinse them - pretty much as you would do with any other metal cooking utensil.

Now ours have not been used for two years (yes I know...) so I went and had a look at them - not a sign of rust with that lovely black oily coating inside. Looking good enough to pop a leg of lamb in it right now.

We use a heavy cast iron frypan nearly every day at home and wash it up with kitchen detergent just the same as everything else. By now it has enough oil worked into the metal that it looks after itself. Best frypan we have ever had.

My only suggestion would be to give cast iron pots and pans a rub over with some oil before you put it into storage for any length of time.

Cheers,

Val.

After we remove our roast and veggies out I put in some dishwashing liquid and water and back onto the fire for a bit till it boils...then remove and everything just wipes clean with paper towel.

Not sure about the link, but just clean it like you would clean anything else.
If its greasey or really dirty....hot water and dishwashing liquid. (then oil)
If its burnt on........water and dishwashing liquid and put back on the fire.Scrub and oil.
If youve been baking in it..........wipe it out with a damp cloth and oil.
If youve been boiling water in it........dry it and oil it.

If its gone rusty....scrub the crap out of it (maybe more than once) and re-oil it. Cast soaks the oil in better when its warm as it expands with heat and is porus but burning cant do any good (I reckon).

I think all of this never use soap....burn the be-jesus out of them ......heat up in oven and oil 200 times before using for the first time...........never clean because it takes away the flavour (of roting meat and crud)........and all the other methods handed down by their twice removed uncles brothers sister who was a drover is probably not quite needed. LOL

Just do what ever works for you ......its just another pot.


Cheers

It seems to use a camp oven you need a Uni degree.

Come on guys it can't be that hard to keep them in good condition.

After a recent change of residential address I was a bit neglectful of all my cooking gear and left it in a shed where a leaking roof allowed the ingress of rain water. Water pooled in the Bedourie and the frying pan of the "swing away". The camp oven was bright orange with rust.

I gave them all a good blast with the Karcher to remove surface rust. Not happy, I attached a wire brush head to the drill and removed the more adherent rust. A quick blast with water, apply liberal canola oil, and then sit on a slow fire of red gum coals.

They all now look useable again.

The spun steel items are pretty thin and wouldn't last too long if the above were repeated too often. The camp oven will still be around when the archeologists fossic through our remains in millennia to come.