Dutch oven for baking bread problems
Hi, I bought soon very cheap Dutch oven (around 31$, it was a promotion in Kaufland ) ,the brand is Spice & Soul, material cast-iron. The producer confirms it can be used in oven in 240 C , so I bought it with intention to bake bread. I read carefully the instructions in the manual - for example I brushed the walls and bottom with oil before putting it in my oven. I turned the oven on 230 C (at first use I wanted to try it with 230 C ,not with the maximum 240 C ) and put the Dutch oven in with the lid on for around 30 minutes. During the heating there were some unpleasant smell. After 30 minutes I opened the oven and took out the Dutch oven in order to put the bread in. When I removed the lid, the inner walls were with brown color(the walls were enameled but now the white enamel was brown), the inner part of the lid was also little-to-medium brown and the bottom was still white. And I noticed that the bottom has still some very small layer of oil on it. I suppose that where the brushed oil had evaporated/wasn't present , these places were brown at most and as on the bottom there was still very thin layer of oil, - that is why the bottom was with its original color(not brown).I put the bread in, it baked (30 minutes with lid on, then 15-20 with lid off), and then I took out the Dutch oven, took out the bread to cool outside and so on. The taste of the bread wasn't better than when I am baking bread directly in pots in my oven, the raise/height of the bread wasn't taller than when I am baking directly in my home oven but this is not essential for my question.
I want to ask - is it normal the walls of cast-iron Dutch oven to become brown, the inner part of the lid also to be brown after just the first baking? Also, there were some outside places where the Dutch oven had changed its original color(red) with some dirty dark color. I tried to wash the Dutch oven as is written in the manual - with hot water and casual washing-up liquid and after a lot rubbing(with non-abrasive washing brush) the brown color at some places became a little lighter, but most of it remained. Do you have such big change in color of your Dutch ovens after just the first baking? Also I proofed the bread with baking paper in order to transfer it easily in the Dutch oven, and the bread was baked with baking paper around it - I start to wonder does this baking paper blocks/disables the type of baking called 'radiation' (that is supposed to come from baking bread in Dutch ovens) and this to be a reason why the taste of the bread wasn't better at all than my casual baking directly in my oven?
When you removed the lid from the preheated DO, did smoke come out? I'm wondering if the oil used had a too-low smoke point.
Parchment paper around the loaf shouldn't affect its baking. A DO can affect the texture & crust of bread by retaining moisture, but I don't believe it will change the taste..
I would not have heated the DO for the first time with the lid on. You want any volatile vapors to be able to escape. You don't say what kind of oil you used, and it could easily have smoked and broken down. At those temperatures oil browning and breakdown would not be unusual.
I would also not have put bread into the DO while it smelled bad.
Not all parchment paper can withstand those temperatures without browning and that may have contributed to the discoloration you see.
You can probably reduce the stains by scrubbing them with baking soda or table salt (or first one then the other) and a little water. But you may to be able to get rid of them completely. But some discoloration is common in a DO that has been used for may stews, etc., so once all the unpleasant smells stop getting emitted it should work fine for baking.
At baking temperatures there will be very little heating by radiation. You will only get significant radiation when the temperature gets high enough to glow visibly; the amount of radiation emitted is strongly dependent on the temperature. Your DO wasn't glowing, I hope!
TomP
If the bottom isn't browning - like the other parts of the bread - move it closer to the heat source. Eventually you'll find the right spot. Enjoy!
I don't think you should have put oil on the dutch oven at all. I believe the brown on the walls is burnt oil. Applying a thin (very thin, barely there) coat of oil before heating makes sense for uncoated cast iron (without enamel), but I dont think it is necessary when there's enamel.
Sometimes boiling clean water in the pot helps to remove burnt residue on the inside.
Can be purchased at any grocery or hardware. It won’t scratch and will have your pot looking new. Comes in a cream form or powder . Can make a wet paste and leave for stubborn stains.
Agree with Fred - though you might also try dish detergent and elbow grease, though it is common to see a brownish stain on the inside of an enameled pot.
Thanks for all the answers!
I couldn't answer until now because I am working in a city(and living there) different than my home and I don't have computer there. I have internet on my phone but it is limited and I use it only for Viber and not for opening sites. Now I am at home for a week and can answer. I know it is rude people with knowledge to give me information for some problem and I don't even answer them and I apologize for this but it didn't depend on me at this case.
Yes, there was smoke. The oil is general purpose oil that we use for almost everything - baking potato with meat in oven, frying different things in a pan ,etc. It is written on the label "to be used for temperature < 180 C ". The point is that I have always used such kind of general purpose oil for cooking - 6-7 different brands but they all are for the same purpose - temperature < 180 C .For salads we use olive oil, but not for cooking.
For the baking paper, it is written on the packaging: "The baking paper is with silicon coating and can be used <220 C". My oven was 230 C, but the baking paper is inside the DO and also there is dough touching it, so I suppose the requirement for <220 C is not violated.
Well, in the book "Bread Builders" by Alan Scott it is written:
"All three heat flow processes are at work in a brick oven, all at the same
time. That’s why brick ovens work so well for cooking bread!
...
Heat transfer by radiation is what makes a big difference between a
masonry heat-retention oven and other ovens."
And because in "Flour water salt yeast" by Ken Forkish it is said that DO gives very similar results compared to professional bread ovens I thought that baking with DO is using radiation type of baking a lot.
Your DO wasn't glowing, I hope! - No, it wasn't glowing :)
In the manual is written: "Be careful to not heat the product when it is empty because this could cause cracking the enamel" and after 2 pages: "The enameled surface is not suitable for dry cooking. Always use little oil or butter before heating the product". That's why I wonder what type of oil to use in order to use this DO.If we assume that the brown on the walls is burnt oil and that this DO cannot be heated when completely empty ,then what to put in it in order to heat it before putting the bread, maybe some special kind of oil that will not burn at 230 C, but it will probably cost much more.( The manual is in four languages and English is missing that's why above I am translating the sentences in the manual to English. ). Months/years ago I have looked at different DO brands and some of them there are 3 coatings - one for high heat, another for acid, etc. In my case, this cheap DO have only one and this is the enamel.
I will try this, it seems easy.
Well, in the manual I read "Don't use solid subjects(like Steel Dish Washing Sponge Wire or Abrasive Sponges) and/or bleach with chlor as this would damage the enamel. And in google I read - "Baking soda is abrasive which means it can damage lightly sealed surfaces or discolor some metals."
And for table salt - I don't know...
Bars Keepers Friend - I will check this, it sounds more close to the written in the manual: "Wash with general purpose washing product for dishes" .
I don't think it is big problem if the inside of the DO is brown in some percent. But the question is how to heat it before putting the bread in, I mean what to use in order to not dry cooking(heating it empty).
Since we had this conversation I have learned that radiant heating at these baking temperatures is more important than I used to think.
Barkeeper's Friend is a well-regarded scouring powder but it's still a scouring powder.
Those warnings about not heating the pot dry are meant, I'm pretty sure, for stovetop use. The temperature gradients will be much higher on the stove burner than what the pot will experience in an oven. I've never understood how a thin film of oil is supposed to protect the pot. It won't keep the temperature down for long if at all. I think those kind of instructions mean to put some water or foodstuff into the pot so it won't overheat if you go away and forget it, as I have done too many times.
Your dutch oven will have been fired in a much higher oven than yours to fuse and vitrify the coatings. It can take being heated to your oven temperature dry because the temperatures rise slowly and the temperature gradients are small. Plopping down the cool, wet, unbaked loaf will stress the pot's coating much more than heating it dry.
TomP