What causes dutch oven flavor?
I love the added flavor that comes from cooking in a cast iron dutch oven like the one shown below:
What is it that causes this? Is it from the charcoal or from the seasoning?
If I season a legless dutch oven (the cast iron kind, not enamel) and use it in my electric oven will it still add that same flavor?
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It is not good to use a dutch oven in a... conventional oven. It hurts the pot way too much.
I think what the OP may be mentioning is a 'potjie' Which has legs and is usually used in South African cuisine outside on a charcoal fire.
The common notion is that the smoke from the fire does not penetrate the pot to flavour the food but rather it is the cast iron pot and the very slow cooking that give this type of cooking its distinct flavour.
Most cast iron pots designed for the fire have lids that fit well enough to keep ash and embers out, but not the smoke
After sitting in embers for an 30 minutes, even a loaf of bread has a very smokey flavour
It's more subtle than hanging something in a smoke house, but it is definitively a smokey flavour
Also, since most dutch oven recipes are for slow cooking over hot embers, you get quite a long cook time in fresh hot smoke
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