Odd cleaning tricks that do not work

Spent a fair amount of time camp cooking on Scout outings and summer camps. During that time, I found two techniques used that I just did not like.

- Pine Cones - On a couple of campouts, the boys had got gunk stuck on the bottom of 12" Lodge camp Dutch ovens. One of our leaders told the boys to scrub it with a pine cone; it would not hurt the DO. Wrong... Both times they scrubbed the seasoning right off the bottom of the DO. My son was Quartermaster at the time, so we got to reseason them... Don't let anyone tell you to scrub CI with a pine cone... :covri:

-Aluminum foil - We took the boys to a Scout camp in Oregon. Awesome camp on the coast! I did their Mountain Man program, and had to id some plants, some animal hides, throw tomahawk, shoot black powder rifle etc. One of the requirements for the award was to go to the group dinner, and clean the dutch ovens after. The leaders made a decent stew in the DO. To clean them though, the rinsed them out, and then scrubbed them with tin foil. Till they shined... They just did not get it when I tried to explain seasoning to the. They do that every week, all summer long... :covri:

Ah yes. Let's make the piece more susceptible to rust and easier for the next meal to weld itself to the bottom. Best of all is that iron flavor any dish picks up from raw cast iron which the leaders will tell you is normal - so shut up and eat it!

Hilditch

I wouldn't do this with a well-conditioned skillet, but I've cleaned many a bacon pan (or other pan with fat in it) by adding water and wood ashes from the fire. The water and wood ashes create a weak lye that makes a simple soap when boiled with the fat. Works like a charm (and actually, I suspect the lye will react with the fat before it ever attacks your seasoning, but can't say for sure)