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Dutch Country Kitchen

How to Clean & Season Cast Iron Cookware

How to Care For Cast Iron Cookware

What is the best way to care for my cast iron cookware?

We are asked a lot on our customer service line and in our stores all of the time "How to Clean & Season Cast Iron Cookware"? So we thought we better refer to Erica Good, Co-Owner and Family Dining Expert for our Dutch Country Kitchen cooking show to find out what is the best way to care for cast iron. We hope you find the tips and tricks helpful in caring for yours!

Erica Good Family Dining Expert
Erica Good Family Dining Expert

Does my cast iron skillet come pre-seasoned?

Yes, all sold at Dutch Country General Store are pre-seasoned! If you have purchased your cast iron skillet or other cookware from Dutch Country General Store, often you'll want to know what to do next.

As Erica explains it you can simply rinse and dry your cast iron piece before using it the first time. If you are interested in double-seasoning your cast iron put 1/4 cup vegetable oil in my new cast iron piece and bake it. I bake it upside down at 350° for 30 minutes or so, just to "double-season" it. Grapeseed oil is another great option to use as well. I usually use vegetable oil because that is what I have on hand."

So can we use soap and water on cast iron, that is the age-old question?

In season 1 of Dutch Country Kitchen Erica used a large cast iron skillet to cook with for the delicious supreme pizza episode. We have received many questions on how to clean the skillet after making such recipes as pizza and other heavy ingredients in the cast iron.

Tip from Erica Good - DO NOT place in dishwasher; but, yes, I handwash mine with some hot soapy water. Then I rinse it and place it on my drying rack, where it can "drip-dry" quickly. Really, the more you use your cast iron, the more it seasons itself and achieves the magical "nonstick" quality everyone desires. It becomes easier to wash after it's been well-seasoned from lots of use.

More Tips & Tricks from Erica

  • If you love your cast iron, it'll love you.
  • For baking with cast iron, I like to apply a thin layer of vegetable oil to the piece versus spraying with Pam. Simply get a paper towel, fold it up a little, dump some oil into it and then grease down your cast iron piece. Now you are ready to put your product in for baking.
  • For frying, I like to use a metal turner, not a plastic one. The metal turner just seems to keep the food from sticking.

What if my cast iron is Not Pre-Seasoned?

Set your oven to 350 degrees and be sure to put 1/4 cup vegetable oil or grapeseed oil in the new cast iron piece and bake it. Do this for 30 minutes or so in order to season the pan.

Be careful to keep your pan dry but if after some time you see any rust first see if it will wash off with hot soap and water. If that doesn't work, do a quick "re-seasoning" by rubbing 1/4 c. oil in your cast iron piece and baking upside down for 30 minutes or so at 350°.

It will love you back

You'll find many options for cast iron cookware and even some decorative items on our website and in both of our stores! If you have any questions at all on the care of your cast iron please call us at customer support at 844.344.0031! We hope our tips and tricks have helped in taking care of your very own cast iron cookware. And as Erica Good said so well, "if you love your cast iron, it will love you". Hope to see you real soon!

Season’s Greetings at the End of 2020

Season's Greetings from Dutch Country General Store

Hello Friends

Season’s Greetings at the End of 2020

First, I want to thank you for your great support through a unique and unprecedented year. As we all can agree, nothing about 2020 has been normal, but we appreciate, from the bottom of our hearts, the kindness you’ve expressed. We also appreciate all the orders, via phone, mail, and online, that you’ve placed with us. You have kept us ticking in this most unusual time. We are forever grateful.

Hannibal Grand Opening & Bloomfield 8th Annual Celebration

Amidst all the new adventures this year, we were still honored to be able to open our newest location of Dutch Country General Store in historic Hannibal, Missouri last April. We feel very blessed to have our new store located in downtown alongside the many other stores of “America’s Hometown”. If you haven’t visited Hannibal, be sure to add it to your list for 2021! Alongside our grand opening celebration, we also celebrated 8 years at our flagship store in Bloomfield, Iowa. It’s been an honor serving the area and we look forward to many more glorious years.

Bloomfield Dutch Country General Store
Hannibal Dutch Country General Store

Giving Back to our Communities

As with every year, we feel that giving back to our community is one of our most important jobs. This year, with the pandemic happening, we were elated to donate 300 fresh baked cinnamon rolls to the Buddy Pack Program for the Hannibal Alliance for Youth Success and Hannibal Public School District #60. The program is amazing and feeds hundreds of kids in the area. During times like these, it’s important we do what we can for others - we were humbled to be a part of the efforts.

We also donated to various other organizations during the year, including the Salvation Army Food Bank, the iCare Program, the Great River Honor Flight, Wreaths Across America, Shop with a Cop, Hannibal Arts Council, and many more. We even sponsored video calls with Santa!

We Launched our Summer & Holiday Catalogs

Earlier in the year we also launched our premiere catalog and we were very happy to hear that you enjoyed it. And now, it’s Christmas and we were graciously able to launch our second catalog just in time for the holidays! We have worked hard to highlight great new gift items, bring in new product selections from small family-owned businesses, offer more of your favorite product categories, and continue to keep our prices reasonable. Thank you to everyone who requested a copy and followed us through our first two editions.

Along with our first Christmas catalog came our first Christmas Memories contest. We received an outpouring of amazing photos shared by our readers which showcase some of their best Christmas Memories. It was heartwarming to see such great photos of days gone by. Thank you to everyone that submitted photos and shared their memories with us.

DCGS Catalogs
Photo Contest Christmas Memories

Dutch Country Kitchen Season 2!

The Christmas season is one of my favorite times of year because it’s all about celebrating the birth of Christ and spending time with family... and good food! This year we were also able to launch new episodes of Dutch Country Kitchen which included new holiday entertaining recipes and tips from our hosts Billboard charting recording artist, Diana Upton-Hill, and my wife, Erica (who is also expecting our 5th child in April!). The Dutch Country Kitchen cooking show continues to grow and thrive and we truly enjoy sharing our traditional recipes with you all. We believe that breaking bread together as family and friends around the table is a valuable experience for everyone.

Blessed with Continued Growth

We continue to ship products across the nation now more than ever, which include many of our new lines of products launched in 2020. A few of which include Elmwood Inn Teas, Whiskey Boat Goods Candles, and Ohio Stoneware. Our partnerships with these small, family-owned companies are very important to us and we’ll be doing more of them in the coming years. We were also happy to be able to add more products from our storefronts to our website such as puzzles and home decor. All of our great customers, both in-store and online, are truly a blessing to us.

For us, it’s never about just selling things, it’s about helping you create memories in special times! We are humbled to earn your business and we can’t wait to see what 2021 has in store!

Many Christmas Blessings to You and Yours,

Dutch Country Kitchen Season Holiday Entertaining Special

Dutch Country Kitchen Holiday Entertaining Special

Dutch Country Kitchen Season 2

We are excited to be able to bring you Dutch Country Kitchen Holiday Entertaining Special, Season 2 and just in time for the holidays! Host, Diana Upton-Hill, and my wife, Erica, have had so much fun working on this new season full of delicious homemade recipes from our friends and family. We are especially happy to bring you our Holiday Entertaining Special featuring special guest Jill Kerns from Piper’s Candy out of Chariton, Iowa.

In this episode, we highlight some great ideas for holiday entertaining for friends and family, big or small. Food and family always seem to go together, don’t they? Especially during the holidays! When we sat down and thought about what recipes to showcase for season 2, we knew we had to do a Holiday or Christmas special since it is our favorite time of year. These are simple yet satisfying dishes anyone can make and everyone will enjoy!

Something Spiced, Savory, and Sweet!

Our first recipe to kick off the festivities is Diana’s Spiced Cider Drink. This is a special recipe handed down to Diana. It was so delicious even our video crew couldn’t stop drinking it! Did I mention only 4 ingredients go into this holiday treat?

What is holiday entertaining without a platter? I don’t think we have ever not had one at our house for Christmas. This “savory and a little sweet” platter has something for everyone: Winesburg Meats Grand Champion Summer Sausage, cheese curds, fruit, Dutch Country Cucumber Dill dip, and Wheat Crackers! Our girls can’t get enough of local Milton Creamery cheese curds, so these are always included in our platters when Erica thoughtfully puts one together. If you stop down at one of our store locations, Bloomfield or Hannibal, you can always sample the Jake & Amos Sweet & Hot Pepper Relish dip. Once you do, I think you will know why it has become one of our favorites too.

We are very humbled to have Jill from Piper’s Candy join us as a special guest and share some of her tips and tricks on dipping caramels and pretzels during the holidays! We love Jill - she also visits our stores to offer chocolate demonstrations from time-to-time - like her most recent one to celebrate the season at our Bloomfield location on December 5th. If you haven't tried her candy yet, we highly recommend you do! You can grab a box of her delectable hand-dipped chocolates here on our website and have them delivered right to your door! You can even choose from .5lb to 5lb options.

Savory Holiday Entertaining Platter
Piper's Candy

Holiday Entertaining Special

Without further ado, please check out the newest episode from Dutch Country Kitchen Season 2 - Holiday Entertaining Special. We hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we enjoyed making them. If you happen to want the recipe for yourself, come on over to www.dutchcountrykitchen.com where you can find all recipes released for Season 2 and Season 1!

Dutch Country Kitchen Holiday Entertaining
Dutch Country Kitchen Season 2 – Holiday Entertaining Special

 

From our family to yours, may you have all the blessings this holiday season, and remember, as Erica says, “Every day is a holiday and every meal is a feast”.

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