How to Use a Dutch Oven

A dutch oven is a heavy, lidded pot that goes from stovetop to oven, and that one trick is what makes it so useful. You sear on the burner, then move the whole pot into the oven to cook low and slow, which is the secret behind fall-apart braises, deep soups and stews, and bakery-style bread. An enameled pot needs no seasoning and is ready out of the box; a bare cast iron pot wants the same seasoning any skillet does. Learn one braise and one loaf of bread and you have most of what this pot is for.

If you have just brought home your first dutch oven— or you have had one in the cupboard and never quite known what to do with it — this is the guide that turns it into your most-used pot. There is nothing intimidating about it once you understand the single idea it is built around. For the fuller background on what the pot is and where it came from, our what is a dutch oven guide covers the history and the shapes; this page is about actually cooking in one.

What a dutch oven is for

The whole point of the pot is thermal mass with a lid, in a body that survives a hot oven. Thick iron holds heat steadily and evenly, the tight lid traps moisture, and because the whole thing is oven-safe you can start a dish on the burner and finish it surrounded by gentle oven heat. That combination unlocks a short list of jobs it does better than almost anything else:

• Braising.Sear meat, build a sauce, then cook it covered and low until it is tender. This is the pot's signature move, and the section below walks through it step by step.
• Soups and stews. The even, steady heat means a pot of chili or beef stew simmers without scorching on the bottom, and the mass keeps a big batch at a gentle bubble.
• Bread. A lidded dutch oven traps the steam a loaf gives off, which is exactly what a home oven cannot do on its own. It is the reason no-knead dutch oven bread comes out with a crackling, bakery-grade crust.
• Deep frying.A tall, heavy pot holds oil temperature well and its high walls contain splatter, which makes it a fine fryer — see our sibling guide on how to deep fry in cast iron for the safe method.
• Roasting and baking. A whole chicken, a pot roast, or a cobbler all do well in a covered dutch oven, which behaves like a small, dense oven within your oven.

First use: seasoning depends on the type

Before you cook, it helps to know which of the two kinds of dutch oven you own, because they are cared for differently.

Enameled dutch ovens need no seasoning

If your pot is coated inside and out in a glossy colored enamel— the classic cream, red, or blue finish — there is nothing to season. The glass surface is inert and ready to cook on straight out of the box. Give it a quick wash with warm soapy water to clear any manufacturing residue, dry it, and you are done. The trade-off is that you must treat the glass gently: no metal utensils banging the surface, no empty pot on high heat, and no sudden cold-water shock.

Bare cast iron dutch ovens want seasoning

If your pot is raw black iron inside, it is a seasoned pan like any skillet, and it lives on the same routine. Most ship pre-seasoned, but the coat is thin, so you build it up by cooking with a little fat and by wiping on a whisper of oil after each wash. If yours ever looks dull, patchy, or has been scrubbed hard, our how to season cast ironguide walks through laying down a fresh coat. Everything true of a bare skillet is true of a bare dutch oven — the shape is the only difference.

How to braise, step by step

Braising is the technique worth learning first, because it is where a dutch oven earns its keep, and once you have the pattern you can improvise endlessly. Braising means browning food and then cooking it slowly in a small amount of liquid in a covered pot, and the pot does almost all the work for you.

1. Sear on the stovetop. Heat the dry pot over medium-high, add a little high-heat oil, pat your meat dry, and brown it hard on all sides in batches so the pot stays hot. Do not crowd it; a crowded pot steams instead of browning. Set the browned meat aside.
2. Build a base.Lower the heat and soften aromatics — onion, carrot, garlic — in the same fat, scraping nothing off yet. This is where the flavor of the finished dish is built.
3. Deglaze. Pour in a splash of wine, stock, or even water and scrape the browned bits (the fond) off the bottom with a wooden spoon. Those bits are pure flavor, and lifting them also cleans the pot as you go.
4. Add liquid and return the meat.Put the meat back, then add enough liquid to come partway up the food — a braise is not a soup, so the meat should be partially submerged, not drowned. Bring it to a gentle simmer.
5. Cover and move to a low oven.Put the lid on and slide the whole pot into a low oven, somewhere in the 300–325°F range, and leave it alone for a couple of hours until the meat is fork-tender. The trapped moisture and steady heat do the rest.

How to bake bread in it

A dutch oven turns a home oven into a steam oven, which is why it makes such good bread. Here is the shape of it, with the full recipe in our dutch oven bread guide.

1. Preheat the empty pot.Put the covered pot in the oven while it heats to a high bread temperature, often around 450–500°F, so the pot is screaming hot when the dough goes in. That initial blast is what gives a good rise.
2. Drop the dough in carefully.Lower your shaped dough into the hot pot — a sling of parchment makes this safe and easy — and put the lid back on. Keep your hands well clear of the hot iron.
3. Bake covered, then uncovered. Bake with the lid on so the trapped steam keeps the crust soft and lets the loaf expand, then take the lid off partway through so the crust can brown and crisp.

For sourdough specifically, the same method applies and the pot shape matters — a wider, shallower pot is often easier to load a round loaf into. Our roundup of the best dutch ovens for sourdough covers which shapes bakers reach for.

Stovetop to oven, and back

The move that defines the pot is worth stating plainly: a dutch oven is fully oven-safe, so you never have to transfer food to a second dish. Start on the burner to sear and build flavor, then lift the whole pot — with dry oven mitts, because the handles get oven-hot — into the oven to finish. When it comes out, remember that the entire pot, lid and handles included, is dangerously hot for a long time. Set it on a trivet, not a bare countertop, and never shock a hot pot with cold water, which can crack enamel or warp iron. Let it cool on its own before it meets the sink.

Basic care, by type

Care follows the same split as seasoning:

• Enameled:wash with warm soapy water and a soft sponge or nylon brush. It is dishwasher-tolerant but hand-washing keeps the finish nicest. For the brown film that builds up on light interiors, a baking soda simmer lifts it — and never use steel wool, which scratches the glass.
• Bare cast iron: wash gently while warm, dry it completely and immediately, then wipe on a thin coat of oil. It is the exact routine in our how to clean cast ironguide — a bare dutch oven rusts if it sits wet, just like a skillet.

Store either kind with the lid slightly ajar rather than sealed tight, so any trapped moisture can escape and the inside stays fresh. That is the whole thing: a dutch oven is a searing pan and a slow oven in one heavy pot. Learn to braise and to bake a loaf in it, keep it clean and dry, and it becomes the pot you reach for most. When you are ready to compare models, our roundup of the best dutch ovens lays out which ones are worth the counter space.