DRU cookware / Cleaning

[paulg]

Howdy!
Today while estate sale-ing, I picked up two pieces of DRU enameled cast-iron cookware.
I like the stuff and have several pieces.
Here is the first picture. More to follow.

 

[paulg]

But I have a mess to deal with.

I know y'all have this stuff too.
What is your favorite method to get this stuff clean?
Thanks in advance!

 

[tomturbomatic]

DRU Is Beautiful Cookware

Oven cleaner will clean the external bases; warm the pans before applying the cleaner. I don't know about the inside because it looks like the porcelain is more than stained; it looks worn down. Often, when these pans got stained, people would scour them and take the glaze off the porcelain which started a vicious cycle of further staining and more scouring. The secret is to never cook anything acidic in porcelain enameled cookware and only bleach stains, never scour them. Are the dark brown things in the pan chips? I guess you could try to boil some non-enzyme dishwasher detergent with some chlorine bleach in the pan and see what happens, but with the glaze gone off the porcelain, it is going to stain again.

 

I have a beautiful, never used piece in blue.  It is a round 4 qt Casserole or Dutch Oven.

 

Have you ever heard of PRIZER WARE? I have some mint pieces, some with the wood pistol grip handles.

 

[paulg]

Not too shabby huh?

Thanks for the tips!
Hot water and plastic scrubby for outside. Weak bleach mixture to soak inside.
Looking pretty good.

 

[luxflairguy]

I have to admit that I've never heard of DRU cookware before.  We've always has LeCrueset and one other brand, whose name I can't conjure up here in the NW.   Is this just another competitor to LC?  From trolling Ebay there doesn't seem to be the variety of pieces that LC has.  I just might have to buy a piece...!

Greg

 

[luxflairguy]

OOPPS!  I forgot!  Paul, whose the cooktop by?  Induction?  Looks like a 36".  G

 

[appnut]

Wow, Paul,  not shabby at all!!!!!

 

[lordkenmore]

>The secret is to never cook anything acidic in porcelain enameled cookware and only bleach stains, never scour them.

A dumb question...but doesn't that sort of rule out the value of enameled cookware? It seems to me I've heard of people going with Le Creuset because there will be zero (or as close as one can ever get) reaction with foods, unlike, say, plain cast iron.

 

[lordkenmore]

> We've always has LeCrueset and one other brand, whose name I can't conjure up here in the NW.

I see Staub at Marshalls. Indeed, I was lusting after a Staub pot just the other day. Lodge also has enameled iron, which I see at exotic places like Target. But the Lodge enameled iron, unlike their plain iron, comes from China. I think there are other brands I see here and there that are also Chinese enameled iron. (I think Staub is made in France, but I'm not 100% sure.)

 

[lordkenmore]

It's amazing how clean that cookware! I'd never have expected it.

Nice cookware. Hope you have many years of cooking happiness with them.

 

[luxflairguy]

I've thought of the brand!  Descoware!  It was on the tip of my tongue.  LK; got your email.  thanks.  Greg

 

[rp2813]

My mom had some Descoware pieces.  A large (12" or more) skillet and a small one (about 6").  Both had screw-in wooden handles and grey enamel cooking surfaces.  She had an oval casserole that was white enamel inside.  It got stained and never came clean.  I'm pretty sure it was rhubarb at fault.  She always used that dish for rhubarb crisp.

 

I picked up a Descoware ash tray a while back, and it's 100% orange.

 

[lordkenmore]

My mother had a couple of enameled iron pans that were--I think--maybe by Desco. I'm not 100% sure, though.

I think she really liked them, but alas at least one ended up with significant enamel loss inside. I'm not sure if the pan was at fault, or if someone did something stupid to the pan.

One of the problems of enameled iron is the risk of someone who doesn't know what he or she is doing coming into one's kitchen and destroying the pan. I have read of people who LOVE enameled iron, but switched to cheap Chinese enameled iron after a Le Creuset pot got destroyed by a house guest...

I was actually thinking of one of my mother's pans recently. It was probably the most commonly used one--a saucepan, with a lid that looked like it could be used as a skillet. I remember this pan was the one used for making stifado, a Greek beef stew, that we liked.

This eBay link shows a Desco pan that is similar to, but 100% the same as, my mother's pan used for stifado.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Cas...304797?hash=item1a1ee26b5d:g:ziAAAOSwcLxYDAHE

 

[lordkenmore]

>LK; got your email. thanks.

You're welcome! Glad it got through OK.

John

 

[panthera]

Last ditch

 Because I don't believe in the acid argument and modern enamel, I don't bother with it. I cook lots of acid foods in enamel without the slightest difficulty. When confronted by really dirty (but not chipped) flea-market enameled goods, I do the oven cleaner trick, as described above. If it's beyond that, I put it in the GE P7 for a regular cycle.

I, know, I know. But - we're talking last ditch. I've used one such piece for a few years now and none of the horror stories about micro-crazing and cracks and chips have come to pass. And that, after many many tomato sauces and lemon reductions.

 

I wouldn't do it if there were any other hope, but, boy does it work.

 

[paulg]

Cooktop is WOLF

Wolf 36" standard cooktop. Not induction.