Love My Blog-buddies

This was my last day of employment at the jewelry store so I was pretty down. This awaited me and cheered up my otherwise depressing day.

In a previous post I mentioned using a dutch oven to cook a pork roast to make pulled pork and wondered (in parentheses, like these!) if there really was a Dutch connection.

Well, it turns out, there is a connection and my favourite Dutchman, Peter, read the post and sent the following as a comment. I thought it would serve much better as a post, so here is the history of the Dutch Oven. Says Peter:

"Of course there's a connection..."

Early European history
During the late 1600s the Dutch system of producing these cast metal cooking vessels was more advanced than the English system. The Dutch used dry sand to make their molds, giving their pots a smoother surface. Consequently, metal cooking vessels produced in the Netherlands were imported into Britain. In 1704, an Englishman named Abraham Darby decided to go to the Netherlands to observe the Dutch system for making these cooking vessels. Four years later, back in England, Darby patented a casting procedure similar to the Dutch process and began to produce cast metal cooking vessels for Britain and her new American Colonies. It is possible that because Darby’s patent was based upon his research into the Dutch foundry system that the cooking vessels he produced came to be referred to as “Dutch” ovens. Other researchers believe that this term may have come from the itinerant Dutch traders who sold cooking vessels out of their wagons as they traveled from town to town and door to door. Maybe both accounts are true. In any event, the term “Dutch oven” has endured for over 300 years.

American history
Over time the Dutch oven used in the American Colonies began to change. The pot became shallower and legs were added to hold the oven above the coals. A flange was added to the lid to keep the coals on the lid and out of the food.
The cast-iron cookware was loved by colonists and settlers because of its versatility and durability. It could be used for boiling, baking, stews, frying, roasting, and just about any other use. The ovens were so valuable that wills in the 18th and 19th centuries frequently spelled out the desired inheritor of the cast iron cookware. For example, Mary Ball Washington (mother of President George Washington) specified in her will, dated 20 May 1788, that one-half of her "iron kitchen furniture" should go to her grandson, Fielding Lewis, and the other half to Betty Carter, a granddaughter. Several Dutch ovens were among Mary's "iron kitchen furniture."
When the young American country began to spread westward across the North American continent, so did the Dutch oven. A Dutch oven was among the gear Lewis and Clark carried when they explored the great American Northwest in 1804-1806. The pioneers who settled the American West also took along their Dutch ovens. In fact, a statue raised to honor the Mormon handcart companies who entered Utah’s Salt Lake Valley in the 1850s proudly displays a Dutch oven hanging from the front of the handcart. The Dutch oven is also the official state cooking pot of Utah.
Mountain men exploring the great American frontier used Dutch ovens into the late 1800s. Dutch oven cooking was also prominent among those who took part in the western cattle drives that lasted from the mid-1800s into the early 1900s.

I suppose I could have looked it up, but I like the fact that a proud Dutchman did that for us all.
Better take notes, there may be a quiz sometime next year.

If you like good food and have an interest in Dutch history, check out Peter's site. He posts some great recipes. If you comment, tell him the cajun sent you.

Big hugs to you, Peter. I hope we get to meet in person, preferably in your country, sometime in the future.

Now we all know something we didn't know before. Doesn't that feel good?

And so it goes.
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