How to Clean Stained Enameled Cast Iron

Dear Home-Ec 101:

I have one of those pricey enameled cast iron Dutch, err…French ovens. One particularly rushed morning while doing laundry, entertaining baby and vacuuming the endless pet hair from my carpets I let a chunky ragu scorch onto said pricey French oven. After several days of soaking I gave in and scrubbed. Now my cookware is stained and lacks the original luster I paid for. Can the enamel luster be restored and saved?!

Signed,
Stained in St. Stephens

Heather says:

The website for Le Crueset used to recommend soaking stained enameled cast iron in dilute chlorine bleach for several hours or overnight (1 TBSP per pint of water). This is how I occasionally clean the interior of my enameled cast iron, too.

I suppose some brilliant folks out there decided that if a little bleach worked well that a lot would work even better. Le Crueset has now changed their site to suggest using their proprietary cleaner. My theory is that this is their idiot safeguard.

If you decide to use the bleach route do not do some of the things I have seen while perusing random cooking message boards:

Do NOT heat a mixture of bleach and water on the stove.Do NOT use a straight or 50:50 mix of bleach.

We all do stupid things on occasion, but let's learn from each other's mistakes. We've talked about how to use chlorine bleach safely in the past.

I frequently cook black beans in my enameled dutch oven and they leave quite the interesting discoloration behind. I usually ignore it for a few months, telling myself that discoloration doesn't hurt anything. And it's true, the discoloration of the enamel is harmless. Maybe we should just call it a patina and move on.

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