If you’re the bewildered owner of a copy of my dutch oven cookbook, The Dutch Lovin’ Cookbook by Ian Harris, you probably know that the better part of all the avowals I’ve ever made about sturdy & proper cast iron cooking are a pile of horse. Indeed I wrote that book as a way of putting you off the scent.

Let me remind you that cast iron cookery and sourdough-keeping and fried trout and all the things that are best in this world were invented by prospectors so far as we know. And prospectors so far as we know employed a lot of cock-and-bull and fish-stories and various fart-powders and fool’s-gold to cheat the scales and protect their claims.

Thus warned, please feel free to make befitting adjustments and calibrations to the following:

Last week I baked an apple pie in my new 8” baby dutch, which I was eager to do. I like to break in a new dutch oven with an apple pie. The apple pie was very nice to look at but it tasted like a railroad spike. I know what you’re thinking. A railroad spike seems just the sort of object a prospector would enjoy and display in his cabin home.

Let me remind you that prospectors, in addition to all the cold facts about them up there, are constantly making note of the fact that things could be better. “This fresh mountain morning,” for example, “could be fresher, more mountainous.” “This high mountain stone I’m sitting on,” for example, “could stand to be jabbing my flat prospector’s ass a little less.” etc.

My little apple pie could’ve tasted a little less like a railroad spike. It tasted like a railroad spike because the pan is old and the season has worn off the cast iron. I needed to re-season it. Here’s how I did it.

I set the family oven to three hundred and fifty degrees. I selected a crock of lard from the larder that was from when I last made tamales and rubbed it all over my little dutch. It’s important you massage the lard into all the surfaces—in, out, and in-between. This is a chance for you to explore the nuances and cute imperfections of your pot.

At the last minute I also decided to re-season my family 12” dutch, which is my fondest possession. It’s not a crime to re-season your cast iron from time to time.

Once my pans were all coated in lard, I arranged them in the oven like this, with their lids balancing on the pot legs. Notice I laid out a layer of tin foil to catch the drippings.

I baked them for a little over an hour and then turned off the oven and let them cool inside and harden. The lard you put on your pans will transform into a handsome, honey-colored varnish that will richen and darken all your days.