Cast Iron Pot with Lid– NonStick Shallow Cast Iron Pan – Sturdy Dutch Oven Design with Ergonomic Handles – 4L, 29cm Oven Safe Casserole Pot Ideal for Classic Cooking – by Nuovva

A cast iron cookware is nothing like any of the others. It requires specialised care, maintenance, and usage. When I see most of the bad reviews here criticising its rustiness, I feel sad that these people would resign a perfectly good cast iron pot to the rubbish heap before doing some careful research prior to using it.I have to blame the manufacturer's inadequate usage instructions. When you buy the pot, it comes with a slip of paper with printed instructions on how to use and clean it, either side. However, none of them mention a very important point - "seasoning" the cast iron pan. If you only did a search on Google on how to "season" your cast iron pan, you'd find a trove of blog articles and sponsored articles of commercial websites teaching you how to do this. To skip this most important step before washing and/or using any cast iron cookware for the first time, unless you bought a pre-seasoned cast iron cookware, would most probably render your pan rusty after first wash/use, and when you use it, your food would stick to the pan like crazy, burning onto it too.Please, please, do not throw your pan away, even if you have skipped the "seasoning" step prior to washing or using the pan. Get a metal scourer, and use some elbow grease to scour off all of the burnt on stuff or rusty areas well. Then, you "season" it. "Season" it well. And then your pan will be good as new again. Cast iron cookware are meant to last for generations. In the olden days, people would pass their cast iron cookware down to their children and grandchildren, and it would still be perfectly usable. You could even go on eBay and buy some old, used cast iron cookware that has been used for the last 60 years. It would still be perfectly usable, with no loss of its functions, as long as it has been properly "seasoned" before use, and has been cared for adequately.So, "seasoning". How does it work? Basically, when you coat the pan with certain oils, and then bake it in the oven at high heat till the oil reaches smoking point, the oil then polymerises onto the pan's surface, and forms a plasticky, hard, smooth shiny layer. This basically protects your pan from rust, and also makes your pan more non-stick. You basically want to coat the entire surface of the pan and its cast iron lid, inside and outside, with an oil that is high in unsaturated fat, low in saturated fat, and has high smoking points of at least 230+ degree Celsius. Good oils to use are flaxseed oil, sunflower oil, groundnut oil, almond oil, grapeseed oil and rapeseed oil. But do not use cold-pressed or virgin oils, as those have a low smoking point and would start burning too easily, ruining your "seasoning" attempt.You only want a very thin but tangible layer of oil on the surfaces of the cast iron. You don't want the pan to be dripping with oil. Best way to do this is to pour 1 teaspoon of oil into the pan, and use a pastry brush, your fingers, or a folded piece of strong kitchen towel, and spread this oil all over the inside surface - all of the black metal areas. Then you also should "season" the outer surface of the pan too, so that it prevents rust after washing. Flip the pan upside down so its base is facing you. Again, you pour 1 teaspoon of oil on the base of the pan facing you, and then using a pastry brush, your fingers, or a piece of folded kitchen towel, and start spreading the oil all over the external surface of the pan, making sure all of the black metal areas are covered, including the handles (you don't want rusty handles, do you?). Your pan should look shiny with oil, but not dripping with oil. Do the same with the pan's lid. Then you want to put your pan upside down on an oven grill rack or a mesh rack, and then place an oven tray underneath just to catch any excess oil that might drip from the pan during the process. Of course, you don't really need to, if you're confident that you hadn't over-oiled the pan and its lid.Put the pan and its lid into a preheated oven at 250 degrees Celsius (or the highest heat setting on your oven) and then bake for 30 mins. You want to make sure your kitchen and rooms are well-ventilated, and keep your smoke alarms off if you wish, as this process will cause a lot of smoke to emit from the oven, because we are trying to bake the oils into the iron pan by baking the oils to smoking point, after all.After that, take your pan and lid out and leave them on the counter top to cool down. It will take about 20 mins perhaps. Then you re-oil your pan and lid again, doing exactly the same "seasoning" technique as I've described before. You want to do this "seasoning" 4 or 5 times successfully, before you even start using the pan for the first time. This is to ensure that your "seasoned" layer is thick and tough enough to withstand cooking and washing. Now, from then on, you shouldn't have to perform this seasoning technique again. Just making sure you cook with this pot, with oil or fat, regularly, will re-season your pot in the process, as whenever you heat oils up in the base of the pot, they will get polymerised into the cast iron and form a newer layer of the hard, plasticky substance that makes your pot more rust-proof and non-stick.That's not the end. You also have to make sure you never, ever submerge or soak the pot in water and/or soap to clean it after use. Cleaning this pot needs to be a very quick process, involving mostly water, and maybe only a teeny tiny amount of soap, because too much soap can damage the "seasoning" layer. Soaking the pot in water to clean it is also a no-no. Cast iron metal is porous and will absorb any water you leave soaking in it, and this would again cause damage and rust to the cast iron. If you can, try and only wipe it clean with a kitchen towel, so it wouldn't need to be exposed to water or soap at all. Of course, that wouldn't be quite possible if you have some burnt on food on the pot. To remove burnt on food, you want to use a stiff brush and/or salt mixed with oil, and put in some elbow grease to rub off the burnt food from the pan. Then rinse with water. Always, always, dry the pot immediately after washing it with water. Dry it with a towel, or kitchen towel. Water must not be allowed to sit on any of its surface to dry naturally, because that will guarantee your pot will rust.In addition, you must never ever douse the surface of the pot with cold water, when it is still warm or hot from cooking. You should always let it sit on the stove to cool down almost completely before you start trying to wash it. Subjecting the pot to temperature extremes of hot then cold, can crack or break your pot.Alright, I've gone on for quite a bit. All of this info and more, you can easily Google up online. Plenty of websites explaining how to care for, maintain, and use cast iron cookware. I hope you will enjoy using your cast iron pot as much as I do. And if you're thinking of buying it for someone as a gift, please consider whether that person is keen on putting in the effort involved in "seasoning" and maintaining it for the pot to remain usable. It's not one of those things you can just buy and start using out of the box after a quick wash.

This is a great cast iron pan. If you're new to cast iron, though, please make sure you read the last bit of this review for info on seasoning your pan.For reasons I don't understand, the manufacturer talks about seasoning the pan but gives no information, either in the video included here on Amazon nor on the leaflet enclosed with the order, on how to actually do so! I'm quite baffled by this major oversight, as without doing it, the pan will rust. It's no wonder so many reviewers were saying they'd followed the instructions but still ended up with rust. The manufacturer didn't say how to season it! Totally scratching my head... (Fyi, that little bit in the video where they show pouring a bit of oil in the pan and flashing up the word 'season' is not how to season a pan. You'll just end up wasting your time and your oil, and your pan will still rust.)I realise the advert is for a 'preseasoned' pan, but take it from an experienced cast iron user that you should re-season it anyway. When it arrived, I put it next to my other, well-seasoned cast iron pans, and it wasn't nearly as black.To season it, I scrubbed it with hot water (no soap), and I used a pastry brush to coat all surfaces with Stork, taking care to really work the fat around the lettering and ridges. I then put it in the oven with the lid the right way up, and the pan upside down on the rack below. I placed a baking sheet underneath the bottom rack to catch any drips, turned the oven on to 200C, and let it 'bake' for an hour. I then let the pan cool completely in the oven. I took it out and repeated the process a second time. (I redo the seasoning from time to time, too.)The first thing I cooked in it was Mexican rice (see photo) that contains lime and tomato, so it's acidic. I scrubbed the pan out with hot water (no soap again) and dried thoroughly. Zero rust. I've cooked it in several times since, sometimes acidic foods once more, cleaned with hot water only and drying. Again, zero rust.

Context: I know how to look after cast iron pans. I seasoned this hard and hot before its first use and after each subsequent use. It has never had a scouring pad inside it.After the first cleaning, there was a small patch of rust.This photo was taken after its sixth, and now final, usage. Rust all over the shop; tainting the food despite seasoning between each cook.Lesson: you get what you pay for and this is cheap for a reason. It is crap.

This really is a heavy cast iron stew or casserole pot. It certainly does the job and with two handles can be used cooker to table for serving.My only gripe is that it rusts very easily even when the car instructions are closely followed.

It's a strong cast iron pot.... it does exactly what it needs to and does it well.For those unfamiliar with cast iron you need to season these things in the oven or barbecue first to bake in those first layers of oil. Don't submerge or leave wet, and when finished cooking, clean with hot water and a sponge, dry fully, and put a thin layer of cannoli oil around everything to stop it rusting.