Why you should NOT USE FOIL inside your dutch oven

[Montego]

Some well-intentioned people (smart people even) & some recipes may tell you to line your dutch oven with foil. Some will say that this is helpful so your cake doesn't stick to the pot. And if you are carefully controlling the heat, and keeping it low heat, it might work out ok. Maybe.

BUT...

Not for me. I cook over real campfire wood coals, and those burn hotter. What happened to me the one & only time I lined a DO with foil is that during the cooking, the foil got welded to the DO pot, and was really, really hard to remove. I mean really welded. No amount of washing, scrubbing nor scraping would get that stuff off. I finally took a drill motor & wire brush to it. That worked, but I had to completely re-season the pot after that.

So that is why you should not use foil inside your dutch oven. It is not easier to clean up.
I've never used parchment paper, maybe that works better. But I sure don't recommend foil.

Montego

[toms]

The only time I used foil was with a peach cobler and the instructions said line the bottom and sides with foil. The peach juice ran out around the foil and burned under neath the foil gluing it to the pot. I had to scrape the foil out and had a bigger clean up then without foil. I do not use foil now. Maybe if I had a sheet of foil that was wider it might work. One sheet does not cover the oven thereby leaving seams. Maybe someone who uses it succesfully can give me a tip or 2.

[gon2srf]

The only time I used foil was with a peach cobler and the instructions said line the bottom and sides with foil. The peach juice ran out around the foil and burned under neath the foil gluing it to the pot. I had to scrape the foil out and had a bigger clean up then without foil. I do not use foil now. Maybe if I had a sheet of foil that was wider it might work. One sheet does not cover the oven thereby leaving seams. Maybe someone who uses it succesfully can give me a tip or 2.

I didn't catch who it was but someone mentioned using aluminum foil or parchment paper for making pineapple upside down cake during the last DO net. He also said using any papers or foils are frowned upon during cooking competitions. Interesting net for sure. Hopefully this person will chime in.

[taugust]

Bruce was the one who mentioned the foil and parchment not used in competition. I tried using foil once and had some success. It does seem that you still have significant cleanup with foil though. At the DO convention, foil was recommended for recipes that include lots of sugar or acidic foods to preserve the seasoning or prevent sticking. I found that the foil can get small holes at the wrinkles that leak under the foil. The parchment dutch oven liners work very well and don't leak. I have used them for bread (see my recipe) and for cinnamon roll monkey bread that has brown sugar and cream on the bottom of the pot.