You do not need to 'season' a ceramic pot, whether it's cast iron or not. It's not a not-stick pan, and will need to be treated as such.

I've washed my ceramic pans the same as any other pan.

Now regular cast iron (no coating) is a totally different thing.

I'm still a little leery of putting this in the DW, since the enamel is crazed a bit, and there is a gray line going around about halfway up. Maybe the PO scrubbed it too much? But the stuck-on oil did scrub out after boiling. I'll just have to see how it does the next time.

And even with all the cleaning, and storing with lid upside down and paper inside, it still smelled a bit of rancid oil. Not as bad as when I first got it, but still noticeable. I might have to store the lid separately and see if that improves.

Is there any exposed cast iron, like the exterior of the pot? If so, do not put it in a dishwasher. No, there is no seasoning involved in your pot. One seasons cast iron to provide the non-stick surface and your's does not have a cast iron surface. The benefits of your cast iron, enameled pot lies in the cooking properties of cast iron. They take less heat from the burner and therefore one does not cook with the flame as high, or it burns and scorches. It has very nice heat distribution as well.

I don't think one can bank on the complete cleanliness of any enamel coating with crazing. It provides crevices for gunk, even if it's gunk so small one cannot see with the naked eye. I don't suppose this is so much a germ issue, since it goes into an oven, but might be with absorbed greases or chemicals.. God knows what this pot may have been used for in its previous life. Oftentimes old pots get pulled into service for soap making and other stuff making it unfit for food use down the line. Crazed enamel on a food surface is just not something I'd be comfortable with. It speaks to abuse, usually from heat/cold extremes. I used to work in a lab and and did testing on enameled surfaces on appliances. If it crazed, it failed. Your call.

Awesome find at the thrift store!

I love enameled cast iron, but it is definitely not non-stick. It is more like very-stick.

If you really want to bake bread in it, I would use cornmeal under and around the bread. The dry heat might also increase the crazing, though.

What this pot is best for is soups, stews, braising, pot roast, beans - that sort of thing. Stovetop or in oven, but with liquid. You can saute your onions and brown your meat in it, then add the water. And it will stain, but that's ok if you just accept it :).

I think the scrubbing was a mistake,. You may have scrubbed off the smooth, shiny top layer of enamel, and left a rougher surface (on the miicroscopic level) that more stuff will stick to. So you might get increased staining. But it is otherwise ok :).

For the rancid oil, I would try a very strong detergent or soap. Clothes soap, dishwasher soap, Dr Bronner's, simple green... whatever you have that is food safe. Don't dilute! Coat it with soap, leave it overnight or something, then rinse (and rinse, and rinse). You could even consider a bleach solution if you are comfortable with that around food (that one I would dilute!)

Then cook a curry in it and forget about the oil ;).

The rancid oil smell kinda scares me.

I don't know about the enameled cast, but I had a hand hammered cast iron wok that I loved. I had had it for twenty years!

My Ex took it to her sons house and cooked for them. She forgot and left it on their deck for a few weeks. I asked her to go retrieve it because I was going to use it that next weekend.

They weren't home and it was still on the deck.

When I got it back it looked like it needed to be re-seasoned, I figured it was because of the weather from being outside and/or his wife washed it with harsh soap. I put it on my gas grill to heat up, thankfully.

A rancid oil smell came off of it that was really, really bad. That had never happened before.

I called her son and asked him what they had cooked in my wok to leave that smell. He said, "Do you mean that really old round pan that Mom left here?"

I said yes, knowing that he didn't have a clue about what a wok was.

He said "Oh, I thought it was junk and soaked my motorcycle parts in it."

Things were not so good at the house that night, I was really peeved off at my wife and stepson!
Be careful about buying used cast!

I don't think anyone would have used a small Wolfgang Puck Dutch oven for motor oil LOL. Now, I don't know, maybe soap? But it doesn't smell now that I cleaned it again.

I figure the crazing is from heating it to 450 empty to make bread. But we ate the bread with no ill effects. Been making bread in loaf pans lately - in fact, I should have made bread today for lunch tomorrow but got sidetracked with pantry and electric PC (also should have started tomatoes today but it was cold this AM - ice from rain/sleet last night - maybe tomorrow).

"I don't think anyone would have used a small Wolfgang Puck Dutch oven for motor oil"

You don't know my Ex's Son! It could have been made of gold and it wouldn't have mattered to him!

Crazing and chipping is a big issue with newer ECI pans. They are not as well made as the old ones. It's a problem because the layer between the cast iron and the enamel can be toxic.

I was reading about this a while back.

What do they use? I thought the enamel was just a glass-like material that was fired in a kiln after coating the cast iron with it, so that the glass fused to the (microscopically) bumpy iron.

An easy way to remove staining from an enameled cast iron pot is to add a small amount of bleach (about 1/4 cup), dilute with tap water and (optionally) squirt in a little dishwashing liquid. Let the pot sit out over night. Discard water and rinse really well to get rid of bleach odor. This even works if you've scorched the bottom and have some baked on food residue.

The Wolfgang line of enameled cast iron pots are nowhere near the quality of Le Creuset or other high end brands. Preheating an empty enameled cast iron pot in the oven for bread baking can weaken the enamel, making it more prone to chipping (and crazing). Since the enamel on the pot you have is already crazed, you might as well use it to bake bread.

I've been using non-enameled cast iron dutch ovens for bread baking long before it was popularized by Bittman's article in the New York Times. One thing that bothers me is that it seems as though your risen dough, when ready to bake, still had some oil on it. Even with the no-knead recipe, bread dough has 2 rises - the bulk rise and then, after shaping, the final rise prior to baking. For the final fermentation, the dough is not put in an oiled bowl so there should be no oil on the risen dough when you place it in your preheated pot. A thin layer of any coarse meal (coarse corn grits, wheat bran, semolina, etc.) on the bottom of the pot prevents sticking. In fact, even for the first rise (the bulk fermentation) there is really no need to oil the bowl. Misting the bowl (or whatever rising container you're using) *lightly* with water (use a plant mister for this) is just as effective.

Happy baking. Enjoy your pot.