Flakes of surface coating coming off in dutch oven

tigerlilly16, Jun 2, 7:00am
I have an old dutch oven that I bought at an op shop several years ago, it's light blue and the finish I have always assumed to be enamel because it reminded me of nannas old enamel bakeware, but I really don't know. When I first bought it, it had a couple of existing chips that went trhrough the finish to the metal underneath and showed rust.
I have used it without incident for the last several years, but have only really used it for casseroles, or dishes where there is liquid added.
Today I wanted to use it to cook a bolar roast, as it's the only roasting-type dish I have with a lid, I put it on the element to brown the roast first with some oil, but when I turned the meat I noticed little flakes of blue coating had come away and stuck to the meat in the spot where the main chip is.
I want to know what other's think, if I should continue to use this only for casseroles, or should I throw it out altogether, as I think it's the fact that I put it directly on element with oil in that caused it to do this! Or will I just be serving up enamel flakes in my food but not notice because it's in a casserole. Also are any finishes on old cookware dangerous! I am just assuming that it's enamel.

gardie, Jun 2, 6:04pm
I'd be inclined to do away with it for cooking - would make a great dogs water bowl as hard to tip over!You could test it however by filling it with clean water and boiling it for a couple of hours on the stovetop.If nothing comes off, it may be OK provided that you only cook things that aren't going to stick - stovetop soups,oven baked casseroles etc.

K-Mart are selling enamelled cast iron dutch ovens for about $40 in a range of colours.Mine is a big round blue/grey one and I love it.Even if it doesn't last for years and years like the Chasseur or Le Crueset ones, its very good value in comparison IMO.