Vintage Nacco - Copco dutch oven safe heat tolerance

I have 2 vintage Copcos. No problem baking in them, but the white porcelain insides do tend to darken.

There is no need to pit oil in the bottom, bread doesn’t stick. As far as max temp, I’m not sure, but I have baked at 500F. If concerned, keep it at 450F or less.

Those are lovely items, and I love the colour.  One thing that I have noticed about baking bread in enamelled cast iron is that the outside of the pot can discolour.  For that reason, I don't use an enamelled cast iron pot that I want to remain looking as nice as it was when I bought it.  These are such beautiful pieces, and if I had them, I think I would find something else to use for baking the bread.  But if you do use them for bread, I hope that you will be pleased with the results.  I'm sorry that I don't know the answer to your question regarding the temperature.

The temperature of the porcelain that is applied to dutch overs is 800 degrees Celsius, which is approximately 1,472 degrees Fahrenheit.

The reason that you see two temperatures talked about for dutch ovens are for the knob, if it has a knob at the top of the lid. If it is a stainless steel knob, then its rated for 500 degrees Fahrenheit, if it is not a stainless steel knob then t is rated for 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Obviously if it doesn't have a knob then it is not subject to those temperature ratings, the porcelain itself is baled at over 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit, which no home oven can ever even get close to.

So it appears obvious that if your porcelain is not damaged (check your edges) then you should be able to bake at 500 degrees Fahrenheit.

We have baked in porcelain enameled such ovens for almost 20 years, we never put oil into them, its too easy to get the oil overheated, it could smoke and it could even burn.

You could sprinkle corn meal on the bottom but we found that we don't need it. We simply put the dough into the clean, dry, enameled dutch oven directly with nothing in there (we don't use parchment paper either) at 500 degrees Fahrenheit and it has worked just fine.

We preheat the oven with the dutch oven and its lid inside, at 500 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes, then we gently place the dough inside the incredibly hot dutch oven (be careful your hands will be close enough to feel the heat) and hear it sizzle as the dough touches the bottom surface, we immediate place the hot lid on it and close the oven quickly so we don't lose heat.

Now, the next part varies, I used to bake at 500 degrees Fahrenheit for the entire bake time when I was at sea level, but now I am living at high altitude and it seems to scorch the bottom every time, so what I do now is to pre-heat at 500 degrees Fahrenheit then bake for 5 minutes, then lowers the temperature to 450 degrees Fahrenheit for the remainder of the bake.

I use a thermometer to make sure that the loaf has reached 200 degrees Fahrenheit in its center, if not then I put it back in the oven. The final temperature should be somewhere between 200 and 211 degrees Fahrenheit (if it reaches 212 degrees Fahrenheit then its burned on the bottom).

If you pull the loaf out when its fully baked then it will not stick, in fact what I do is to simply tilt the dutch ver towards the cling rack and the loaf rolls out all by itself.

Yes, you want to make sure that you are using a pair of top quality oven mitts, that dutch oven will be incredibly hot, be careful!

The point being is that it seems that you should be able to bake at 500 degrees Fahrenheit without any oil, without any corn meal, and without any parchment paper just fine.