The Joy of Cast Iron Cookware

Since there were a couple comments about cast iron cookware, I thought I would share about how we have managed with our pans.

If you cook on an open fire and it gets really hot, you can have some black flaking even with the best of seasoning, but on the stove in the house, it should work out if you just take a few steps.

First off, you don't need to scrub hard when they are properly seasoned, they should clean easily, like a non stick surface sorta.

Never season a cast iron pot or pan with a liquid oil. It is said that bacon grease works the best, I cringe as I write that but its said to be the best, since we don't eat pork, there isn't any ever at our house, Lard would work the same. I used beef tallow on some pans but found good old Crisco works just as well. Warm the cast iron piece a bit first, then coat with the fat and put it in a 350 oven for an hour or so. I have forgotten a piece was seasoning and had it in there for about a couple hours without bad results.

For the first few times using it, cook something fried in it, helps to build up the seasoning and NEVER dry the pan with a dishcloth, always stick it on the stove over a flame and dry it. It just keeps it seasoned well. Some folks will just wipe a cast iron skillet with a paper towel and consider that its cleaned, I wash mine and have on occasion scrubbed it but then I sorta season it again. Unless a pan is properly seasoned, it will flake off some of the "seasoning" when scrapped with a cooking utensil or something. I am an advocate of good quality cast iron cooking pots and pans. None of the cheap stuff...it just doesn't season right for me. My favorite pieces are Wagners. Can't beat it. I have an 1891, and its just the best. There is one on ebay right now, going pretty cheap http://cgi.ebay.com/Wagners-1891-original-cast-iron-skillet_W0QQitemZ160164432209QQihZ006QQcategoryZ3631QQcmdZViewItem

I think I have had mine since I was first married. Got all my others early on in thrift stores.

I have a Jotul "cookie" iron that I use all the time but its not so easy to clean when the cookies stick a bit, here is a picture just after making cookies so you can see that it has to be scrubbed and seasoned a bit more each time I use it.

Good information on this web site about cast iron cooking http://whatscookingamerica.net/Information/CastIronPans.htm

If you are worried about being iron deficient, cook in cast iron, statistics show food cooked on cast iron has higher levels of iron, which makes sense. A study done in 1986 found that some foods more than doubled their iron content.

"Some examples from the study: The amount of iron in 100 grams (about 3 ounces) of apple sauce increased from 0.35 milligrams to 7.3 milligrams after being cooked in cast iron. The amount of iron in the same amount of spaghetti sauce increased from 0.6 milligrams to 5.7 milligrams.
Even eggs absorbed iron from the skillet. Scrambled eggs increased from 1.49 milligrams to 4.76; fried eggs increased from 1.92 milligrams to 3.48; and even poached eggs increased from 1.87 grams to 2.32 grams of iron after being cooked in the iron skillet.
But not all foods increased in iron content by that much. Fried potatoes, for example, almost doubled their iron content, but still contained less than a milligram of iron after cooking. And baked cornbread increased iron content only from 0.67 milligrams to 0.86 milligrams. "

http://extension.osu.edu/~news/story.php?id=2724.

Give cast iron another try if it didn't work well the first time you tried it. It really does improve with age !