Posted on 12/15/2008 6:26:19 AM PST by Alex Murphy
Every other year or so at about this time I get to do a Christmas List column. It's not every year because it would get tired, and people would come after me with pitchforks.
Let me emphasize that most of the items on this list (except that last one) are cheap, like me. They can be purchased at your local hardware store, and some will even fit in stockings.
-- Cast-iron frypan. These come in many sizes, some quite small, so you can still do the stocking thing. It's astounding how many people don't have cast-iron frypans and have never known the misery, frustration, paranoia and resulting condemnation from friends as to the proper care and feeding of same (the pans, not the friends). If you have loved ones who have never borne the proper amount of angst, as instilled by the Catholic Church and Calvinists everywhere ("Oh! The guilt!"), get 'em a cast-iron frypan.
-- "Harrigan's Guide on Proper Care and Feeding of a Cast-Iron Frypan." This handy-dandy little booklet will relieve you of all that angst and guilt and provide Helpful Heloise-Type Household Hints on how to avoid pitfalls and pratfalls. But anyway, it will teach you things like "How to call 911 if anyone is seen advancing toward your frypan with soap," and "How to strangle a loved one who does not put water into a pan just used for eggs."
-- "Cast-Iron Frypan Support Group" membership. For only $599.95, this gets you 24-hour telephone support and counseling on what to do if someone actually gets to your frypan with soap: rinse well with scalding hot water, scour with heavy wire brush, rinse again, season with oil, put into oven overnight (that's for the person), then throw the pan away.
-- "Harrigan's Guide on How to Answer the Perennial Question about Why You Go to Camp." This nifty little booklet will fit anywhere except maybe at a temperance group meeting. Hard cover, eight blank pages.
-- "Harrigan's Guide to How to Deal with People Who Don't Understand Ice-Fishing." (Ditto.)
-- "Harrigan's Helpful Non-Heloise Household Hints on How to Deal With Those Inescapable People Who Will Always Rush Up to You and Say 'It's not the Heat, It's the Humidity'." This handy little tome details how to build a giant mouse-trap sort of device, involving a ramp, some bait, a swivel-platform for the bait, and some sort of liquid, like antifreeze, or maybe formaldehyde.
-- Multiblade all-purpose unbelievably complicated high-tech jackknife. Now this gift is for real. I think it's been on every Christmas Wish Gift List that I've written over the years, and that's plenty. Forget those impressive-looking folding knives that could eviscerate a musk ox -- they're just for swaggering. Get your loved-one an all-purpose knife, great for cutting up a kiwi, opening wine, or clipping toenails.
Amusing, but a bit of soap doesn’t hurt a properly seasoned pan. As long as you put it away oiled.
What??? No Cornbread receipe???/ I LOVE Cornbread made in a cast-iron skillet!!!!! The real Cornbread, not the sweet cake-like stuff...
Funny! We just went through some cast iron pan angst last night when my son was washing the dishes and almost put soap in the pan. Of course, dropping the $100 instant read digital thermometer in the water was probably more upsetting. I’ll surely be glad when the power comes back and we don’t have to wash dishes by hand. Of course, the cast iron pan will still have to be taken care of by hand. :-) I love that thing!
I still have my mom’s old cast iron fry pans. They’re the best for searing and getting a nice browing and crust on meats, etc. They’re great for making cornbread in too.
They last a heck of a lot longer than any Teflon coated pan also.
They require care though. Gotta keep em seasoned.
I also have good All Clad pots and pans for other cooking too and they are great, but expensive.
Both cast iron and All Clad will last forever though.
That’s “browning” on the meats, etc. Sorry.
I love my cast iron pans...Mostly because I don’t have to yell at Mr. Legs for cooking his eggs with a fork. A FORK. Who DOES that??
I have pans of all sizes. My Griswold dutch oven is my most prized possession in the kitchen. It would tenderize an old shoe.
I have a cast iron pan that’s been around for many years. I use it, I wash it with dishwashing liquid, I put it on the stove and heat it up, put a little olive oil on it, wipe the oil around with a wadded up paper towel, let it cool down, and put it away. Works great for me.
I can’t buy a cast iron pan. I know my wife will not take care of it properly. She ruined my knives by letting the wooden handles soak in the sink even after I asked her several times not to.
we only use this pan for eggs and pancakes and occasionally grilled cheese. after each use it is heated, wiped dry and clean with paper towels and left out for the next user.
never use it for bacon. it ruins the season.
I alone clean the pan and I do it once a week then oil and butter the heck out of it and wipe it clean with paper towel.
it is better than any teflon pan ever created for eggs but must be treated with care.
Yes.
We have cast-iron fry pans in 3 different sizes.
I always use soap when washing them (and always re-oil them after drying them over a low-heat burner on the stove, just like Mom taught me when I was a wee lad).
The big one has served us my family well for nearly 50 years of use (the big one used to belong to my mother).
I hide my good cast iron skillet from my husband because he does not know how to cook in it and by the time I get done scrubbing the crusted potatoes off of it, it has lost a lot of it’s seasoning. He put’s wet sliced potatoes in a cold skillet and they always stick very badly. He gets mad if I try to explain to him about how to make sure the skillet is good and hot and the potatoes dry. So, therefore, he does not get to use it anymore.
If you have a skillet that is very crusted up and you want to renew it, just throw it in your wood stove while there is a fire in it and after the fire is out and the ashes cooled, retrieve it and it will be as good as new. Just make sure to re-season it well.
I fry bacon all the time with mine and it actually helps keep the pan seasoned. I do use a lower heat setting though, takes longer but really crisps the bacon without burning it.
My Dad, who was a bit of a seafaring neat-freak, could never pass by a bit of metal without putting a gleaming polish on it. Well, he got ahold of my mother’s cast-iron fry pan (inherited from her Mother seasoning and all, of course) one day. He cleaned it up so it looked like stainless steel. He almost died that day...
next to my upright bass, my most cherished possession. It was a gift from my grandmother to my grandmother for her wedding. I am a pretty serious cook, have plenty of the good French stuff, but this old thing has magic.
Scrambled eggs?
A fork is the perfect tool for stirring scrambled eggs in the cast-iron skillet. What else would anybody use?
I know what you mean. I have to hide my good knife too. I always clean mine and put it away immediately. My husband uses a knife and leaves it laying instead of putting it up. I really think that he does it to bug me because I have tried for years to get him to treat my knives right. I just was very dismayed that my Mama put my good wooden-handled knife in the dishwasher. I have to overlook her though. She uses a serrated steak knife to peel potatoes. Aaaaahhhh!!!
I've never done half the stuff talked about here. On occasion, I wash them in hot soapy water---doesn't hurt them. I just reseason them by rubbing some oil on them and putting them in a very low oven for several hours.
I've got the all-clad stuff, too, and it's very good. Depends on what you're cooking---I don't think I've ever made a pone of cornbread in anything but one of my cast iron skillets. We like a nice crisp golden brown crust on our cornbread, and nothing achieves this like a cast iron skillet.
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