Posted on 02/23/2019 5:24:24 AM PST by PJ-Comix
We have cast iron cookware passed down from our parents and have always used it for cooking except eggs. Cooks great soups, stews, vegetables, boiled meats, fried meat and vegetables. Also picked up a few pieces over the years at yard sales and estate sales. Some needed cleaning and reprepping but they are great.
I heat the pan, turn off the heat and cook the eggs in the resisual heat in the pan.
Cast Iron is good for making pies too.
If something sticks on the pan, scrape out what you can and then boil water in it and wipe it clean.
I have never reseasoned my Lodge pan, ever. Well over 20 years. Its my best friend in my kitchen.
Thanks for the link, I just read it and it’s helpful. I’ve got a small skillet I’m seasoning right now that I’m going to back up and start over, with some flaxseed oil.
I use them to cook eggs—fine as long as you use some sort of oil and let them set to some degree before trying to flip or move them. The one thing I avoid is the extended use of a tomato sauce in them, as the acid can be kind of rough on the seasoning. (Short term is certainly fine.)
But yeah, the old ones were made better and can be revived from almost any condition of neglect. Still, I’m glad to see they are still sold and used. So far ahead of that nasty teflon stuff, and appropriate for so much more than, say, your basic stainless steel.
I’m still using the cast iron pans mom bought way back in 1945. The older pans are better than the new Chinese cast as the older pans have very smooth interiors. The new pans are rough as a cob.
Pans I have are Griswold small label, unlabeled Lodge, Also have some of the older Wagner. The insides of these pans are smooth as glass.
You’re welcome! I’d recommend using a little more orange marmalade than the recipe calls for. When you have the dough spread out, ready to put it on, you’ll see that a little more would be better.
***I can’t lift a cast iron pan with one hand.***
I can’t either, so, being a steel fabricator, I took a 5/16 inch steel rod and built me a second lifting handle. it goes over the top of the handle on the skillet, then down and underneath, then bends up on the side of the skillet away from the handle, I then bent it up into a lifting handle. It works great! It works for several size skillets.
My wife has the same problem and damages the vessels in her wrist when she ignores it.
She likes to cook but since I was a Mess Sgt. in my youth, she lets me do most of it now that I am retired. We are nuts about cookware, gadgets, china and all of this stuff.
Our home has a large gas range but I did place a ceramic top range in a cabin I have. Like you, we don't want to break it with cast iron. So for my wife, we have some Ceramic coated pans. Try these by Zwilling the makers of Henkels knives.
https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/1/1/392294-zwilling-energy-2-piece-ceramic-coated-stainless-steel-fry-pan-set.html
Pick them up at Bed Bath and Beyond, Macy's etc. They are stainless steel shell and Triple ceramic coated -- can't out gas like teflon. Cleans with soap and water without scrubbing.
If you burn your butter or olive oil either reduce your heat or use a high temp oil like Grape Seed Oil.
For real lightweight at home on gas, she uses shiney stainless steel at very low temps. If it loses its shine, a little liquid Bar Keepers Friend cleans it right up. Use low heat. Did I say, low heat?
I have some cast iron as well and use it in the manner PJ discusses but uses it too often ends up with my wife trying to pick it up and that is a no, no.
***If you have an electric self cleaning oven, just pop it in there and hit clean.***
Mom used to clean ours by placing them in the wood stove. they came out red hot and clean. Had to get oil on them as soon as they cooled or they would rust.
I have used sand as well when camping on the Brazos River. ( I read about that trick in The Old Man And The Boy by Robert Ruark; Learned how to train pups from that book too ;^). )
I like stainless steel pans. Compared to cast iron: Much lighter, work as well IMHO and no fuss about cleaning up. Won’t go back to teflon OR cast iron. My cast iron stuff is sitting in the garage. The teflon went into the garbage.
High temperatures are necessary if you want to caramelize/sear the outside without over cooking the interior. I do fried eggs this way, in bacon grease. Crispy bottoms, yum.
Don’t use soap when you clean them, don’t let water sit in them, and you won’t have to re-season every few weeks.
Hot water and a nylon scrub brush, dry completely, wipe them with a half teaspoon of oil, and you are ready for the next use.
Yes initial. It provides a really hard base. It is in the refrigerated section over by the vitamins. You don’t want to use it for the ongoing because it goes rancid really quickly. The base coats don’t because it polymerizes with the heat. That polymerized coating is the seasoning. Chia oil would be better but is not obtainable. The chain mail scrubber is important too. You can find it at target by the Lodge stuff. It knocks down the high spots and leaves the seasoning intact. Leaves a really slick surface. When you cook preheat your oven to 425. Just let the skillet cool a bit, rinse it and use the chain mail. Then wipe out with something lint free and sprits it with canola spray and wipe it out removing “all” the oil. (The little that stays is what you want). Toss it in the oven and turn it off. Easy peasy and slick as snot. Don’t even bother sanding out Lodge stuff. It may look and feel rough but the seasoning sticks like glue and believe it or not the surface finish has little to no impact on non-stickyness. My rough surface Lodge stuff is more non-stick than my Griswold with the mirror surface.
After you initially season your pan fry onions in it till they turn to charcoal. I don’t understand why but the Chinese do it when seasoning woks. It seems to do something that aids with the slickness. Also preheat your pan before applying your fist seasoning layer. It bonds with the iron better.
Excellent. :)
My mother and her sisters used cast iron skillets to cook a lot of good meals. Each got a couple of ready to use again and again, cast iron skillets from their parents as wedding gifts.
All of them must in heaven cooking/baking with their cast iron skillets as no cast iron skillets were around in the post divvy up session after their funerals.
The cast iron skillets apparently went to heaven with their owners.
Chicken fried in those skillets was better than Pop Eye’s, and a pot roast done in the oven with veggies was the best Sunday meal after church.
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