Well, not your mom; she probably uses those ’60’s aluminum pans. But your Grandma could probably do it. There’s a lot your grandma could do that you haven’t asked about.
Cast iron is easy to maintain, easy to cook with, and dirt cheap. If you aren’t using it it’s probably because someone has fed you a line about seasoning it and made it sound hard. What a jerk. You should read this and then go hunt them down like an animal.
Seasoning:
1) To season a cast iron pan rub it down with vegetable oil then wipe up most of the oil. If you’re feeling precious I’m sure you could find a reason to use $30/oz Koopaberry oil from the Upper-Goomba highlands. It really doesn’t matter what you use. If you don’t mind the smoke you can even use butter. (Editor: please note whether your exhaust fan works *before* attempting the aforementioned).
2) Put the pan into your oven at baking temperature ~350 and leave it in for half an hour to 45 minutes. Or an hour. It’s not like your landlord’s GE Electric stove is gonna melt it.
3-a) Turn off your oven. The pan is now 350 degrees Fahrenheit. You should reach in with both bare hands and pull it out.
3-b) Did you follow step 3a? Really? Hah! When you get back from the burn ward take all your pots and pans and expensive Williams-Sonoma gizmos and give them to the Salvation Army. At least you learned something about
yourself, right?
3-c) Leave the pan in the oven with the door closed until it has cooled down.
4) Rinse your pan, wipe it out, and start cooking.
Until you’ve got the heavy thick black coating, I’d suggest frying stuff. Bacon, falafel, long-pig, chicken. Once it’s nice and thick you can cook pretty much whatever you like though tomatoes and acidy stews or soups seem to take the coating off pretty quick.
Care and maintenence:
It’s cast iron. Seriously. People have been using this stuff for 1,500-2,500 years. If you have to stop and think about it, you’re doing it wrong.
1) Don’t wash it with soap. Use a scrubby sponge and hot water. If it’s real crusty boil water in it then scrape at it with a wooden/plastic spatula.
2) If you’ve got time, before putting it away dry it off by heating it up. Then rub an oily paper towel on it.
3) Be as rough as you like. If you leave it in the sink for a month and it all goes to hell and rusts over just scrub the **** out of it with a scouring pad and some soap until it’s clean. Then re-season.
Aluminum sucks, stainless steel sucks, Un-coated copper is bad for you, non-stick is bad for you, and all the copper core pans are ****ing expensive. Cast iron is safe, cheap, and easy to use. Just like your Grandma likes it.
Editor’s note: once you start using cast iron and talking about seasoning you will get into fights with people in the opposite use-soap-to-wash/don’t-use-soap-to-wash camp as yourself. The editor disagrees with the author on this very topic and feels that a small amount of detergent on a really cruddy pan will work wonderful de-glazing miracles.
Author’s note: APOSTATE!!!
Doctor’s Note: Some studies have shown that people who cook with cast iron have lowered chances of becoming anemic because you are getting the iron you need from your pans.
Editor’s Note: I’d rather get my daily dose of iron from my cookware rather than, say, teflon.
Author’s note: 2,000 years! Even that racist easily distracted great aunt can use this stuff. Why the over thinking?
This has been a guest blog by WRC, with editorial commentary by EJG.
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20Mar
5 Responses
good info to have — i’ve got a skillet i’ve been wrestling with for years; now i know i can just scrub the **** out of it and start over.
here’s a question for you: my cousin was out for a visit and shocked at an aluminum pan i’d used — “it contributes to alzheimers! never use any aluminum cookware, even the foil” T/F?
Great article. So many people don’t know about how to experience the great virtues of cast iron.
My editor tells me that the Aluminum Cookware debate is something like the MMR-Autism studies. Someone got a weird correlation on a study one time and when they were proved wrong they refused to accept the peer review.
The true one is apparently dioxins released out of heated plastic. I’ve nuked so much tupperware I’m gonna grow a third arm.
-WDC
As a resident chef on the site, I can comment here. Having an aluminum pan or a cast iron pan are not necessarily bad, per se. Aluminum and Iron conduct heat very well, but tend to react with food (especially if there is acid of some sort in the food being cooked), imparting a slightly metallic taste. Aluminum therefore needs to be anodized, and cast iron can be enameled.
The aluminum MUST be anodized, as the reaction is much stronger, but the cast iron pan does not need to be enameled. If the pan is enameled, you don’t need to season it. If it isn’t, you do. If it’s enameled, you can use soap to your heart’s content. If it’s not, I wouldn’t advise it (unless you want to taste it in your food).
Just one chef’s opinion. Not a sermon, just a thought.
One tip for cleaning. I find that kosher salt dumped into a warm pan and rubbed around with paper towell tends to clean every little bit of the pan. This is what my aunt taught me to do unless it was truly dirty. Then I jsut wipe it with a damp sponge and away it goes.