beXnlog

Cast Iron

J just bought her first piece of cast iron cookware: a large double-burner grill with griddle on the reverse. be and i were giving her tips on seasoning and caring for it; i'm a huge fan of cast iron and be's a recent convert. With proper care, cast iron will last forever, have a surface slicker than any Teflon pan and NOTHING FRIES BETTER! (Crisp crusts, browned surfaces, yum!)

My first piece was a 10.5" skillet my mom bought me for less than $10. It's been dropped, cut into, and had its seasoning burned off numerous times - but this thing bounces back. A re-seasoning fixes anything and it gets better the more you use it. 12 years later it's a beautiful glossy black and nothing fries better.

Next, my mom gave me an 11" grill pan she wasn't using. I bought a corn stick pan and a now-discontinued "All Star" pan that makes cornbread in cute star shapes. My mom also gave me a Tabasco logo fajita pan, and my brother gave me a 5" skillet and another corn stick pan. (I still need one more corn stick pan since 3 pans will bake exactly 1/2 a batch of cornbread mix.) I guess you could say i'm a nut for cast iron but seriously, there are a lot of benefits:

Pros:
it will last many generations
it's cheap
cooking in cast iron imparts minute amounts of iron into your food
you don't have to use high heat since iron is a great conductor
it retains heat very well
it's the original non-stick cookware
it can be used as a weapon if need be

Cons:
you have to season and possibly re-season it a few times
you have to keep it away from water and soap or it will rust
it's heavy when full of food

To me, the cons are so negligible when compared with the pros. Seasoning isn't difficult; you just have to do it right and keep caring for the pan correctly:

1) Lodge* has a use & care section on their site. Just be sure to use MELTED Crisco or vegetable oil to season it. If you glob on hard shortening, it will melt into a gummy mess in the oven. The goal is to "burn" the shortening/oil into the iron.

2) Food will stick the first few times you use it. Some people recommend cooking very oily foods at first to speed up the seasoning process. Over time, you'll see the iron turn from gray to brown to black. You want to get the pan nice and glossy black, but this will take a few months to a few years, depending on use.

3) To clean, we like using salt. Just put 1-2 T of salt into the pan, use it to scour away any food particles, rinse and hand dry. You must always hand dry cast iron or else the water drops will cause rust. Some people like to further dry the cast iron by heating it until warm to evaporate any water, but i never do this. If the pan is really greasy, i wash it with 1 drop of soap, but try to avoid soap in general.

4) Lodge now offers a "pre seasoned" Lodge Logic line, which you can apparently use out of the box. They season it by using a special process at the factory. I haven't tried any of the Logic line. I don't think i will because it's really satisfying seasoning it yourself over countless uses. Plus, i'm old-fashioned like that.

5) Some companies offer enameled cast iron, which retains some of the benefits of traditional cast iron and you don't have to season it at all. However, enameled surfaces are not non-stick. The pieces usually come in bright colors and they're supposed to also be used as serving dishes. I've never used enameled cast iron, namely because it's crazy expensive. Le Creuset is a very famous manufacturer.

If you like to cook and have never tried using cast iron, i highly recommend spending $15-20 on a skillet to try it out. be was skeptical at first, mainly because he'd never used it before - and now he cooks almost everything in them! You can't make real cornbread without cast iron, nor can you sear steak or grill anything indoors. Most importantly, nothing fries better!

*Lodge has been making cast iron cookware since 1896 in Tennessee. All of my cast iron is from Lodge and i've been very happy with everything.

posted by beXn @ 11:10 PM