How to care for your cast iron skillets and pots.
Mar 07 '01 (Updated Feb 11 '02)
The Bottom Line It takes some work to get a pan seasoned and you may have to reseason, but a good cast iron is the max.
I was raised on fried fat back and oven corn bread in cast iron, so cast iron is in my blood (you bet--it does provide some of my needed iron which is important healthwise with me being female) and on my stove (those new fangled pans come and go but the cast iron is forever).
OK. You're here to get the lo-down on how to care for that cast iron, so here's my Virginia mountain know how . . .
If you buy cast iron new (check out Lodge here), then it is light gray and not seasoned. Buy it second hand at a flea market or at a second hand shop, and you have a real nice blackened pan (unless the pan has been abused in which case it may be rusted).
If you have a brand spanking new pan, then you need to rub it down with lard or crisco. Don't use vegetable oil as that runs, and you end up with drippy spots. Those look like when you paint the wall and don't see a drip and it dries with drips. Also, oil will bubble back up to the top rather than sink in as it should. So DON'T USE OIL on the cast iron.
If you have a rusty pan (used or one you left in the dishwater), then take a Brillo pad and rub off the rust and then rub down with a solid fat (the Crisco or lard I mentioned).
Once you have a fatted, lathered-up pan, then stick that in the oven at 250 degrees for about 2 hours. The time does not have to be exact. You just want to set the fat, but you don't want to burn that off. My estimate would be that you could go an hour and a half to 4 hours and be OK.
Once you have the pan seasoned (that's where you rub it with solid fat and bake it), then you are ready to go.
The best bet is to do fried foods to start with. The more fat the better. Think deep fried fries or fish in a couple of inches of oil. This helps set the seasoning.
Since most folks don't do the southern deep fat cooking these days, you can do any sort of quick cooking with Crisco or lard. Bacon is also a good seasoning setting food. I like to deep fat cook seafood at a high temp and quick, so I get to break in a lot of pans for the family.
Avoid tomoatoes in the beginning as the acid breaks down the seasoning, unless it is really built up and thick. This includes some of the Hamburger Helper dishes and casserole dishes that are stove top.
If you lapse up and cook something that messes up your seasoning (and this can happen even after a lot of use), then just start back at step one and rub off rust and reseason and low temp bake again.
Once you have a good season on your cast iron, then it is like any other pan but better. Not only does it cook more even than other pans, it also has that great cast iron taste. Add to that the fact that it just lasts forever and ever, and this is thumbs up.
You can wash your cast iron in water in the sink (though you can buy some sand type stuff which is expensive and just wipe it out). When you wash, just dunk in and wipe out. You really don't want to get every drop of oil out as that does add to the season and taste.
If you forget (oh mercy--I have done that) and do leave the pan in water, then all you have to do is reseason that pan. That is a pain and adds to the time and means that you can't use the pan as easily. But it really is not a major problem.
I have only seen one cast iron pan which was close to destroyed. That one was left on high heat and warped on the bottom. With a lot of seasoning (since it was a family piece) and time with lower temps, it did fit back on the eye again and was OK.
This may seem like a whale of a lot of work for a pan (although it can be a one-time thing if you do take care of the pan), but cast iron is inexpensive and lasts more than lifetime. The taste is great for foods cooked in the pan. Items come out cooked evenly. You can cook on top of the stove, inside the oven, or even over an open flame.
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