Cast Iron ( cook ware )

R

Rich44

Active member
I have a relative staying with me that just washed my perfectly seasoned Erie Iron griddle in the sink with soap and water.
How many of you cook with cast iron and how do you clean and season it. I just scrape it off real good sometimes I use a soft scrubby pad then wipe it down with some crisco while still warm wipe off the excess and put it away. To season a new one I wash it then coat it with olive oil put it in the oven upside down turn it up to 500 when it gets to temp I shut off the oven and leave it in untill it cools.
Have any of you try the pre seasoned Lodge cast Iron.
 
If your relative didn't scrub the pan to harshly, with like a metal scrubber it should be fine. I wash mine in the sink all the time with soap and water, and then dry on the burner.
 
After I am done washing everything else, the cast iron stuff (that needs it) goes into the rinse water. NEVER INTO WATER WITH DISH SOAP! It is then scrubbed/washed as needed. Followed by going back on the burner to heat to the point that the water boils off. After dry (but still warm), about a capfull of cooking oil gets spread in the cast iron pan.

As for your relative; remember he will leave one of these days so casteration might be a little extreme no matter how tempting (and deserved) it is at this point.
 
We use cast iron daily, have for as long as I can remember (most of time, lol). I am 62. Anyway, when a pan needs scrubbing, we just use hot water and cure it again (oil and bake in the oven). Normally, we just wipe out the pan, no washing, lightly re-oil. The process Chris uses works as well. I would bet 98% of the population has no clue about using cast iron cookware.
 
my wife loves cast iron cookware. she spends a lot of time hitting flea markets and yard sales to find stuff she doesn't have(if there is such a thing). it is hard to beat well seasoned cast iron.
She agrees with chris and greg above.
 
Just watched a program called "How it's made". It showed how they make the stuff! very cool to see the process. When I was a kid that's all Mom ever used and Grama before that... nothing better than pancakes from a cast iron skillet or fried porkchops! Everything just tastes better.

I still have my Great Grandmother's castiron "Cornbread sticks" pan and a waffle maker! Yummy!

Nikonut
 
Years ago I tried to get my Wife to go with Cast Iron. It lasted a few years but those Teflon pans got the best of her.
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when camping we just put water in it and set it back on the fire (low heat) and let it go for a few hours and then just wipe it out. very seldom do we have to re season it but if we do just the same way chris does. I dont think you can really hurt the stuff or no one would have ever used it.
pretty tough stuff

Mike
 
While buying a non stick cookware, the first thing that needs to be checked is the coating which is used.Non stick cookwares coated with Teflon is harmful for Human Body. It has a substance called Carcinogen which can initiate cancer. There are several coating which are 100% natural.Ecolon is one of them. Neoflam is manufacturing non stick cookwares coated with Ecolon.
 
In my experience, none of the non stick cookware lasts.

Even old rusty cast iron cookware can be renewed. I just sand the rust off, wash it well, and re-season it.

Cast Iron is forever.
 
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The wife and I use daily two cast iron skillets that were thrown in the deal for an oak table and 4 chairs that my grandparents bought back in 1919. We still eat all of our meals from that table.
 
I use cast iron skillets for 'pan broiling' steaks, as well as cooking fried potatoes and pan cakes....I scrape them to break out the gunk that it leaves behind, use a paper towel with a few drops of cooking oil to wipe them down and then slide them in the oven at 300* and let them cool naturally after shutting off the oven...

One of them is a big 14" skillet that my grandfather used and has been in the family long before I was even though of...I can remember the family going fishing in the evenings and my grandmother using that skillet to fix a mess of fried potatoes and onions over a fire and the June Bugs flying into the light and bouncing into the skillet...They kind of improved the taste of the potatoes...It was just dark enough that you couldn't find them to pick them out...
 
I love my cast Iron. I keep my Grandmothers skillet on the stove at all times. I add water to it and put it back on the burner when it has anything stuck to it. I scrape it with a spatula to loosen the food then rinse it out or wipe it out. I put it back on a warm burner and dry it then wipe it down with Crisco and let it dry again on it's own. I've got stacks of griddles, muffin and cornbread pans, skillets, dutch ovens, and even the old clothes irons with and without removable handles. I've only had one skillet die on me, it exploded on the stove one day and cracked in half. I suspect my other half washed it, but won't admit it.
 
I sure like cast Iron. I use Pam spray on my skillets @450 to 500deg. for about a hour if I'm re seasoning it. I even bilt a tree for all my case Iron. Gene'o

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All the above advise is pretty close to what I do.
I have one iron skillet that I use for frying bacon and eggs. IF and notice I said If the bacon grease gets burned or goes bad. I pour it out wipe with a paper towel and go to cooking.
As to the rest of my cast iron I seldom have any thing stick so bad as to need more than warm water and a paper towel to clean it. If it has cooled to much while rinsing a few minutes on low on the stove and all the moisture evaporates.

Visit this site for some really good advise on using and caring for your cast iron.


http://www.lodgemfg.com/use-care-help.asp#5
 
Makes good cornbread too!

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Just in case there are some city slickers on here, you gotta turn the cornbread out of the skillet upside down onto a plate, so the crust will stay crunchy!
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I work security at a local auction house on occasion, and folks there are always looking for the old cast iron skillets. Are they much different from the new stuff being made? They say the oldies are the best, I had never heard that before....

John
 
I know the Griswold pieces can fetch a nice price depending on style and conditions. Apparently they had different designs and one notable was the Griswold with "heat ring". I have several Griswold skillets and I believe one of my griddles is Griswold. Around here if you want to see a bidding war, watch a Griswold, Guardian Service piece, or gun come out on the auctioneers wagon and the prices start climbing.
 
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