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Cast iron: When properly maintained, cast iron pans are superlative cookware. They are inexpensive, durable, and because they’re so dense, they’re slow to heat, but when they do get hot, they stay that way. When they are properly “seasoned,” they are virtually as good as the fanciest non-stick sauté pan, better in fact, because they can take a beating. They do react to acid and salt, however, so you wouldn’t want to salt food down in cast iron, and the acid in tomatoes will actually draw iron into a tomato sauce (iron is good for you but tomato is bad for the pan).
To season cast iron, pour a half-inch layer of oil into it, put it over high heat until the oil is very hot or put it into a 300 degree oven for an hour or so, then let it cool completely. Pour off the oil and wipe it dry with a paper towel. (If you make fried chicken or deep fry potatoes in your cast iron, it will season itself.) Never use soap on it, only an abrasive (a copper scrub pad or some kosher salt), dry it with a paper towel, and if it needs it, rub some more oil into it. It will stay seasoned and glossy indefinitely. If you neglect it, it can be re-seasoned. Even old and abused cast iron pans can be cleaned, seasoned and reborn as first-rate cookware.
Enameled cast iron is cast iron that has an enamel coating—and therefore is non-reactive to salt and acid and should not be “seasoned”—is also an excellent cooking material. It can be used on the stove top or in the oven and is especially suited to braising because, while its surface is semi-non-stick, it still allows food to brown and the bottom develops a fond.
—From The Elements of Cooking
Some readers have asked me about cast iron cookware—I have the three pans above and I use them all the time, love them. I don’t think I paid more than $10 for any of them. Great for any kind of cooking. It’s what I roast chicken in, and bacon seems to taste better when fried on cast iron. Turn them upside down and use them as a pizza stone. They truly are some of the best cookware available from a practical standpoint, but also there’s something satisfying in cooking food in these elemental vessels, in this age of plastic handles, non-stick surfaces and marketing ploys. Food looks great when it’s cooking in these things (see Moonstruck for one of the most memorable food shots in film). Look for used pans in antique stores—all of my pans were found on travels through Amish country in central Ohio. They’re easily brought back to gorgeous gleaming black life, they make great gifts, they last forever. Heavy expensive copper pans hanging in your kitchen intimidate. The sight of cast iron inspires.
I have a cast iron skillet with lid that I purchased at an antique store in Nebraska. It looks like it has never been used but there is something rather unusual about it. It has a bright silver coating (almost looks like chrome) over everything except the inside of skillet. It also has dimples all on the outside of both pieces as a kind of decoration. My question is: has anyone else ever cooked in one like this and do I need to treat it any different than other cast iron? The tag says it was made by Chattanooga Iron but I cannot find anything online about that company.
I have several pieces of cast iron from all sizes of dutch ovens to a griddle. I recently inherited some cast iron from my mother in law that have wood handles. How do I season these without burning the handles? I usually season my new cast iron on the BBQ grill. It keeps the smell out of the house. Please let me know how I should season the pans with the wooden handles.
To the bleach nay-sayers, actually I’ve consulted with two pediatricians, a chef, and a chemical engineer on this one. Bleach in this proportion is not toxic whatsoever. Maybe you were thinking I said ammonia? As to the amount left on the pan, guessing I’d get more chlorine in my system through osmosis doing a few laps in the pool. This cleaning solution is actually recommended for use with things being touched / put in the mouth by infants and toddlers.
whopow75, the only things I could find about too much iron from researchers at that university said that people shouldn’t get more than 45 mg of iron per day. That’s almost three pounds of beef.
I didn’t find anything saying that people came anywhere close to a risky amount from a normal diet, I wonder if you misread what you found or if you’re just a hypochondriac? Or since there doesn’t seem to be anything about this doctor’s research online, it’s likely it hasn’t been peer reviewed (maybe not even published?), meaning that other scientists don’t support it.
Do you have a link to this research?
Research done at universities (or done anywhere for that matter) has the possibility of being wrong. It’s really foolish to make changes in your lifestyle based on the research of one scientist – it really should be confirmed by other studies before you jump to conclusions.
Back on topic, I’m re-seasoning my cast iron skillet and my wok today. The skillet looks OK, but so far it’s hard to tell if it really got much coating. The wok was tricky since it’s not flat, it got a ring of burned stuff around the pool of oil – I may have to wash it out and try it again.
It’s what my family has always used for cooking and what I learned to cook with. These comments have brought back so many memories! My earliest food memories are of sitting in my great grandmother’s kitchen. She always had 2 cast iron skillets on the stove either frying up eggs, potatoes and some form of bacon she called “side meat” or else frying chicken for the mid-day meal. Every bit of food that came out of her kitchen was grown or raised by my great grandparents and they always knew what YOUR favorite food was. My peach pie was always cooling on the windowsill when I arrived. It didn’t matter what time of year it was since she canned her own peaches. She would be rolling out egg noodles on the kitchen table that she could slice into perfectly even strips with a paring knife. Green beans with salt pork would be boiling on the stove and those noodles were dropped into a pot of chicken broth bubbling away next to it. Boy, I wish I could cook like that! I still always break the first batch of fried eggs every time.
Ever drop one of those on your foot? I have. My mother used cast iron. I can’t imagine using anything else for fried chicken, or pork chops, even stir fy. When she died, the pans were still there –perfectly seasoned. Not sure, but I think a sibling snitched them.
I’ve been loathe to buy cast iron because I move every 8 years. (This is the same excuse I use in argument against buying “real” furniture). Someday (maybe) I’ll settle down somewhere, but not now. I just found out I’m moving to Seattle.
I think the reason Southerners fry so many things has most to do with all those black skillets, and the sure hands which wield them to such delicious effect—we all have several of the crusty-bottomed beauties, it seems, and they have a history of their own.
They’re handed down from generation to generation with the reverence accorded Great-Grandmother’s parure, coveted and claimed and used with the accord they’re due.
When you’re newly married and starting your own home, a gift of a cast-iron skillet is a lovely thing, indeed. But being made a present of a pre-blackened one, long-used by a generation or several of your family—that’s akin to a knighthood, a great inheritance, a special gift like no other, better than Great-Great-Grandpa’s gold watch-that-he-wore-to-Antietam or Aunt Lucille’s recipe box (well maybe sorta equal to that one).
And when your forebears made their livings on the LAND, with trips to the far-off stores bringing home only the coffee and sugar, with perhaps a twist of precious tea on occasion, the homestuff was what you cooked—from your garden, from the hog lot, from the chicken-yard, from the woods which totally surrounded your homeplace. And when that whole family WORKED the land, from dawn til dusk, coming home dusty and plumb tard out, braising or baking any kind of meat (if you had it) took too much time before the needed sleep. Frying was the quickest way to cook a lot of things, and saved on fuel, besides.
When the only staples left in your larder were lard and flour, you could still make those two old stand-bys—biscuits and gravy; it was just a bonus to be able to fry whatever you could catch, shoot or gather, in order to feed your family.
That’s passed down, like history. Or a ready-blackened skillet.
LOVE LOVE LOVE cast iron. I’ve got a range of pieces from yard sale Griswolds (not so cheap anymore!) to muffin tins still smoked black and crusty from my great grandmothers wood stove with a set of contemporary 5″ square Lodge pans thrown in to boot. I’ve even been known to put one on my grill (it too has cast iron grates, of course) close the lid and make smoky roasted pizzas, veggies or anything else that will fit.
I was always taught the “salt and oil” method of cleaning. Rinse after with water and put on the stove to dry.
I have one special 8″ pan that has had nothing but cornbread (yep i’m Southern) in since the 1930’s. It was a promo give away by a stove company! Never washed it, never will. It’s as smooth as glass and non-stick like you wouldn’t believe. It’s on its third generation of cooks in my family and headed for the fourth. Well cared for iron has become a family heirloom. Not only do the pans outlast us, but so do their stories and the memories of meals made and shared together.
Way too much iron? Milo, a doctor at the University of Florida (Gainesville) has been researching the connection between excess iron in the western diet and its toxic results. There is lots of iron in red meat, some shellfish, chicken, etc. Women lose iron in the blood every month through menstruation, and women’s incidence of heart attacks is well below men’s until after menopause. There are numerous factors for this, but I think excess iron is one culprit – the male body has no normal way to get rid of it.
We need a little iron in our diet but FDA standards are out of date as to how much we should get. I give blood now several times a year to reduce stored iron. Iron – and its excess, has yet to be studied over long periods of time to see this connection, but the Florida doctor’s papers on the topic were strong enough to convince me. I think you will start to see more notice of this in the year ahead.
A few years ago I bought a preseasoned cast iron grill in NY. At the time I was catering for myself. For one client I had promised grilled chicken and had the grill pan on my home stove going full blast for about 3 hours. Near the end I noticed that some of the meat had grey matter on it and it eventually occurred to me that I had burned off the pre-seasoning on the grill. I had to throw out a good quarter of my finished product and restart with a different pan. As a result, I’m a little leery of the stuff now even tho I don’t cook professionally anymore. The grill in question is currently awaiting a blast in the self cleaniung cycle to be re-seasoned.
I finally got a chance to debut the new Lodge pan this weekend. There were squash blossoms at the farmers market, so I grabbed a bunch ($6.00 for a dozen blossoms?! Yeesh.)
I stuffed them with a little goat cheese, dip them in tempura batter, fried them in about 3/4 inch of canola oil until they were nice and crunchy and dusted them with a little smoked paprika before I served them.
They were gone so fast I almost didn’t get any. The pan, of course, performed perfectly.
“I can’t believe nobody has mentioned the granddaddy of all cast iron pans- Griswald pans.”
Take a look, it has been mentioned many times on this post…did you miss it because you didn’t search the page for the correct spelling “griswOld”?
My Joyce Chen 12 in cast iron wok weighs approximatelly six lbs…(Same with my “classic collection” glazed cast iron wok. The Lodge cast iron wok I believe weighs 22 lbs. This is the problem with the lodge process. I think their utensils are really heavy. I don’t know if that is process related or intentional. I also have a 12 in grilling pan with the ridges that I use to broil/grill stuff. Very unwieldly heavy pan but it works to get the grill marks on veggies under the broiler. But I typically reach for the ligther steel versions of these…
Anyway I found Hawain plantains at the Publix today. Big huge fat ones. Around here they are used to make those sweet big fried plaintain “Tostones”. It should be fun trying that tomorrow in the cast iron wok. I never knew why my tostones would never resemble the ones in restaurants until now.
I can’t believe nobody has mentioned the granddaddy of all cast iron pans- Griswald pans. They are not made anymore so you can only get them in a resale situation (yard sale, antique store, etc.) I have 4 of them and use them frequently. In the restaurant setting I use them for seared tuna or sea scallops – really nice crust!!
I’ve had a lodge 9″ skillet for a couple of years and it’s a miracle. The ability to go from cooktop to stove is like having a girlfriend who will — well, nevermind that.
Mine gets used whenever I make chili, for browning the meat and onion. Last Christmas I roasted a duck in it, and it makes great burgers when I don’t want to fire up the grill. The versatility is amazing.
I found 2 skillets at Salvation Army last week and bought them. They were petty “gunky” and so I thought I would put them in the oven to clean them up. The cycle had been on about 30 minutes when I heard this popping noise from the oven. I looked over and there were FLAMES inside the oven!!! I thought I was going to have to call the fire dept but luckily they went out over a few seconds. You should have seen all the ash inside the oven after it was over and it wasn’t from the oven itself!!! Now on to re-seasoning them. Loved this post.
One has already stated that in So. Pittsburg, Tn you can guy cast iron Lodge products on the cheap. What they mean to tell you is that the Lodge factory is acutally there – and rumor has it, the only american made cast-iron left – and as a storefront they sell all their product, but ALSO have their blemish sales – so hence an outlet. All pans are $7.95, dutch oven’s for $16.95 – it’s a dream come true. What’s more is that So. Pittsburg is about 20 minutes SW of Chattanooga and hey! here’s a link to the google map, it’s worth the trip if anyone who likes to cook is remotely close to the ‘Noog:
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This morning I deepfried eggrolls in the cast iron wok. Beautifull. It went fast and was neat. As nice or even nicer than using my old Presto deepfryer. Advantages, I’d say the wok uses less oil to deepfry than the deep frier.
Also in this case the wok heats up to unlimited temp vs the deepfryer I have. Got to keep an eye on temp when deepfrying at least until I get more used to using the wok for deepfrying. Also the wok is much wider than the Presto deepfryer so I don’t crowd the wok and can easily do more pcs at the same time. Another blog..another bunch of new things learned.
ok, that does it. you’ve all convinced me. i’m going go to buy myself a cheap lodge cast iron pan and retire the expensive le creuset frying pan that won’t hand over my fried eggs without a fight.
“most folks get WAAAAY too much iron in their diet and it can lead to toxic results and heart attacks”
Where did you get that idea? If that was really a problem, why don’t we hear about it?
And where is all that excess iron supposedly coming from? Most foods don’t have much iron.
Made eggroll filling in the ceramic glazed cast iron wok. Beautifull. Nothing stuck to that wok either. Perfect for that job. Mostly turkey burger meat with vegetables processed in the special attachement to the stick blender. Seasoning and herbs and spices with a touch of soy. Celery, ginger and wrap tomorrow and into the cast iron wok for a nice deep fry. hmmmm… hmmm… dipping sauce would be a nice touch….later.
Proud owner of two Lodge 6-qt. #12 outdoor Dutch Ovens. Learned how to use (and care for) them as a young Boy Scout. We were taught by an old, crotchety Scouter by the name of Gene (RIP Mean Gene).
I’ve done everything from breakfast mix-ups, to cobblers, cakes, pies, blueberry sauce (big favorite, especially spooned over peach cobbler), bisquits, stews, lasagna, baked rice… and even fried up eggs and pancakes on the inverted lids.
I’m glad to see a resurgence in D.O. cooking in Scouting, and elsewhere.
I’m picking up a 12″ Lodge skillet next week, and hope to get a Pro Logic DO for indoor use (no feet or bail).
Now it’s my turn to become the crotchety old Scouter, and pass along my knowledge.
Iron – in small doses – is OK, but most folks get WAAAAY too much iron in their diet and it can lead to toxic results and heart attacks. So, yes, keep the acidic foods out of the cast iron pan and you should be OK. Works great for corn bread.
I have a large cast iron skillet and a small one, and I use them all the time. The large one is great for one-dish meals, pot pies, and makes excellent home fries.
The carbon steel wok really really stirs fry excellent and effortlessly. After seasoning it yesterday I made a stir fry for the rigatoni and whipped a really quick tomato sauce with no problems. Nothing stuck to it. Not a thing. I will have to reseason my cast iron wok but I think it will largelly be used for deep frying eggrolls and chicken and such.
I am blown away with carb steel. Cleans with a mere wipe. Oh Joy!.
On another blog update the Cuisinart Perkolator did not stand up to daily use. I replaced it with a Coleman 9 cup stove top. It’s a camping perk that is rugged and should last me a great long time and its small so I can tuck it away easily.
The carbon steel wok heats up to stir frying tmp in a minute or so…the cast iron wok takes considerably longer and then it maintains heat longer as well. It’s a trade off. I think for frying a lot of say chicken or eggrolls I would tend to use the cast iron but for whipping out a quick stir fry dinner I would reach for the carbon steel…
Smooth top option for a new range is out of the question because stir frying requires a lot of swishing and sliding the pan around on the cook top. I guess my old beloved crappy range just got a new lease on life.
Great post. We have about 5 well loved cast irons in various sizes and shapes in our kitchen. We even have one in the shape of Texas that my husband found at a garage sale…
Thank you Mr. Ruhlman!
I happen to have some splendid pork chops in the freezer right this red hot minute. I’ve always used canola oil, a habit I picked up from my mother. I’m not sure if it’s because of it’s characteristics – neutral flavor, etc – or because I come from canola country, though.
Either way, it’s always in the house.
Cast iron is what I use 95% of the time, it makes life with an electric range much easier to bear.
Kim, I messed up my last post.. shoemaker me.
My bad. I started to think of fish and the last iron chef really made me mad. What I really meant to say was the range we cooked in at Hawks Cay was a smooth top Kenmore.
I loved it because of dual element roasting and alarm to let me know the oven was preheated and ready. Also a nice timer with a stay on alarm. From that experience I would probably use cast iron on it too.
My new Typhoon 12 in carbon steel wok arrived and I have been seasoning it all day. It claims is safe for gas, ceramic, halogen, radiant rings and solid tops.
I wouldn’t hesitate to use it on smooth top.
I need to cook more with this wok but it may just be my new favorite because it is very light with a stay cool handle and heats up very very efficiently.
But I don’t really think it beats my cast iron wok. To season it I have been oiling it and heating it up near the smoking point then I take it off the heat and swirl the oil around and let it cool down and wipe it clean. Over and over and over….First the laquer coating came off and now there is a dark patina forming inside the wok.
I own 3 of these beauties!!
I inherited a little one from my mommy. The flat fajita and larger skillet I purchased on my own. I love the little one it makes the best scrambled eggs. I use them for everything… thanks for the heads up on the using of tomatoes, I did not know!!
I have to tell you that I do use soap on them…OCD! But I will try Kosher salt and a copper scrubber as suggested.
Thanks for sharing.
DVG
messy, bread pork chops (flour, egg, panko) and shallow fry them (enough oil to come half way up their sides), don’t over cook! this results in a reinforcing of the seasoning of the pan and pork chops!
and i use canola oil. lard is great. rancidity not a problem given all the high heat involved.
kim , I don’t know how much you follow this thread… but, I spent 3 or 4 days in hawks key a resort in Duck Key fl. Tha fam in a 3-bd condo… with a smothie….
The fish that was caught and cooked… to die for. Yes, Iron chefs we cooked… our bad dingbats…
Why we are supposed to sit through these crappy iron chefs were everything is crudo or tar tar.. is beyond me. Get those idiots out of our faces food net,. You suck and food net we are tired of your bs….. Nobody I know wants to eat any of your crap!. NOBODY!!!!!!
My nifty new Lodge 10″ chef’s pan came today and mindful of the experience others have had with the factory seasoning process, I re-seasoned it based on some of the suggestions I’ve read here.
Now I get to play! Does anyone have any suggestions as to what the maiden dish in the pan should be? I’ll try darn near anything at least once.
Kim -
I don’t know what MR uses, but I use canola or olive oil, bacon grease, butter, etc and have no problem at all with a rancid/stale flavor or odor, but I use the pans almost every day; 3-4 days at the outside. But I wipe them out (no soap!) thoroughly after each use so pretty much all that’s left on there is the seasoning (which I don’t think is capable of becoming rancid, it’s so carbonized) and the very thinnest layer of oil. The one time a pan did get a little funky (we were overseas for 2 months) I broke my soap rule – washed it well, then re-seasoned it – and it was fresh again no problem. It did stink a bit in the oven, but that burned off/went away quickly.
Maybe I’m not terribly discerning about fresh oil. I never get any complaints, anyway. Things always taste good coming from the pan (unless I really screw up a recipe!).
Hope that helps.
Im also wondering what kind of oil Michael is recommending here. It seems to me most liquid oils would go rancid on your pan. Anyone know what kind of oil he is referencing?
Luis-
I’ve read that remark a lot of places about the smoothtop ranges and cast iron cookware but as I previously said, I have been using cast iron cookware on my smoothtop range for years and have no scratches. The only way it would scratch your surface is if you shook the pan back and forth while it was sitting on your smoothtop.
I have no issues with stains. I clean my cooktop with Barkeepers Friend (what I use to clean most other things in my house as well) or that new Scotch-Brite smooth cooktop cleaning pad (approx US $5.99 in stores).
Look around and you will find others that also use cast iron on smoothtop ranges. There are quite a few people on the GardenWeb kitchen site that use cast iron on a smooth top as well. No issues.
As with anything, be careful! I never slide pans or anything across my smooth cooktop.
I have had this cooktop for years and it still looks brand new.
Allright guys Kim, Jen this is from “Wise Geek”
“”A smoothtop range is an oven range that lacks traditional range burners and is instead perfectly flat with the burners built directly into the top. There are several different makes and models and most major appliance manufacturers make a smoothtop range. A smoothtop range has both advantages and disadvantages that are determined only by personal preference in the kitchen.
Many prefer the smoothtop range to traditional electric range burners for two reasons, with the primary reason being ease in cleaning. The smoothtop range is easier to clean than soaking drip pans and wiping off spilled food that has fallen beneath the drip pans and become burnt on to the surface of the range. Though many view this as an advantage, there may be just as many who find cleaning a smoothtop range an equal chore. A smoothtop range must be cleaned with special solvents that do not scratch the smoothtop surface. Foods spilled on a smoothtop range must be wiped up immediately to avoid permanent stains.
Cleaning agents aren’t the only things that can scratch a smoothtop range surface. The cookware used on a smoothtop range must be carefully selected. CAST IRON is NOT suitable for use on a smoothtop range because it can so easily scratch the surface. For those who prefer to cook with CAST IRON, this makes the smoothtop range less than preferable. “”
Kim it seems you need to be extremelly careful if you use cast iron on a smooth top. Not good….. Jen is right I am afraid.
Thank you Kim, most new ranges at the stores are smooth top with double element roasting and digital controls which I love. Alarms are very very important. The ones that don’t shut off are a must have. I tend to think I have seen u-tube cooking videos using cast iron on smooth tops…
Guys I made basic potato salad for 2.5 lbs of potatoes. Only I used less than 1 lb of potatoes and less than half the mayo. Ok, the onions need to be cut back a bit too but I ended up with a nice vegetable salad. This is a great way to enjoy fresh cut vegetables.
Jen and Luis-
I have a smooth cooktop and I use cast iron on it as well as doing alot of canning on the cooktop. The key is to just not slide these heavy pans around or your smooth top will get scratched by any nicks in the pan. I use alot of regular cast iron skillets as well as large Le Creuset dutch ovens, no problem. I don’t use a pressure canner, but rather the water bath method. I have used a pressure cooker on the stove top as well. Hope this helps
Jen I am looking into the smooth top limitations. My range works still and the thing I miss is the new dual elementt baking and the digital timing etc of modern ranges. Almost all ranges at the mega stores are smooth top anymore. Cast Iron heats up very hot and retains the heat. I am willing to bet you are right in thinking it can’t be used over that plastic top.
BBQUSA tha book is here and cast iron rules…where does this guy find the time to fill up that many pages?? The recipes are all great. Also Garden Fresh Vegetable cookbook is in the house. This is a great book very well organized with lots of info about vegetables and lots of recipes by season. What I love about it is that I look up a recipe such as potato salad.. and I don’t need to go looking for sauces or ingredients.. all I need to do is get to my kitchen and start cooking. Everything is in the house for these books.
I found my mistake in seasoning my pan: never put enough oil in: so I poured about a 1/4-1/2 inch of oil and then set the oven as le mr. ruhlman says: this time I had enough oil to pour out and then scrub dry with paper towels while still hot….it is cold and not at all sticky. By Gosh I think I finally have a seasoned albeit shiny cast iron pan!
Luis,
You can’t do any canning on a smooth top either unless they have changed. My smooth top is about 6 years old and it says in the book to avoid cast iron and canning. I was finally going to learn how to can last summer and then found out that you can’t do it on these stoves. Hope this helps.
Those are beautiful pans MR.
My Grandmother used cast iron. I have such fond memories. It’s just always been part of our family, and I treat my cast iron pans like celebrities. My husband isn’t allowed to use or clean them. He knows… dont’ touch the cast iron. And, don’t touch the carbon steel knives!
I remember my Grandma making Saturday morning breakfasts in the cast iron pans – pounds of sausage and bacon, then she’d fry the eggs in the fat. The edges of the whites would be super crispy. She put a ton of pepper on them, and they were just amazing.
you wrote, “cast iron inspires”, and, it truely does. There is not a better material on the planet for being able to get a crust on meat.
And, to add a recent topic of yours, of spatchcocked chicken, to this thread, fry a spatchcocked chicken skin side down on the top of the stove; then, when a delightful shade of brown and done, flip it over and, put pan in a preheated oven, along with a pan of cornbread in a cast iron pan. Work it right, and, they’re both done at the same time.
Nuke a potato for everyone involved in the meal for 3 minutes, then put them in the oven with chicken and cornbread.
Make a coleslaw with shredded carrots, pineapple tidbits, and, about a 1/4 of a finely diced red pepper; colorful, flavorful, and, a real treat.
Add a fresh ear of corn, (or frozen ear of corn in the winter, or, just frozen corn), and, you have a plateful of food that is one of the most joyus things that exists; fried, then roasted chicken, colorful coleslaw, corn, cornbread, and, a potato.
The aroma of this meal, just having it set down in front of you is inspiring.
Both the scent and sight of it on your plate makes you happy before you’ve even taken a bite.
Bon appetite!
Natalie
Paste that you rub the pan with is not a problem. It’s salt in solution that is abundant and at high temp for prolonged periods of time that is a problem.
Bravo, Ruhlman.
Thanks for posting about my favorite cookware of all time. So many people whine about it, it’s too heavy, it’s too much of a pain in the ass to clean blah blah blah.
It makes the best corn bread this side of heaven, and it’s a brilliant weapon in a pinch.
And your last sentence about copper, too right. To me all that copper looks pretentious and like decoration. Cast iron reminds me of home and my Big Mama and yes, fried chicken.
OOPS Bob, I clean my pan with salt and water paste…also I too have a smoothe stovetop…shit! I guess I have to buy another and use them to better my biceps!! Cause the one I have isn’t bettering my cooking…
Jen Blue, I have been looking at stoves and I wasn’t aware of the smooth top limitations. Thanks, I will look into that.
I am sorry to say that I was offered a full set of cast iron pans; from the tiniest butter melter to the biggest deepest skillet. It was the residue of a great aunt’s estate. I was twenty at the time and my cooking acumen consisted of ramen noodles and peanut butter sandwiches. I ended up taking two of them and everytime I cook something in one of them I mentally kick my own ass for not taking the whole set. All I could think about was schlepping them around every time I moved house. Stupid stupid stupid.
Egaeus
Salt is bad for cast iron when it is in solution
and the pan is hot or when the pan is not hot and the salt is in solution and it’s all sitting around for a long time.
Rubbing out a cast iron pan with dry salt is not going to hurt it as long as you wipe out all of the salt when you are finished.
Ted, I have 12 in carbon steel on the way. Lots of folks preffer them. I have no experience with them.
I love my cast iron cookware but can’t use it anymore. I was given one of those horrible smooth top stoves and you really can’t use cast iron on them. My favorite one was purchased at Lehmans in Kidron,Ohio. I season it by giving it a coating of shortening and turning it upside down on a low oven for about 45 minutes. Works every time and never rusts.
To the Germophile,
Don’t worry about bacteria on the pan – you should always pre-heat the pan anyways which will kill whatever is on it. Some hot water and a bit of salt will do a great job. Salt is the enemy of germs.
I am not sure if it is a good idea to use weak bleach solution on cast iron.
So y’all forced me to take out my cast iron pan to make pork chops…heated till smoking and put in chops, second go round had to add some peanut oil…cleaned pan in hot water with barbq scrub brush (mini size)…added more peanut oil and stuck it in oven at 300 for 2 hours and left it in till morning (this)
Half of the pan is sticky and the other half is actually dryer than ever…why can’t i get my pan perfect?
However, the circumference of the bottom of my pan is bigger than the element on the stove, which in my illogical mind might be the reason, right?
The cast iron woks I’ve seen look pretty poorly made.. very spongy cast iron.. worse than the Mexican dutch oven I used to use for cooking biscuits and cobblers at the scout camp I cooked at, back in the 1960s. I used it because it was over 2′ wide and I was cooking for a lot of campers.
T.
Thanks for the clarification. It sounds like I’ve been about the right temperature, but I still have things like eggs and potatoes stick like crazy. Things that aren’t starchy generally have been no problem, wok or cast iron (the wok has been a piece of cake since the first time I’ve used it).
I suspect I either need to use way way more oil, or I need to season it many many times before really using it. As someone else said, the newer pans have really bumpy bottoms – if it has to be smooth to be nonstick, it will take forever to reach that point.
I guess I’ll keep giving it a shot, at least it’s useful for things like bacon and sausage.
So how much oil would typically be necessary to cook potatoes in a skillet?
Yes Ted, I have two. I have blogged about it earlier. One is enameled and the other one is raw cast iron. They work very well in the electric stove top. Woks cook with minimum oil. This is the reason they are usefull. Skillets require lots of oil.
@Ted: I could simply say that cast iron woks are terrible. But I can’t resist the temptation to research and educate. So here’s why cast iron woks are terrible.
Wok cookery developed to take advantage of a specific set of circumstances. Traditionally, woks are placed into holes cut into a sheet of metal placed over the fire; with a rounded pan, any size pan would fit any size hole, the variation would be how much of the pan was in the fire. The round bottom stuck directly into the fire, the rest of the pan was above the metal and relatively cool. The fire itself was very, very hot – the common fuel was scrub and brush wood, not wood or charcoal or coal. Scrub burns hot and it burns fast. If you didn’t cook your food quickly your fire went out and you wasted an hour’s worth of work collecting fuel. (Mise en place was really important!) You also didn’t have time for your pan to heat up for the same reason.
So what developed was a cooking method that favored pans that got very hot at the bottom but were cool at the top, quick heating and quick cooling (ie, fast temperature changes), and fast work.
What does cast iron offer? Slow heating and slow cooling (ie, slow temperature changes), even heat throughout the pan, heavy pans and, as already has been said above, sub-optimal performance at very high temperatures.
Of course cast iron woks do lousy stir fry! They are, by their nature, totally unsuited to the method.
Question 1:
Why do all of the new (Lodge?) cast iron skillets have a rough interior? My Griswolds are old and the surface is smooth and glass-like. It would take a hell of a long time to cook down the rough surface, I’d think.
Question 2:
Any one ever use a cast iron wok? What was it like?
T.
They’ll get my Griswolds when they pry my cold, dead fingers from the handles.
T.
I have a selection of cast iron and mostly use them for specifics. My favorite is a le creuset crepe flat from France. It came with flat wood to spread the crepe batter – it has never worked so i made one out of dowels.
It always gets the biggest response on my oldest daughter’s birthday – buckwheat crepe, pulled chicken from the night before, a bit of bechamel, a nice cheese (mild for her) and a salad of arugula with tomato and an acid – shallot with chervil or parsley.
We have to have everything ready to set in the crepe and finish in the oven – it’s not good for her unless the outside cracks just so… I love that she loves that.
I love my cast Iron pans. They live on the stove.
One has been in my family for three generations.
No fuss no muss a little maintenance and these are good to go.
There was a brief tragic accident where a (former) boarder left one of my pans to “soak” for a day or three while we were away.
Sharp words ensued but re seasoning the pan in question was a snap.
Teflon? we don’t need none of that.
Hey Milo,
Listen to Bob. I meant it when I said heat is your friend, but within reason. Use his “almost smoking” rule to guide you at first. Too cool and you will not brown and stick. To hot and you will burn, and probably stick.(paradox I know)
Learn to know your pan and cooking fat. With a thin film of cooking spray, light olive oil, or extra virgin I can tell when each are hot enough by looking, and smelling. The only way I know is from the things I have under, or overcooked. I doubt your first wok product was a success.
Seriously though, nobody expects to be a top racquetball player with no practice. If it were that easy everyone would be a great cook. You know what makes a great cook? Lots of failed dishes. Every great chef has made something far worse than the last thing you just did.
I just bought a house and all of the kitchen appliances remain in the house. That’s great except that it has one of those flat cooktops. You know, the kind where there are no drip pans under the burner. I’ve been told I can’t use my cast iron skillets on the stove. Yikes! What do I do now?? LOL.
I love my cast iron skillets. If you can make it to South Pittsburgh, TN, you can buy Lodge skillets at a great price. Go during the Cornbread Festival!
i have a lodge logic 12 inch cast iron pan. i am a regular weight lifter and am pretty darn strong for a woman, bulging biceps and triceps and the whole bit, and i can barely lift the darn thing, especially when it’s blazing hot and full of food.
nevertheless i love it.
what i don’t love is the expensive le creuset cast iron fry pan i bought on the advice of the new york times. i thought it would be perfect to cook eggs in, but no matter what i do in terms of preheating both the pan and the oil, my eggs always stick.
someone at the top was asking if professional chefs use cast iron in their restaurants. eric ripert has been quoted numerous times as saying he only uses cast iron to cook fish at le bernardin.
Milo
NO!
Don’t get the pan blazing hot. Heat it to the point where it is just beginning to look like it will smoke then turn it down.
I have lots of cast iron cookware but I have one in particular that I don’t know what it was used for. It’s a round griddle with several round indentations and seems very old. I have yet to use it but it does look really nice.
That’s what i’ve been looking for.. thanks for the great post..
Mary from – Cooking Recipe Videos
Natalie, try using wax paper instead of paper towel. It won’t absorb the oil and get stuck.
We live by our cast iron cookware. I can’t imagine cooking in anything else. My husband and I have spent years collecting our Griswold set.
Well my mother never owned a cast iron pan because frankly i don’t think she was probably able to lift it…but i own one which has been seasoned over and over…problem: i have a dust phobia and when these pans are oiled they gather dust particles and this is a problem for me (so much so that I have to lay paper towels in it first which by the way stick to the pan after a while…..like Milo my pan also has a sticky problem…so Bob, if I have electric heat and not gas will my pan heat up enough NOT to stick?
I have yet to find enjoyment in my cast iron pan
300 degrees is just not hot enough to turn that oil into a hard layer of carbon.
So timely! I just inherited 2 frying pans and some old Copco from my dad who passed away a few months ago and was at a complete loss as to how to deal with them, other than waving them threateningly at my boyfriend when he’s being annoying.
Here’s my cast iron story — my dad fished with the legendary guide Ray Kennedy in northern Wisconsin. The highlight for us kids was the “shore dinner” at midday. Ray would dock his gorgeous old CrisCraft at an island campsite, dig an enormous cast iron skillet out of the sand where he’d left it, build a fire, and fry up a whole packet of bacon in that pan. Then he’d slice big thick beefsteak tomatoes, give us the end pieces sprinkled with salt and make us the best BLTs. And if we’d caught anything that morning — walleye, sunfish, perch — he’d clean them, dredge them in cornmeal and fry them in the bacon grease. When lunch was over he’d dump the grease (probably in some way we’d now think was environmentally unsound), scour the pan out with sand, and bury it again. The whole thing was just magic.
First Post, though I have lurked for over a year…My Mom has always fried chicken and made cobblers in a 12″ 3 1/2″deep cast iron skillet from the 1930’s. We 3 kids always fight over who is going to get Mom’s “Chicken Fryer”. Unbeknownst to us, Mom scoured from Louisville to Raleigh and found 3 more, she rotated their usage and surprised us all last Christmas with our own, perfectly seasoned chicken fryers. Now she is looking for 3 more for her Grandkids!
I still haven’t figured out how she makes those cobblers!
When’s Bourdain gonna show up here blogging about this year’s Next Food Network Star? That was a riot last year.
I have a couple of small cast iron pieces (a small skillet and a small round griddle). They were an important early part of my interest in cooking. Maybe that’s because the *consciousness* with which one interacts with a cast iron pan — in care and in use — helps lead to a greater consciousness of cooking, a greater /intimacy/ with food and with the processes of cooking.
I got them before I married a germophobe/clean freak. She doesn’t like them. She doesn’t much like me using them. They’re too small to use for family cooking anyway. I’d get larger ones, and would undoubtedly use them constantly, except that my wife (as said) doesn’t like cast iron. So, I use cheap non-stick pans. I don’t cook meat (I did when I got the pans), and cooking meat is where the greatest benefits of cast iron can be found. That and cornbread. If I still cooked meat, I’d push the issue, but as it is I don’t bother.
The one that got away: I was at a rummage sale and they had one of those *huge* skillet-form fry-pans, I think intended for frying chicken. It was like three bucks. Amazing at ten times the price or more. At the price I could have had it, the frying oil of one cooking session would cost more than the pan. I had to just walk away. If it was just my decision, it’d be living on my stove. Instead, I’d never end up using it, especially since once something like that is stored away, it never comes out.
I’m from Erie, and Griswold pans are everywhere in my parents’ house. I have a number of their pans, from dutch ovens to a wonderful griddle and a little bitty frying pan reserved for sauteeing garlic cloves, and have a few notes…
First, the Griswold pans seem to be lighter in weight; I was told by one of the Griswold family that the cast iron they used was a special formula which is lighter and stronger.
Second, the self cleaning cycle of the oven works great for cleaning up an old gunky pan; you have to start from scratch from the seasoning, of course, but sometimes that’s good.
I do use a little water sometimes to dissolve baked on bits, but that pan then gets oiled and put in the oven to dry.
I think the emotional resonance comes from the fact that so many of us inherited these pans. My grandfather used a small Griswold frying pan which belonged to his father for many years to cook his own breakfast; when he died he asked to be buried with it. My parents were embarrassed to ask the funeral director to put it in the casket with him, so they still have it. Still cook with it.
I’m from Erie, and Griswold pans are everywhere in my parents’ house. I have a number of their pans, from dutch ovens to a wonderful griddle and a little bitty frying pan reserved for sauteeing garlic cloves, and have a few notes…
First, the Griswold pans seem to be lighter in weight; I was told by one of the Griswold family that the cast iron they used was a special formula which is lighter and stronger.
Second, the self cleaning cycle of the oven works great for cleaning up an old gunky pan; you have to start from scratch from the seasoning, of course, but sometimes that’s good.
I do use a little water sometimes to dissolve baked on bits, but that pan then gets oiled and put in the oven to dry.
I think the emotional resonance comes from the fact that so many of us inherited these pans. My grandfather used a small Griswold frying pan which belonged to his father for many years to cook his own breakfast; when he died he asked to be buried with it. My parents were embarrassed to ask the funeral director to put it in the casket with him, so they still have it. Still cook with it.
I’ll have to try eggs or potatoes again, I guess as long as I have the pan just blazing hot before I put them in, they shouldn’t stick?
Inspired by this post, I pulled out my wok last night for stir fry instead of the usual nonstick pan and it worked great. Most veggies seem to be no problem, it’s just the starchy ones that want to stick.
I’m tempted to get a 6 inch or so skillet, it would probably get more use for individual egg and sausage portions.
Germs shouldn’t really be an issue as long as you heat up the pan enough. I like to dry it by putting it back on the stove and heating it up, then oiling it back up again. Bleach is toxic, you should never use it on a cooking surface, especially one that is seasoned.
My mother cooked almost everything in cast iron. Just the thought of it makes me nostalgic for fried eggs on Sunday morning.
I have a cast iron dutch oven that I picked up at a thrift store several years ago. It was really rusty, but I assumed I could get it clean. I’ve scrubbed it with kosher salt and oil (numerous times), used steel wool on it, committed the crimes of scrubbing it with Bon Ami and Barkeeper’s Friend, and put it in the oven during the cleaning cycle. After each of these treatments, I’ve always put it on the stove top to dry it thoroughly, and re-seasoned it. Nothing works. It’s still rusty. Is it possible that a piece of cast iron is unsalvageable?
I’m ready to sit it in front of the fireplace and leaving it there, because it looks really cool.
Michael, yesterday you posed the question: “I’m impressed by the number of commenters who attach so much sentiment to these pans–but i agree. is there another category of cookware that can carry such emotional weight?”
For me that other category would be earthenware. I have a collection of Spanish cazuelas which also require some seasoning. I’ve yet to have one crack but if one does it is inexpensive to replace.
Nice tips but I hate cast-iron cookware for the reasons you apparently like it. It takes too darned long to heat up and too darned long to cool off. So, you actually have to remove the Chicken when making Marathon Chicken, for example.
Help!
A month ago I bought a deeply discounted 12-inch cast-iron skillet at a local supermarket, a steal at $5. At last! I can jump on the cast iron bandwagon, said I.
In spite of the “pre-seasoned” claim, I set about oiling, heating and wiping per various instructions we’ve all seen.
After the third(?) time, I still found black, ferrous powder coming off in my paper towels. I turned it over and saw “Made In China”, and concluded I had bought an imposter.
Should I be worried about this craftsmanship, toss it, and hold off for American-made instead?
Thanks one and all.
johnnyd
My thanks to Jim Dixon for the info about his cast iron pans. We used our cast iron on camping trips and most is pretty old. We got it out of our garage to take a look at it, and we have a Griswold in our collection! None of the others have any identifying stamp on them. We can’t even remember where we got them, but think from my husband’s grandmother. We even used to make sheepherders bread in our dutch oven. Made the best bread ever! Love all the cleaning hints. Thanks!
My favorite piece of cookware is the small cast iron skillet that my dad bought in 1942 when he came to the University of Michigan for college. It’s the only thing of his that I wanted when he died 20 years ago. I can’t even fathom how many burgers that pan has cooked. But, they taste the same today as they did when I was five and that’s a very good thing.
To our gracious host, Re:the Lodge “pre-seasoning” -
I have only ever bought one brand-new cast-iron pan. It was a “pre-seasoned” Lodge. I think the “pre-seasoning” means diddly-squat, especially if you’re used to using venerable old pans. I actually ended up getting so frustrated with it that abou a week later I found an old one of the same size while trolling Goodwill, bought it, and donated the new one back to them – a pretty shrewd exchange, in my opinion! Maybe the pre-seasoning is better than totally un-seasoned iron, but probably not much.
To the Germophobe using bleach – I feel for you, I do – but the bleach is probably harming you FAR more than anything in the pan! Heat will kill off any germs on there, don’t worry. Remember, humans live as PART of the earth, not merely on its surface – we were never meant to be sterile creatures. Some exposure to critters = strong immune sytem! (plus yummy things like aged beef, all sorts of cheeses, etc etc etc).
Milo,
Listen to Bob on the heat. It’s your friend. When properly seasoned, and hot enough, I scramble eggs in mine. The ultimate non stick test in my book.
I do have to confess something though. I reach for the nonstick cooking spray from time to time. Hey….it works.
I also use a refillable oil pump sprayer that I keep full of light olive oil.
Both methods work well, but work best if you follow Bob’s advice about the heat
@Laura: ketchup does work but it works by removing not only the gunk but a little of the copper as well. (Most of the quick methods have this little-known side effect.) I want my pans to last decades so I avoid these methods.
Every now and then, usually when we’re mad about something, my spouse or I attack the pans with Barkeep’s Friend and elbow grease.
Ruhlman,
The first thing I ever learned to cook was breakfast, all in one cast iron skillet. Fry the bacon, drain half the rendered fat, sweat onions and cook the home fried potatoes in what’s left, finish by using a bit of the reserved fat to fry the eggs. I may still have a bit of those breakfasts in my arteries, but without those memories I don’t know what I would want to live a long time for.
BTW the Lodge chef’s pan is fantastic. I have a 10′ traditional skillet, another the size of a 5 quart saute pan, and the chef’s pan. I use the chef’s pan the most now. The best thing about the chef’s pan is that it is more accessible to those who are not accustomed to a flat sided pan. My girlfriend wanted no part of my skillet, but loves the chef’s pan.
I grew up with the idea that once you’ve washed a cast iron skillet, you put it on the stove for a few minutes to dry it completely. This is not a big deal unless, as I found out the other day, when in my rushing around to clean the kitchen and get out the door for work, I put the pan on to dry and promptly rushed my 8 year old out the door to baseball practice, it wasn’t until I had been at work for a few hours that my husband stopped by and, very calmly, told me I had left the pan on the stove…for, like, 3 hours! Amazingly, the pan, and my marriage, are both just fine!
All right, Mr. Ruhlman, ya got me! I followed the link, but bought a different pan. I got the 10″ chef’s pan. It has a small handle on the front which should make my life easier, and it’s got the curvy sides for easy cleaning. It should be here by Monday. I’ll make the Fluffy Omelet and let you know how it works.
So I’m a bit of a germaphobe and the idea of just wiping it with a cloth and hoping for the best has been hard for me to accept. What I generally do is wipe it, then spray it down with a mixture of 1 quart water with 1/2 teaspoon of bleach (clorox sells a similar mixture for $4-5, I did my own math to get the % right), and then let it sit for a couple minutes, then dry. I have to re-season the pans occasionally, but this allows me to sleep at night. An alternate method is wiping then reheating until dry on the stove or in the oven, fine if you’ve cooked a big meal and are busy cleaning, but usually I use the first method and just deal with the re-seasoning every few months.
I don’t ever put my cast iron skillet up. I use it for almost every meal.
Michael, if salt is bad for cast iron, why do you scrub it with salt?
I personally have never had problems myself.
Harry, if the build-up on your copper isn’t too heavy, ketchup will remove it. Pour some ketchup on the copper bottom of your pan, let it sit for a few minutes, rub with a cloth or paper towel and rinse. Repeat if necessary.
I don’t know what this pre-seasoned business is all about but here’s a link to the Lodge 9-inch pan.
Caring and feeding of:
The way I was taught many long years ago was to first throw in some coarse (kosher) salt. Wipe it around with paper towel. Next rinse it with hot water and wipe again—and then burn it dry on the stove top.
Ahhh, my cast iron skillet. I love it more than anything. I used to be intimidated by it but no more really, so easy to throw some oil in it and bake in the oven for awhile. It’s so well seasoned that just running water on it cleans even the messiest foods. I will be buying my children cast iron and teaching them how to use it also. I honestly think it’s the best in terms of economy and reliability EVER.
joanne, i’d clean a grill pan same way i’d clean a regular pan, just as others here have described.
kate, good question why chefs don’t typically use cast iron. they wouldn’t be practical–pans in a restaurant kitchen can get used dozens of times in a single service–lots of hot soapy water and scrubbing. also, they’re heavy and bulky.
i believe i read the pizza stone idea in a heston blumenthal book.
darcie, thanks for you comment on LARD!
I’m impressed by the number of commenters who attach so much sentiment to these pans–but i agree. is there another category of cookware that can carry such emotional weight?