Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
‘Tis the season
May has been talking about cast iron pans — and, yes, I agree, there’s nothing as indispensable as a well-seasoned cast iron pan. I use mine to make pan-fried steak or pork chops, chicken marsala, just about any meat recipe which requires the development of a sauce from a fond. A properly seasoned cast iron pan cleans up in a snap and requires little or no fuss.
How do you season a new pan? I looked around on the ‘net and discovered that some cast iron pans have a protective coating of wax. This needs to be scrubbed off prior to seasoning. I’ve never had to do this, so perhaps there are regional differences.
I found a number of formulas for seasoning. Some claimed you had to use bacon grease or lard for seasoning, since vegetable oil leaves a sticky coating. This is only true if you season the pan in a low temperature oven (300 F or lower). With my high heat method, vegetable oil works well.
Seasoning
Coat the pan ALL OVER (top, bottom, handle, the works) with vegetable oil. Put it in a 400 F oven. Turn off the oven and leave the pan in overnight. Alternatively, leave the pan in the 400 F oven for two hours, then carefully remove it.
I repeat this two or three times until I see a thin, almost shiny coating covering the entire pan.
Cleaning
The sources I checked claim you can use hot, soapy water to clean your pan. Since I was taught to never, never, never use soap, I’ve found other ways to deal with a greasy mess. I use rock salt to scrub off anything that sticks to the bottom and then I rinse with hot water. I wipe any remaining grease away with a paper towel.
For really messy jobs, try boiling water in the pan before scrubbing with rock salt. Kosher salt works, too.
More Seattle travelogue tomorrow.
D.
I don’t know what happened to the one I had. I think my ex-wife got it even though her idea of cooking is shake-n-bake chicken.
Doug, you can use soap. But after washing it off, wipe it dry, and to make sure it’s really dry, you stick it on the stove and heat it.
Or so my mom claims, and that’s what we’ve been doing.
I have cast iron skillets. I love them. I know how to season them and I was always told not to wash them with soap too. Never heard about using rock salt. Good idea!
My mother has a cast-iron skillet that’s older than I am, and has always seen regular use. Mom had always used soap and hot water, sometimes even a steel wool pad on it! And she’s never seasoned it.
She’s talking about getting a cook top stove soon, which means she’ll have get rid of her cast ion. I suspect I’ll inherit them. 🙂 Or should that be ‘hope’?