Cast Iron Skillet 101
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I promised a blog post about how much I love my cast iron skillet and the wait is over! If I could only have one more thing to cook with for the rest of my life, it would be my 12” cast iron skillet! I completely understand why the pioneers had them hanging in their covered wagons! Cast iron was first used in the sixth century in China but is now a huge part of American culinary history! Here is an article about the history of the cast iron skillet, which I find fascinating!
I didn’t grow up cooking with cast iron or even seeing Grandmommy or my mom cook with it, which is kind of weird because of the legacy of Southern food! They had other kitchen skillets and pots and pans that they enjoyed more, and that’s great! I was clueless, though. My first time attempting to use anything cast iron was a rectangular cast iron griddle that I put directly over two burners. The result was catastrophic. I didn’t know that pancake batter could be raw and burned at the same time, but it was! Smoke was everywhere and the griddle and the pancakes ended up outside in the snow. We all start somewhere!
A few years later I discovered The Pioneer Woman (I’m an OG- I loved her before all of her amazing products from Walmart that I may or may not have all over my house) and she used a cast iron skillet and transferred things easily from the stove to the oven. I decided to ask for a cast iron skillet for Christmas, since we were too broke to buy one ourselves.
At the time my mom was married and she and her husband were at Grandmommy’s with us at Christmas. He was originally from Louisiana and it was one of his family traditions to make gumbo for dinner on Christmas Eve. He was a really good cook, actually! He knew I was getting the cast iron skillet for Christmas, so I actually got to open it early so he could use it to make the rue for the gumbo! That gumbo was especially delicious and was the maiden voyage for my cast iron skillet!
Since then, I’ve made countless meals in my cast iron skillet. I love it for three main reasons:
1) The heat is distributed evenly and it cooks things, especially meat, really well! The bottom and sides are thick.
2) It transfers perfectly from stove to oven! There are several recipes I make with chicken where you cook it for a few minutes on the stove and then put it in the oven. I’ve also done this with pork and steak.
3) It is truly an all-in-one pan! You can use it on the stove, in the oven or even over a fire if needed! You can use it as a skillet, roasting pan or baking sheet. You can cook meat, bake biscuits, scramble eggs and make a casserole all in the same pan!
How to Clean and Season Your Cast Iron Skillet
Cleaning cast iron is different than cleaning any other cooking pan! The cardinal rule is to NEVER put it in the dishwasher!!! You really don’t want to use soap either if you can help it, as you want the inside surface of the cast iron skillet to remain shiny and seasoned. Sometimes I use a tiny bit of soap if I’ve cooked something particularly messy, but otherwise, the heating process when you season the skillet disinfects everything. There are different methods people have for cleaning and seasoning your pan and some people just leave the skillet on the stove and don’t clean it at all (for extra flavor :-) ).
This is the process that works for me:
1) When you’re finished cooking, rinse out the pan with water and, if needed, use a gentle bristled brush to scrub it. If absolutely needed, just add one drop of dishwashing detergent, but you shouldn’t need the soap in most cases.
2) Put the wet skillet on the stove over medium heat.
3) Once all of the water has evaporated from the skillet and it is dry, remove skillet from the heat. Add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil (or bacon grease!) to the skillet.
4) Using a clean paper towel, waded up, spread the oil around the entire inside surface of the skillet until all oil is absorbed and the surface looks shiny. You can also do this all over the exterior occasionally as well. This is what makes the cast iron skillet nonstick!
A extra note about a cast iron skillet is that it can function as a shallow dutch oven! I make Julia Child’s pork chops in my cast iron skillet and use the lid (also made of cast iron)!
There are so many great options available for cast iron skillets, but I recommend the Lodge Brand! They sell them in Cracker Barrel (my absolute favorite road trip restaurant!) or you can get a cast iron skillet on Amazon along with a lid!
There are different types of cast iron skillets! I recommend getting one with a cast iron handle, not a wooden one! There are also baking cast iron pans and different sizes! The 12 inch skillet is a really good standard size to have, but there are bigger ones and smaller ones! I actually have an 8 inch Pioneer Woman Cast iron skillet that is great for cooking smaller batches of things! I actually baked biscuits in it the other day!
In conclusion, if you have a cast iron skillet that you have tucked away somewhere, season it and use it! If you don’t have a cast iron skillet you need to buy one!
Let me know what your favorite thing to make in a cast iron skillet is!