Cooking With Cast Iron

Hello and happy Monday again everyone! This week I’m going to rave about cast iron pans. 

You can watch me cooking with them here.

I love cast iron, I would suggest them to anyone and everyone, and there’s a couple reasons why.

First off. They’re super durable. There’s a reason you see old cast iron pans at estate sales, garage sales, yard sales, you name it. It is so hard to ruin one of these things, and even if you think you have, most likely there’s a relatively easy way to restore it to a usable condition. If you take care of your pans, they should outlive you, that’s how sturdy they are.

Secondly. Compared to how infrequently you have to replace these guys, it is incredibly cost effective to switch your cookware to cast iron. I’m not saying that it’s not expensive if you choose to switch ALL your pots and pans at once, but if you replace a dying non-stick pan here and there, it’s not so bad, and the lifespan of the cast iron pan will basically pay for itself.

Third. It’s no wonder cast iron is popular because they are so versatile. You can use them for sauces. Steaks. Fish. Baking. Casseroles. They can transfer seamlessly from stovetop to oven. You can use them on an open flame. On a grill. Glass cooktop. Electric cooktop. Gas stove. They. Are. So. Versatile.

With all of this said, there are still several widespread misconceptions about cast iron pans that turn a lot of new users away from them.

One of the biggest myths that people believe is that cast iron is hard to maintain. It’s an idea that the seasoning – the protective coat over the bare metal – can be easily damaged and the steps to protect it are difficult and take a lot of time or skill. If you hear someone tell you not to use metal utensils in cast iron, it’s because of this idea that cast iron is ‘delicate’.

This is just not true. Like I mentioned earlier, cast iron pans are crazy durable.

In a seasoning or a re-seasoning process, it’s not just a thin layer of oil on the bare metal. It’s a layer of polymerized oil that bonds to the metal. This means that the oil has broken down into a plastic-like substance, and this is how a well-seasoned cast iron pan can have non-stick properties.

Unless you’re gouging into the pan itself, your metal utensils aren’t doing anything to that seasoning. And any little black flakes that are coming off the pan into the food are more likely to be carbonized food from previous meals than any flaking or damage to the seasoning layer itself.

You can easily store you pans stacked inside each other without having to worry that they’ll damage each other.

 

Hey, I heard that…

Cast iron pans leach iron into the food you cook.

This is true. But the amount of iron leached into the food depends on a huge variety of factors. The older the pan is means it’ll generally leach less. The acidity of the food can also determine how much iron is leached into your food. Another factor is how well-seasoned the pan is.

If you generally run anemic, it might not hurt to switch to cooking in cast iron pans. On the flip side, if your body doesn’t process iron correctly, or tends to build up an overload of iron, this could be potentially dangerous. Always be sure to double check with your doctor if you know your body has issues with iron production or processing so you don’t accidentally hurt yourself.

If you are dead-set on switching to cast iron, an alternative is to instead switch to enamel-coated cast iron. They work just as well as their traditional counterparts, they just have an enamel coat to stop the leaching of iron from the pan. This coat also acts as the pans ‘seasoning’.

Another big common idea is that you can’t cook anything acidic in your cast iron.

While it’s generally a good idea to avoid making long-cooking acidic recipes – like tomato sauces – in your cast iron, ideally the seasoning on your pan would protect it so the acids would never touch the bare metal. This is never a guarantee though since we don’t live in a perfect world.

On the other hand, it’s perfectly safe to cook a small amount of acidic foods in your pans every now and then and it will cause zero damage.

 

Did you know??

The cast iron pans you can buy today are different than the pans made before production was streamlined. Cast iron pans used to be sanded down after casting, and you can see that in many old pans still floating around. When production was streamlined this step of sanding the pans was dropped. This means that vintage pans will have a silky-smooth finish compared to the pans we have now that have a slightly rough finish.

This also means that current day pans will never get as non-stick as the vintage pans.

 

I know, I know. I’ve been beating around the bush.

The most controversial topic of cast irons pans is how to clean them. A lot of people have been made to believe that you can’t wash them with soap and water. 

While it’s always a bad idea to run them through the dishwasher – not the end of the world, but not a great idea – it’s perfectly safe to clean your pans with soap and water. There are just a few steps you’ll want to follow up with to make sure you don’t damage the pan.

1. Wash your pan as quickly as possible. You don’t want to leave it soaking in the water for any length of time, since water is what will cause your pan to rust. Even a tiny amount of water can leave rust spots you’ll need to scrub off later.
2. After it’s been washed, dry it with a paper towel and place it on a stovetop burner set on high. 
3. When the water in the pan is almost completely dried, add a small amount of neutral oil – vegetable, canola, flaxseed, and shortening are great – and spread it around the entire inside of the pan with a paper towel. Be sure to wipe up any excess.
4. This entire process only takes a couple minutes, so be sure to stick close to your pan when you reach this step. When the pan starts to smoke, remove it from the heat, give it one final wipe, and let it cool completely before storing.
5. That’s it! Your pan is re-seasoned and good to go for the next meal.

 

That’s pretty much all I have to say about cast iron. I just have a few final tips before I let you all go that will help you get the best life out of your pans.

• Season them when you first get them. A lot of pans you can buy now will come pre-seasoned, but it never hurts to add a few extra layers. Just follow steps 3-5 from above a couple times with that new pan and you’re golden.
• Keep using your pan. The more often you use it, the better the season will get.

 

 

Thank you all so much for hanging out with me today, I appreciate every single one of you. I hope you have a freaking awesome rest of your week, a happy and safe Thanksgiving, and I’ll see you all next week!

-Alyx