How To Season Cast Iron Cookware

Hello everybody!  Some more about healthy cast iron cooking today....

While it's true that cast iron is practically indestructible and, like cockroaches, would probably survive an atomic bomb, there are some special things that you must do to keep your pan black and shiny with a non-stick surface.

The first thing after restoring an old piece that you must do is to re-season the pan.  This will fill in the microscopic holes that are in all cast-iron and make your pan smooth as glass (hopefully).  If you buy new cast iron, you can pay a few more bucks and purchase a pre-seasoned piece.  These pans are ready for the oven immediately, after washing the pan with water, no soap.  But you will still need to re-season now and then.

Ok, so you have your pan that needs seasoning or re-seasoning.  Here's how I do it:

1.  Make sure the cast iron is free of rust and gunk (see earlier post).
2.  Rub the entire pan, including handle and bottom, with a thin coat of Crisco or vegetable oil.  I have found that Crisco does better and oil can leave splotches, but I don't generally have Crisco in my cabinet, so I  use Canola oil, which does fine, although there may be a splotch or two.  Don't overdo it with the oil/Crisco, just a thin coat.  If you use Crisco, put a cookie sheet on a lower rung in case the Crisco drips.
3. Put your oven rack on the top-most rung that will still accomodate your pan and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
4. Place your pan, upside down on the top rung and bake at 400 degrees for one hour.
5. Then turn off your oven and let it cool down with the pan still in it.
6. When the pan in completely cool, remove it from the oven.
7. You may have to repeat this process several times before the pan achieves the sheen that you want.  If it isn't nonstick when you cook most things, then put it through the seasoning process again.  Remember, though, no one is going to cook a hamburger patty or something similar without some sticking.

The Monday Recipe Blog

Hello - hope you are not too hot on this Monday!  Fall is right around the corner, at least that's what I keep telling myself.

Here's another recipe that works nicely in a cast iron skillet - fried corn.

Fried Corn:

8 ears of fresh corn
2 T. butter or bacon grease

Cut the kernels off of 8 ears of corn, scraping the cobs to get the milky liquid.  Put the corn and corn liquid in a cast iron skillet.

Add the butter or bacon grease and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to medium.

Stir constantly, cooking until the mixture begins to thicken.  This will be about 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to low - a slow simmer.

Simmer for about 5 minutes more, stirring constantly or else it will scorch.

Remove it from heat, stir in a little salt and pepper to taste, then serve immediately.

Note - Be sure and don't salt the corn until the very end, or else the kernels will be tough.

This recipe yields about 4-6 servings.

The Friday Dog Blog

Hello and happy Friday!!

Jim and Mary's Shepherd pup has blue eyes and a sweet disposition.  She's wishing she could ditch her fur coat until winter rolls around again!

The Oprah Book Club Selection #5 - White Oleander by Janet Fitch

The next book in my year-long Oprah Book Club Challenge is White Oleander, 1999, 390 pages. Published in hardback by Little Brown and Co., paperback in 2000 by Back Bay Books.

This is an intriguing first novel by Janet Fitch. Narrated by 13-year-old Astrid Magnussen, it’s the story of a young girl faced with heart-wrenching circumstances beyond her control. The mother-daughter theme is prevalent throughout.

Astrid lives with her mother, a poet with astounding beauty and considerable skills and fame. Astrid’s mother, Ingrid, uses her beauty to manipulate men. Her emotional problems ensure that Astrid’s life will never be safe and secure, and her huge ego ensures that Ingrid will never be a true success as a poet.

When the mother, Ingrid, becomes obsessed with a boyfriend that proves difficult to manipulate, she finds herself separated from her daughter.   Astrid is left in the apartment, alone and terrified. When it becomes obvious that her mother will not be returning, Astrid enters the world of institutions and foster homes.

Throughout Astrid’s teenage years, her disturbed, manipulative mother wields her considerable power over her daughter in absentia.

This is a story of survival, of finding oneself in the worst of circumstances, in understanding who and what you have become, and eventually, in triumphing over what life has offered.

It’s a nice read. Out of five stars, I give White Oleander…..

* * * *

The Monday Recipe Blog

What a great Monday it's turning out to be!!

Here's another one of the traditional cast iron recipes - Pineapple upside-down cake.  Again, you can use other cookware besides cast iron with these recipes, they just work and taste better in cast iron.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake:

3 T. butter
1 c. light brown sugar
7 slices of canned pineapples
1/2 c. pineapple juice (reserved from the canned pineapples)
7 candied cherries (optional)
12 pecan halves (optional)
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 t. vanilla
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt

You will use a 10 inch cast iron skillet.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Melt the butter in your skillet over low heat.  When melted, sprinkle the brown sugar over the butter and remove from heat when the brown sugar begins to melt.

Place the pineapple rings in the skillet.  You can cut some in half if you need to in order to fit them in.  If using cherries, place one in the center of each ring.  Lay the pecan halves between the rings.

Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl, then stir in the white sugar.  Add the vanilla and pineapple juice - mix all of this up well.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt, then add them to the egg mixture and blend it together.

Pour the batter over the brown sugar and pineapple rings in the skillet.

Bake for about 45 minutes, until nicely brown and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.  While it's still warm, invert it onto a platter.  The pineapple rings and caramelized sugar will be on top, and the cake will be delicious!

This recipe will serve about 8 people, and has 445 calories per serving.

The Friday Dog Blog

Hello everyone....In the hot dog days of summer, it's kind of refreshing to look back at our nice snowstorms of last winter.  For the dog blog today we have Vicki's Princess Leia, the 10 foot tall poodle from Poteau. 

Wouldn't you just love to have some of that snow today?????

How To Restore Old Cast-Iron Cookware

So, your grandmother said you could have all of her old cast-iron.  Great!  But she hasn't used her cast-iron in years.  This could pose a problem.  Unless cast-iron is stored properly, it will develop rust and worse, pits.  There also may be burnt-on particles of food from sixty or seventy years ago that need to come off.

How can old, abused cast-iron cookware be restored?  There are several ways....

First, determine whether the pan has serious cracks or pits on its surface, or is warped.  If so, it may be time for the junkpile.  A crack means it has to go now.  Deep pitting will ensure that your food will not cook evenly and defeats the purpose of using cast-iron in the first place.  And you don't want a warped pan, do you?

So, the pan doesn't have cracks, warps or serious pits, but it has a ton of rust, several dead spiders and looks like it has been in the barn for fifty years.  Well, it may have been.  Rust isn't a deal-breaker.  Almost all old, unused cast-iron pieces have rust - no big deal.

Some techniques for removing rust:
Sandpaper, fine to medium grit, may do the trick. 
Scouring the rust with dish detergent and steel wool.
Scouring powder and a potato cut in half.  The potato acts as your scrubber.
Drill and wire brush sander.  Be very careful - you don't want to sand too much off of your pan.
Sandblasting (by a professional).  This also removes any markings on your pan - and if your marking says something like "Griswold" or "Wagner" this is a very bad thing.  I wouldn't use this option.

Once the rust is gone, you will need to remove the gunk that has built up on your pan.

Some techniques for removing gunk:
Put the piece in your self-cleaning oven and turn on the cleaner.  This burns off the gunk at a very high temperature and should remove all it.
Using plastic gloves, spray oven cleaner on the pan and put it in a plastic bag for a couple of days.  Then wash off the cleaner and wash the pan in hot water and soap.  Rinse twice to make sure all the oven cleaner is off the pan.

So, there you have it.  Restoring old cast-iron isn't rocket science, and it doesn't require any special equipment.  Once you have restored your piece, you will need to re-season it.  That's a subject for a later blog....