Cast cookware
Cast cookware and cast iron pans have a reputation for food sticking to them during cooking. However if you’re used to country cookware, and that’s what cast cookware is, pure country, then you know it has to be seasoned properly.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s cast iron skillets, kettles or cast iron pots and dutch ovens, it all has to be seasoned. When you can, it’s smart to buy pre seasoned cast iron pans and dutch ovens.
Of course it’s not all that hard to season your own cast cookware. If you’ve been around country cookware for a long time you know all it takes is some oil in the pots and pans and putting them in the oven for a while.
Some place recommend you pour oil in the pan and then heat it at around 300 hundred degrees for 30 minutes to an hour. That will work but I like my method for seasoning cast iron skillets better. Just pour some oil in the pan then take a paper towel and wipe it all over the inside of the pan. Then put your cast iron skillet or pan in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
After the 30 minutes are up turn the oven off, wipe the oil around again and put the cast iron skillet or pan back in the oven while the oven cools off. When it’s cool wipe all the excess oil out of the skillet or pan and it should be good to go. You’ll be surprised at how non stick it is.
For dutch ovens cast iron is the best thing I’ve found. While cast iron dutch ovens were invented for cooking in the outdoors, the lids had a spot to put hot coals so the food in the dutch oven would cook from the top and bottom, I’d much rather have a glass lid for my cast iron kettles. It makes it easier to see what’s happening to the food. If you aren’t going to use your cast iron cookware camping or on a cattle drive you really don’t need cast iron lids for the pots and pans.
Cast cookware is one of the healthier things you can cook in simply because a little iron is absorbed by whatever you are cooking. There are a lot of people who have low iron in their diets and cast iron cookware can help with that quite a bit. Lol, you can save money buy not having to buy iron pills.
Cast iron may be a bit harder to clean but it’s the best you can get for a dutch oven or frying pan. It’s just got better thermal properties than steel. IOW it heats up better and distributes the heat more evenly. Besides, you can get some good utensils and not have to worry about scratching the nonstick surface off.
When you clean your cast iron pots and pans, never put them in the dishwasher and never, ever, use a steel or copper scratcher pad on them. If you do you will add minute scratches and everything will stick. If you put them in the dishwasher it will take all of your seasoning you did and make it worthless and you’ll have to re season the pots and pans again. If you keep your cast iron country cookware well seasoned it will never stick.
I do a lot of cooking in dutch ovens just because that’s the size of my recipes so the 5-6 quart size works very well for me. I also like a larger cast iron frying pan like the 12 inch one in the picture below. I fry my burgers and frys in the same frying pan when I’m just cooking for me and the big one works just great. BTW, both of these cast iron pans are for sale. If you’re interested in cast cookware just click on the pic and you can get more info about it.
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The Emerilware from All-Clad 6-qt. Cast Iron Dutch Oven is about as good as cast iron gets. Roast a chicken with winter root vegetables or slow-simmer a hearty beef stew or a three-bean chili in this 6-qt. Dutch oven by Emerilware from All-Clad. The lid, with its brilliant green knob, seals in flavors. Unlike the cast iron pieces of another generation, this cast iron Dutch oven comes pre-seasoned, saving you time and offering top performance. Cast iron is desirable for its excellent heat retention and even distribution of heat. For best results, wash the Dutch oven by hand then dry well.
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Just like the one Grandma used, this skillet performs exceptionally well with its cast iron construction that heats evenly then retains the heat all through the cooking process. Use the skillet for cooking eggs, hashbrowns or fried chicken. This skillet is particularly nice because it’s already seasoned and ready-to-use once you get it. It’s coated with a special vegetable oil formula that’s been baked-on in a very hot industrial oven. The high temperature allows the oil to penetrate deeply into the cast iron surface creating that prized heirloom finish, saving you the time and effort of doing it on your own. Please note this item is not recommended for Ceramic/Glass cooktops.
When I dry my cast iron cookware I set it on a burner and let the heat dry it. Take it off the heat as soon as the water is all gone. One of the things about cast iron is if you don’t get it dry it will rust. I also put a couple of drops of oil on paper towel and then wipe the inside and outside thoroughly. If you do that your cast cookware, cast iron pans, skillets and dutch ovens will never show signs of rust.