If you want to make a meal that feels homey and rustic, cook it in cast iron!
Cast iron pans are great for high heat cooking like searing and charring. The heavy pan distributes heat evenly. Use them for anything that needs to be browned, sauteed, baked, simmered, or fried. (It is generally best to avoid boiling in cast iron.)
One advantage of cast iron is that you can initially simmer food on the stove top, and then move it to the oven to get a crispy finish on top, like pot pie or mac'n'cheese.
Here are some of my favorite dishes that I make in my cast iron skillets:
chicken pot pie
fried potatoes & onions
hash browns
mac'n'cheese
cornbread
stir fry
refried beans
fried rice
biscuits
hash
A lot of people are intimidated by cast iron because they aren't sure how to clean it. It's true, you will ruin it if you clean it like stainless steel.
Seasoning
Here's a fun story.
My husband says...
"I had a roommate in college that had a stainless steel frying pan that he never washed. It was black inside and out from food and grease build up. One day another of our roommates decided to do him a favor and clean the pan for him... He scrubbed it clean until the pan shined like new. When the owner of the pan came home from class, he was so upset because our roommate had removed all of his seasoning!"
I am certain that this tradition of him not cleaning his pan was handed down from parents and grandparents who cooked on cast iron, and they taught him to keep the seasoning on it. However,
you SHOULD thoroughly clean modern steel pans, and
even cast iron gets cleaned, just not with soap!
The most important factor in using cast iron is the seasoning on the surface of the metal. Seasoning is cooked-on fat that forms a layer between the iron and your food. Seasoning should not contain stuck on food bits.
Before you begin using cast iron, you need to make sure it is seasoned. Conveniently, most pieces come pre-seasoned nowadays.
If someone washes your cast iron skillet with soap, though, you will need to reseason it.
You can tell if a pan needs to be seasoned because it will have a dull, gray, and possibly rusty surface. Seasoned cast iron should be glossy and black with no hint of rust.
My favorite way to season cast iron is to cook a batch of bacon.
Another good way to season it is to rub a thin coat of oil on all surfaces (including the handle), turn it upside down, put a baking sheet under it to catch grease that drips off and bake it at 350F for an hour. You can add several coats of oil and bake each one on for a really good, thick coat.
Some people like to give their iron a coat of oil after each use--not baked on, just rubbed on. I do not do this. In my opinion it is unnecessary. I don't like my pans to drip oil where they hang.
Cleaning Cast Iron
If you can't use soapy water on cast iron, how do you prevent it from getting gross??
The answer is simple:
Hot water, a nylon scrubber, and paper towls. That's all you need.
The most common way that I clean my cast iron is to run hot water over it and scrape off any stuck on spots with a scrubber. I use paper towels to wipe off excess grease.
Occasionally there is food stuck on the surface that doesn't come off quite so easily. In that case, soak the pan with hot water for an hour and it will loosen up. You can simmer it if it is persistent. Then proceed to run more hot water over it and scrape it.
It's really that easy. In all of my years of using cast iron, I can't think of any cases where this simple method didn't do the job.
An antique dealer once told me that if you buy an old iron pan with food badly caked on, put it in a wood fire and let the stuck on food burn off. This works, I did that with the pan I bought from him. You will need to reseason it if you resort to fire cleaning.
Extreme Temperature Changes
A long time ago I read that you must avoid anything that would cause a cold cast iron pan to suddently get very hot, or a hot pan to suddenly get very cold. Cast iron doesn't expand and contract as fluidly as more modern metal alloys do.
For a long time I was exceedingly cautious to avoid sudden temperature changes with my pans.
I have learned, though, that it's not necessary to be exceedingly cautious. Yes, avoid extreme changes in temperature. But if it's something simple like pouring a glass of water onto a pan that has been frying veggies, simply pour the water around the pan in a circle rather than all in the same spot to help the initial heat change distribute evenly, and it should be fine.
I haven't cracked a pan yet.
Iron in Your Food
Cooking on cast iron ensures that you get iron in your diet. A little bit of the mineral comes through into your food. This is a good thing for your health, but it can make certain foods taste metallic.
For instance, if you make chili that simmers all day in a cast iron Dutch oven, and you added the tomato sauce at the beginning, you will end up with extremely iron-y tasting chili. The acid in the tomatoes reacts with the iron and pulls quite a bit of it into your food. The same thing would happen if you added vinegar, or any highly acidic ingredient, to something that is going to cook for a long time. Therefore, if you have a recipe that needs to slow cook in cast iron, wait to add the acid till the end of cook time.
For that same reason, don't store food in cast iron. Say you make a batch of cornbread and it doesn't all get eaten right away. Remove the left overs from the pan for storage, or the parts in contact with the iron will get rusty.
Dutch Baby Recipe
A Dutch baby is a fluffy soft pan-cake that puffs up and gets hollow inside from steam. It is delicious to eat with butter, maple syrup, lemon juice, and apple pie filling. Or you can make a savory cheesey mushroom sauce for it. The toppings seep into the tender folds and it melts in your mouth.
4 eggs
1 1/3 cup milk
2/3 cup arrow root powder
2/3 cup flour (any gluten free or wheat flour will work)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs maple
2 tbs coconut oil
Preheat oven to 475F with a 12" cast iron skillet in the oven.
Mix all ingredients (except the oil) in a blender.
When the oven is hot, remove the pan, drop the oil in the pan and tilt it around so the bottom and sides of the pan get coated in oil. Quickly pour batter in the hot pan.
Place it in the oven for 13 minutes, or until puffed and golden.
It will collapse after it is removed from the oven. For an impressive presentation, bring it out while still puffy. Serve while hot.
What is your favorite food to cook in cast iron?
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