Cast Iron Skillet

by Robee
(Sherman, TX USA)

My husband and I do a lot of cooking in the house and we feel cast iron is a healthy alternative to Teflon coated pans. My favorite type of pan is the big frying skillet.

What I like about cast iron cookware is that it heats up fast, retains the heat, distributes the heat evenly and supposedly adds traces of iron to your diet.

My favorite food to cook in the frying pan is chicken. We also like to do tomato and cabbage stir-fry in olive oil. It tastes great and it also "seasons" the pan for the next meal. It's like that 'secret family spice' that gives dimension to our meals.

Cast iron is surprisingly never hard to clean. The trick is that right after you are finished cooking, remove any grease and add water in the pan to let the bottom of the pan soak while you're eating. The biggest mistake is to ignore the pan and tend to it after dinner.

To clean the cast iron pan, we pour the soak-water down the sink. We add more water if we need to and sometimes we scrub with a paper towel or use a pancake turner to scrape the bottom. We pour the final rinse water out and dry thoroughly with a towel.

We never use soap because cast iron can rust and soap strips the oil barrier out of its pores. To condition the cast iron pot, we just wipe it with our favorite vegetable oil.

We enjoy our "seasoned" cast iron cookware. Bon Apetit!