Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Tuesday Edition: Kitchen Tip


"Re-seasoned Cast Iron Pans" uploaded to Flickr by Island Vittles
 Hey there!  I hope you had a great weekend.  The Husband and I had a chance to have some time to ourselves while the Toddler spent sometime with her grandparents.  Everyone had a great time!

But now it's back to the hum-drum of daily life. 

In thinking for a tip today, I was inspired by a tip in Bon Appetit magazine and realized that I never shared any tips with you about how a cast iron skillet should be cleaned!  You have a cast iron skillet, right?  I hope so, because they are fabulous.  You can make anything and almost everything in there - from cornbread, to eggs to pizza.  If you don't have one, I highly recommend getting one.

And when you do get one...please do not put it in the dishwasher to clean it!  It will ruin your new skillet.  The most important thing you have to remember about cleaning cast iron is that you want to preserve the seasoning (the "grease" that protects it).  So when cleaning, don't use any detergents or soap - simply use water and a pan scraper, rinse and dry immediately.  Or, for really stubborn food, scrub the skillet with a 1 cup coarse kosher salt into the still warm pan and scour it with a folded towel.  Rinse with hot water, and dry immediately. 

8 comments:

  1. I made the mistake when I got my first cast iron skillet of washing it and not drying it right away and it rusted! I rub mine with oil after drying it to keep it seasoned, they are awesome for cornbread :)

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  2. good tip - I'm such an ignorant cook I had no idea how to clean them...good thing I read this since I'm planning on buying a cast iron skillet next week

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  3. If I'd known this 10 years ago... although, I did recently stumble onto directions restoring damaged pots. I'm going to try it soon!

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  4. I don't own a cast iron skillet. Maybe this should be my next buy! :)

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  5. I dry mine the way my Gram always did - wipe it down, and heat it back up on the burner for a couple minutes until the water is evaporated. I LOVE my cast iron skillet, when it's too cold to grill, we do pork chops in the oven in there. Just sear them on each side on the stove, then pop the whole pan in the oven and turn them a couple of times. Mmmmm... that sounds good for dinner tonight!

    Adrianne
    www.happyhourprojects.com

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  6. Hi! I came across you on the Mingle Hop this morning and I love what you have going on here :) As far as cookware goes, I am anti anything except for titanium....but being the southern girl that I am, I just can NOT let go of my cast iron!!! It's in my DNA :) If you get the chance, come by at southernbelleasanarmywife.blogspot.com I'm fairly new, but coming along ;) Hope to talk to you soon!

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