"... I now treat it as a fulfilling act of service; I know that my time seasoning it with salt and oil will affect its life span and the palate of future generations. I scrub away at the hand-me-down dinnerware from my father-in-law, and I’m connected to him. In an unexpected way, pride has seeped into my kitchen work. Cleanliness is a matter of principle.... Carl Jung once said, 'Modern man can’t see god because he doesn’t look low enough.'
Will you find God in your kitchen sink?"
A sense of profundity attaches to one of my cast-iron pans — the one that I grew up hearing called the "spider." It is, I believe, older than I am. I use it all the time and can't imagine what one might do to it that would make it need any more seasoning. Is that low enough?
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The cast iron carries great significance in my SO’s family. We acquired the flat pancake pan and a few others including the dutch oven from the chuck wagon what hung over the fire. In disrepair I studied the best methods to restore. Burn off the old then flaxseed coats in the oven, a half dozen will do. Then stir fry scallions or such. Perfect…
…but the dutch oven was too complicated. It went off to Smithy in Charleston. SO no longer longs for le creuset…
This guy is the cast iron king. And a hoot to watch. My fam has met him, and he's the real McCoy.
Real Sunday Theme manifesting here today.
You will take my Mama Booth's cast iron pans from my cold, dead hands.
Who here still has the Foxfire books you bought in the 70's? *raises hand*
You never know when you'll need to know these things.
Iron Age sure beats the bronze age. Then steel came along.
We typewriter enthusiasts have similar fixations. I'm a totally minor player with only about 20, but most are older than I am and there is great satisfaction in getting a 'new' one, taking it home, cleaning it up, making any needed adjustments or repairs, and then maintaining and using something that was made and bought and used by some unknown (usually) person before I was born, sometimes decades before. And when I pass on, hopefully someone else will take possession of them and maintain and use and enjoy them for many more years.
I enjoy lemon-oiling my old vintage (wood cabinet) speakers. And my 1950s wood-and-leather desk. Washing and waxing and Lemon-Pledging the interior of my 45-year old automobile.
It's not for everyone, but there's something about preserving things that are actually still functional -- not to mention actually using them on a regular basis -- that provides enormous personal satisfaction.
When my mother died (at 103), the only thing of hers I wanted was her cast iron skillet. In her later years when I would visit she would prepare a whole meal in that skillet. I had cooked pancakes in it when I was 10. I still have it.
Katrinka in the Toonerville Trolley was always going after the skipper with a cast iron frying pan.
While I agree "You don’t need to meditate. Just wash your dishes by hand," I rarely find reasons to quote Jung, though his thoughts on NewAge and yoga are useful:
“One often hears and reads about the dangers of Yoga, particularly of the ill-reputed Kundalini Yoga. The deliberately induced psychotic state, which in certain unstable individuals might easily lead to a real psychosis, is a danger that needs to be taken very seriously indeed. These things really are dangerous and ought not to be meddled with in our typically Western way.…”
Translation: "Start a yoga class on every street corner - it's gonna be great"
I found a less smelly and revolting means to season cast iron cookware. Formerly, I followed the typical method -- grease or oil heated to its smoke point until it becomes a tarry, carbonized goo. Then you scrape out the bulk of that wretched, stinky mess and hope some small part adheres to the metal. You must do this outside or the smell and the filth will pollute your home for weeks if not longer.
However, by sheer accident, I found a better way. Get some flour tortillas and burn them in the pan. It will smoke and stink, but not like burnt pork grease or lard. The mess that remains is something like charcoal -- it's dry and it sticks to the pan, but with a bit of effort and a Teflon spatula, you can scrape away most of it, leaving a dry coating of carbon adhering to the iron.
Cast iron pans smell like metal and rust and old oil. No thanks.
On big holidays when the dishwasher fills up quickly, I always do the dishes by hand.
It's actually kind of enjoyable and I don't mind it at all.
But for everyday stuff, I set the dishwasher to run overnight and call it a day...
"We love what we take care of, and take of what we love." Reading that line my mind sprang to the special people in our lives. It was a bit of a let-down to find the article was about frying pans. I will bury my father tomorrow, so my head is in a different place. I'm sentimental, so upon further reflection, I get that people have special pans.
I have a collection of cast iron cookware that is mostly used regularly, and some of them almost never used. They ain't goin' nowhere, nohow. Some pieces older than I am.
If you don't like your season, stick the piece in the oven and put it through the cleaning cycle - that'll burn it all off, and you can start from scratch. Cowboy Kent Rollins has a video on how to do this new seasoning. I find that ghee works best (butter stripped of dairy elements), because it has a super high smoke point. Scallions help too, they're typically used to season a wok.
I don't hold with the old 'the spider must not be sullied by the touch of soap, eh-vah. Chain mail scrubber and dish soap, and it gets cleaned every time, then dried upside down over the gas range. Never rusts. I won't let go of my cast iron, bare or enameled. It's fantastic.
Throw your pan in the fire then re-season it. I think you need open flame to really damage a good seasoning, or use a needle gun on it.
I have a pan given to me by my grandmother. It is likely older than my 60 years. When I was 12 or so, she came in and put her cast iron skillet in the wood burning stove. Then after it had burned and cooled, she re-seasoned it from scratch.
While in grad school I spent two summers working in foundries (hot dirty work, but good pay). About once a month the guys in the mold room would mold and pour some non-business related items. Boat anchors and frying pans were among the cast iron favorites. I was the lucky recipient of two frying pans (one large, one small). I worked in the grinding room and was able to carefully clean up the surfaces on the pans.
When I took them home my Mom taught me how to break them in for use. She was an expert. We then used some breaded pork chops to test our work. The pans passed the test with flying colors.
To the larger point of the article, I do a lot of things by hand and have found, perhaps due to old age, that I notice the intricacies more and more. I consider the science behind it.
I'm eating one-meal-a-day and mostly carnivore. I cook ground beef almost daily. I've been playing with "micro-steam" that is using a couple tablespoons of water to cook, even from frozen. Then with a good head of steam, I turn off the heat and let the run. Usually takes a couple shots (2 tbsp) (boil down put in more) to get to a good internal temp. then later, I pour off the grease, brown the patty with a butane torch and make a sauce from the fond on the pan. If I don't get to the internal temp I want, I just bring up the heat for another shot of steam.
Last Thursday, the green beans arrived cold right before sitting down. My cousin was concerned, but I just covered the bottom of a pot with water, brought that to boil, then put in the beans. I thought it would kill all the steam, but some continued even after putting cold beans in the pot. Covered and the 212 F steam heated the beans up faster than I think could have been done just putting the beans in a cold pot. Not enough water remained to impact the dish.
It can be very meditative to start noticing the science and process of routine tasks. I presume our forebears did this only they had to come up with the science behind what they observed.
"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity." – Ellen Parr
I love to love you, baby...
-- Donna Summer
"Cast iron pans smell like metal and rust and old oil. No thanks."
You're not doing it right...
Keep the fatty end of bacon in your freezer, or some lard in your fridge. After using the pan, while it's still hot, throw a bit in and let it melt. if it's really bad, also swish with water. Wipe with a towel. No need to be precise.
Much easier than re-seasoning them in a smoky oven.
"You're not doing it right..."
I'm quite sure this is true. However, once a sensory association is made it is indelible.
“Cast iron pans smell like metal and rust and old oil. No thanks.”
Amen. And quality modern cookware will last a lifetime or two. Unless you’re cooking over an open-fire, the cast iron affectation seems unnecessarily cumbersome and a little unsanitary.
Though I understand Retro-ing for its own sake. But I don’t think it has some inherent virtue.
And you get your daily dose of iron.
I used to have a dishwasher, but she wasn't worth the trouble she caused. I wash them myself now.
The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence is all about finding spiritual peace as, in part, a washer of dishes.
I happily use my grandmother’s, my mothers, and my husband’s grandfather’s cast iron pans. All different sizes and the healthiest nonstick cookware. I also use and display my grandmother’s and my mother’s rolling pins.
These household items are a tie to my families history and bring me a deep feeling of belonging.
Samadhi state in every day activities is essentially being in the moment and or flow state
I have a robust collection of cast iron cookware, some a couple generations older than me and some within a decade or two, that I use for both home cooking and camping. I’m also Quartermaster and “Exec Chef” for my son’s Boy Scout Troop so oversee all the hand cleaning done to the griddles, skillets and dutch ovens the troop uses.
I’m quite adept at re-seasoning as scouts I sometimes miss a poorly clean skillet as it goes back in the troop trailer but for the most part the scouts are pretty good at cleaning them out. One thing I have them do is reheat and oil over a jet burner once cleaned and this has really extended the use between seasonings. I’ll take select items (personal and troop) down to the metal periodically when warranted but it’s generally rock salt in heated venigar (great for stainless, too!) and rarely need to break out a Brillo pad or steel wool (I keep ample “oughts” for woodworking)
I do all the cooking and most of the cleaning. I value my dishwasher and clean as I cook, loading most items once done using but generally hand cleaning the cookware due to space in a dishwasher. I don’t know that it’s therapeutic; it’s the only way I know to do things, which is where I part with the author. Her husband gets it so maybe she should go spend a week with him as “sous” so she can develop actual responsible adult routines and find therapy vacuuming or something…
My grandmother held the conviction that no cast-iron pan can be considered fully seasoned until it has been used to stun a cad or a masher.
When I read Cast Iron, I immediately thought of Cowboy Kent Rollins. His recipes are simple and delicious.
If you treasure something you CONSERVE it! FIFY
With an old cast-iron frypan you can rule the world (or at least the kitchen). When my kids were setting up their houses I told them: Find an old Griswold or Wagner for $30, make sure it is flat on the bottom with no cracks, spray it with oven cleaner and let it sit in the sink for an hour or two, scrub it down to raw iron with a steel pad, oil it with ghee, bake it for a couple of hours, and it will serve you more or less maintenance-free for the rest of your life.
Re the gist of the article, we used a dishwasher while raising our five kids, but now they are grown we do all our dishes by hand, even when the kids are all back home. We also parked our microwave in the garage, and for the most part heat our house in winter with an enameled wood stove rather than gas. Slower is better, notwithstanding the irritating fact that the Washington Post noticed.
I read an article not too long ago debating the need to do anything special with cast iron. Some experts argue soap and water is just fine. I have no personal experience on the mater. In fact, I've shied away from cast iron because of the apparent need to perform some ancient ritual.
I keep my pan seasoned by putting a bit of butter on it every morning before frying my eggs. If you're doing a lot of work, you're doing it wrong.
"Washin’ them dishes, feedin’ them swine"
When I sold the farm last May, I moved to an 800 sq ft rental house, downsizing wonderfully. The place has a dishwasher machine, but I've never used it. For the 55-plus years of my adult life, I've always washed by hand, enjoying it thoroughly. Because I work with my hands, even if now only gardening, nothing is better for getting them truly clean than washing dishes by hand, and the hot water soothes away all manner of bangs, bruises, twists, and strains.
I also have, and use regularly several cast iron cookery utensils, most of which I've use for decades, and even replaced the electric stove with a gas one to enable the more-subtle cooking which works so well with cast iron.
Original Mike said...I read an article not too long ago debating the need to do anything special with cast iron. Some experts argue soap and water is just fine.
You don't need to do anything special with cast iron except make sure it is bone dry after washing. Any lingering moisture will cause it to rust. After I wash a pan, I put it on the stove to heat up for a minute.
The prohibition against soap is a leftover from the days when soap contained lye, which would destroy the seasoning. Soap doesn't contain lye anymore, so it's safe to use.
“We love what we take care of, and we take care of what we love…You don’t need to meditate. Just wash your dishes by hand"
She’s right. I love my dishwasher, and I do take care of it.
Beating a rug is environmentally empathetic.
This reminds me of the Zen Motorcycle Maintenance.
The Zen of dishwashing. That's a good thing.
See also Pan-Sexual.
I had a relative that would refer to frying pans as "spiders" as well, though none of them were cast iron. She also used the word "davenport' instead of couch, and the contraction, "dasn't", for dare not. I like the idea of family heirlooms, and I like it even more when the heirloom is something functional or something you interact with on a somewhat frequent basis, instead of just being locked away in a chest somewhere.
I'll be making green chile stew in my Mom's old dutch oven today. I get to remember Mom and a great tasing meal. Clean-up is easy - I just use a stainless steel chain mail cast iron cleaner and hot water. Works great.
At big family gatherings, no discussions of religion, politics, or seasoning cast iron.
We have a cast iron pot which was in my wife's family pre-1900. It never makes a mistake.
Pre-1900 in France
Thus aliens would be well-advised to avoid visiting Earth with its legacy of atheistic traditions conceived in secular models.
My favorite pan is a 11" wide copper bottomed stainless skillet. Most even heating pan I've ever seen.
I love to wash dishes by hand and don't see the point of using the dishwasher unless we have a ton of dishes to wash at once, which rarely happens.
But don't tell Consumer Reports--or any EcoFanatic. They are OBSESSED with "saving water" and insist that I am killing Bambi or the spotted newt when I wash by hand and not by using an electric appliance that takes three freakin' hours to wash dishes--- often with poor results.
A few years ago I got a wild hair and went about scouring the thrift/flea markets, etc for about 5mi and got my SIL a full set of cast iron skillets from 4"-10" skillets, a pancake skillet, a couple of sizes casserole types, a kettle pot, a brazing tray and 3 corn bread corn shaped muffin trays w/ 18 shapes tot. Took about a month.
I'm in So Mo and cast iron is ubiquitous here (or at least was). In FL it's easily 6-10 times expensive depending on piece.
Shipping was damn near half the iron cost.
Oh, and four cast iron stands for cast iron irons circa 1900 to put hot pans on.
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent:
And quality modern cookware will last a lifetime or two. Unless you’re cooking over an open-fire, the cast iron affectation seems unnecessarily cumbersome and a little unsanitary.
The cast iron I mentioned sending my SIL had pieces easily over a hundred years old. They come from estate sales from dead grandmas who got them from grandmas.
Cast iron will heat up slowly and evenly and retain the balance much longer than steel pans. Those corn cob muffin trays I mentioned are preheated in the stove as you cook dinner, filled with batter just before you take the meal to the table and have cooked muffins in them by the time the table is set. They will then keep the muffins hot for a while on the table (set atop those cute cast iron stands).
Steel pans you put in a washer. Cast iron you heat the germs to death.
It's a preference, true, but it's not for nothing.
We have a dishwasher in our new (two years old) home, the first time in my life I've ever had one. My parents never had one, though my mother's mother had one way back in the 60s. My mother always said she didn't see the point of them, as one has to rinse the dishes before loading them to remove any excess or hard-t-remove scorched on food particles. She said, why not just continue with the process and have the dishes all done sooner? And she did.
I have to agree with my mother. Left to my own devices, I prefer to hand wash the dishes. I've been doing it all my life as an adult. It's ingrained in me. Washing by hand is quick and one feels a sense of accomplishment when done. And it does creates a meditative state. Moreover, dishwashers use more water and heat to cleanse and dry the dishes. All extra cost and time. That said, my wife prefers the dishwasher, so I'm usually left just rinsing off the excess and hard-to-remove scorched on food particles and putting the dishes into the dishwasher. (I still tend to hand wash pots and pans to conclusion.)
I was at a T-day gathering and noticed the Man O' the house insisting on pre-cleaning all the dishes immediately after meal, completely removing himself from conversation until most guests left. OCD or avoidance?
My grandmother had a wonderful and very old cast iron skillet in which she made, one at a time, "Swedish pancakes" for the grand children -- a treat and special occasion for us.
I started cooking with cast iron but now it's an alloy surfaced with a non-stick once called Teflon and since displaced by other "space age" coatings. The old cast iron furnace is gone and my internal combustion car has an aluminum block. We have moved on and are better for it.
I had a family heirloom cast-iron pan but my dog chewed it up. Then he went out to the street and ate a manhole cover.
Detective novel
"He looked legit. Like he got hit in the face with a big frying pan called bad luck. You know?"
"The prohibition against soap is a leftover from the days when soap contained lye, which would destroy the seasoning. Soap doesn't contain lye anymore, so it's safe to use."
Ahh!
I had a cast iron frying pan I liked. My brother, trying a new idea, heated axle grease to liquid and put his motorcycle chain in the liquid to guarantee a well lubricated chain. I discovered his task, when I tried to heat some oil for cooking and found it smelled like axle grease. The pan was ruined, and ended up in the trash. No matter what I did, the petroleum odor remained.
Cast iron pans smell like metal and rust and old oil. No thanks."
......
Not advisable to eat out of engine block
When I was out of college and had to cook for myself, I loved my cast iron skillet. I could put in under the broiler, use it on the stove, bake it at 500 degrees. When I had to wash it, I could get a brillo pad and get it clean in seconds. I didn't have to baby it, or think about whether it was "Safe" to put in under broiler. Or use a washcloth.
All I needed was the Skillet and a Soup Pot, and I was good to go.
…and not by using an electric appliance that takes three freakin' hours to wash dishes--- often with poor results
You need to shell out with the euro trash- Miele, Bosch…two hours and always squeaky clean. Except for runny cooked egg yolk sometimes…
I do agree with the headline of the piece.
If you have the free time, proper cleaning can be rather enjoyable. Especially if connected to memories - polishing grandma's silver cutlery, or thoroughly cleaning grandpa's old deer rifle.
Dawn solves all problems.
"Carl Jung once said, 'Modern man can’t see god because he doesn’t look low enough."
Proverbs 6:6-8: Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.
Low enough?
I love my Bosch dishwasher. We don't rinse, we just scrape any remaining food scraps into the trash and load the dishes. (I will sometimes put a little water in a dish with something baked on and let it soak until loading time.) Then, as we're now empty nesters, I set it for half load and it runs overnight. In the morning, my dishes are shiny clean.
I did spend a frustrating amount of searching for which of the three, not two, racks constitutes the "half" that was meant, only to discover that it doesn't mean you have to load everything on one rack; it means the total volume of dishes in the dishwasher is half or less than the dishwasher's capacity. And because when I do hand wash dishes, I do so with the water running (not full blast and not ALL the time I'm washing, but still), I'm going with my dishwasher's 2 1/2 gallon water use (not on half load) and the fact that I have to do nothing but load and unload the dishes, as the more efficient choice.
All that said - when our oldest was a toddler, our dishwasher died and we couldn't afford another yet, so we hand-washed dishes together for about a year. It was nice. I'm glad I didn't have to do it by the time we had three kids, though.
And, we have friends who literally wash their dishes, dish soap and everything, before then putting them into the dishwasher for more washing. We don't understand that.
I don't understand the angst of doing dishes. It's easy.
I do the dishes for a household of six.
Of course, I worked in a restaurant kitchen for many years. Perhaps it's a matter of perspective. Or skill- I'm really fast.
I thought I was pretty kitchen savvy with my cast iron skillet, until I went on an elk hunt with my brother in law, and saw a woman bake a gourmet meal in two cast iron Dutch Ovens on a pinewood fire. There is always something new to learn.
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