Made everyone breakfast this morning, sausage (patties and link), biscuits and gravy and cheese eggs! Tasted great. Why is that breakfast always tastes better when cooked in a cast iron skillet?

Only issue was someone (mother in law) used my cast iron frying pan last and I am not sure what she coated it with. It left a gooey layer on the bottom and sides of the pan. I usually just wash with water and light coating of oil.

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with wings as eagles

Lately I have been coming into some of my family's old cast iron cookware....it seems that my dad doesn't want to cook on anything that isn't non-stick nowadays....I have 4 really great pieces and love them to death...I wish that I had discovered them years ago.....

and on the breakfast note.....do you ever find that bacon cooked over a wood fire (in cast iron) tasted just that much better?

I thought cast iron was non-stick?

At least, mine doesn't stick.

Biscuits and Gravy...the best food group!!!

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Lost it all in a boat accident

I have a cast iron skillet I'll sell you if you need to replace yours. It has a BuyItNow price of $899.99 on it though. (Guess I better add it is an antique.)

I love using cast iron but my brother took all of his I had back, so I'm stuck with the newer stuff.

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Good life will not Heaven get!

need some pics next time!

Years ago I was liveing in a bunk house in the national park service. There were two older guys that were brothers. I remember one bellering at the other for ruining his pan as he had washed it in water with soap.

I love the cast iron cooking. Over the years, I have collected quite a collection of iron ware and hung them on nails in the storage barn. They are all rusty. What is the process to make them usable?? Sausage, gravy and fried Okra in a cast iron----darn good eating.

I cooked sage sausage and french toast in mine this morning over the camp fire. My son ate so much he laid back down and took a nap in the Jeep! I had a date with a gal a few months back. I cooked so she did dishes. I caught her scrubbing my skillet with Ajax!! The next scene was not pretty. Needless to say that was our first and only date.

I love my cast iron. Got it seasoned so nothing sticks to it.

I agree you can't beat good cast iron cooking.

I don't let anyone touch my cast iron when it comes to cleaning it. My wife and step kids had never used it untill we got together. The step daughter cleaned one of my skillets once. Took a pad to it until it was shiny. Talk about having a stroke! LOL It wasn't that shiny when new.

How to clean cast iron:

When it's really hot pour some hot water in it, all should be hot enough for the water to explode. (That is, instantly go to steam, it seems like an explosion.) Then pour some more water in, slosh it around and pour it out and wipe with a paper towel. All done.

That gooey, sticky stuff in cast iron skillets is usually the seasoning that is rancid. If left for long periods time it usually has to be cleaned and reseasoned. Love my old Griswolds.

But is it really worth looking for another wife or girlfriend?

All we have is cast iron to cook on. We've quite a collection of cookware. Even have a early wood cookstove in the kitchen that we use all winter. Nothing tastes as good as something that comes out of that oven...something about wood heat and cast iron makes everything taste better.

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Non gratum anus rodentum

I too love cooking in cast iron. Here is a picture of a pizza I made the other night. Put corn meal on the skillet then raw dough, pizza sauce then other ingredients atop of that and Bam! Pizza


cass-
when I re-season my cast iron I first scrub it with a non-citrus dish soap,then put in the oven and run the oven through its self clean cycle, after cool use something like Crisco to cover entire pan and bake it for a couple hours at 350 upside down. It will help if you put a drip pan under it.
Then after each use wash with warm water,dry on burner,and coat with a light amount of cook oil.
I have also had good luck with the Camp Chef Cast Iron Conditioner.

Cass-my 2 favorite pieces are barn rescues. I have 4 skillets and 1 lid that came from my Grandpa's barn and were rusted heavily. I cleaned them to fresh iron using 150 grit aluminum oxide cloth then coarse Scotchbrite,fairly smooth but not polished- it will take seasoning better if not too smooth.They must be clean and DRY before starting the process.I have used the method found on the Lodge website many times and it works well,can get a little smoky so be advised that you will test your smoke alarms for sure.It could take more than one treatment to get the cast iron to where you want it but it is worth the effort to be able to use it. I started using camp ovens many years ago and have gotten quite good at biscuits,cobblers,cornbread and a few other dishes that are really good at deercamp.

Yes it is. Because if they screw that up what else are they going to destroy. First comes my cast iron skillet. Next a 3.5 in Pre 27, my check book, blah, blah blah. Been through it once ain't gonna happen again!!

Sad thing is I asked her to leave the skillet on the stove and I would take care of it.

Single life sucks. Getting the few things I have left from my divorce destroyed even worse.

I'll stay single and keep looking...lol..

In the mean time whip up some great dishes in my cast iron skillet!!

The one thing I like most about an iron pan is not haveing to cook in an iron pan. My wife is the only one that does all the cooking. If you've never had saw mill gravy in an iron pan you don't know what you're missin. Spreed that over some pan bread. You can't beat it. She also does the dishes. I just bring home the baecon. Makes me want breakfast. Theres a reason they called me doeboy.

I sometimes find that the cast iron utensils that I share with others at our mountain retreat are left improperly cleaned and "reseasoned", so here's what I do ---

Heat water to nearly boiling in skillet or other utensil.

Scrub aggressively with stainless steel "scrubby thingee" (looks like steel excelsior --- very aggressive).

Rinse off/out any crud, wipe clean.

Return utensil to heat with some water inside, heat to full boil, remove from heat, discard boiling water, let retained heat evaporate remaining residual water, sterilizing skillet. (This step is for the purpose of heating the pan to bug killing temp without stressing or cracking the metal...)

Wipe on/off light coat of olive oil to prevent rust/preserve seasoning.

Mom has us build a fire, brush fire and put them in it and let it burn, they come out looking like new. Get hand full of lard and rub it in and put it in the oven and bake it, ready to go to work. The more it is used the better it gets untill looking at it will almost make you sick.

In my last divorce, one of the biggest problems we had was over who got which of the cast iron cookware. We had the deep chicken fryer, a standard skillet and a flat griddle. My daughter was a bit P.O.'d that her mother put more effort into this than fighting for custody...

It turned out good all around, as the judge eventually got tired of the wife not showing up for court dates and finally awarded me everything that I filed for!

And I found that while there are cheap cast iron cookware and expensive ones, properly seasoned and cared for, no matter what you paid for it, breakfast out of it just after the sun comes up in the chill of the morning tastes better than anything any of them fancy restaurants can possibly turn out!

Possibly because the extra mass gives a more even cooking temperature but I suspect the primary reason is that most of the cooks who insist on using cast iron are the really good cooks that know what they are doing and could probably make the same chow taste great if they cooked it in a big tin can....

I have a flat cast iron griddle that was perfect (notice the word "was"). This summer our niece came out to visit for a month. One day she decided to clean the house when we were at work. Nice thought, house looked nice, cast iron griddle all shiny and purdy. Oh well we enjoyed spending the time with her anyway.

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Mike
USMCR 84-87, USAF 87-07

I have a square flat cast iron pan we got at the Lodge Factory Outlet in Sevierville, TN on our honeymoon. It is used every Saturday to cook bacon or sausage for breakfast. Sometimes eggs or pancakes, too, if I cook them. My wife isn't into cast iron like I am.

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War Eagle! '10 BCS & '13 SEC

Bacon and hash browns in a cast iron skillet over an open fire as the sun is rising, it doesn't get any better than that. Venison chili in the dutch oven after a day of deer hunting is great too!

Had 5 pans from 5" to 18", all made in USA, all seasoned. GREAT! Let a buddy talk me out of the 18" which is probably ok since I could hardly lift it when full of food. My favorite is my mom's old square pan, makes 4 grilled cheese at once with no wasted space.

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Jon

This past weekend the family and I went camping in Southern Ohio. My son and I started out on Thursday with the intent of having camp set up when the girls arrived Friday around 5.

As we had no fixed schedule we stopped at every pawn shop, gun shop, junk shop and flea market along the way. Wasn't looking for anything but found a 10" cast iron frying pan marked "SK-10 USA" for <$10, so I bought it. Cleaned it up Thursday night and beginning Friday morning commenced to use it.

There was a dozen of us all together so I bet the pan cooked a dozen lbs of bacon and 10 lbs of potatoes over the weekend. When we were not using the pan to cook it sat over warm coals with bacon grease simmering.

Seems well seasoned now.

Breakfast was peppered bacon & country ham from an iron skillet, eggs, toast & apple butter.

Life is good!

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VIVERE MILITARE EST