Cooking with all cast iron pans

[yeti]

I find no fault in your logic, I'm about 95% there myself.

Yup. I have $$ tied up in fancy Calphalon pans that we don't even use.


Hmmm?? Sell some pans.... buy a new (old) gun. When the wife says, "I can't find any of my aluminum cookware!" I will just shrug.
Although...that would leave her with only cast iron pans to hit me with!!!

 

[joeintexas]

Put a can of creamed corn in the cornbread mix and adjust liquids accordingly. Mrs. Nixon does it that way and it's "slap yo momma" good. We have a Lodge 14" that lives on the stovetop, a matching dutch oven that gets used outdoors in the summer and our daughter found a muffin pan a couple of months ago at a thrift shop. A wire cup brush and some lard and heat and it's putting out muffins that would make the previous owner (whomever that may be) proud. My wife was skeptical at first when I brought the Lodge pan home but it's a kitchen fixture now.

Russ

For a change of pace I will add cream style corn and a can of green chili to the cornbread mixture, goes really good with a pot of beans!

 

[GKC]

I guess I am the oddball out here...

I recently bought a Lodge cast iron skillet. I went through the seasoning process, and then tried cooking in it...and I hated it. Everything I tried to cook stuck and/or burned, and I couldn't get the food residues out, with just "wiping" as was described in the accompanying instructions. I am a clean freak, I admit, and the idea of not being able to take soap and water and a scrub brush to a pan isn't comforting to me!

I found it far more cumbersome, problematic, and less efficient to use than my "modern" skillets.

 

[gizamo]

I used my cast iron again tonight.

We did too....

Course, then again, we don't have anything else....

Giz

 

[Stukaman]

I did, she was my polar opposite, but I loved her dearly anyway. But...she also loved cooking in cast iron

Lol at she could cook srry for your loss.

 

[FTG-05]

I guess I am the oddball out here...

I recently bought a Lodge cast iron skillet. I went through the seasoning process, and then tried cooking in it...and I hated it. Everything I tried to cook stuck and/or burned, and I couldn't get the food residues out, with just "wiping" as was described in the accompanying instructions. I am a clean freak, I admit, and the idea of not being able to take soap and water and a scrub brush to a pan isn't comforting to me!

I found it far more cumbersome, problematic, and less efficient to use than my "modern" skillets.

The new Lodge cast iron is horrendously rough, especially on the cooking surface.

What I do with all new cast iron is smooth the cooking surface using either sandpaper by hand or a 120 grit flapwheel. I get the surface down to about a 50% to 75% shine and then call it good. This is good enough and still leaves enough surface for the seasoning to stick.

What you don't want to do is overdo the sanding/smoothing operation: If you make it shiny smooth mirror finish, then you'll have problems with the seasoning sticking to the surface, at least I did before I redid the one pan I had problems with.

A simple sanding down of the cooking surface then reseasoning should work wonders.

Also, if you're having sticking issue, heat the pan before you use it but lower your temps a bit.

Good luck.