[TheForge] Re: Cast Iron Cookware

[dann]

It is my opinion that cast iron cook  is NOT best used in a bright and 
shining condition, but rather with a seasoned cooked-in black oil 
coating.  I season cast iron cook ware by heating it sort of hot on the 
stove and then applying cooking oil .. not all that different that the 
bees' wax treatment  we give  forged iron.

I love my cast iron cook ware.   While I have done some serious  "cleaning" 
on cast iron; that is not the norm.  On an auction find  I  tend to take 
them back to bare cast iron,  then season them with good oil...  as I did 
with NEW  Black Chinese cast iron  "TeaPot" I bought  with an attached 
warning label: "NOT to use for  heating of liquids to be consumed.

The grunge on the outside of  a cast iron skillet is not a health 
issue.  The cooked in black-oil  seasoning on the inside becomes  a " semi 
-non stick " surface that is probably  a lot healthier than 
the  modern  non-stick frying pans.  Cast iron makes the best bacon and 
eggs!  Perhaps the "iron poor blood" be came an issue as we moved away from 
cast iron cook ware.

Dann Johnson