[TheForge] Re: Cast Iron Cookware

[Phlip]

dann wrote:

> 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.

Oh, I agree, but this is for initial clean up. Even with used cast iron, I'll
tend to limit any clean up I do, unless a test egg indicates off flavors, when
I give it a good and thorough scrubbing with very hot water and a steel
scrubble, and reseasoning. If it still has off flavors, a less picky friend has
a new piece of cast iron, as long as the flacors aren't chemical ;-)

> 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.

Wonder what caused that notice? I'd try to find out, myself.

> 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.

I can't use cast iron as much as I'd like- my roommate is sensitive to it-
eating much fron a CI pan tends to give her problems- or at least, so she says.
I love it, myself.

> Dann Johnson