Cooking with Cast Iron Cookware

Cooking with cast iron cookware can produce some of the best food in the world. It offers a good old fashioned home taste and a way to invent some creative foods at the same time.

Cooking with cast iron cookware is somewhat different than other types of cookware, as these types of pots and pans need a special kind of care before cooking in them. As my grandmother taught me years ago, they need to be "seasoned." Seasoning cast iron cookware can be done by using two different main methods.

The first method is oiling and baking. This method involves oiling or greasing the pan with nothing else in it except the grease, followed by baking it for approximately half an hour at around 225 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, the pan is removed and wiped down very gently without scrubbing. Once it is wiped down, the pan needs to be put back into the oven for an additional thirty to forty more minutes. After that, the first several times that you cook in it should be things that require a lot of fat and grease in the cooking, or have a lot of natural fat in the food itself, allowing some additional seasoning. Afterward, be sure never to scrub it, just rinse it out and then wipe it out gently.

The other method is simply oiling it. The cast iron cookware is rubbed in with either fat, oil or lard and then wiped off gently but not thoroughly. Next, the pan should be used to cook foods that are greasy in nature the first several times it is used. Things like bacon and sausage work quite well, naturally adding additional seasoning each time it is used.

After the cast iron cookware has been well seasoned, it can be used to cook just about anything that you would like to use it for. You can fry in it or even bake biscuits or breads, or anything in between. Cast iron can be used for both baking and cooking on a stove top.

When cleaning cast iron cookware, it is done a bit differently from most other common cookware, so special care is needed. It is not something to be done in a dishwasher. It needs to be done in a special way by hand in order to keep the seasoning in it. Wiping it down gently and then boiling it in plain water, then wiping it out gently once again is all that is needed. Never ever scrub cast iron cookware with metal or steel wool, as that will destroy all of the seasoning. If you must get food particles off of it then be sure to use something more gentle such as plastic.

Cast iron cookware is the most effective way that I know of to preserve the best flavors of food possible and your taste buds will definitely know the difference.