How to Care for Your Cast Iron Cookware

For those of you who have gone back to cooking in the cast iron frying pan, I do not blame you. Some of the best food has been cooked by using a cast iron frying pan. This old fashioned frying pay will offer some of the best down home cooking you can imagine. There is no doubt that this cookware is versatile, but you should keep in mind that the cast iron frying pan requires a bit of care.

For those of you who have never tried cast iron cookware before, it is handled differently from the other cooking equipment. The frying pan is going to require some special care before you cook your first meal in it.

You have to go through a process to prepare your frying pan for cooking, this is called seasoning. You can handle the seasoning of the frying pan in a number of different ways. The two main ways are:

Straight oiling - When you are straight oiling, you will need to find some fat or lard and rub it into the frying pan, then wipe it off. These frying pans are used to cook the foods that come naturally greasy. This includes bacon and fatty sausage. Before you try to cook something else, we recommend you straight oiling the pan.

Oiling and baking in - Oiling and baking in is the most common care for the cast iron frying pan. With this method, you will take the frying pan and oil it, then put it in your oven to bake for about thirty minutes at 225 degrees. You will then remove the frying pan and slightly wipe it down. Then, for another half hour you put the pan in the oven. Even if you use this method, we still recommend you cooking naturally fatty foods in the frying pan the first five times.

In order to care for your cast iron frying pan, you will need to clean it regularly. Instead of taking the frying pan and putting it in the dishwasher, or scrubbing and scraping it, you will need to have a delicate touch. To clean the cast iron, all you need to do is boil water in it. When the water has boiled, dump it out and wipe it down. If this process does not get food unstuck, then you can wash it like you would wash any other frying pan. However, during this process you may damage the seasoning, so you might have to re season it all over again.

As you see, the care for the cast iron frying pan is simple. But it is a little different than what you are used to. When I purchased my first cast iron frying pan it came pre-seasoned, when I did a little research I found that I should use a steel wool pad and scrub all of that off of my pan, and oil and bake on the seasoning myself. Some people think this is a waste of time, but if you really want the authentic cast iron cooked taste then it is best to follow the customs.

There are cast iron skillets that have been passed down through generations of southern families, and believe me they didn't come from the store with a non stick coating! That seasoning built up over the years so that a fried egg comes out of the pan just as easily as fried chicken. Another helpful hint that I have found is to heat the frying pan up over medium heat for a few minutes, then scrub stuck on items with a clean dry cloth and salt. When it is all removed, spread a thin layer of lard all over the inside of the pan and wipe it, your cast iron is clean and ready for the next time you use it.

Remember that moisture will cause your cast iron to rust , so when storing your cast iron place a dry paper towel inside it and don't store it tightly covered.

Cast iron cookware is really starting to come back on the market today and there is a good reason for that, because with the proper care, you can prepare great tasting foods and it will last a long time as well.

For more information on cast iron frying pans, take a look at this website: http://whatscookingamerica.net/Information/CastIronPans.htm

For more tips on seasoning and caring for your cast iron check out: http://www.melindalee.com/Cast-Iron.html .

Or better yet ask an elderly southern woman how to take care of your cast iron, they know from experience, and will delight in sharing their wisdom.