Saturday, September 10, 2011

The Ugh Pan

Gah!
I've blogged quite recently about my woes concerning beloved babybear cast iron skillet and here I am again to confess my shame because I am a secret eco-masochist (okay, not so secret!).  About two weekends ago I made eggs in babybear and this is the result: caked on, burnt egss.  I have never, ever, had such a bad response to cooking in this thing!  Despondent at this development, I then proceeded to ignore babybear skillet and make bagels and cream cheese for the next two weekends - needless to say, farm-fresh eggs are not so fresh anymore in my fridge and they have been stocking up to the point where I need to make many quiches for neighbors, soon, or else!  I don't want to know what the "or else" will be (probably more easter eggs next year - ew.) so this morning I decided to take action.
Cleaned pan after egg mishap

About the same time as I was complaining about my cast iron skillet, I got a comment from Paul Wheaton (tangentially related to Wil Wheaton [I don't know what I just said]) who hipped me to the fact that this is an ongoing point of obsession with many, many people. In fact, this fellow Paul Wheaton wrote a lengthy and thorough rant about using cast iron skillets and, apparently, there is an entire school of thought related to how one cares for their cast iron skillet. It hurt my head to try wrapping it around this mind-blowing revelation, but maybe you can have better luck with it?  Anyway, since I am a visual learner, I chose to instead to watch this video that I also found on Richsoil.com, Mr. Wheaton's homesteading website. Caution, it's 9 minutes long which is an unreal amount of time to watch ANYTHING on the internet, but it's really, really worth it! The lady in the video is really cool and if I had a self-cleaning oven (with a purple ceramic top!) I would have a better time of seasoning this thing.

3 comments:

Bukko Boomeranger said...

Wow -- I learned a lot about cast iron skillets, and I didn't even read all the way through that long post you linked to, or even watch a second of the video. My wife wigs out about proper care of our remaining cast iron pan (it has a smooth surface -- I'm going to have to check if it's a Griswold) when I wash it. I've never been fussed over it, though. If I'm cleaning with soapy water or she over-cooks something so the seasoning is affected, it's not rocket science to re-season. Grease it with some Crisco and pop it in the oven when you bake something. Fry bacon in it, or if you're a vegetarian, do fried potatoes with onions. Do it a couple of times, because they taste good! You'll get your surface back.

I used to have a full set of cast iron cookware -- flat skillet for pancakes, Dutch oven, small sauce pan, frying pan with raised sides, two-quart pan, oval dish for oven baking... Bought 'em new from Montgomery Ward for some cheap price like $79.95 in the early 80s when I was in college. Non-smooth surfaces, which I now see is why they were cheap.

They were my main cooking pieces until we emigrated to Australia in 2005. We got rid of SO much stuff -- you're forced to re-evaluate all your possessions when you have to consider "Is this REALLY worth dragging all the way to the other side of the world?" Big mistake with the cast iron (and a lot of the electrical appliances -- we wound up buying voltage converters for the stuff we took, and what we could buy down there was generally inferior to our U.S. equipment.) It's hard to find decent used cast iron cookware at any price. (We don't do eBay because we hate how they and PayPal knuckled under to the Bushofascist regime's demands for info on customers.) Never let yours go!

Mistressmybae said...

See, you've got a rather easy-going philosophy about seasoning cast iron - and lengthy posts are think are just de rigueur when writing about this topic. There is something about cast iron cookery that inspires the scientists in some of us - I didn't even link to the article he links to about the lady who talks about the chemistry involved in seasoning pans - my head starts spinning when the talk turns to polymerization.

I can't imagine taking cast iron cookware on a camping trip much less to Australia! I learned so much from Paul's post, though, about cooking surfaces and good brands - incidentally, we went to antiquing last weekend and all the old cast iron cookware was really expensive! But now I realize that it was also Griswold and that other brand that I can't remember.

Anonymous said...

America's Test Kitchen recommends using flax seed oil. i have reseasoned with it and my skillet is now water proof and nothing sticks.