Cast-iron cooking a family tradition

Skillets handed down through generations Cast-iron skillets, muffin pans and griddles hang on the walls of Sharry Nail's Buckingham kitchen like an arsenal of weapons ready for the call of duty at a moment's notice.

They make attractively rustic accents against the room's clean, white walls, but they're not merely decorative. Collected over the last 43 years, her cast-iron cookware produces crusty corn bread, crispy fried okra, jambalaya, biscuits, corn sticks and much more. These heavy-duty pans also carry the weight of family history. Nail's great-grandmother and her grandmothers cooked with some of them. Someday, she will pass them on to her children.

"It's the way I was brought up," says the 61-year-old Alabama native affectionately known as "Ma Roux." "Good food, good memories. That's what it's all about. There is no better way to keep family and friends close than a good meal cooked in cast iron."

Especially in the South, cast-iron cookware is an essential, versatile, even beloved culinary tool. The country cousin of fancy stainless steel-clad, it holds heat well, sears effectively, cooks evenly and costs far less than the shiny pots and pans celebrity chefs wield on Food Network. A starter skillet will set you back less than $20 at a hardware or discount store, and you can use it for searing (steaks), frying (chicken) or baking (cobbler).

"It's a must-have," says Rebecca Lang, a contributing editor for Southern Living magazine and author of the recently published "Quick-Fix Southern" and other cookbooks. "I don't know what I would do without them. The longer you use them, the better they get."

Why do they age so well? If properly seasoned and carefully maintained, cast iron achieves a slick surface over time without the chemicals that go into coating most nonstick cookware.

"With cast iron you can get an incredible sear on something like a steak that is nearly impossible with a nonstick pan," Lang says. "I haven't run into anything I can't cook in it."

Her Athens, Ga., kitchen is home to a still-growing collection of cast-iron cookware from family members as well as flea markets. The most precious piece was handed down, of course





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The Joy Of Cast Iron

Cary, NC – You know how I promised you a cast-iron post? Well, I consulted with a friend who used to be in the culinary gadgets business (she worked in that high-end cookware store in the mall – you know the one), and she came up with a whole list of reasons why cast-iron is amazing.

The Benefits of Cast Iron

Cast-Iron is naturally non-stick. Once you season your cast-iron skillet, you don't have to worry about your food sticking. As long as you re-season it every so often, it's the perfect non-stick pan.

Cast-Iron fumes won't kill your family bird. While I'm not quite sure about birds, non-stick pans do give off fumes that can harm you and the environment. When non-stick pans are heated to high temperatures, they give off about a dozen harmful chemicals. When cast-iron pans are heated to high temperatures, they just get hot.

Inexpensive purchase price. Cast-iron is cheap. You can get a 8 1/2? diameter skillet for fifteen dollars, as opposed to a $25 non-stick pan, or a $160 stainless steel pan.

Easy to clean. I mean, what other kind of cookware begs you not to use soap on it? Any stubborn food particles can be scrubbed with a brush and coarse salt. You can also wipe your pan out with a paper towel, if you want

Retains heat very well, which uses less energy. Cast-iron takes a little longer to heat up, but once it's hot, it stays hot. It also tends to distribute heat more evenly, which means you'll have better eggs, pancakes, cornbread, fish, chicken, burgers, panini sandwiches or whatever you choose to make in your skillet.

In the end, you can pass it along to another generation to use , since even if it got rusted from years of attic neglect, you can sand and re-season it and voila – you have a new pan and you can go back to #1 above. That's what I love about cast-iron: It'll last forever. I've seen pans that are at least fifty years old. They're great family heirlooms: “This was my great-grandma's first cast-iron frying pan…”



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Noted: Cast Iron Revival

There's nothing in the world quite like your grandmother's quilt with the tattered corner, worn down from all those days you spent on the couch with the flu. Shiny new cars and electronic gadgets are nice, but the most valuable things we own tend to have a patina of time, evidence of a life of love and use. So it might seem strange for cookware to fall into this category, but when it comes to cast iron skillets, the more broken-in they are, the better.
Lodge Cast Iron, one of the only American metal foundries producing cast iron cookware , has figured out how to make brand new cast iron skillets that seem like they've been passed down from your grandma. The tricky thing about cast iron skillets is that they must be seasoned with oil before they are used, a process that intimidates many cooks. Lodge realized they could take care of this essential step by seasoning their cookware before shipping it to stores. They found a new audience of would-be chefs, ready to try out out cast iron skillets for the first time. “In a short five years we went from nothing seasoned to everything seasoned,” Kellermann says. “And our slogan, when we introduced it: ‘We should have thought of this a hundred years ago.'”

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Remove Rust From Cookware with a Potato

We've mentioned before that you can clean cast-iron cookware with a potato, but cast iron isn't the only cookware you can clean rust and wear from with a sliced-up tuber. Any rusted cookware that's showing its age can be cleaned up with a potato and a little baking soda or dish soap.
Re-Nest reminds us that any metal cookware that's getting a little rusty can be cleaned with a potato cut crosswise dipped in a little baking soda or dish-soap. We wouldn't recommend using dish soap on your cast iron cookware, so your milage may vary there, but for your other non-stick or metal pots and pans, a potato can be a good way to scrub up rust and make your cookware look like new.

http://cajuncastiron.com/potato.asp

Cooking with cast iron should not be feared

Even the most technology-obsessed cooks, those with remote-read Bluetooth-enabled meat thermometers, electric wine bottle openers and Youtube recipe swaps still can get back to the low-tech basics like a cast-iron skillet.

Cast-iron cookware is making a comeback among cooks who prize its durability, easy cleanup and heat retention.

Cast-iron cookware fell out of favor after World War II when a surplus of aluminum made its way into lighter-weight pots and pans.

Before long, a cast-iron skillet was seen as a sign of old-fashioned stubbornness, wielded primarily by disgruntled housewives in endless comedies.

Apart from its dubious distinction as a would-be weapon, cast iron is versatile, transferring from stovetop to oven with the same reliable, even heating.

Once cast iron's porous finish is treated with oil, a process called seasoning, food does not stick to cast iron, making it, according to cookbook author Tracy Barr, “the original nonstick cookware.”

The seasoning process used to scare off some cooks from buying cast-iron cookware.

To season cast iron and make it smooth, several bouts of heating and piling were required

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Cast Iron Revival Keeps US Foundry Cooking

 Tennessee company is last in nation still turning out daily production

Tucked between the Tennessee River and the hills of Marion County lies the small town of South Pittsburg, Tennessee. Home to just 3,200 people, it has one claim to fame: a metal foundry called Lodge Cast Iron.

Lodge is the last company in the nation still turning out cast iron skillets on a daily basis.

"We produce about 80,000 pounds [36,000 kilos] of cast iron cookware daily," says Bob Kellermann, chief executive officer of Lodge Cast Iron. "We have two high-production molding lines and each molding line will crank out 400-plus molds per hour and we run two 10-hour shifts a day, so you can do the math."

http://cajuncastiron.com/revival.asp