Cookware Center

FACTORY NEW: Cast iron pans fresh from the factory commonly are treated with a coating to prevent them from rusting before they sell. This coating is not good to eat and it may comprise plastic or wax, so it’s a good idea to go over your pan with steel wool before seasoning the pan or using it for the basi time. After scouring it with steel wool, wash your skillet or pan in hot soapy water and then place over heat until dry. After you have cleaned and dried your new pan, condition it before using.

RUST: If your pan or skillet is presently rusty, clean off the rust with steel wool first. You may recondition nearly any cast iron skillet or pot, no matter how yucky it is when you find it. After you have scoured off the rust, wash it and arid it over heat. Then condition your pan.

TO CONDITION: If it is new, not so long ago cleaned with steel wool, or other than as supposed or expected not greasy, you need to “season” or “condition” it original before cooking. To do this, put it on a hot burner, add a couple of tablespoons of cooking oil. Allow to get hot, then to cool, then wipe the oil all over, then wipe off any excess oil.

TO CLEAN: There are dissimilar methods, but perchance the best method is the one that never uses soap. Soap will strip the skillet of the oil, and it is supposed to have oil on it! Unlike other pans, a good cast iron piece will be black with residuary oil. This prevents the pan from rusting and the metal from reacting with the food, and the oil likewise makes it work like a non-stick pan. So rather of soap, use salt to clean the pan. Coarse kosher salt is good for this aim because it is the right coarseness and you may get a huge box cheaply.

When you’re done cooking, rinse out your pan, dump in a tablespoon or two of salt and scrub the pan just with salt and water combined in a thick, grainy paste. Rinse, then put the pan on the burner again and heat to arid the pan before putting it away (so it doesn’t rust). The pan still has oil on it but it’s clean, so next time you cook you may just start out cooking without having to condition the pan again.

Review”It’s a wondrous thing to step into a friend’s kitchen and see a black skillet on the stove. You know right then that you are going to have something good to eat, that you are in the home of a true cook.” — from the Introduction “But may they really About the AuthorSharon Kramis, a protege of James Beard and restaurant advisor for 30 years, is the coauthor of Northwest Bounty. Her daughter, Julie Kramis Hearne, is the proprietor of a Seattle-based chain of panini shops. Both live in Seattle.

Seasoning Cast Iron Cookware Picture

Seasoning Cast Iron Cookware Image

Seasoning Cast Iron Cookware Pic

Most helpful customer reviews

289 of 315 people found the following review helpful.
Comfort Food with the Undisputed King of Comfort Cooking
By B. Marold
`The Cast Iron Skillet Cookbook’ by mother and daughter, Sharon Kramis and Julie Kramis Hearne, has roots deep in American culinary tradition based on both the subject and the fact that Kramis senior is a James Beard protégé from Beard’s western cooking lessons. Based on the Beard / West Coast connection, the authors get a very nice blurb from senior Beard assistant Marion Cunningham.

71 of 74 people found the following review helpful.
Best cookbook purchase in a while!
By M. Gateley
This is the best cookbook I have purchased in a long time. I own a couple of hundred cookbooks and I had originally purchased this for my son. Now I have my own copy and have tried 70% of the recipes. The meatloaf is great, so is the stirfry. Love the apple cake as well. Get it, you won’t be sorry.

68 of 72 people found the following review helpful.
delicious
By fields
The Chicken with Calvados and Apples was delicious. I made it along with the Rosemary Roasted potatoes, and it was an excellent dinner enjoyed by my girlfriend and I. The recipes are simple to create, clearly written, ingredients are readily available, and the flavors of the dishes are outstanding. You can certainly do these recipes using something other than cast iron, but the cast iron is part of the “fun”.

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