I had great difficulty in learning how to cook with cast iron, due to my idea that seasoning was done before cooking. I also had give up on my idea of “low fat” cooking.

Once I became more liberal with using oil, the cast iron worked very well. I find it best to use a metal spatula, a nylon spatula just doesn’t work as well.

I love the fact that my cast iron pans cook so evenly, and they are easy to clean. If something sticks, I use either a single edged razor blade, or even better, the top of a pull-tab cat food or sardine can. This sharp metal blade lets me scrape off stuck food without scrubbing away all of the seasoning. And if I overheat the pan, and burn off the seasoning, then I will often deep fry tortilla chips in order to reestablish the seasoning.

I am glad that I no longer need to replace my non-stick skillet every few years! I expect that I will never need to replace my cast iron pans!