Cast Iron pans — 5 months ago
Although cast iron cookware is old-fashioned, (for centuries, people have cooked in it), and humble (not gleaming like stainless steel or polished copper), I love to cook with it. My two favorite pans are the 10” skillet and the 10” dutch oven. I would be lost without them!
The dutch oven is particularly good for slow-cooking in the fall and winter. I use it instead of an electric crockpot. Since we have a heater woodstove, I often put the dutch oven on bricks on top of the woodstove, so the heat which warms the house also cooks the food. The bricks raise the pan away from direct heat; temperature can be controlled this way. To boil a pan, I put it directly on the stove top; to simmer, I put it on an iron hibachi rack. If it was a wood cookstove, I wouldn’t need the bricks.
When the skillet is seasoned, food doesn’t stick: who needs teflon? I like the way food cooks in cast iron, and it reminds me of all the women of past generations who cooked in pans like these.
