Old arguements about cooking

@ElicBxn (63252)
United States
October 9, 2023 6:37am CST
Many of you will remember I had a dear friend here that I was roommates with for about 30 years. When we were first living together, she did most of the cooking. I mean, I knew how to cook some things, but if she wanted something besides my limited number of things, she'd have to cook them. I think I had some pots and stuff since but honestly I don't remember what I had. Except... I did NOT have any cast iron. Part of the reason was my mother didn't have any, so I didn't know how to take care of them. When she moved in, not being a d*mned yankee like me, she said she wanted a cast iron frying pan. I told I didn't have one. I didn't know how to take care of one, so if she wanted one, it was going to be her problem. That settled it for a while. A few years later, when we were a bit more settled, she started in on the frying pan again. By this time I had learned a bit more about them, the whole 'seasoning' thing. Which I did not understand. I mean, how do you get it clean if you don't wash it with soap? Again, I told her that if she wanted one, she had to take care of it. Well, because I had discovered she didn't really know how to take care of them either, she stopped it going on about it again. Then her mother moved in... Now, I understand her mother knew how to take care of them, but... there was something not right about her, especially about cleaning... At this point I had some encounters with cast iron skillets, mostly thanks to fajitas. Not real frying pans, but cast iron. And it became apparent that if I couldn't really hold even something as small as one of those things, a bigger frying pan would be out of the question. You see, I am not strong. Between my the lack of wrist strength and my lack of grip strength, a cast iron frying pan was not going to be used by me. And I still didn't understand the whole 'seasoning' of one. Then there was the day we were at a Goodwill. She showed me a cast iron frying pan that wasn't too big and she said that for one, it was pretty light. I said no. She tried to argue, and I stood my ground, something I didn't do often, but when I did, I wasn't going to change my mind. She had learned this after a couple of decades. She turned and put the pan back on the shelf and accidentally knocked off a bigger one. BAM!!!! It hit the cement floor and broke in half. We looked at it. And that was the end of wanting a cast iron frying pan. So... how do you clean and season a cast iron frying pan?
9 people like this
9 responses
• United States
9 Oct
there'd be cast iron 'n then there'd be cheap imitations. brands to covet, ones to 'void like the plague. hot water cleans 'em, but if'n needed can use soap, too. jest don't let 'em sit with water'n 'em. i used to dry'em'n the oven. sadly they'll not fit'n my wee oven, so high heat'n the stove. i've cast iron that 'twas my great grannies that i'd not trade fer a million bucks. a massive 'chicken fryer' that now lives 't the youngest sons home. thing weighs more'n i can handle. once a pan 'tis well seasoned, 'tis non-stick, cooks evenly'n fries like a dream. foods with acidity cannot linger'n such, ruins the finish. easiest way to season 'em 's to coat with lard, put'n a 250 oven fer several hours. may need to do such several times. 've rehabbed many a skillet found 't garage sells. takes a bit 'f elbow grease, but e'en caked'n years 'f service 'n rust will not ruin a well made cast iron skillet.
2 people like this
@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
9 Oct
@crazyhorseladycx it isn't the taste, it is an allergy, my body knows when there is corn starch in a medication with one pill... allergies are hell.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
9 Oct
but... see... lard is a meat product and either I could only use the pan the one day a week I'm cooking that meat, or I'd have to find another way to season it...
1 person likes this
• United States
9 Oct
@ElicBxn uhm, that'd be a tad strange. ya can use cookin' oil 's well, jest takes longer. what lard ya use'll not 've 'ffect 'n other foods ya cook.
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (461823)
• Switzerland
9 Oct
I do more or less the same as paigea. I wash with soapy water, I never scrap the bottom, I clean immediately after I used it and never let food stay inside.
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@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
9 Oct
Yeah, well, I can't seem to get roommates to do that. I will do it with my dishes - if the dishwasher is unloaded... but I can't even get the roomie to put water in dishes so things (cheese and stuff) don't dry on! And not just dump dirty flatware in the silverware holders for the dishwasher. I hear you don't have to rinse things, but I do anyway.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
9 Oct
@LadyDuck I hate to wash by hand, the roomie will do it... sometimes...
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@LadyDuck (461823)
• Switzerland
9 Oct
@ElicBxn We did not replace the dishwasher when it broke. I wash my dishes after every meal, it takes very little time, we are only 2.
1 person likes this
@BarBaraPrz (45813)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
9 Oct
I don't bother cleaning mine unless something burned and then I just wipe it with a paper towel. Mine is a medium size and has a hollow steel handle that cuts the weight of the thing.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
9 Oct
I'd never seen one with a hollow handle, but the arguments stopped in the 1990s, so... I just was reading an article and thought about the whole cast iron issue
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@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
9 Oct
@BarBaraPrz sounds like a good deal
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@BarBaraPrz (45813)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
9 Oct
@ElicBxn I like this one. I had a 'traditional' one when I was married but my husband kept washing it... got rid of both.
1 person likes this
@marguicha (216910)
• Chile
9 Oct
I have a cast iron skillet and was it mildly with soapy water. I rinse it very well and dry it on the top of the lighted stove. I use my cast iron skillet to make thick steaks. That is all. The other heaby pot I have is a Dutch oven. I only use it for big stews but that one is enameled so it is easy to clean (not so easy to take from one place to the other).
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
9 Oct
Nobody told me how to do it. I'm not real good with learning 'life skills' like those by reading about them, those things I need to watch it be done.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
9 Oct
@marguicha but there we are, I can only eat beef once a week and if beef fat/grease is seasoning the pan, that is more than my body can tolerate
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@marguicha (216910)
• Chile
9 Oct
@ElicBxn I don´t think that I spent too much time seasoning it. I think that the steaks grease season them if you don´t scrub hard.
1 person likes this
@aninditasen (15838)
• Raurkela, India
9 Oct
I don't use cast iron frying pan. I use a wok that's made of anodized material.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
9 Oct
It really isn't much of an issue because that person stopped being my roommate in 2005 and passed away in 2017. And... I don't cook much and when I do, I don't care for fry
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
10 Oct
@aninditasen we boil soups and cook noodles that way. A few weeks ago I cooked meat in my frying pan, then added tomato sauce and then I made a dish that had noodles, cheese and the meat sauce. I used turkey because I can only eat beef once a week.
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@aninditasen (15838)
• Raurkela, India
10 Oct
@ElicBxn Do you take steamed or boiled food? In India most dishes need frying and that's why we need a wok.
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@porwest (78755)
• United States
19 Oct
I am trying to figure out how in the hell a cast iron skillet broke in half? It's CAST IRON! Now while you and her may have argued about all the particulars of a cast iron skillet, I'd have stood there for hours arguing the thing on the floor that broke in half was probaly not a cast iron skillet. Either way, life with significant others is so much fun isn't it? It's like the sign on our bathroom wall says. "Marriage is finding that special person you wish to annoy for the rest of your life." Yep. About sums it up. As for the cooking, I do all of it. Except meatloaf. That's the wife's territory. But other than that, she can't so much as hard boil an egg.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
19 Oct
Actually I have learned that cast iron isn't as strong as other kinds of iron. It is part of why it is how it is and why, when you cook in it, you get a tiny boost of iron in your diet. I'm not 100% sure it actually goes into the blood stream, but it is there. And that is also part of why you want to season it instead of wash it with soap. My mother, when she married Dad, wasn't much of a cook so Dad taught her over 90% of what she knew. Dad's mom and step-father ran a series of little cafes during the Depression and before he was 16 he was a handy short-order cook.
1 person likes this
@porwest (78755)
• United States
19 Oct
@ElicBxn Interesting. If it is any consolation I also do not own a cast iron skillet.
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@porwest (78755)
• United States
19 Oct
@ElicBxn I don't mind cooking at all. I mean, there are days. But mostly I don't mind. I know when my wife is out of town, though, I do tend to cook less. But that's more because I am being lazy and enjoying my freedom too much. lol
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (86257)
• United States
9 Oct
That’s pretty funny. The only thing I know about a cast iron pan is that a chef on the Food Network once said if you can’t kill a robber with it with one strike, it is not good enough of a pan.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
9 Oct
1 person likes this
@paigea (35963)
• Canada
9 Oct
I occasionally do wash in soapy water, (fish). Then wipe with oil. Occasionally I apply lots of oil and heat it on stove top or in oven. Other times (cooking bacon) I just wipe it. My method might not be perfect, but my cast iron pan seems perfect after 40ish years.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
9 Oct
See... I've heard that... mind you, if I cooked bacon, well, I'd have to clean it since I've reacted bacon - probably all the junk they put in bacon, the nitrates and stuff. But the last 3 times I ate bacon I had to go home sick from work twice and wish I had gone home the third time. And if she had been willing to do it, fine, she also did a good bit of the cooking back then.
• Agra, India
9 Oct
I just handle it as preciously as I can. Just wash ot lightly after use
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
9 Oct
I have trouble lifting things the way you lift pots and pans that are over a couple of pounds with one hand. And that was when I was in my 20s... not sure I can do that too much now at nearly 70.
1 person likes this
• Agra, India
10 Oct
@ElicBxn i understand. Everyone has his own ways which change with time
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