My friend is buying me a cast-iron skillet for my birthday, and I’m already kind of afraid to use it. I’ve been told about the whole seasoning process, and how everything you cook in it adds to the flavor of stuff you cook later.
I was wondering, though–I’ve found lots of recipes for desserts to be made in a cast-iron skillet. How would I keep, say, my pineapple upside down cake from tasting like the steak I made the night before?
Also, how much neglect does it take to actually make a cast-iron skillet start rusting?
If you wipe the skillet each time with oil and don’t let it sit in water, it should be easy to maintain. I say that, but of course I got lazy with mine and they rusted to the point of no return.
As far as your cake tasting like last night’s steak, I’ve never heard of this being a problem. Cast iron is known for being able to handle any number of different dishes without any crossover effects.
The pan will take on a patina of burt oil as it becomes seasoned. This protects it a bit though you can’t let water sit in one.
Easiest way to clean one without runing the season is to boil some water in it then scrub it out. Most say to avoid using soap but I don’t find it to be a big problem after a pan is well seasoned. When it gets to the point I want to start fresh I have to use oven cleaner to get to bare cast iron.
Like the others, I’ve not had a problem with cross-over flavors if you wipe out the skillet with crisco/oil after every time you cook with it.
You really don’t need to wash it with soap (or, if it’s reaaaaally sticky, use a tiny bit)–just use a few paper towels and some oil and wipe it out really well while it’s still hot, and you’ll do just fine.
Just because you don’t clean it with soap doesn’t mean that the pan will stay dirty. You should clean it with piping hot water, I like to scrub it with a stiff, long handled brush. Things that are stuck can be scraped gently with a wooden or plastic spatula to unstick them. Rinse thoroughly, dry, and coat lightly with oil between uses. For really stuck on food, I use oil and salt (no water) scrubbing with a paper towel, then go to the hot water/brush method. Dont’ scrub too hard, else you rip off the seasoned surface you want, and don’t let it soak. If you leave any significant amount of water in the pan for an extended period of time, you will probably get rust. Rust is not the death knell for the pan, though you’ll have to really scrub the hell out of it and restart the seasoning process.
This sounds complicated, but really, I find my cast iron pan FAR easier to clean than my Foreman grill, and only slightly harder than my teflon pan. Use it often for cooking fatty foods and the seasoned surface will build up nicely.
I’ve never heard that the stuff you cook ADDS to the flavor of the next stuff. The unique surface does affect the flavor and cooking technique, but it should not make everything taste like steak.
I think mine said to coat the whole pan with olive oil and then bake it at 350 for an hour. After that, I just re-rubbed the inside with oil when I’m done cleaning it. The inside surface is now tar black and is so non-stick I can cook eggs in it with no sticking. I am trying to accomplish the same thing with my dutch oven, but I use it so rarely that it seems to be taking forever. Foods taste much better in cast iron IMHO.
It is possible to get a little bit of crossover flavor, particularly if you’ve just cooked something strong like fish, but a reasonable cleaning should make it safe for pineapple upside down cake that doesn’t taste like salmon (you’ll probably smell it when you first heat up the pan more than taste it in any final product, at any rate). If you’re worried, just heat it up with some oil in it for a few minutes, then clean it again. Anything that might make it into the cake will have been sucked out into the oil and cleaned away.
And don’t freak out too much about how to maintain it. The main thing is just don’t scrub hard or use lots of soap on it, and don’t leave water standing it in. I usually just wipe mine out with the green scrubby, rinsing at the same time, then let it dry by itself.
Basically, cast iron is not a pan you can “leave to soak” overnight (or for a week). Let it soak briefly and then clean it right away and then you’ll have no problems with rust. I wipe it with regular oil (I don’t keep crisco in the house) and that’s always worked fine.
Do not fear the cast iron pan – it is your friend.
Slight hijack, but I found the most brilliant way to clean the George Foreman grill: take a paper towel and dampen well. Spread the damp paper towel over the (turned off) grill and shut. Come back after dinner and all the cooked on stuff will be soft!
Another bit of advice for cast-iron skillets; avoid cooking highly acidic foods like tomatoes, or anything with vinegar or lemon juice, as this will remove the seasoning. I made the mistake of adding lemon juice to a fish fillet I was sauteeing, and it stripped years of seasoning right off. It is only now recovering.
I have had cast iron cookware all my adult life. Although I don’t have much experience with other cookware other than Revereware stainless, I have always found cast iron to be very forgiving.
Only another pig of a bachelor could understand leaving a frying pan full of water in the sink, but I do it all the time. I freely cook tomato based sauces in my dutch ovens or frying pans, although cast will for certain impart a “flavor” of iron to the tomato sauce if stored in it for any length of time.
I usually use just hot water and a scrubbie for cleaning but don’t mind using a bit of soapy water if necessary. I do religiously put them on the gas burner or woodstove and evaporate all water out of them.
My pans are all more than 30 years old, well seasoned (you wouldn’t believe the crust on the outside) and very useful. I’d rather give up my stereo than the least of my cast iron cookware and I can’t think of anything more thoughtful or romantic than a gift of cast iron.
The other thing is that cast-iron skillets work the best if you use them often. A cast iron skillet you pull out two or three times a year is probably going to stick badly, one you use 2 or three times a week will be very non-stick.
As a fully paid up member in the cult of Alton I clean the skillet by putting kosher salt in a warm pan with a little oil and scrub with a paper towel until it is free of crud. I basically cook only steaks in it so I don’t have much insight into how much taste is transferred to the next dish. Seasoning is not a big deal. Coat the pan with oil, I used canola oil, then bake for about an hour at 350F.