Cooking with cast iron

[Anonymous]

When I got my first cast iron skillet around 1989 or so, I read something that said don't use an oil that can go rancid. So I used crisco, which is hydrogenated and therefore stable. Used it for years and years, and it worked well.

Then we learned all about hydrogenated fats, and stopped using crisco, so I didn't have it around anymore. Now I use lard or bacon fat. I would say that maybe it doesn't matter since it's on top of years of crisco seasoning, but in the past couple of years a couple of very eager to please nannies scrubbed through it, one of them right down to the metal on about 1/3 of the surface. So I re-seasoned that from scratch with bacon fat, and also did my new 10" with bacon fat from the time I bought it ("pre-seasoned" by Lodge when new). It's worked out well, so I can recommend bacon fat or lard. (If it matters, the bacon and ham from which it was rendered were not from grocery stores, but from farmer's markets or co-ops.)

The info from PPs on why volatile oils would actually be better for seasoning are interesting. But I've never done it that way.

[Anonymous]

Oops, got sidetracked there, but the point I started with was, if you're vegetarian and you don't think crisco is evil, use that. If you do think crisco is evil, you could use regular soybean oil (aka "vegetable oil") as PP suggested and see how that works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Makes sense. I may try avocado oil as well. Do you store cast iron with oil on it, or no? If so, what kind? Seems like oil would go rancid (I know I'm obsessed with that but it's so nasty), and might attract dust.

I recently destroyed a huge batch of fried chicken by using shortening that had gone rancid, and can practically still taste it in my mouth, so I am very sensitive to your rancidity concern. All I can say is that I often rub some vegetable oil on my skillet after I cook with it and I've never had a problem with rancidity. I don't know why that is, though my guess is that its because I'm storing the cast iron in a dark place and never going more than a few months between uses, so the oil gets heated before it has a chance to go bad.

P.S. Don't hate on all rancidity. Rancidity is what makes Reeses Peanut Butter Cups so delicious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most all of my cast iron cooking is done in the oven, (except for my enameled Cast Iron which I use for soups). IN the oven I use it for:

-Steaks
-breads
-Almost all vegetables
-casseroles
-rice

I use it so much that I have 3 pans and often have the double ovens going.

How do you cook rice in cast iron in the oven? I'd love to hear!

I heat the oven, with the pan to 375. I get the pan good and hot. Take it out, toss in butter, rice with HOT water, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Cover and bake for 30.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most all of my cast iron cooking is done in the oven, (except for my enameled Cast Iron which I use for soups). IN the oven I use it for:

-Steaks
-breads
-Almost all vegetables
-casseroles
-rice

I use it so much that I have 3 pans and often have the double ovens going.

How do you cook rice in cast iron in the oven? I'd love to hear!

I heat the oven, with the pan to 375. I get the pan good and hot. Take it out, toss in butter, rice with HOT water, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Cover and bake for 30.

This sounds great! I'll definitely try it. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Makes sense. I may try avocado oil as well. Do you store cast iron with oil on it, or no? If so, what kind? Seems like oil would go rancid (I know I'm obsessed with that but it's so nasty), and might attract dust.

I recently destroyed a huge batch of fried chicken by using shortening that had gone rancid, and can practically still taste it in my mouth, so I am very sensitive to your rancidity concern. All I can say is that I often rub some vegetable oil on my skillet after I cook with it and I've never had a problem with rancidity. I don't know why that is, though my guess is that its because I'm storing the cast iron in a dark place and never going more than a few months between uses, so the oil gets heated before it has a chance to go bad.

P.S. Don't hate on all rancidity. Rancidity is what makes Reeses Peanut Butter Cups so delicious.

I guess since I'm using it basically every day, I don't need to worry about rancidity. But the peanut butter cup thing???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oops, got sidetracked there, but the point I started with was, if you're vegetarian and you don't think crisco is evil, use that. If you do think crisco is evil, you could use regular soybean oil (aka "vegetable oil") as PP suggested and see how that works.

I do think hydrogenated oils are nasty, but how about the non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening they sell at Whole Foods? That might be a good substitute.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, Reese's once paid a food scientist to make its peanut butter more shelf stable (as you know, the PB doesn't taste anything like the PB from the jar; it's got this dry, flaky taste, not a creamy taste like skippy). The scientist actually did solve the problem and make peanut butter cups that taste like they are full of skippy, but the test market hated them and wanted their old Reese's PB cups back.

So. . . Sometimes rancidity is good eats.

[Anonymous]

(This is also why homemade PB cups, while delicious, don't taste much like Reese's)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:(This is also why homemade PB cups, while delicious, don't taste much like Reese's)

Who knew? I will never think of Reese's or rancidity in quite the same way.

Do you think I course use coconut oil to season a cast iron griddle? Or the vegetable shortening from while foods? I can't find much about it in the interwebs.

[Anonymous]

Coconut oil works great! Ive started using it almost exclusively and my pans are great

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:(This is also why homemade PB cups, while delicious, don't taste much like Reese's)

Who knew? I will never think of Reese's or rancidity in quite the same way.

Do you think I course use coconut oil to season a cast iron griddle? Or the vegetable shortening from while foods? I can't find much about it in the interwebs.

Chowhound.com has multiple threads about seasoning cast iron on the cookware board. There is lots of useful advice from very passionate advocates of various methods. I'll come back later and post the method I used if I can find it. It uses butter and has worked brilliantly for both my cast iron skillets and a carbon steel wok. I don't put any oil on them for storage so no worries about rancidity. I don't think you need to keep them oiled if you season and clean carefully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Coconut oil works great! Ive started using it almost exclusively and my pans are great

Do you use the virgin or the refined?