I love my cast iron pan, and for most protein I cook it is definitely my go-to. The key with cast iron is that it needs to be properly cared for. So for today's Gotta Have It, I'll tell you why I love my cast iron pan, and what I do to make sure it treats me right. If you don't have one, you should get one. They're not that expensive, but are so incredibly versatile. You can use it on the stove, in the oven, on the grill, at a camp site - they are indestructible, and so easy to maintain as long as you do it right.
The usefulness of a cast iron pan comes in its weight. Because it is such a heavy-bottomed pan, when you preheat it for long enough, you get incredibly even heat distribution. This means that if you're cooking chicken breasts, you're not going to have hot spots and cool spots in the pan, the whole thing will be hot. Because of this even heat distribution and the fact that it holds heat well, this makes it wonderful for frying. You won't get as big of a drop in temperature when you put your foods in to fry (usually if you heat oil in a normal pan, you drop in your items to be fried, and the oil will drop in temperature, sometimes significantly! With cast iron, because the pan itself retains so much heat, it helps keep the oil more evenly hot even when you drop your food in). This means that your food will be less greasy, as you'll have less temperature fluctuations with the oil. The other great use for cast iron is cooking anything for people who are iron deficient. When cooking in a cast iron pan, it actually imparts a little bit of iron into the food that you cook into it. Unless your doctor is concerned about you getting too much iron, this is not a problem. For most people, it's actually a bonus because a lot of us don't get enough iron in our diets.
Caring for your cast iron pan is very important but also very easy. When you get it, the first thing you need to do is season it. This does not mean adding salt and pepper, it means baking a layer of oil onto the entire surface of the pan. This actually gives it a natural non-stick coating, and also protects it from rusting.
To season your pan, choose an oil with a high smoke point (plain vegetable or canola oil, do not use olive oil for this). Dab a paper towel into the oil and rub the pan down inside and out - cover every surface of the pan with oil. Then put it in an EMPTY oven set to about 300 degrees, and bake it for several hours - 2 or 3 to start. I know it seems a little wasteful and you may be tempted to multi-task by putting something in the oven to cook while you're seasoning your pan, but resist that temptation. The steam created by any food cooking will mess up the process, so you need to just bite the bullet and only bake the pan in an otherwise empty oven. After baked for 2-3 hours, turn off the oven, let it cool (this will also take a couple of hours... remember how well cast iron retains its heat?), and repeat. You'll go through this process a couple of times, adding very thin layers of oil each time. When seasoned properly, this will become a permanent fixture of your cast iron pan. When you cook the first couple of times a little bit of it may come off, but it's nothing to worry about.
Now that your pan is seasoned, it is relatively non-stick and ready to cook with! I love doing things in the cast iron that need to be started on the stove and finished in the oven. Any meat (chicken breasts, pork chops, steaks, etc), brussel sprouts (recipe to come), and also frying like I mentioned. If properly seasoned, you can cook with anything, even acids. I love making a pan sauce after cooking meat which typically involves deglazing the pan with wine or something else acidic. This is ok to do as long as it's been seasoned.
The key though is now that your pan is seasoned, you can NEVER LET SOAP TOUCH IT. EVER! May I repeat, do not ever use soap to wash a seasoned cast iron pan! Soap is a degreaser, which means that it will remove that layer of oil which you so painstakingly worked to bake on there. The solution is actually super easy and is another reason why I love using my cast iron pan - washing it is a breeze! All you need is table salt, and if necessary some iron wool.
I just use cheap plain table salt, don't waste your good sea salt or kosher salt on this. After you're done cooking and the pan has cooled enough to handle, first rinse the pan out with hot water. After you've rinsed it and scraped off the big pieces with a spatula, sprinkle the salt liberally and start with your hands - rub it into the pan like you're giving it a salt scrub... which you are. The abrasiveness of the salt will scrape off any pieces of food that might be stuck. If you have any stubborn pieces you can use some iron wool, but it isn't usually necessary. Once you've scrubbed the salt all around and it's picked up all the pieces of whatever you cooked, just rinse thoroughly.
They key then is after each time you use the pan, do a quick re-seasoning. It's likely that because all you used is salt, the pan is still a little greasy from whatever you cooked. This is a good thing! Just put the pan back on the stove, turn on a burner, and let it heat up for about 10-15 minutes. This will bake that layer of oil into the seasoning you've already started, and it will continue to help protect the pan.
Now that you know the proper way to care for your cast iron pan, enjoy using it!! It's a phenomenal kitchen tool!!
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