As a wedding gift my
cousin gave me a small cast iron skillet. I’ve owned a couple cast iron
skillets in my life; however, this one was unique and special because it dated
back as far as the American Civil War. (On a quick side note, my cousin does
Civil War reenactments in Colorado for fun.)
Tonight I’m going to
make a dish, in which the recipe suggests the use of a cast iron skillet.
Remembering that my cousin gave me one, I searched through my pots and pans,
and eventually found the skillet in the drawer under the stove. Not
surprisingly the skillet was covered with a thin coat of rust. My immediate
thought was to scrub it in the sink with dish soap, but I remembered something
my dad told me a while back, something about never soaping up cast iron, and
how you have to season the pan before use.
I called my dad for
confirmation. No answer. Darn.
Well, thank goodness
for the internet?! –I Googled, how to
clean and season a cast iron skillet… 223,000 results in less than a
second. Search engines are amazing! Apparently my dad was right, no soap! To
clean a cast iron item you scrub it with salt. Hmm, good thing my kitchen is
stocked with coarse sea salt, lol! I scrubbed the surface of the skillet with salt
and the rust disappeared, and so did the “metally” smell.
As I seasoned the pan
with some vegetable oil and placed it in the hot oven to “bake”, I thought
about all the people who might have used this skillet sometime in their life.
What did they cook? Where did they live? Were they part of the Civil War?
As a college student
majoring in history, I’m fascinated by this skillet, and its “life”. As an
aspiring chef, I’m amazed that this kitchen staple is still useable after 100+
years!
I’m going to guess
that cast iron skillets don’t really break or go bad, until they are so well
loved that they rust through.
Seasoning a Cast-Iron
Pan
(Good Housekeeping)
(Good Housekeeping)