I Went Back to Cast-Iron

Almost home from a long evening walk, in the dimming light I spotted out for trash, four black cast-iron frying pans. I passed them by and immediately began thinking of the Teflon pan we have been using. As I entered the house, the though came to me that we bought at least two Teflon pans every year just for cooking eggs. They would wear easily, from using the wrong kind of spatula or just breaking down from general use.

In bed that night those black cast-iron frying pans kept sneaking their way into my thought, like the cry of a drowning man - save me! save me! Now I'm beginning to think they were looking at me. Oh well, I thought and rolled over. Bang! There, back in my mind. Mulling over the future of these creatures and thinking of how useful they have been and how useful they could be, I passed to sleep.

Morning. I rushed out of bed and out of the house and into the street. Running as fast as I could down the street in the direction of my return walk the previous evening, scanning the street curb way ahead for those cast-iron frying pans. There, I spotted them just as the trash truck rounded the corner. I grabbed them up two in each hand and walked breathless to my house.

Into the house,

Into the kitchen

Into the sink with the frying pans.

Out with the "Brillo pad".

And "rub a dub dub"

And WOW,

And OH-BOY,

Four shiny black cast-iron frying pans,

A real gift

And every black and shiny one a Griswold and Wagner.*

I learned a little about cast-iron in school, Its surface is crevice and pitted under a microscope. People wonder why when frying, food sticks to the pan and sometimes will ruin the planned dish. The reason is the pits and crevices open wide when heat is applied and kind of grab the food and anchor it to the pan. Being faced with this problem a number of years ago I set out to find a stop to it.

The first clue came when discussing the problem with my Mother. She remarked ( she was borne in 1898) people she new years ago did not wash their pans; they just wiped them out. Well, that did not sound too sanitary to me, but on second thought maybe the practice is OK. What happens is in cooking, the food fills those pits and crannies up, and since the food particles at the deep bottom of the pan are burnt into carbon, that makes it OK, for me anyway.

There are two ways that I know people used to fill the pits and crannies in, so meat, eggs and other food does not stick to the bottom of the pan. My number one way is to do this" heat the pan to a medium high degree, put vegetable oil or meat fat, like bacon, in the pan, about the amount your would use to fry an egg, crack an egg into it and swish the egg around as though your are scrambling, parts of egg will stick to the pan, scrape the pan clean and wipe it with cold water. Do not use hot water, because the hot water will rinse the egg filling out of the pits and crannies. Now fry yourself an egg, you will see the egg slide around in the cast-iron pan just as good as it would in a Teflon pan. The second way is to use flour instead of an egg. If you are one that will be concerned about wasting an egg you can eat it, it will be good and better if you use butter instead of cooking oil or give it to the dog. Dogs like eggs.

In closing some pans need a double dose, because of the various manufacturing practices.

* Griswold was a maker of cast-iron frying pans of yore. In fact there is a Wagner & Griswald Society.