Why You Should Cook With Cast Iron Cookware

I’m not a chef, and I’ve wondered what makes a chef’s food taste and look so much better. I basically put it down to three reasons:

1. Cooking Techniques
2. Cooking Equipment
3. Cooking Ingredients

Obviously, all of these are fixable for men. You can take a cooking class, you can buy better equipment, and you can cook with quality ingredients.

But I want to focus on equipment - specifically cast iron cookware. There are a few reasons to make the move from the less quality counterparts over to cast iron.

Precise Control of Cooking Temperature

As I’ve been cooking with traditional frying pans or woks I’ve noticed hot spots on the pan. When the pan is above the flame, most of the time it produces a scorching hot spot and burns the outside of meats before cooking the middle, even sometimes on lower flame settings.

Cast iron heat retention qualities allow for even cooking temperature minus the hot spots. Cast iron pans can be used on top of the stove or to bake in the oven. Make sure you have some oven mittens close by, the handle gets HOT.

Healthy Eating

Cast Iron Cookware is an old-fashioned way to cook fat free. Because of its seasoning qualities, cast iron is non-stick. If you follow seasoning procedures, you’ll keep it that way for longer than a Teflon pan (and you can use your tableware to scramble eggs on it without damaging the surface!)

Iron Properties

When you cook liquids like spaghetti sauces, apple sauces, etc in cast iron, the iron quantities actually dissipate into those liquids. This is good for women especially, to get more iron in their diets.

Cast Iron Maintenance

Here are a few guidelines to keep your cast iron in top order:

1. Let the pan cool. Wash it with dishwashing soap and water. Never soak or let soapy water sit in the pan for any length of time. Rinse thoroughly, then dry with paper towels.

2. Place the cleaned cast iron pan on the heated burner of your stove for a minute or two to make sure that it is bone dry. While the pan is still hot and on the stove burner, lightly oil inside of pan (I mean a light coat) with a neutral cooking oil.

3. Store your cast iron cookware with the lids off, especially in humid weather, because if covered, moisture can build up and cause rust.

4. Leave pan on the hot burner of stove for a few minutes. Remove from hot burner and wipe excess oil off the pan with a paper towel.

You can cook almost any food in cast iron.

• Acidic items like tomato sauces will be darker from iron leaching out, but many people with iron deficiencies do this for extra iron in their diet.
• Never store acidic products in cast iron. In fact, never ever use your cast iron pots for storing any foods.

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