This series covers the basics of using and caring for one of the healthiest, best cooking equipment you’ll find: cast iron.
You can also find many, many more posts about using cast iron in my cast iron archive.
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When we lost our home in a wildfire the only things that survived were my cast iron skillets. The problem is that the fire was so hot the skillets are covered with red oxidation. Does anyone have any other remedy other than steel wool to remove this? I tried the steel wool and just can’t seem to get it back to raw iron.
I’m so sorry to hear about your home and the wildfire.
A more aggressive approach for cleaning damaged cast iron is using a high-acid product, but you have to be very careful to avoid pitting. I cannot guarantee the results, but I might try a paste of ketchup, using coarse salt (like kosher salt) to scrub. I’m planning on trying ketchup on some pans that got caught in a flood at a friend’s house. Given the possibility of pitting, I’d try it on the outside, away from the cooking surface first, perhaps on the bottom. Let me know how it goes.
Ketchup works.
I am a huge fan of cast iron too, even our bbq (Australian made) is cast iron. If you get in touch with the wonderful people at Lodge in Tennesse they will give you some great advice. They answered a question I had which was great
We really like Lodge too: https://ozarkhomesteader.wordpress.com/living-with-and-loving-cast-iron/what-is-a-“camping”-dutch-oven-living-with-and-loving-cast-iron-part-1/ I am always so pleased when I get to pass through South Pittsburgh and peruse the Lodge outlet. Lodge also supports a Dutch oven cookoff I attend almost every year. It really is a nice company.
I bought the Lodge double burner reversible grill/flat top! It is the best tool in my kitchen. We even bought our range top with the bridge burners to suit it. We do indoor grilling when the weather is frigid or too windy. I bought the 7 serving biscuit pan on our last trip to Georgia. I am becoming quite a southern cook with a Canadian twist, obviously we can not buy GRITS and that is just not right!
I bought 2 Kitchen-Aid enameled cast iron casseroles because I was so impressed with my Dutch oven. However they chip so easily and not from abuse, you need only to look at them and they flake….from now on I will only purchase solid Cast iron from Lodge. Lucky you to live so close to the Lodge plant, perhaps my next road trip we will go through Tennesse!
Anita, you can use a good polenta and get similar results to grits, if you cook them by grits directions. https://ozarkhomesteader.wordpress.com/?s=grits
I always bake my biscuits in an open pan, but I too have the double-burner grill/griddle and love it. It’s especially good for pancakes.
We live pretty far from Lodge but have other reasons to be in the area. Still, we are much, much closer than you!
When my freezer supply of grits runs dry I will have the perfect excuse for a road trip back to USA!
Thank-you for the tip on the polenta. For some reason corn muffin mixes are difficult to find up here. I am trying to source out a good scratch recipe that isn’t dry. Any southern favourites would be greatly appreciated. I have the Lodge cookbook which is exceptional, however we don’t have White Lily or King Arther’s flours.
We live in a small farming/cottage town in Northern Ontario. We often have to travel to the larger cities to get some specialty food items. However we do have Canadian bacon which is crusted with cornmeal, we call it Peameal bacon. I joke with my friend from Georgia that we have our bacon and grits all in one!!
Try my Georgia grandmother’s cornbread recipe: https://ozarkhomesteader.wordpress.com/2010/01/15/golden-goodness-my-grandmothers-georgia-cornbread/
If it’s too dry for your taste, add a tablespoon or two of applesauce to the mixture before baking. That will also add a little sweetness but no so much as to make the recipe completely inauthentic.
That Canadian bacon does sound like all in one! Why is it crusted with cornmeal?
Good question. I don’t really know why they put “peameal” on it. I will find out and let you know. It is a loin of pork, it is “brined”, there we go, we do brine meats! It is sweet pickled and then rolled in a thick layer of meal. You slice it and fry it. It is very tender. You can also bake it whole.
Sometimes Canadian bacon is smoked and is not pickled and is without the coating, that is the bacon I often find down in Ga., but we call it Back bacon. One friend told me its “breaded” in cornmeal to dry up the brining liquid(?)
My Georgia friends love it. My friends mom sliced it and floured it and then pan fried it, in butter. She declared it was the nicest thing she had ever tasted! My guess is they put the corn meal on it to keep it moist as it is an extremely low in fat Sunday morning traditional breakfast meat.
My friends put in their request for Maple syrup, peameal bacon and an apple syrup that has no added sugar but it is as sweet as molasses and slighty reminiscent of your Cracker Barrel restaurants, apple butter, but syrupy. Do you have cottage rolls down there? It is another sweet pickled meat which is usually slow cooked and is quite fatty until it is rendered down.
Apple Syrup?!!!! WOW, never thought of that! I will trade you some good ole’ southern grits for a jar of that apple syrup! sounds delish!
That apple syrup does sound good. I hope we’ll have enough apples this year for apple butter. 🙂
Re: Apple syrup.
My friend found some in Georgia. Along with Pecan, peach etc. But this is not the same at all. It is pure apples, nothing unnatural added. The apple syrup that is made in Ontario is the consistency of Maple syrup. It has a definite apple flavour and that “tangy” thing going on. It is also sweet enough to satisfy four little Georgia boys that I know!
I would gladly trade Grits for apple syrup! We bought another great kitchen gadget at our local Costco. Made in USA. The one and only Vita-mix blender. It cost the earth but we use it every single day and then some. I have sourced out human grade dry corn which I ordered and we will be able to pulverize the corn into grits. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Wow–making your own grits? I have not tried that. Let us know how it goes.
I may have to cook down some apple cider this year to try to make apple syrup. It seems to me it should be fairly easy in a cast iron kettle.
I wish you luck…we made maple syrup one year. My advice, do not make maple syrup inside the house, the humidity from boiling it down makes the walls sweat and it ran down the walls in streams! What a mess!
I am waiting on the corn, it will be three weeks before the order comes in. It will be yellow corn though, so not quite the same as good old southern grits. I will be sure to let you know how they turn out.
We have a Partner Steel 4-burner stove that we use outside for a lot of our canning. Surely boiling down the apple cider won’t make the walls run!
I’ve had yellow Southern grits before. 🙂
Go to the local Sears Store and go the the appliance dept. Ask about the Gas Grate Cleaner. It is also on the Sears web site. The powder is mixed with water and you soak the pans and gas grates in the solution over night. This may remove the red material in the pans. I have found it will remove 99% of the burnt on materials on our stove gas grates.
Good Luck
Bruce
Hmmm. I’ve never heard of that before, Bruce. Thanks for the tip! It does sound like you’ll need to follow up with a major re-seasoning session.
I love my cast iron, too. A much healthier choice and not that hard to care for. I mentioned it in one of my posts: http://www.ecomeg.com/2009/10/25-great-green-ideas.html
You’ve got some great green ideas in your comment link, too! I’ve added you to my blog roll.
I just ordered a Lodge Logic Pre-Seasoned 10-1/4-Inch Deep Skillet for myself. I chose this one because it is deep and I can use it for making eggs and soups or pastas. Pretty multi-purpose. I’m seriously considering a tiny house, so I need to make the most out of what I own to conserve space. My cast iron skillet can be viewed here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00063RWWA
I remember how tight your space is! I got a two-lugged skillet/lid that I really like because it’s 10 inches but with lug handles instead of one long one. I hope you enjoy your skillet!
I also love my cast iron. A few years ago I needed to buy a new stove–and was concerned that my cast iron pans won’t work well with a flat-top electric stove. A colleague suggested that I sell my cast iron at a garage sale. Instead, I bought a new stove with the old style coils and kept my cast iron pans. (I never did find a definitive answer to how well cast iron worked on flat-top stoves. Have you heard anything one way or the other?)
Sheryl, you are so a woman after my own heart! And in case I haven’t mentioned it here, I adore your blog! I don’t get over often enough lately but look forward to sitting down one day and reading the entire diary.
Whether cast iron works with flat tops depends on the stove. My father has a really fancy glass-top stove that you can’t use cast iron on, because the glass will overheat and break. I have pretty much decided not to cook anything other than water on the stove top at his house. Other versions of flat stove tops work well with cast iron and stainless steel but won’t work with aluminum because of the way the stove tops convey the heat. I can get you brand names if you’re interested, but it sounds like you’ve already made your buy. 🙂
I have a ceramic stove top–Whirpool Gold series and all I ever use is Cast iron. It does however require some elbow grease to get the stains off the glass…I have a double grill–Lodge brand that fits over both burners, one extends to fill in the gap. I also called the manufacturer to get advice…they said the only thing they don’t recommend is sliding your pots over the burner. I have been using the same stove for 10 years without incident. Hope this helps…as you mentioned, it might have something to do with the make of your stove.
Thanks, Anita! I’ll make sure that Sheryl sees this information. And have you checked out her blog? It’s great!
Thanks for the info. It’s really helpful.
I’m so glad, Sheryl. Good luck with the stove and cast iron!