It's funny that this thread has started back up again since I was just thinking about it this weekend. I was wiping out my trusty cornbread skillet that was inherited through my husbands side of the family. When his grandmother passed away a few months before we were married, a treasure of iron skillets of all sizes were left, discarded by the family. I asked if I could have them and I think of Grandmother Addie everytime I use them. I believe that is why I love the cast iron cookware...there is history in each one.
Well, I have to admit that since this thread I've collected three iron skillets and am quite proficient at using them. I fry eggs without them sticking and can even flip one in the air without breaking the yolk. Best skillets I ever had.
Now if I can only remember to grab a potholder before I grab the skillet handle.
You sure are stronger than I am, Sam...I have to use both hands to life the iron skillets that we use when camping with our youth club. I can't imagine trying to flip anything in them for fear that I'd hurt someone (especially myself). :-)
Lodge, a company that makes a lot of cast iron cook ware, also sells these great heavy duty gloves to use for picking up and moving your hot cast iron. Of course the catch is, as you mentioned, you must remember to put them on first. And you just can't get by without at least one of their "lid picker-uppers". A handle about 12 - 16 inches long with a bent hook on one end designed to lift the lid off of a hot dutch oven so you can check on what ever you have cookin' inside. And you can cook just about anything in a cast iron dutch oven. Of coures as we have to keep reminding our boy scouts, even if you use the lid picker-upper to remove the lid, if you set the lid down in grass or on dirt, changes are you will find grass and/or dirt in your meal. Happy cast iron cookin'...
My husband found quilted handle covers (he call them by another name - but this is a family show) that have saved my hands uncountable times. I'm trying to find out where he got them.
Although I cook in multiple types of iron cookware, I need to be convinced one can flip an egg in a cast iron skillet with one hand; but, far be it from me to challenge the honor and honesty of a Serbian woman who wears stillettos, and I probably mispelled that.
I love my Calphalon skillets, too. But nothing, and I mean nothing, fries up a bunch of pork chops and chicken like my 'spider'. I wouldn't give it up for anything.
I will admit to having one, ONLY ONE, cast iron cooking apparatus. It is a griddle that fits perfectly either on my outdoor grill or on the grill side of my downdraft Jenn-Air range (can you tell I like to cook?)
It is PERFECT for cooking sausage and peppers. My kids make italian ice and in no time we have the house smelling like Atlantic City.
We purchased a set of Calphalon (sp) cookware for one of our GMs who just got married. To hear her gush her gratitude to us for gifting her with them, I think she'd probably work for us salary-free for the rest of her life... hey, that's not a bad idea...
I'm responding to the very beginning of this thread. Buyer beware! In near disbelief, I found three iron skillets in a Goodwill store. I recognized them from the descriptions on this thread so I scarfed them up. I carefully followed the directions as given throughout the thread to season them properly. Two of them are perfect. A small 8 1/2" deep skillet for some reason would not 'season.' Everytime it cooled and I wiped it out, the 'seasoning' came off and I was left with bare metal, over and over again. On my last try, I did not rub hard and decided to let it set hard on its own. Now I realize that pan is probably not iron at all. I think it came from the Iron Skillet where those skillets are not iron at all. They're pewter! Watch out for those imitations. You can serve food in 'em and eat from them but can't cook with 'em.
Wait a minute here! You can eat from them? First we're pushing food around with our thumbs and loading our fork with a chicken bone. Now we're eating directly out of a skillet. I don't want to be too presumptive; but, if you cannot cook in it, why would you be serving out of it? Are you sure you're not really in Arkansas?
Oh whoa!! I've never pushed food with my thumb. It was bread or a bread-like product and only the last two ungettable morsels, which the forum determined was an acceptable table manner. And be fair. We never mentioned pushing with chicken bones, which I've not done either. If you don't believe me about eating from the skillet, go to an Iron Skillet Restaurant. That's what they serve meals in. I was a truck stop waitress there so I know.
Oh yeah! The Iron Skillets. I remember one outside of Killeen, TX on the way to Austin. They had a Tex-Mex breakfast skillet with eggs, chorizo, salsa, another layer of eggs, onions, bellpeppers, more eggs and chorizo, asadero cheese all topped with more warm salsa. I swear the thing must've been made for a family of four, but they served it as a single serving.
I'll try to help. First what you do is use a medium flame. Use butter and make sure the egg is not stuck. Using swift wrist action, pull the skillet toward you, then in another quick move push the skillet away then up from your body. Drop the skillet down, leaving the egg airborne. Simple. Then catch it. Try again and let us know how it works. Do I have to make a video?
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 08-30-05 AT 02:34PM (CST)[/font][br][br]We had some elderly distant cousins (Alvie and Daisy) go to the home after Daisy had a stroke. Their kids cleaned out the house in record time. We bought the land and the house from them over a year ago with the understanding they'd live there as long as they could, so we felt somewhat justified poking around there last week. We saw a cast iron skillet on top of the dumpster, which my husband rescued. He wondered aloud how on earth we'd get it clean, and I knew right where to go! Thanks for the ideas, all. We're pleased to be able to give this pan a new and caring home! :>)
I thought I was just outta luck 'cause I couldn't afford the $500.00 plus to buy Don's 10 inch sqare cast iron skillet, but I found one at BassPro last week. We have yet to bake cornbread in it (plan on doing so real soon) but it is great at frying up bacon and ham steaks.
Comments
Gillian
Now if I can only remember to grab a potholder before I grab the skillet handle.
Happy cast iron cookin'...
Calphalon One. Anything else is just, well, cast iron
Gene
However, cast iron blah, blah, blah is a heavy, cumbersome black pot/pan. A toast to Calphalon, one of woman's greatest technological breakthroughs.
Anne in Ohio
It is PERFECT for cooking sausage and peppers. My kids make italian ice and in no time we have the house smelling like Atlantic City.
Gene