_cleaning Cast Iron Recipes

CAST IRON CLEANING

Steps:

• Check your cast iron pieces for breaks and/or cracks. If there are any , this may not be suitable, I couldn't say for sure.
• If you have any severe residue, try to take it off, but cleaning will most likely remove it.
• Place your cast iron pieces of cookware open (or top) sides down on the middle rack in your oven. Space the pieces evenly.
• Following your oven oven's self-cleaning cycle directions, set your oven to begin the cycle. Don't forget to remove anything fron the stovetop and storage drawer, if you have it.
• Most self-cleaning ovens cycle for two hours, this is sufficient to clean cast iron too.
• When the oven cleaning cycle is complete, let everything cool to touch. Remove your cast iron from your oven.
• Your oven should have turned off from the cycle. Reset the oven to low just to warm it, like you would keep food warm.
• Brush off any powder residue, using a wire brush if necessary, to smooth the cast iron. Blow out or wipe out the dust, if you've done this.
• Using a new paper towel for each piece, use up to the 1 tablespoon of Crisco on your paper towel (some people recommend mineral oil) and smooth it over the complete surface of your cast iron. Make a thin layer. and a little thicker on the inside portion of your cookware.
• Set your pieces right side up in your oven and bake on low for 1 up to 2 hours, if your time allows.
• Take your cast iron out and let it cool on your stovetop.
• When you cast iron has cooled to touch, use more clean papertowels to wipe the excess Crisco fron the cast iron.
• I store my cast iron with a clean dishcloth between each piece, if I stack pieces.
• In between seasonings, clean in a mildly soapy water, turn the flame on your stovetop to medium high and set the cast iron on it until it dries, turn off the flame and let it cool to touch. Then wipe again on the inside with Crisco (or mineral oil) on a clean papertowel.

_CLEANING CAST IRON

Steps:

• If there is such a thing as 'The Great Debate' among cast iron cooking aficionados, it is whether to use soap when cleaning a Dutch oven or other piece of cast iron cookware. One school of thought says that for no other reason than sanitation one should use hot soapy water when cleaning cast iron cookware. In the product literature one gets with each new Lodge Dutch oven it says it's OK to use a mild dish detergent to clean the oven. Since they don't define "mild" I take that to mean any liquid dish soap on the market because the last time I checked my grocery store I couldn't find any dish detergent labeled "harsh". As for me I belong to the school that doesn't use soap on Dutch ovens or any other cast iron cookware. Why? I guess it is because it was the way I was raised. Dad and Mom got by with just hot water and what had worked many years for them seemed to work well for me as well. I.e. if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it! The transition to a professional of sorts in the culinary field forced me to examine the logic behind my practice of not using soap to clean my DO's. In essence it boiled down to two factors. As I see it every time a piece of cast iron cookware is used, it's heated beyond the point that most pathogens can survive. Call it a sterilizing process if you want, but every time you place the DO on a camp stove or set it in a firepan with hot charcoal briquets top and bottom, my guess is any critters on the cooking surface of the DO that could cause problems end up going to where ever it is they go when they die. So, unless someone used a piece of cast iron as a serving dish rather than cooking in it I don't see a problem with only using hot water to clean cast iron cookware! A second consideration is that by definition soap removes food residue and that affects the seasoning on cast iron cookware. Using soap won't entirely remove the seasoning on a DO unless a person vigorously scrubbed it with an abrasive pad but it does degrade the seasoning.Like many other situations one encounters being a Dutch oven cook, I consider it a matter of personal preference as to how one cares for their cast iron cookware. In the absence of conclusive proof that not washing my iron DO's with hot soapy water could lead to food poisoning, I'll keep doing what's worked for me for the last thirty years.

CLEANING AND SEASONING CAST IRON COOKWARE

Steps:

• After using your cast iron skillet, if it does not wipe clean with a paper towel or rinse clean with clear water, just put a handful of kosher salt in the pan and scrub with a damp cloth until all the bits are loosened. This is not seasoning, it's just scrubbing. If you need to reseason the pan rub it well with solid shortening and stick it in a low oven (or a cooling down oven) for a few hours and it should restore the non-stick properties. If you have spots in a pan that always stick when you cook, scrub it out with salt and a wire brush and re-season with crisco.
• Before you use your new pan the first time you should wash it with soapy water, rinse well, season and bake it in a low oven. This is the only time you should soap up a cast iron pan. It just gets better the more you use it. I had heard that people who use cast iron pans regularly do not suffer from anemia.