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I just pre-ordered a 5-piece set of enameled cast-iron cookware by Range Kleen, from Mercola.com, for $149. It won't be shipped until June 30th, because the last shipment they received was snapped up almost immediately after they received it. I'm looking forward to receiving it, though, and cooking with it. We do have one cast-iron skillet, though, and nothing is better for searing meat.

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Chelle said:
I love cooking in a cast-iron skillet, but I do have a question: what's the best way to clean them?

My wife says, put hot water in it to soak if it has anything stuck on. Then pour out hot water, scrub pan with a copper (metal) scouring pad under running hot water until surface is completely clean. Then, she dries with a paper towel, thoroughly. She puts one to two teaspoons of vegetable (or olive) oil in pan, rubs it in with a paper towel. She says she massages it in like you would lotion until there is no sitting oil left. Sometimes if the oven is still hot, she will stick it in the oven while it is cooling down, this further seasons the cast iron. If the oven is not on, she just hangs it in its place.

Though detergent may work for Bro. John, the Lodge Cast Iron Company tells you to initially use hot soapy water to wash off any factory residue, but after that you are to use no dish detergent because this will remove the seasoned coating that keeps it from rusting. If you do use soap, you need to re-season which means to rub in the oil and place in oven at low temp for about an hour. You might have to do this several times to get a good season back on it.

We have a friend who moved to a country piece of property and found a cast iron skillet, half buried in the ground, bumpy with rust. She scrubbed and scrapped with metal brush and steel wool until all rust was removed. She seasoned it and uses it to this day. When my wife saw her skillet, she was impressed at how nicely seasoned it was (smooth, and dark black.) She mention how nice it looked and then learned where it came from.

ALSO, I bought her a belated :eek birthday present today. It is 'A Skillet Full, of Traditional Southern Lodge Cast Iron Recipes and Memories.' It is put out by South Pittsburgh, TN Historic Preservation Society, hometown of the Lodge Manufacturing Company. ISBN 0-9677985-4-X

Tonight we are making the following in our cast iron:

Texas Beef Skillet

1 lb lean ground beef
3/4 cup onion diced
1- 1lb can on tomatoes cut up
1- 15 oz. can of kidney beans juice and all
3/4 cup uncooked rice
3 tbs chopped green pepper
1and 1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp garlic salt
3/4 cup grated mild cheddar cheese

Brown meat and onion in cast iron skillet, stir in next 6 ingredients, 3/4 cup water, a 1/2 tsp salt. Bring to a simmer, cover with a lid or a stoneware dinner plate turned upsided down. Simmer 20 minutes, stir often, sprinkle cheese on top when done. Recover until cheese is melted. Serves 6 (We double this recipe for our family.)

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Thanks for the cleaning tips, Preacher Ben. :lol Much appreciated. What do you consider a "low temp" for seasoning the cookware in the oven?

Oh and John81, I'll try to remember to let you know how the enameled cast-iron cookware works for us once we get it -- about 3 months from now. :wink

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I'm puzzled by all of this attention to "seasoning" your cast-iron cook-ware. I've heard so many people say it too. All the way from every manufacturer I know to every one that I talk to today. They all say the same thing, and that is that it needs to be seasoned, although some use the word "cured".

The problem is that we used nothing else at home growing up (that was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back :lol::lol::lol::lol: ) and we never did any seasoning or curing to them. We washed them in the hottest, soapiest, most detergent-y water I could muster, and I was the dish-washer. My younger sister did the drying. Then they were put back into the oven for storage as we didn't have enough cupboard space for all of our stuff. We had a whole set of cast-iron cookery, from little ones to great big and deep ones. They were the very best. They brought a fortune at the sale. :lol

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Not everyone is fortunate enough to inherit "preseasoned" cast iron. Still others think that black cookware is "dirty" and will scour it until it is shiny! Or perhaps you will find a skillet buried in the yard that looks like a rusty throw-away.

If you have rusty cast iron it can be revived by sanding away the rust and then reseasoning it. If you have new cast iron that came from the manufacturere all shiny and new, you will need to season it.

Unseasoned cast iron will turn everything you cook in it black. So people think it is awful and won't have anything to do with it. If you have such a set of cookware, either unseasoned or rusty, that you do not want to mess with, please pm me and I will give you my shipping address! :lol

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I'm puzzled by all of this attention to "seasoning" your cast-iron cook-ware. I've heard so many people say it too. All the way from every manufacturer I know to every one that I talk to today. They all say the same thing, and that is that it needs to be seasoned, although some use the word "cured".

The problem is that we used nothing else at home growing up (that was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back :lol::lol::lol::lol: ) and we never did any seasoning or curing to them. We washed them in the hottest, soapiest, most detergent-y water I could muster, and I was the dish-washer. My younger sister did the drying. Then they were put back into the oven for storage as we didn't have enough cupboard space for all of our stuff. We had a whole set of cast-iron cookery, from little ones to great big and deep ones. They were the very best. They brought a fortune at the sale. :lol


Wow PE, that sounds just exactly how I grew up...except my sister didn't help me and we didn't store or sell them later.
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