[Sca-cooks] CAST IRON SKILLET

[Phil Troy/ G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Ciorstan:
>Adamantius writes, amongst other things:
>
>>While this is true, I think we may need to define "fried", or at
>>least maybe add sauteed, pan-broiled, baked etc. I often use my
>>largest cast-iron skillet for pizza, since I don't have one of those
>>silly oven stone thingies, and it does a truly excellent job for that.
>
>Pizza stone? Nobody needs a pizza stone!  I've been baking pizza for
>years in a terracotta saucer from the garden area of Home Depot.  A
>little oil, a little corn meal for 'mold release' and they work
>mahhvelously. But I have to admit, that's a novel use for a seasoned
>cast-iron skillet.

Sounds good. But it does sound like you'd concede that a better
product is achieved with a heavy pan that holds the heat (and does so
fairly evenly) versus the standard cookie-sheet-type pizza pan. The
question then becomes, what else can you cook, bake, fry, etc., in
your terracotta saucer? My own kitchen needs tend to be for tools
that don't get too specialized; I don't have room, even in my
allegedly larger "new" kitchen, for any tool that is designed for
only one job. I _do_ own a really nice, seasoned, mild steel, cheapo
restaurant-type omelette pan (we don' need no steenkeeng non-stick
fripperies), but lately I'm just as likely to use my smallest wok or
a cast-iron skillet to make an omelette.

The cast iron skillet works well for pizza. I had tried various
methods which involved pre-heating the empty pan and using a small
peel-like object, such as a large plate dusted with cornmeal, but I
find the easiest way to really take advantage of the cast iron's
qualities is to place the filled pan over a high flame on the range
top for a minute or so, and then put it in the hot oven.

But even just using the cast-iron pan instead of an ordinary thin
pan, using no special techniques, gets better results.

>My own skillet has been in use-- well seasoned-- for about 40 years. It
>was a moving-out giftie from my esteemed parents, since it's almost as
>old as I am. What I would really like is a well-seasoned cast iron crepe
>pan...

Which is different from your skillet how? The height and flare of the
sides? Again, it would be nice to have room for all this stuff.

Interestingly enough, while I was in the middle of writing this, my
son came in and asked if I had "got any grub"; between paragraphs I
went and made a bacon omelette... in the small wok, of course.
Luckily, he's now old enough to start teaching him some basics.

Adamantius