Wonderful cast iron

It is universally accepted that great, great grandma’s cast iron is the best. That is because they had a hard carbon seasoning that is as good as or better than Teflon. Seasoning is carbon, pure slippery carbon – think graphite. Pure carbon does not mold, get rancid, smoke or create a sticky or gooey surface – think coal although it’s not pure carbon. All the impurities are gone from pure carbon. Animal products make one of the hardest carbons, much harder than vegetable products, although grape seed oil does get hard.

To create this nice smooth hard surface, g-g-grandma didn’t use Crisco or any vegetable oil. She used bacon grease, butter and lard. Frying chicken and fish in lard was great for building seasoning. She rendered steak fat to fry steak. Meat fats create a harder carbon more than vegetable oils or synthetic crap, which were fortunately not available back then. She was careful not to cook acidic foods that would eat the seasoning without adding some non-acidic foods such as meat or fat; and cleaned the pot or pan quickly after cooking.

She used bees wax to coat the pieces of cast iron she was going to store in warm humid conditions so it wouldn’t rust or mold. However, bees wax has a low smoking point and does not leave a hard carbon finish, so most of it would be removed before cooking. The rest of the cookware remained on the stove for daily cooking, washed and ready for another mess of bacon.

If you want cast iron like g-g-grandma had, do your homework and leave it on the stove to use a few times a week. Grilled cheese sandwiches, a mess of bacon or eggs in a Dutch oven? Of course. A few hundred meals and you will be on you way.

Learning about cast iron is a journey, not just a college course.

This is for information only; all questions are to be posed to Google.

Hilditch

 

Very good info, Hilditch. Thank you!

 

Where would be a good place to buy a Cast Iron Dutch Oven?

 

C & D,

Where to purchase?
Local sporting goods stores, online, flee markets. Depends upon what you are desiring, intended use, price points.

Need to ask yourself a few questions: Why do you desire a DO? What is your skill level, intended uses, how many people are you planning on cooking for?

As for mine: I have purchased from Fleet Farm, which is a local farm speciality store, Lodge dealer after attending a DOG, and Gander Mountain. I have way too many DO, 12 regualr, 12 deep, and a 10 inch. The 10 inch is plenty big for 2 people. Impulse buying when I got the 12 deep after a DOG.

I suggest investing in a Lodge. Check out your local sporting good stores, home repair stores, garage sales, estate sales, and various online options.

Most DO recipes are written for 12 inch.

Watch out castironitis is dangerous.

George will give you excellant resources!

Good luck
Jean

 

Thanks for the info Jean. (I'm scared castironitis...oh no!!!)

Thanks George. We are just getting into it, mainly for camping. I will start checking some of the suggestions.

We'll keep you posted.

 

George, we thought of you on vacation when we hit South Pittsburgh, TN on the way home and just happened to a Lodge outlet I think in Georgia after we left the Smokies. We did some damage to the pocketbook at both places and now have ci for indoor cooking and some new for outdoor cooking to complement our other ci. Picked up their new 6" pot. For the 2 of us the 6" and 8" we had work great when camping.

 

thanks, we are! Both having fun with it and hooked...LOL