Iron Love

I’m in a hotel away from my kitchen so I’ll take the time to write about cast iron. My first piece of cast iron cookware was a skillet that I used about three times and then threw away when it turned into a heavy mound of rust. I had no idea what I was doing and I decided that cast iron was one of those quaint old fashioned things people talk up but in reality it’s about as much old fashioned fun as an outhouse with a catalog for wiping. I know now that I had no idea how to season it properly or take care of it.

However, my partner has his mother’s cast iron cookware. Cooking at his house means you have little choice but to expand your horizons. I watched him wash out and grease up that skillet with ease. Maybe cast iron wasn’t so hard after all, and it did cook nice. I used to have a giant copper-bottom stainless skillet. It was big enough to cook pancakes in and was my ex-husband’s peace offering when he threw away my favorite griddle for fear the fumes from the nonstick coating on it would kill his parrot. I lost custody of that skillet during my divorce--I figured he should take it with the bird--and I had yet to replace it, so when asked by my boyfriend what I wanted for Christmas our first year together, the answer was obvious.

He claims there’s a Southern tradition that only a good man would buy his woman a cast iron skillet, cause a bad one would end up on the business end of one all too quick. He reminded me of this when I unwrapped this black beast. It’s 15 inches across and a zillion pounds. Either he’s certain he’s a damn good man or he made sure it was impossible to pick up and swing. I fell in love with it at once. It never leaves the stove top. I’m really a throw-whatever-ingredients-are-at hand-together-in-one-pan kinda cook anyway and this completely suits my style. He told me he would give me his grandmother’s cornbread pan which is easily a hundred years old. I told him I would acquire it rightfully thru marriage or not at all.

I still have a small light weight stainless steel pan that I use for making crepes since I can swirl the batter around effortlessly in the bottom, but I have since acquired a used smaller cast iron one as well. I want to collect more so I fondle them when I’m out junking, wishing I had the money to switch out all my old cookware. I spotted a deal too good to pass up and grabbed this pot for $10.

There’s no maker’s mark and I have no idea how old it is, but it’s certainly seen plenty of service sitting directly on hot coals. There’s the tiniest bit of rust at the bottom but a little massage with some steel wool, salt, and cooking oil and it will be good as new. And I don’t care how old it is, you can darn well bet I’m going to cook with it. I found this pot for sale on ebay, listed as a #3 Wagner Ware Fireplace Pot. It looks like the same thing but I don’t have any other information.

I’ve also got this old thing which I have used as a decoration for years and now am thinking it might be worth reclaiming for use in the kitchen.

Also this turn of the century waffle iron that has never been anything but a decoration in my kitchen, a birthday gift from a coworker. It’s sealed shut with baked on grease; I’ve tried to pry it open without success. But I was never highly motivated either.

A new obsession is born.