The Old Skillet

When I was a kid, I usually prepared my own breakfast. Sometimes breakfast was bacon and eggs cooked in a cast iron skillet. There was a grease keeper on the countertop beside the stove. It had a filter to trap cracklings and particles of bacon. With the advent of microwave ovens and Teflon cookware, the cast iron skillet was almost rendered obsolete. It was down but not out. 

Many people have taken to using cast iron skillets again. I recently decided to use my old skillet to cook bacon and eggs again. The bacon doesn’t taste a lot different, but cooking the eggs in bacon grease opens up a whole new world of taste. Actually, it’s an old world of taste. Now my eggs taste the same way they tasted to young me, and to my parents and grandparents and great-grandparents. The iron skillet is an antique, but it cooks as well as it did when it was new.

I’ve relearned how to season an iron skillet and what screws up the seasoning. I’ve learned how to clean a pan with salt and when it’s best to just wipe out the inside of the pan.

Teflon and ceramic pans aren’t supposed to be heated past medium heat, but cast iron skillets can be used on high heat (don’t immediately rinse them with cold water – the skillet could warp). Cast iron skillets are extremely durable. At most, you might mess up the seasoning and have to re-season the pan. Not a big deal.

You can fry, bake, and sear in an iron skillet. You can go from the stovetop to the oven to the grill with the same pan. There are many recipes for cast iron skillet meals. For starters, there are 27 recipes at Southern Living, 17 recipes at Rachael Ray, and 10 recipes at Food Network.

And if you’re wondering what you can do with the bacon drippings (assuming you cook bacon), Christy Jordan at Southern Plate has some ideas.

For me, there is something satisfying about cooking in a cast iron skillet. It’s organic, elemental – the opposite of unnatural, artificial. You can use metal utensils when cooking; if you scratch the seasoning, continue cooking and the seasoning will heal by itself. Teflon gives off fumes that are highly toxic to birds. Cast iron does not. Try serving food from a thin Teflon or ceramic pan; the food will be cold before the meal is finished. A cast iron pan stays hot a long time and keeps food warm.

There is one caveat: a cast iron skillet is heavy and its handle will get hot. Use a potholder or oven mitt. If you grab the pan off the stove with a bare hand, only to realize it’s burning you, you could get a burned hand and a broken foot at the same time.