Cast Iron Lovin'

A few months ago Chase and I were given a late wedding gift. Side note...late wedding gifts are awesome. They remind you of your wedding day and bring an air of excitement to the atmosphere. When we opened the box we were utterly surprised to see that it was a large cast iron skillet. The ironic part about this gift was not two days earlier I was complaining to Chase how we should have put a cast iron skillet on our wedding registry. I had seen a few people get one and I was feeling some cast iron envy.

We jumped into some online research as to how to go about prepping our skillet for use. There are so many different suggestions and blogs out in the google-sphere that it was kind of overwhelming. However we came to a consensus and went about making our skillet fit for cooking.  

First pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. This seemed to be the middle rang temperature from all of the blogs that I read. Hot enough to open the pores of the iron, but not too hot to where it takes the skillet forever to cool. 

Then scrub down your skillet very well with soap and water. This is the only time that you will be able to scrub your cast iron with soap to get all of the dust and dirt out of the pores before it is sealed in the oven. I just used plain Dawn dish soap and it seemed to work just fine.

Then you have to find yourself a pan large enough that your skillet will fit on. Chase and I have a large pizza pan that was nearly big enough, but it worked just fine for our purposes. Cover your pan in foil so it won't get scratched or burned.

 Then wipe down your cast iron skillet really well. You don't want the heat to rust your skillet. I just used a plain paper towel and it worked great. Then take some oil (of your choice) and rub down the skillet. Don't over oil it to where it is dripping wet, but oil it enough to where the cast iron is shiny and moist. I also used a plain paper towel for this part.

Then place your skillet face down on your foil covered pan. Get as much of your skillet on the pan as possible so oil does not drip down into the bottom of your oven. This could cause your oven to smoke or even to catch on fire.

Then place the pan on the center rack of your oven. This will allow for maximum heat absorption and  oil seal.

Next, cook your skillet for one hour. Take out your skillet and let it cool completely before using it.

And last but not least, cook something yummy!!! The first thing we used our skillet for was for BACON. Because lets face it, what is better than bacon. 

What are some of your favorite cast iron skillet recipes? Chase and I would love to hear some suggestions. 

- S & C