Once you start using it, you’ll find it making its way onto the stove (or into the oven) for many a meal, but here are some suggestions to get going. (Use enameled cast-iron pieces such as a Dutch oven for dishes that require longer cooking, like tomato sauce.)įor most meals, a 10-inch, high-sided cast-iron skillet is the pan you’ll want to grab again and again. The acid can eat away at the finish, but a well-seasoned pan can handle a brief simmer with these ingredients.
One note: Until you’ve built up the pan’s seasoning, avoid cooking highly acidic foods such as tomatoes, vinegar, wine or citrus in the pan. If you accidentally scratch the finish, you can reseason cast-iron skillets easily with heat and vegetable oil. There’s no need to worry about using metal utensils on cast iron, either. In fact, the nonstick properties of cast iron improve with repeated use, as the oils used in cooking become part of the pan itself. Unlike coated nonstick pans, the finish on a cast-iron pan doesn’t degrade over time.
How’s that for sustainable?įrustrated cooks often ask me what they can do about their scratched nonstick pans, and I wholeheartedly recommend cast iron as a durable replacement. You don’t need more than hot water to clean them, along with a little kosher salt to scrub off any stubborn bits. Despite what you might have heard, I can assure you that cast-iron pans are incredibly easy to maintain.