What do you cook with?
In sticking with topics that my brother asked me about, he questioned the uptick in popularity of cast iron. He wanted to know why I thought it was all the rage again. To me the simple reason to cook with cast iron is because of its versatility. Today’s cast iron isn’t the stuff your grandma’s cooked with. Most pans today come pre-seasoned, which means that the manufacturer has already cooked a few layers of vegetable oil in high heat to finish and protect the cast iron and they don’t have to be purchased in the camping section of the sporting goods store. In fact I bought my most recent cast iron pan from Amazon and it was manufactured by Lodge Manufacturing Company. It came pre-seasoned but I still added a couple more coats of seasoning for good measure. My reasoning behind adding a couple more coats of pre-seasoning is that when I got it out of the box I washed it with hot, soapy water and dried it well and it still looked great, but I just wanted the peace of mind that I had seasoned my pan well enough that nothing was going to stick.
When I mentioned versatility I have cooked all kinds of items in my pans and love that they can go from the stove top into the oven. You can sauté, roast, bake and even deep fry in cast iron. It’s great for dessert, dinner and all other kinds of food. It comes square, round, big and small. Little individual pans for single servings. You can use it in your kitchen and take it out into the woods and throw it on the campfire coals. Don’t get me wrong I love a good non-stick omelet pan but I love my cast iron for so many different ways of cooking. Not to mention it’s reasonably priced and will most likely be the most used pan in your kitchen.
Here is a great article from 2012 about the rise in popularity and the reasons to cook with Cast Iron.♥
http://articles.latimes.com/2012/nov/24/food/la-fo-cast-iron-20121124
Jenthefoodie 
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