One of my all time most used pizza toppings is something I usually call ‘fake sausage’. It generally involved dumping a bunch of sausag-y seasonings on any ground meat I had around as I browned it, and it was a big hit with my nieces and nephews.
I have managed to standardize my recipe a bit for the purposes of this blog post, but there’s still plenty of room for adjusting the seasonings to taste. As I generally make it, it has a strong herby, savory flavor without being too spicy hot.
Using this seasoning blend allows for control over the healthiness of all the ingredients of your sausage, but it also allows for using cheaper meats (such as ground turkey) in place of sausage if you’re trying to save money, and the convenience of being able to make a quick sausage replacement for a recipe out of any ground meat you have on hand.
(Edit: I don’t normally keep fennel on hand, but I have added it to the list of optional spices in the recipe, as you may find it greatly increases the sausag-y flavor of your fake sausage.)
Healthiness Rating: Healthy
One of the main advantages of this seasoning mix is that you have complete control over the ingredients. Want to avoid MSG? Just don’t add any. Want to use only non-irradiated spices? No problem. Want to make sausage out of your grassfed beef? Easy.
Yumminess Rating: Yummy
As every sausage brand and blend is a bit different, this one has it’s own flavor profile, but it’s been pretty popular with everyone who’s tried it, and qualifies as husband approved.
Brown meat in skillet, adding spices as it cooks. (Measuring spices is optional. I prefer the sprinkle, stir, taste method myself. ) If you prefer, you can mix up a larger batch of seasoning ahead of time, and simply add a couple TBSP of the mix to your ground meat, but I prefer to be able to customize the exact blend on the fly as needed.
Didn’t you know that ice cream always tastes better when it’s slightly blurry? Also when it’s doused in caramel syrup… Yum…
Caramel syrup is possibly the most addictive food I have ever made. Licking out the pot after making it is a must. There’s something about the balance of sweetness and creaminess and gooeyness that can only be improved on by turning it into salted caramel.
Now, I’m not going to try to claim that caramel syrup is a super food or anything like that. BUT if you like caramel, this homemade caramel syrup is the way to eat it. No chemicals, and some nutrients left in the unrefined sugar make this a ‘not bad’ splurge choice.
I like to keep it on hand for the occasional (usually decaf) salted caramel mocha, but it’s also good drizzled over vanilla ice cream or added to a mug of hot cocoa. I’m sure there are plenty of other uses, so if you have a favorite use for caramel syrup, comment below and let me know what it is.
Healthiness Rating: Kinda Healthy
I wouldn’t make this a cornerstone food in your diet or anything, but as sweet treats go, it’s a reasonable choice.
Yumminess Rating: Yummy
Pretty much through the roof on this one. This stuff is amazing.
Caramel Syrup
1/2 cup butter
1 cup turbinado sugar
1/2 cup milk
optional: pinch of sea salt, dash of vanilla
Melt butter in a medium saucepan over a medium heat.
Add sugar and let cook, whisking occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved and mixture is thick and bubbly. (Because the turbinado sugar doesn’t dissolve well the mixture may stay a little bit grainy until you put the milk in. Don’t worry if you can’t get it to dissolve completely, just give it a good two or three minutes to dissolve as much as it’s going to.)
Add milk. Whisk until thickened and completely smooth. (All the sugar needs to be dissolved at this point, or your syrup will be grainy.)
Use immediately, or refrigerate for a thicker caramel sauce. Store in the refrigerator.
Note: If you happen to be storing this in a plastic container, make the sure the syrup has completely cooled before you pour into the container. The syrup retains heat well and might make your plastic container crumple into odd shapes if it hasn’t completely cooled. Don’t ask me now I know this… The syrup thickens up so much, you’re probably better off storing it in a glass pint jar and spooning it out than trying to keep it in a squeeze bottle anyway.
(Note, 3/15/22: Since originally writing this post I have sometimes upgraded to brining my own brisket. I still use this spice blend, but follow the directions here: https://wellnessmama.com/4420/corned-beef-brisket )
As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, St Patrick’s Day is a holiday we really enjoy celebrating at our house, for both culinary and historical reasons.
Our typical main course for a St Patrick’s Day dinner is corned beef. This is one of those areas of compromise between health and budget: the best option would be to get a high quality beef brisket and brine it myself to avoid all chemical additions to the meat. Instead I buy inexpensive corned beef on sale, throw away the spice packet and use my own blend of spices, so that I at least avoid any msg or other mystery ingredients in the spices.
In case you’re wondering, the rest of our St Patricks Day menu typically looks something like this:
Irish Soda Bread (my husband prefers a sweeter version, technically closer to Spotted Dog Bread than traditional plain Irish soda bread) with butter
Sometimes we may also add an Irish cheese such as Dubliner which is made by Kerrygold (I’ve seen this particular cheese both at Aldi and Costco) or homemade Irish Cream. (Because it’s already a hearty meal, if we do get an Irish cheese, we’re more likely to it as an appetizer or an evening snack than part of the meal. The Irish Cream is also more of an after dinner drink.)
Today I’m sharing my recipe for the spice mix I add to my corned beef brisket. This is my own interpretation of a pickling spice blend, which is basically what the mysterious spice packet included in the corned beef package is supposed to be.
I’ve found it to be a pretty forgiving recipe. In fact, until I was getting ready to write this post, I’d never measured the spices, I just used a heavy sprinkling of some spices and a lighter sprinkling of others. You should be able to pretty easily adjust this recipe to taste and based on what ingredients you have on hand.
Healthiness Rating: Healthy
As with a lot of my recipes, your healthiness results will vary based on the quality of the ingredients you use, in this case most notably the quality of meat. However, this spice blend is on its own merits good for you, and allows you to replace a prepackaged spice packet with mystery ingredients that might include MSG. It seems to me that should merit a healthy rating.
Yumminess Rating: Yummy
It’s been so long since I’ve had corned beef fixed with the included spice packet that I’m not going to try to make any claims this spice mix tastes the same. What I can say is that this spice mix makes the corned beef taste very good and very savory, and based on the results I have no reason to wish for a spice packet or any other spice options.
Spice Mix for Corned Beef Brisket
3-4 pound corned beef brisket
1 TBSP mustard powder
1 TBSP black pepper
1 tsp dill seed
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp turmeric
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp clove
Sprinkle spices on corned beef and cook according to favorite method. This is how I like to do it:
Chop 1/2 a head of cabbage and 2-3 pounds of potatoes and put them in the bottom of a crock pot. (If you’d like, give the potatoes a light sprinkle of salt, but be careful because the corned beef is going to add a LOT of salt to the dish.)
Remove corned beef from packaging, discarding the spice packet and juices. (If you like you can rinse the corned beef as well.) Put the corned beef brisket on top of the potatoes and cabbage, sprinkle with the spices, and cook on high for 4-7 hours or on low for 7-10 hours. (Corned beef is best with a long, slow, moist cooking time in order to tenderize well.)
Tonight I had one of my first attempts at making ‘real’ Indian food (previous attempts have basically consisted of throwing a TON of all the Indian style spices I had into a pan of lentils, which turns out surprisingly well, in case you were wondering). I based this lentil dish off of this recipe, and my naan off this recipe for whole wheat naan.
Despite the fact that this was a meatless meal (using fairly inexpensive ingredients) my husband and I both really enjoyed it (!) AND my husband approved the naan despite the fact that it’s whole wheat. Oh, yeah, and it’s all healthy too. Win, win, win.
I should probably warn you that I didn’t measure most of my spices, so the the amounts listed below are estimates…
Red Lentils
1 cup split red lentils
water for soaking (optional)
2-3 cups chicken stock
1 diced onion OR 2 TBSP dried minced onion
1 TBSP minced garlic
1 tsp ground ginger
1 6oz can tomato paste
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp black pepper
salt to taste
1/4 cup butter
2 tsp black cumin seeds (nigella sativa)
1 tsp mustard powder
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp paprika
Soak lentils overnight, if desired. (This improves the digestibility a bit, but isn’t strictly necessary.) Drain soaked lentils.
In a medium sized pot, mix lentils, chicken stock, onion, garlic, ginger, tomato paste, crushed red pepper and black pepper. Cover and cook over medium heat for 30 to 40 minutes, or until lentils are completely soft. Add salt to taste.
(I’ll admit I don’t entirely understand how this next bit is supposed to work, but this is what I did in my attempt to mostly follow the recipe I was working from.) Melt butter in a small pot. Meanwhile, measure black cumin seeds into one small bowl, and remaining spices into a second small bowl. Once the butter is beginning to sizzle, dump in the cumin seeds all at once and quickly put the lid on to avoid being spattered. (Mine didn’t really spatter. Perhaps I didn’t heat the butter as hot as I was supposed to.) Remove the lid, add the remaining spices, and let them sizzle and bubble for about 30 seconds without letting them burn.
Mix the butter/spice mixture into the lentils and serve, preferably in a large bowl, scooping it into your mouth with warm whole wheat naan bread.
Whole Wheat Naan
3 cups whole wheat flour (I used red hard wheat aka whole wheat bread flour)
1 tsp honey
1 tsp coconut oil
1 cup sour milk or thin yogurt
1/2 cup warm water
2 1/4 tsp yeast
dash of ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp salt
coconut oil or ghee (for frying)
melted ghee or butter (for brushing)
Mix first four ingredients and allow to soak overnight. (If using a different type of whole wheat, such as white wheat, you’ll need less liquid, maybe about 3/4 cup.)
Mix yeast and ginger with warm water and let sit until foamy.
Sprinkle baking soda, cream of tartar and salt across top of soaked wheat mixture, and mix it in a bit. (Mine was so crumbly that I just crumbled it around a little with my fingers so everything was distributed. If your mixture is more dough like, giving it a few fold-and-press kneads would probably work better.)
Pour in foamy yeast mixture and mix or knead until all ingredients are incorporated together. Knead for a few minutes, until the dough is beginning to feel firm and dough like. (If I’d been doing this in my mixer I probably would have kneaded it a lot longer, until it was closer to passing a windowpane test, but I get tired of hand kneading whole wheat dough.)
Let rise for about 2 hours.
Divide dough into 6 equal pieces. Roll out each piece into a circle about as big as your skillet.
Heat a small amount of ghee or coconut oil in a skillet, just about enough to cover the bottom of the skillet well, but not quite enough to pool. The original recipe says medium-high heat, though I found that medium on my stove got the skillet plenty hot enough–hot enough that the skillet started smoking if it was empty for more than a few seconds, but not hot enough burn the naan.
Put one circle of dough in the skillet, cover with the lid and let cook for 1-2 minutes. Flip over the bread, replace the lid, and cook for another minute.
Brush with melted ghee or butter while still warm, and serve promptly.
I made this tonight and needed to write down before I forgot how I made it, because it turned out so good! So, no, it hasn’t been extensively tested with many variations, but it is delicious, and I may have suggestions for adapting it to your needs if you drop a comment below.
This is not a ‘most accurate traditional Ramen you can make at home’ kind of recipe. This is a ‘I can spend some time on supper, but can’t afford all the right ingredients for dashi’ or a ‘I want homemade ramen but can’t get all the specialty ingredients where I live’ kind of recipe. It’s even a ‘wanted ramen for supper with what I had on the pantry’ kind of recipe, depending on what normally lives in your pantry…
You can make it all in one day if you’ll be at home to start in the early afternoon and check in on on the food every couple of hours and move it along to the next stage, or you can cook the chicken and broth ahead on food prep day, and just reheat, cook the noodles, and cut some veggies when you want to serve it.
This is pretty basic good food for most people, including veggies, protein, carbs and broth. The rice ramen from Costco works well, but as always, you can adjust the ingredients to your personal needs, such as lower carb substitutes.
Yumminess Rating: Yummy My husband and I both really enjoyed this one!
Chicken and Broth 8-12 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs (I like the ones from Costco) 1 onion 2 large cloves garlic 2 inch chunk of ginger root 1 cup water
1/2-1 tsp garlic powder 1 tsp onion powder salt and pepper to taste ——– 2-3 TBSP coconut aminos, or soy sauce/substitute of choice 1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce OR 1 tsp anchovy paste Optional: 1-3 tsp sriracha ——– 8 ounces mushrooms of choice (I used Baby Bella mushrooms this time, will likely use white button mushrooms most of the time)
Quarter onion (if desired, remove ends and skin). Smash cloves of garlic with the side of a large knife (no need to remove skin). Slice ginger root. Add all to Instant Pot with water.
Add chicken thighs to Instant Pot, one layer at a time, seasoning each layer with a portion of the salt and spices. (I like to premix my salt and spices in a small bowl so as not to contaminate everything with raw chicken as I go back and forth.)
Use the poultry setting on your Instant Pot, or manually set for 12 minutes high pressure (14 minutes if the thighs are frozen). Allow to naturally release pressure for at least five minutes before venting.
Remove chicken from broth and allow to cool slightly. Remove skin and return to broth in Instant Pot. Slice chicken and return bones to broth in Instant Pot. (You may keep the chicken warm in a crockpot with a dash of the broth if you like, or refrigerate/freeze until you’re ready to assemble your ramen.)
Add coconut aminos, Worcestershire/anchovy, and sriracha, if using, to broth. Manually set Instant Pot for 60-120 minutes. Vent pressure and strain broth into a large bowl. If needed, wash the pot before returning the broth to the pot.
Simmer mushrooms in stock for up to an hour. Remove mushrooms and continue to simmer broth or cool and refrigerate/freeze the broth for another day at this point.
Veggies/Toppings You can prep the veggies while the broth is simmering. My usuals are:
1 avocado , sliced 6 green onions, thinly sliced 1 carrot, cut in long ribbons using vegetable peeler mushrooms from broth, sliced (if desired, sautee to crisp) soft boiled egg (when I can remember to cook it!)
I also like to serve with: pickled ginger extra coconut aminos extra sriracha
Ramen Noodles 4-6 cakes of Millet and Brown Rice Ramen Noodles, or noodles of choice
Bring broth back to a boil. Cook noodles according to package directions.
To Serve: Ladle broth and noodles into individual bowls. Top with chicken, veggies of choice, and other toppings as desired. (To mimic restaurant style, put each topping in its own section of the bowl, rather than layering toppings.)
We typically put out the pot with broth and noodles, and all the individual toppings in small bowls (or charcuterie board style on a cutting board), and have everyone assemble their own bowl with the toppings they prefer.
I like to make a big batch of nomato paste at one time and freeze most of it for later. This is about half the amount this recipe makes.
As I mentioned in my previous post, my husband tries to avoid tomato products because of heartburn and acid reflux. In most cases we just work around this by using other kinds of sauces (white sauce on pizza, for instance) but sometimes you just want a real tomato substitute–to use in place of tomato paste in flavoring my favorite lentils recipe, or because I’m really in the mood for meatballs in a red sauce.
This particular combination of vegetables does decent job imitating the color and texture of tomato sauce. (Changing the ratio of vegetables may affect the color, changing it to an orangier or purplier red, but this exact ratio isn’t crucial to the general impression of nomato sauce.) Once you add in an acid, it’s close enough in flavor to trick your brain into accepting the substitute.
As written, this recipe makes a very thick nomato sauce which works well as a replacement for tomato paste. If you prefer, add a bit of water to thin it down to a normal sauce consistency.
I prefer lemon juice for the acid, but apple cider vinegar also works reasonably well if you need to substitute for any reason. Since I’m specifically trying to lower the acid compared to tomatoes, I use just enough lemon juice to give the impression of tomatoes. If your reasons for replacing tomatoes are different, you may want to increase the amount of lemon juice to taste. (If you’re using apple cider vinegar, the acidity will be stronger, so start with 1/2 to 2/3 the amount of lemon juice you would use.)
I generally prefer lard for roasting vegetables, but coconut oil, ghee and avocado oil are also good choices. I do not recommend roasting with olive oil as the high temperatures destroy most or all of the health benefits.
Healthiness Rating: Healthy
Being mostly made out of vegetables, I think this qualifies as healthy.
Yumminess Rating: Yummy
If you go expecting an exact tomato replica, this will, of course, be disappointing. If you go in with reasonable expectations of something in the neighborhood of tomato flavors, this should be satisfying.
Nomato Paste or Sauce
6 small zucchini (about two pounds)
3 medium onions
9 medium carrots (about two pounds)
3 medium beets
2-3 TBSP fat or oil of choice
1 cup lemon juice
salt to taste
water, if desired
Preheat the oven to 425.
Prepare the vegetables for roasting: slice (and peel, if desired) the zucchini into 2 inch thick rounds, peel and quarter the onions, remove the ends of the carrots and slice into 2-3 inch segments and peel and remove the ends of the beets, then slice them into halves or quarters.
Toss the vegetables in preferred oil and divide between two large baking sheets. Roast at 425 degrees for about 40 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft enough to puree. (The carrots and beets may still retain some firmness–how soft they need to be exactly will depend on how well your food processor or blender works.) Let cool.
Puree vegetables with lemon juice and salt in a food processor or food mill. (This recipe makes a large batch of nomato sauce or paste and I had to puree it in two separate batches in my food processor.) If desired, thin down with water to your preferred consistency.
If not thinned down this recipe makes about 10 cups of nomato paste. I like to freeze it in quart bags, with 1 1/2 cups of nomato paste in each bag, as that’s roughly equal to 2 cans of tomato paste.
I have very fond memories of this dish my mother used to make by sprinkling a package of french onion dip over potatoes, so I finally adapted my homemade french onion dip recipe to do the same thing. I generally make mine in the Instant Pot, but you could easily use the same ingredients for other cooking methods.
I rate this healthy and yummy, though obviously if you don’t handle potatoes well it might be less healthy for you.
French Onion Potatoes 5 pounds potatoes, peeled (if desired) and quartered 1 onion, chopped 2 TBSP parsley (or to taste) 1 TBSP salt (or to taste–I slightly heap the TBSP) 1 TBSP onion powder 1 1/4 tsp turmeric 1 1/4 tsp black pepper
2 TBSP lard or oil of choice 2/3 cup water (optional, depending on cooking method)
Instant pot: Dump all the ingredients together in the pot. Set valve to seal and set to high pressure for 15 minutes. Release pressure immediately after time is up, or when you get around to it if you don’t care how mushy the potatoes get. Stir until spices are thoroughly blended into potatoes.
Oven: Spread potatoes across a cookie sheet or two, or dump in a cast iron dutch oven. Drizzle with melted lard or oil. Sprinkle evenly with chopped onion and spices. Roast at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Stir if needed.
This recipe comes from a post I found here. I have tweaked the ingredients slightly, but the original recipe is also amazing. (Despite the fact that it contains celery seed… and really, who needs to be eating celery seed? Bleah.)
I had to share this recipe because it’s one of the recipes I find myself making frequently and wanting on hand at all times. It tastes better than most store bought dip, but close enough to my mother’s ‘open a package of french onion soup and mix it in sour cream’ recipe to bring back fond memories. It not only eliminates the junk that’s in an envelope of store bought french onion soup mix, but gives you an opportunity to include more healing herbs and spices in your diet.
Do you have any idea how amazing turmeric is? It’s anti inflammatory, high in antioxidants, may help fight Alzheimer’s, may help prevent cancer and alleviates depression. And one of the active ingredients (curcumin) is absorbed much better by the body when it’s eaten with black pepper, which also happens to be an ingredient in this recipe.
All of the that information about turmeric and pepper is interesting and can be useful, especially if you’re working to treat a specific condition, but also works with my theory that you don’t have to be a research enthusiast to be healthy. Just eat real food of different kinds and it will do amazing things in your body, whether you know it or not. Also, foods that tend to work well together also often just happen to taste great together, and you might find yourself frequently combining black pepper and turmeric without ever knowing why this duo was especially good for you.
So bascially, don’t fret. Just eat the food. (It’s amazing.)
Turmeric also happens to be one of my favorite spices from a flavor standpoint. (Garlic is, of course, my favorite all time spice, but sadly, there is no garlic in french onion dip.) A small amount of turmeric often provides the final piece of the flavor puzzle when trying to recreate processed foods with real ingredients. In large amounts it can be a little bitter, but a dash or two provides a background flavor that blends all the other flavors and makes them ‘pop’ just a little more.
Healthiness Rating: Healthy
This gets an unreserved healthy rating from me (as long as you’ve checked the ingredients in your sour cream and it doesn’t have any crazy additives) and as an extra bonus, you might just be inspired to eat a lot more raw veggies if this dip is sitting in your fridge.
Yumminess Rating: Yummy
All the fabulousoity (which is, of course, an actual word, and not something I just made up) of french onion dip, but better.
French Onion Dip
1 tub (16 oz) sour cream
3 TBSP dried minced onion
1 TBSP parsley
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
dash cayenne
Mix all ingredients thoroughly. If you’d like, you can let it sit overnight to let the flavors blend, but it’s still amazing if you eat it right away. Store in the refrigerator.
Originally posted on goodbadfood.org, August 23 2014
This cobbler is made with raspberries, while the cobbler in the video is made with blackberries. Blueberries, strawberries, peaches and other fruits can also be used.
My nephew Toby guest starred in the video for this recipe. He’s sixteen years old, and recently learned how to make eggs and toast, so in the very strictest sense he’s not a complete beginner at cooking, but he is very close. (He’s a brilliant absent minded professor type who could solve for x in his sleep, but didn’t learn how to turn on the stove until he was ten. Also, as you will notice when you watch the video, he’s very funny and makes me laugh a lot.)
I’m going to be posting a few recipes that are very simple for new cooks to learn, and I wanted to have a true novice cook use the recipes to make sure that I didn’t skip over anything in the instructions because it seemed ‘obvious’ to me. If I did miss anything, or you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment or e-mail me at gbfoodrocks@gmail.com and I’ll do my best to answer any questions you have. (That goes for any of my recipes, in fact.)
This particular recipe is pretty adaptable to different types of flours and sugars (though I haven’t tried gluten free flours) so you can make it with healthy ingredients (whole wheat pastry flour aka white wheat flour and turbinado sugar) or ingredients found in typical kitchens (white flour and white sugar). I wouldn’t recommend using a hard red whole wheat flour, as it will have the typical whole wheat flavor and texture drawbacks, but it would probably do in a pinch if that’s all you have.
Healthiness Rating: Healthy to Kinda Healthy
This cobbler could qualify as completely healthy if you choose to use whole wheat flour and turbinado sugar. If you use white flour and white sugar it’s not going to have a whole lot going for it in terms of nutrition.
Yumminess Rating: Yummy
It’s a really good basic cobbler. My version is heavy on the cobbler, but if you prefer it heavy on the fruit, just double the amount of fruit used.
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour (aka whole wheat pastry flour) OR unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cup turbinado sugar OR white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
6 oz package berries of choice (or 1 cup of sliced fruit such as peaches)
Fresh or frozen fruit works fine in this recipe. If using fresh fruit, rinse the berries and leave to drain dry, or prepare the fruit (remove seeds or pits, slice, etc).
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Put the butter in a 8×8 square baking dish and put it in oven to melt.
Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. (Note for beginners: This is an important step, so make sure the ingredients are thoroughly combined and you don’t see any patches or lumps of seperate ingredients.)
Add the milk. (Note for beginners: Stir briefly, then scrape along the bottom of the bowl to make sure you don’t have any pockets of flour mixture that haven’t been stirred in. Do NOT overmix. As soon as the batter is smooth and all the flour is incorporated, stop stirring.)
Remove pan with melted butter from the oven. Pour the batter into the pan.
Sprinkle the fruit across the top of the batter. Return the pan the oven and set a timer for 50 minutes.
After 50 minutes, remove the pan from the oven. If a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, the cobbler is done. (Note for beginners: ‘Clean’ in this case means that there’s no gummy or liquidy batter sticking to the toothpick. You may get fruit juices or even a dry crumb or two stuck to the toothpick, but if the toothpick is coated in crumbs or other signs of uncooked batter, the cobbler needs to back in the oven for five or ten more minutes.)
Originally posted on goodbadfood.org, June 27 2014
I’m departing from my normal recipe posts this week, to show you how I take care of my cast iron. I use my cast iron skillet for everything. I realized this week how much this is true while I was cooking meals with my husband’s sister, because I was startled and confused every single time she cooked vegetables in a saucepan.
Besides nearly always cooking my vegetables in my cast iron skillets, I also use them for cooking eggs (scrambled or fried), browning meat, frying (meats or starchy foods like funnel cakes or fritters), and often even for making white sauces or reduction sauces. Occasionally I’ll even cook a casserole type food in the oven in my cast iron skillets.
I like the even heat distribution from the heavy bottom of the cast iron skillet, and honestly, I guess I just like the feel of them, and the kind of cooking I associate with such traditional cookware.
When I first read about cast iron, I thought it sounded like way too much work. I got the impression that after every use it had to be seasoned in the oven, including an overnight cooling period, and who wants to put that much work into their cookware?
Fortunately, it turns out that cast iron thrives just fine on a much simpler routine.
There a few basic rules for washing cast iron, the most important of which is NEVER use dish soap on a cast iron pan. The soap will destroy the seasoning.
In order the remove the food particles you will want to use the gentlest scrubber that’s reasonable for the amount of food stuck on the pan. The best tool for removing a lot of stuck food, such as when you’ve accidentally burned a layer of food to the bottom of the pan, or when you’ve forgotten to clean the pan promptly and all the food has hardened to an impenetrable level, is a nylon scraper. (I use one of these, but a cheaper one such as this, should be equally effective–affilliate links).
I like to let really stubborn food soak for 15-60 minutes and then tackle it with the scraper. In most cases in just slides right off the pan using this method. Try not to soak your pan longer than necessary–an overnight soak will probably cause it to rust, and definitely remove some of the seasoning.
For a basic cleaning of cast iron, I use a plastic scrubber much like this one (affiliate link), but I make mine by rolling up old mesh onion bags together. A green scrubbie (affiliate link) is equally good, it’s just a matter of preference.
If the above methods don’t work you can try steel wool, or better, a stainless steel scrubbie, but those should only be used when necessary, as they can damage the seasoning.
After cleaning and rinsing the cast iron pan, it should be dried on stove burner, usually set about medium, but it depends on the heat of the stove. You want it to get hot enough to evaporate off all the water, but not hot enough to start smoking. Also, you want to stay close enough to notice when it’s dry and remove it from the heat, or it will start to smoke, no matter how low the stove is set.
Now, after all the talk above about seasoning, you may be wondering, especially if you’re new to cast iron, what the deal is with this seasoning and why it matters so much. Seasoning is a layer of oil which has bonded to the iron, creating a chemical free ‘non stick’ surface to the pan. Removing this oil makes the pan much more prone to rust and much less useful, as food will stick and burn if the pan isn’t properly seasoned.
In order to maintain this seasoning, you want to add oil on a regular basis. You can do this after every time you dry the pan, or just when it seems like it needs it. You want to add the oil while the pan is still warm, so be very careful not to touch to the pan, and if you’re burn prone or think you might accidentally touch the pan in the seasoning process, wait until it cools somewhat before you start.
You can use whatever kind of oil you like, and long as it’s straight fat. I often use olive oil because it’s handy to reach for, but occasionally use whatever neutral oil I have on hand (such as grapeseed oil) or coconut oil. Lard and tallow should also work just fine, but butter is not ideal, because it has other food particles besides just fat.
Pour between a teaspon and a tablespoon of oil into your cast iron pan. Wipe the oil around with a paper towel or clean rag until all the inside surfaces of the pan are covered with oil.
Let the pan cool, and it’s ready to use again!
If your cast iron pan does get rusty, it’s often still possible to return the pan to a usable state. Scour off the rust (this would be a good time to use one of those metal scrubbies that’s only for dire circumstances), rinse, and continue with the normal drying and seasoning steps.
A note about allergies: because of the nature of the seasoning of a cast iron pan, it may retain some small food particles that can be enough to trigger food allergies in those who are particularly sensitive. If you or someone in you immediate family has food allergies, you may need to completely strip the seasoning from your cast iron pan and start over, proceeding to season and cook ONLY with non-allergenic foods in the cast iron from that point forward. (Google ‘strip cast iron seasoning’ for more detailed instructions: common methods are putting it through a cycle in a self cleaning oven, or leaving it in a campfire/coals for an hour.)
(Notice how at the end of the video I said the pan needs to dry? I actually meant it needs to cool. In case you were wondering…)
Good Bad Food 