Friday, December 5, 2008

Cast Iron, Reseasoned

Those of you who follow my blog might remember how I stupidly braised chicken in wine in my beautifully-seasoned cast iron dutch oven. When I washed the pot, I discovered that the acidic wine had stripped the iron of its protective coating. Oops.

Finally, I got around to reseasoning the pot. It was easy enough...just had to melt some vegetable shortening in the microwave to make it liquidy enough to easily coat the entire pot. I then popped the upside-down pan into a cold oven (with an aluminum-lined cookie sheet on the rack beneath it), and heated the oven to 400 degrees. The pot "cooked" for an hour, then remained in the oven to cool. It got smelly in the house (and my eyes burned a little), but I was delighted when I removed the cool pot to find that the silvery areas were nice and coated once again. (Easy enough, but it doesn't stop me from dreaming of an enamel coated cast iron dutch oven...)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've actually been eyeing that very same pan. Target carries it as well, and I think it's the same price. It's uber heavy and fabulous!!!

Ali B. said...

Hi, Erin - Ali from the Ethicurean article. Somehow, yours was the only comment that didn't get forwarded into my email account, so I'll leave a message here to say hello. How funny to be linked via the ethicurean...we've probably seen each other a hundred times.

FYI, I love the plain old (non-enamel coated) cast iron. More maintenance, but some of the iron actually makes it into the foods this way. And? It's just as nonstick as any ol' teflon.

we'll probably run into one another at Wild Oats one of these days...Walmart? Maybe not so much.

Erin Murphy said...

Hi there, Ali!

I DO love my cast iron dutch oven. I struggle with not being able to wash it right after I'm done using it for cooking (it stays hot for so long!). But you are right, its nutritional benefits cannot be ignored!

Thanks again for your post!