Useful Knowledge: How to Season Cast Iron

Work in progress

 

I have posted a few things that I made in my beloved large and deep cast iron pan.  I realized that I've now owned it for a little over a year!  And in that time, it has improved, probably more than any fine wine would.  

The cast iron pan was a rusty and forgotten old piece of metal in a cardboard box from the days when my family friend went camping--we are talking 70's, I'm thinking.  The pan hadn't seen bacon or the sun in probably around 30 years.

I did some research online about how to clean it.  I would recommend against using a bunch of chemicals like oven cleaner and the like.  After all, this is something you're going to eat off at some point, right?

What did I use?  Salt.  Just plain old table salt is fine.  Cheaper the better, as you will need a lot of it, probably.  Just lightly wet the pan and then pour a lot of salt onto it.  Take a damp paper towel to it and scrub scrub scrub away.  When everything starts to dissolve and/or turn brown, rinse it out, and get a new paper towel and a new bit of salt.  Repeat the process until the rust is gone and pan looks relatively smooth.

Once the pan is smooth, rinse and then wipe off any water.  Now, the pan is very prone to rust/oxidization.  So, you want it to be away from water.  Put it on the stove to dry it out quick.  Then...  Put a dollop of vegetable oil (or other neutral, high-heat oil) on it and wipe all over with a paper towel so that there is a small layer (still on the stove).  Some people prefer the pan upside down in the oven, but I didn't notice much difference.  Heat for several minutes and cool down.  Repeat the heat and cool whenever you feel like it.  This is the start of your seasoning.

Then, cook in it!  Cook a lot!  Cook often!  But, it needs to slowly build up that many-layered seasoning if you want this pan to be something you treasure and use all the time.  Obviously the best thing to do in it is fry bacon.  That goes without say.  Saute things.  Don't do acid-based items like tomatoes, at least until it is well-seasoned.  Heck, I even did some scones in it (line the pan with melted butter first), and it turned out great.

After each time you cook, wait for it to cool so you can handle it, and gently rinse and wipe and then reheat with another layer of oil.  After several times of the cook-wipe-season process, you will see that this is probably the best item in your entire kitchen. 

Oh, and if you have a stubborn bit of burnt food on it, just apply a little salt to that portion and re-season just as you did at the beginning.

Before you know it, you'll use this for cooking just about everything.

Joan's Way of Life

Joan being dressed by the legendary Golden Age costumer, Adrian.

 

Recently I had the pleasure of reading Joan Crawford's book, My Way of Life.  It's another of those obscure, out of print books that I believe is a treasure.  I first heard about it, and got it via Link+, several years ago.  However, I ran out of time to finish it, and forgot about it for a few years.  I decided to try for it again, seeing as a purchased copy goes for about $100.  It's not really a memoir per se, although there are some tidbits (none very juicy) about her Hollywood life, very little about her childhood and pre-Hollywood times, and a few more anecdotes about her various husbands and "friends," her life married to the CEO of Pepsi, and her family life.  Of course, when you read about her times with her daughters, it is hard not to envision Mommy Dearest.  For more juicy stuff, click here.

 

Her style tips are very intriguing.

 The tips in the book read like a "Happy Homemaker" guidebook, albeit one written by a slightly deranged and very rich lady who came of age during the Silent Film era of Hollywood.  All of us can have double-decker closets (i.e., two stories tall), right?  You know, for our out-of-season items.

The pencil marginalia was already on the book.  NO WIRE HANGERS!!!

Some of the book made me a bit sad, as she definitely seemed like someone who had an undiagnosed case of OCD.  I'm not sure how good it is for your shoes to be rubber-banded together and put in plastic bags.  You really have to feel for her "help."


Diet tips are somewhat sensible, surprisingly.

 For an interesting party, invite a variety of guests.  You know, maybe a CEO of a large corporation, a poet, an artist, etc...  Oh yeah, just the usual bunch.  And if you want to be a good hostess, get help (as in, hire a maid) so you can enjoy your own party.  If you aren't too well off, just one will do, but two maids and a butler is better.

I'm sure she was a lovely woman.

 This book is really a good read if you like movie history, actresses of the Golden Age, or retro homemaker guides.  Some of Joan's advice is actually pretty sensible, while other bits are just a little on the loopy side.  Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I do get a feeling of her loneliness, sadness, and struggles in life, even though she works hard to gloss over everything and make everything sound picture perfect.  I'd like to think that if I met her, she would be a woman who just needed a friend and was a bit misunderstood for the route she took in life.

Decluttering: Blue Jean Baby

RIP the jeans tower

For those poor souls aka my friends who have had to move me to various apartments and locations throughout Fremont and Newark, this might seem like too little too late.  Not only do I have 8 instead of fifty coats (this will be in another post), but now I have a fraction of the jeans I had before.

"Um, you still have like fifteen pairs of jeans," you may be saying.  Or, as my husband put it, "You now have a normal human amount of jeans.  It's still too much, but at least it's not crazy-hoarder levels."

People in the know also may remember the above jeans tower.  Well, as of last night, it is no more.  I now have a normal enough amount of jeans to actually fit in my closet.  Imagine that!  This means easier to access outfits, and it means less crap in my room.  More space in our oddly designed master bedroom is always a good thing.

The only bad thing is that halving my jeans collection meant I thought I could get RICH by reselling these jeans to something like Crossroads Trading!  But no such luck.  They didn't want any of my Seven for all Mankind jeans I paid $$$ for.  They did, however, take one pair of random Levi's that I got at like Kohl's or something ten years ago.  Hm.  Lesson learned.  I could sell the rest on eBay or Etsy but I think I will take 'em to Thrift Town.  :-)  Sometimes a lighter house and car is worth more than money.

Oh, and what did I keep?  Vintage.  Levi's.  Classic designs.  No bells and whistles.  I still have several pairs of designer jeans (Paper Denim Cloth, James, Earnest Sewn...), which I got on sale at various places.  But they are just basic classic jeans.  I'm currently reading Cheap Chic, an awesome style guide published in the mid-70's.  Even back then, they said to avoid crazy pockets, zippers, pulls, and embellishments.  Guess what?  They NEVER age well.  So long, blingy Seven jeans with the bedazzled butt.  Might have been the look I was going for in 2007, but it is not exactly a la mode or classic.

Added bonus:  having all my clothes easy to access, in one location, and organized means picking an outfit is not only easy but fun, and quick.  Getting rid of "white noise" clothing has made the house so much more appealing to hang out in.  No longer working off the top of the wardrobe, and letting those wardrobe items I wasn't using, be enjoyed by someone else, is definitely a wonderful thing.

Let's Keep it Clean

It's always a struggle to keep one's house clean.  Well, unless you're a neat freak, in which case, want to help me clean mine?  I have been called a neat freak, but trust me, that I am not.  Some weeks are too busy, with too many commitments and too many people to make happy, that I just don't have the time to do much past emptying the trash and cleaning up after dinner.  Then the weekend comes, and we have more commitments and guests and places to go, sometimes overnight.  Vacuuming out the cabinets becomes a non-priority.

I was reminded of the need to put things on a schedule thanks to this handy chart.  It starts out innocently enough, reminding you to wipe down counters daily (doable), and even ends by reminding you to do things seasonally like clean out the pantry.  But it lost me at "scrubbing tile grout" because we have a rental with rotted grout, and it's not on us to repair/replace/regrout.  We just have to make do.  As Bay Area residents, we are far from alone in being renters.  It also lost me at "wipe down inside of medicine cabinets."  We have one very small one, which I guess I wipe down once in awhile, but if you don't have too much junk, the actual cleaning of things is not too ornery a task.

If you just modify a list and make it work for you, that's a good start.  Some weekends, I can set aside two hours to clean the house--this weekend, I did the bathroom and kitchen.  But, some weekends are too busy (unless you want to be that weirdo cleaning the bathroom when everyone is enjoying a potluck?).  In that case, we break up the cleaning--bathroom sink and counter and toilet one day, shower/tub the other, kitchen floor another, and so on.  Once in awhile if I'm feeling zesty, I'll even scrub the baseboards.  Use your eyes and nose to help guide you on what really needs to be done.

I personally think it's all about simplifying things--your surroundings and your possessions, so that the cleaning and tidying is super easy to do.  Then, simplify the cleaning and tidying.  Find multi-taskers that can clean both floors and counters.  No need to have three cabinets' full of cleaning supplies for every surface.  For us, we use a Method brand cleaner on the tub and tile, and Dr. Bronner's peppermint cleaner on the floors (the whole house smells like a candy cane when done).  Bon Ami works great on our stainless steel sink. 

Natural products like vinegar, lemon, and salt, also do some great cleaning.  Vinegar is king!  Just google to find out ratios for cleaning different household surfaces.  The internet is awesome.

For some good tips on how to whip your kitchen into shape, I really liked these ideas.  Also, this article on how to care for kitchen items.  I'll talk about kitchen stuff in a later post.  I just wanted to focus on general house stuff in this one.