Cast Iron Skittle Cooking

Cast Iron Cooking

I love using cast Iron pans, crocks when I cook. The flavors really come out if the pans are properly seasoned and cared for.

Seasoning is simple- and there are several methods- I prefer using some fat, chicken or tallow with some bacon and a little sea salt. I let the pan get nice and hot at low temp on my grill for about 20 min., wipe off the fat with a paper towel, and apply a little avocado oil and rub it in with another paper towel. The pan is ready to use.

I use 2 pans- 1 for meats, chicken, vegetables and 1 for fish.

Butter is the preferred fat I love to use (grass fed and grass finished of course), and depending what’s for dinner, specifically fish, I will add an herb like fresh rosemary, some minced garlic, occasionally finely diced ginger and diced onions. When cooking meats like elk, or chicken I’ll do the same, but for my steaks like Ribeye’s, New York,  Prime Rib and pork chops- butter and sea salt only.

Let the butter and seasonings “work” together for about 10-20min. on the grill, oven so that the flavors saturate the pan typically at very low heat.

Turn up the flames now and get ready for an amazing sear- Fish is applied flesh down, and depending on how you like it done, rare, medium, well- keep an eye on it and flip to crisp the bottom side. Take the skillet off grill, oven and let it sit in the pan for 5-10 min. Chicken, Pork you need to use a thermometer to make sure your at 160 f., Game meat like Elk, Buffalo and Venison should get to 130-140- any more than that they will get dry, tough, and I like to braise the Game meats, and chicken, with the juice in the skillet.

Steaks- I’ll take off the steaks a little early and let the grill add the final touch- not too long maybe 60 seconds on each side.

Cover the meats, chicken, pork chops with a foil and let it rest before cutting- fish doesn’t need to rest.

Cleaning the skillet when done

Add some water to pan, place on stove top and let water boil- use a rubber, wood spatula to scrape off the residue in pan and dump drain. Wipe the pan down with paper towel, place on stove top again and make sure all the moisture is eliminated- don’t walk away from it, won’t take too long.

Use paper towel ,apply some avocado oil, spread and that’s it-ready for next use