Never cook acidic foods in a cast iron skillet. Acidic ingredients like tomatoes, lemons, and wine can be cooked in a well-seasoned cast iron pan for short amounts of time. You can sauté cherry tomatoes in cast iron, but don't try making a long-simmering tomato sauce.
Yes. Tomato sauce is okay to simmer for an hour in cast iron, as the acidic tomato content will not scratch or damage it. Acids are actually what make metal safe to cook with, but don't use boring pots and pans that are high-carbon steel or aluminum because they'll react with acid and create a lot of off flavors.
Acidic foods (unless you make it snappy)
Acidic foods (like tomato sauce, wine-braised meats, etc.) enter the red zone when they spend too much time cooking in the skillet. It's particularly important to not marinate anything in a cast-iron pan, as many marinades are quite acidic in order to tenderize the meat.
Cast Iron Spaghetti is very quick and very simple to make. With a few easily accessible ingredients and a little bit of time, you can make a delicious dinner for your family and friends.
Yes, cast iron is ideal for making fond for pan sauces.
Cast iron cookware's disadvantages include its heavy weight, the need for seasoning and maintenance, potential reaction with acidic foods, and lack of slickness for delicate cooking tasks.
Eggs fall into the category of sticky foods that are not ideal for cast iron skillets that haven't built up their seasoning yet. While cast iron can become non-stick with sufficient use over time, a newer skillet will almost certainly cause your eggs to stick to its porous surface.
Never cook acidic foods in a cast iron skillet.
Acidic ingredients like tomatoes, lemons, and wine can be cooked in a well-seasoned cast iron pan for short amounts of time. You can sauté cherry tomatoes in cast iron, but don't try making a long-simmering tomato sauce.
Rinsing your skillet with cold water while cleaning off rust will help prevent new rust from forming quickly. After scrubbing and rinsing your skillet, make sure you dry it thoroughly by heating it for a few minutes on the stovetop. Once dry, coat the skillet all over in a thin layer of seasoning oil.
Finishing the pasta in the sauce not only allows the neutral-tasting pasta to absorb some of the sauce and its flavor, but it also makes the sauce viscous enough to cling to the pasta, as the starches the pasta sheds during the cooking process thicken the sauce.
All cast iron, whether natural or coated, has a much higher carbon concentration than other popular food-safe metals like stainless steel and aluminum. This means that natural cast iron is more susceptible to corrosion because when carbon combines with oxygen and water, rust forms.
Common cooking oils like olive oil will gradually produce seasoning, but won't be as effective as grapeseed oil. Canola, other vegetable oils, and shortening are a little better.
If cast iron is left in the sink to soak, put in the dishwasher, or allowed to air dry, it will rust. It can also happen when you store your cookware in moisture-prone environments, such as a cabinet near a dishwasher, an open cabinet in a humid location, or stored outside.
In many cases, you should avoid cooking acidic ingredients such as tomatoes, lemon juice, wine, and vinegar in your cast-iron skillet.
Non-stick skillets are specifically designed to not let food caramelize or stick to their surface, and, while cast iron skillets create great fond, they can react with acidic ingredients in the sauce and ruin the flavor.
The takeaway? It's safe to cook tomato- and wine-based sauces in cast iron, but you should save the vinegary pan sauces for stainless-steel pans—or dilute the vinegar (or citrus) with water or stock.
You should season a cast-iron skillet at least once a month, but seasoning it after each time you cook with it also works. You may not need to repeat the entire seasoning process as you did before initially using it, but after each use, rinse it and give your cast-iron skillet a quick season by oiling it.
Two words: heat & oil.
The most common reason food sticks to cast iron is because the pan is simply too hot.
Cooking on unseasoned cast iron can result in sticking, rusting, and a myriad of other issues (some of which are outlined above). Lucky for cast-iron newbies, most skillets sold these days come pre-seasoned. Take your store-bought seasoning a step further though and add your own before you call it good to go.
Typically, it is black, matte-finish enamel and will not rust. It's Non-Reactive: Enameled cast iron will not react with acidic foods, such as those made with tomatoes, wine, vinegar, or citrus. I reach for enameled whenever I make things like spaghetti sauce, chili dishes, and sauces.
Why do Scrambled Eggs Turn Green In a Cast Iron Skillet? This harmless but unappealing color change is the result of a chemical reaction between iron in the pan and sulfur in egg whites. Why do Boiled Eggs Turn Green?
The cast iron skillet will fry up bacon beautifully for that perfect salty side.