Learn me cast iron cookware

The house I bought two years ago came with an induction cooktop. I would have not thought to have purchased it myself...but I love it.
I have used gas and traditional electric in years past. My choices now would be induction, gas then electric; in that order.
My favorite part is that when it's off...it's off. There is no cool down of the burner, it is immediately "cooled" and it is nearly immediately heated.
This video is a good example of the fun of induction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiIKq4RkZ1M
It is all about magnets. Aluminum pans will not work. Cast works great.

JohnRW1621 wrote: The house I bought two years ago came with an induction cooktop. I would have not thought to have purchased it myself...but I love it. I have used gas and traditional electric in years past. My choices now would be induction, gas then electric; in that order. My favorite part is that when it's off...it's off. There is no cool down of the burner, it is immediately "cooled" and it is nearly immediately heated. This video is a good example of the fun of induction. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiIKq4RkZ1M It is all about magnets. Aluminum pans will not work. Cast works great.

Hey! That's neat!

Two questions come to mind:

1) How many thousands of dollars will be required to put one in my kitchen?

2) Does being within 200 or 300 yards of this thing whilst in operation cause tumors to sprout all over your body?

Price:
Expect $1k-$2k for the 4 burner kitchen cooktop.
Expect $100-$200 for a single burner portable cooktop.

Sample of what you might find at Bed Bath Beyond, etc.

Here is the Infomercial version

Can someone explain the salt cleaning process? I haven't tried that and my seasoning is marginal at best.

After looking at the cast iron at the cabin and the one piece at our house, my dad knows how to make 'em slick. Mine is only okay.

In reply to Enyar:

You're just using the abrasive qualities of the salt to scrub the burnt on food off the seasoning.

So next time I cook something just pour salt in there and scrub around?

If it wont wipe clean and you haven't got a metal spatula handy to scrape it off, yeah. Though I think the whole "no soap" thing comes from a time when soap had a lot of lye in it, a drop of dawn and a scotch brite isn't going to kill it.

Enyar wrote: So next time I cook something just pour salt in there and scrub around?

Bingo. If you any oily residue left, wipe or rinse it out. If you rinse with water. If you do use water dry it as well as you can. Then put it back on the stove or in the oven to drive out the remaining moisture.

Time to try again, this time at 400*f. Most of the old seasoning came off after 24 hours in a trash bag with a couple cups of ammonia, followed by some scrubbing with a scotch brite pad, couldn't let it go longer as the pan was starting to rust.

My certified awesome cast iron seasoning system.

1. Strip it, rinse it, dry it, rub a very thin layer of crisco into it, thin enough no amount of rubbing with your hand will pull any off.

2. Bake at 400*f for an hour, let it cool in the oven, if there's any sticky spot, give it another hour.

3. Scrub it with some salt and wipe it out to roughen up the surface and discourage beading, then rub and bake another thin coat of crisco in. Repeat this 5 times.Should look reddish brown now.

4. Cook at least a pound of bacon in it, cook it crisp, hot, almost smoking the oil. Remember to let the bacon warm up to room temp and put it in a cold pan for the first pan load of bacon to keep it form sticking to the questionable seasoning. Cooking surface should now be darker, almost black. I suppose fried chicken in lard or something that effect would work too, just lots of hot animal fat.

5. Cook hash browns in it, in plenty of bacon grease(like 1/8" in the bottom of the pan), pre heat the hell out of the pan/grease, and fry on high heat.

At this point, at least for me, eggs would probably skate in it if it were a machined bottom pan. I actually fried eggs in it, in more bacon grease, right after the potatoes, zero stickage.

Also if its a cast bottom pan, find one of the old style stainless SPRING steel spatulas and use it exclusively, aggressively, to wear the seasoning off the bumps, eventually they will disappear between wear and build up of more seasoning. I bought mine at IKEA.

I cool eggs in mine all the time. I even adopted my sisters for a while to get it seasoned up good. I use a tablespoon of olive oil and let them fry. They slide right out of the pan. I don't need a spatula. It may be sacrilege, but I don't think I've ever cooked bacon in mine. I don't actually eat much bacon (salt is not my friend)

Joey

Shesh, the lengths some of you guys go to in the name of "seasoning", without even apparently knowing what seasoning is.

Cook with your pan regularly, it will be seasoned.

This is cast iron, just like your engine blocks. It's not a magical material, nor does anything magical happen because you heat it from the outside on a stove or in an oven vs heating it from the inside with a piston sliding in it.

In reply to foxtrapper:

Ever try cooking on a raw one? I could berkeley around and have a generally miserable time with the thing for weeks trying to burn it in with use, or have eggs sliding out of it in an afternoon. Real tough decision.

Chuckle. A good seasoning is nice indeed. Oiling, or burning grease, isn't seasoning a cast iron pan.

Btw, if you get a good one, even new, it's easy to cook with. No harder really than a stainless skillet is.