A New-Found Love for My Iron Skillets

Okay, so I have a confession to make. Yes, another one, again.

I’ve been using my cast iron skillets and Dutch oven for the 25 years that I’ve been married. That’s been great, but recently I was reminded that I really wasn’t supposed to be using soap to wash them. Humph!

This is a pic of me experimenting with cooking potatoes in my iron skillet in our wood stove. It worked and was delicious, but that's info for another post!

All those years! Well, I didn’t grow up using iron skillets or any iron cookware, but my husband’s grandmother introduced me to them years back, along with my mother ‘n law. I can remember several conversations about how to use them, what I was supposed to do, and what I wasn’t supposed to do with them.

I specifically remember one conversation with my mother ‘n law and how we couldn’t get used to the idea of not using soap when washing a dish or skillet. It just seemed… bizarre.

Ya know, grease, yucky stuff, food, how do you not wash that off with soap!? It just somehow went against the two of us and our cleanliness, I guess.
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But now, guess what? ​I  was reminded, like I said, of not using soap on them.

So I decided to give it a try this time and see if it made a difference with my skillets. Well, of course it does! They’re better seasoned. I realized a trick, I suppose you could call it, that I found works really well. And yes, I suppose its common sense when using iron to cook with that you should put plenty of oil or butter on the skillet before cooking.

While we have learned that using Extra Virgin Olive Oil is healthy, it is not healthy when cooking at a high heat of 250 degrees or more. So we’ve been steering away from using olive oil and using …

Ta dah!! .. Drum roll, please.

Grass-fed BUTTER!!

Oh. My. Word. It’s amazing!!

Have you tried it? Let me tell you friend, this stuff is so good, and SO healthy! As a matter of fact, any other regular butter has always upset my stomach, if I used too much and it's really not healthy anyway. But I don’t have to Dream on honey anymore, because now I can eat all that delicious butter that I want.

Yep, that’s right. Something about it being so much more pure and closer to the way it was meant to be that it’s great on the digestion and a healthy fat too!

Oh yes. I’m getting off the subject. But just so you know, in case you want some great, grass-fed butter yourself, I buy Amish roll butter from Safeway. I was buying the Kerry Gold that you may have heard about, but the Amish butter is a lot less expensive and a much bigger roll too which works for my big family.

So back to iron skillets. 

When we use the butter, and I mean pour it on honey, the food doesn’t stick! Yep. That’s right. Exactly what you hear about when you hear about iron skillets and food not sticking if they’re seasoned. It’s been great!

The majority of the time, as long as we lather on the butter or oil, we can just wipe out the skillet with a paper towel, and it’s good to go!

Iron skillets are healthy for us too as they add needed iron to our bodies, something I know I need.
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Do you use iron skillets? What has your experience been?
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Write and let me know, I’d love to hear from you!

All the best!
~ Julie 

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