I have to say, I think pound for pound my cast iron pans may turn out to be my best investment ever. Cast iron pans are virtually indestructible and (In my opinion) better than most other non-stick pans out there. An added benefit to cooking with cast iron pans is that they actually add some additional iron into your diet. I bought my pans on ebay for 20ish dollars, I’ve had them a while and can’t remember the exact figure. That was a real steal, when I go to thrift stores I usually see cast iron pans going for 20ish for just one pan. The good news is you might be able to score one of these durable pans by finding one that looks disgusting or rusty. Its really easy to take a cast iron pan that has rust or debris on it and turn it back into a serviceable cooking utensil.
Cast iron pans generally have what is known as seasoning on them. This is where some of the cooking oil or fat has burned itself onto the pan creating a slick non-stick surface. You can restore a rusty pan by cutting a potato in half, adding salt to the pan, and grinding the salt against the pan to remove the rust. Then simply clean out the pan, coat it with cooking oil, and bake it in your oven at 350 for a hour. You then have a perfectly good, freshly seasoned, cast iron pan for cooking. The more you use these pans the slicker the surface becomes.
Why use cast iron? These pans don’t wear out as far as I know, I’ve had mine for years with no issues. The same cannot be said for many other types of non-stick pans where the coating eventually wears off. There is also disagreement about whether those non-stick coatings can cause cancer. Also, as a bachelor I will do just about anything to avoid creating extra dishes. You can eat your meals straight from the pan or use the pan as a baking dish and bake a casserole right in the pan. Again, forks and knives will not permanently damage your pan like they would others.
As an added benefit, once you shell out some of those hard earned dollars for a cast iron pan (which I think is a great alternative investment) that should further incentive you to eat at home which will reap additional savings. You might choose to see those savings as a compound return on your initial cast iron investment.
Cast iron cooking recipes.
