I have a few skillets, a dutch oven type pot and I just got a new set that is 2 skillets but 1 doubles as a lid. I'll be honest, I haven't used them... but I really want to start. They are just extremely heavy and bulky! Eventually I want to replace all my cheap junky pans and skillets with cast iron because I've read they are better and better for you. So ... I read online how to "season" your CIC before use. I've got a few pans cooling down in the oven now. But I'm curious how some of you that use them care for them and if theres any yummy recipes you want to share or tips, tricks to cleaning them and keeping them in condition.  They arent cheap! We only buy the ones made in USA. These last ones I bought are by "The Lodge"  its freezing outside and raining so no horses or baseball  for me today ... I'm cooking and reorganizing my pots n pans in the kitchen lol! 

I love mine!!! I never use soap to wash  I always use water and salt and grease with crisco dont use a spray oil my hubby did that and it was making them feel really splotchy and weird   It took me awhile to figure out what was wrong with my skillets!  I caught him in the act.  He just didn't know but he knows now! lol  one of my fav is to put buter (lots) and wait til brown and then pour cornbread mixture in and then bake  when you cut into it the underside crispy and full of flavor!

Use your normal recipes for starters, cast and stainless is all I use! Just beware to only clean with water and scraper, I season with canola oil after drying. 

You can use to bake in oven, cook over open fire, stovetop. Desserts, main courses, sides, whatever! Happy cooking!??

So spraying them with non stick cooking spray made your cast iron splotchy? I'm so use to doing that with my other pans when cooking eggs or whatever. I cook with a lot of olive, coconut and avocado oil. I'll have to pick up some crisco. I'm going to try a recipe I found today for chicken and rice. Looks super yummy and that cornbread sounds AMAZING! 

I have a cold jar of bacon grease that I keep in the fridge. At the old country store where I bought mine, there was a man in a rocking chair who saw me buying it, and he told me that's what I should use, so I felt like I should listen. Nothing sticks to it and it's easy to clean!

If you get lazy with cleaning sometimes, like I do, you can scrub it with a rough scrubber to get off tough stuff that has hardened up, just make sure you rinse and DRY immediately. No air drying! Right before I go to use it the next time, I'll just take a small index finger glob of cold bacon grease, rub it around the pan with a napkin, and start cooking.

Only thing that I won't cook in mine is a tomatoe base recipe.  If it gets stuff stuck to it I wash with hot water and kosher salt, dry on the burner then regrease with crisco.  Every once in awhile I will put freshly greased skillet into a preheated 500 deg. oven, turn off heat and let sit until cooled off to reseason it.

You've gotten a lot of good cleaning advice here so I won't parrot but one thing I LOVE to make in my Dutch Oven is a good dump cake. In fact I have one Dutch Oven that I use for baking sweet things only. :) 

My chicken and rice supper turned out so good! And nothing got stuck! I found some crisco in my pantry. The salt cleaning trick was so simple. Love it! I'm excited to start building my collection! 

Others have given you some pretty solid advice. A good source for information about seasoning and maintanance is Jeff Rogers (theculinaryfanatic.com). He has some very good videos and pratical, easy to follow advice.  You can google "jeff rogers cast iron" and it will pop right up. The most important thing to take away from the seasoning method is to wipe away whatever oil/ crisco you are seasoning with like you are alergic to it before you do your final heat. Splochiness comes from people leaving too much oil on the skillet and it cant polymerize correctly. Too much will pool and leave spotty areas. Multiple THIN layers of seasoning work much better than 1 thick layer. I've found three things to cook that helps with seasoning also - besideds being yummy. I cook lots of cornbread (using the method of heating my grease in the skillet then adding it to the batter- making sure the skillet is well greased), oven roasting vegetables and using my deep skillet to pop popcorn. They all involve oil/grease and high heat.

I think the biggest learning curve to cooking with cast iron is that it takes less heat from the stove to cook than stainless or other types of cookware. Lots of peopl use the same heat that they used before and things burn/stick- especially bacon or eggs. I've never had any problems with pan sprays making my cast iron blotchy- but I don't use them to season- only to cook. When I'm not using bacon grease!!

Don't worry about looking for "Cast iron" recipes.It's a trap to get your money. Any recipe can be cooked in cast iron. I do agree to lay off the tomato based dishes until the pans are SUPER WELL seasoned because the acidity will mess with the seasoning. I also don't like to boil water in mine. Enamled cast iron pieces are better for that.

Once you are comfortable with and still like your cast iron, if the heaviness still bothers you- you could look into some other makers. Stargazer and Butterpat are 2 American makers that are patterning their cast iron pices after older methods. Lodge used to be finished smoother and weigh less. Be prepared for the price tags - Stargazers and Butterpats are the Elliot bits of the cast iron world. You could also start hunting for older cast iron. I enjoys hitting up antique stores/ estate sales / flea markets for older iron that I restore. Grizwald, Wagner, Birmingham Stove and Range (BSR) are all makers that are no longer in business, but their pieces are still out there. Much smoother finish, lighter and better balanced than newer Lodge. You can even hunt for the older lodge. Don't get me wrong - the newer lodge will cook just fine and be just as nonstick, but there may be other makers out there that end up apealing to you more. I personally love the hunt for the old gatemarked pans. Before 1919, when hot cast iron was poured into the mold to form a piece it was poured from above and there is a mark on the back of the skillet from the mold.  this mark was never ground off. So gatemarked pieces are at least 100 years old.  As the iron foundries got more technology - the practice went to injecting with a side gate and the mark was ground off so the skillet looks prettier.

Can you tell I kinda like cast Iron???? Hollar if you have any questions.

PS- don't worry about cooking with only crisco/ bacon grease.You can cook healthy in cast iron too. Your olive, avacado, coconut, or grapeseed oils will be just fine for cooking. You can even use them to season with once you look up the smoke point. Thats where the seasoning magig happens. Olive oil is the only one that has a pretty low smoke point, so its not a good seasoning choice - but its fine for cooking.

Wow! Thank you so much! I love your passion! I dont mind the crisco.. I ended up using a few tablespoons of olive oil to cook last nights chicken and rice it worked beautifully. I read about the tomato based stuff harming the finish on cast iron, typically I use my instapot for any spaghetti type sauces. I'm really wanting to get more creative in the kitchen and use more cast iron, I'm definitely going to be on the lookout for some older pieces, my in laws have tons upon TONS of old cookware laying around. 

Yes it made mine very spotchy! It took a few cleanings to get back to normal.  And bacon grease is awesome! 

On your collection: Alot of people wont take care of them right so at yard sales I always see them around 5.00 and all they need is to be seasoned and cleaned  So maybe keep an eye out that way be cheaper! 

I’m sorry but I have to use soap on mine. I have had food poisoning one too many times. I put the skillets on the burner to dry them. When you cook fried food in them every night they will build up a crust on the outside and I put them in the burning barrel about once a year to burn that off. Then season them in the oven and you are good to go. I got salmonella food poisoning when I lived in Africa. Medical attention was rather limited and I also died. I can’t donate blood now because of it and have to have soap on everything. Pans, hands everything. 

I got food poisoning once really bad too. Not as bad as yours though! I know exactly where I got it too. From a place called Baja Fresh in California when I lived there. I was miserable for about 2 full days .. vomiting constantly. Looking back I should have gone to the er but I stayed home and toughed it out like an idiot. It was really bad! I still remember it to this day lol! It was well over 20 years ago.. geesh...  I never thought about getting ill from not using soap on the cast iron... hmmmm..... 

Soap isn't going to hurt the seasoning on cast iron. Years ago, when people made their own soap out of lye- yes it would, because lye will disolve the seasoning. Today's soaps won't hurt it a bit. Do what you feel comfortable with.

Streakysox-

Please check into making a lye bath to clean your cast iron instead of putting it in fire. It's simple and easy to use lye and much safer for your cast iron. If the temp of the fire is too hot, it can warp or crack your iron. Since you are familiar with cast iron, you have probably heard the term "spinner" or "rocker". Most times this is caused by fire damage. All cast iron is milled to sit flat, but too much heat can make them spin or rock on flat serfaces. Of course, it's your iron - so do what you feel comfortable with, but there are several easy and safe ways to clean it besideds fire.

Okay. It's perfectly fine to wash with soap, water, scrub brushes, Brillo pads, etc. The VERY IMPORTANT part is the drying. Always dry it on the stove with high heat. Heat until all moisture evaporates from iron. If it ever needs to be seasoned again, just throw it into your next burn pile. My cast iron cookware came out of my house fire looking brand new. 

nothing is better than cornbread in cast iron nothing

my sis makes chicken and dumplings in hers omy