Eating Well for Life!

Home
Here's to Your Health!
Grocery Stores and Coops
Organic Farmer Markets
Organic Restaurants
Cooking Tips
Fresh Harvest Recipes
Health Events
Healthful Links
About Us
Contact Us
Cooking Tips
Here you will find useful tips, how to articles, and interesting ideas.  We welcome your comments or suggestions!
 
How to Cure Cast Iron Pans
Posted 9/1/2007 by Joan Shumaker
 
I've been trying to find the instructions on how to season a cast-iron pan. I remembering having instructions with my Lodge pan, but I also remembered that I wasn't well pleased with the results. So I came up with my own method: after I rinsed and wiped the pan after cooking (while it was still warm), I would use paper towels to spread solid shortening and then clean paper towels to wipe out the excess. The results seem to be acceptable.

Today, I found the following information in a May/June 1997 copy of Cook's Illustrated. I don't know if you have ever reviewed a copy, but I really love this publication. I have a couple of year's of magazines that are hard bound. In Cook's Illustrated, the authors review various popular products (foods as well as cooking items), test various cooking methodologies, and research the best recipes. They not only tell you the results but also explain their process (trials and errors). Well, interesting enough, they also tested the Lodge instructions as well as instructions recommended by Barbara Tropp in her book, The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking (I'm not familiar with her). The Cook's Illustrated offer found that the process Tropp used (similar to the one I have been using lately) produced the best results!

Here are the instructions mentioned by Cook's Illustrated:

"Heat the pan over high heat until a drop of water sizzles immediately upon contact. Dunk a wad of paper towels in cooking oil and wipe the entire inside of the pan with the oil. Then use another wad of toweling to rub the oil into the metal and wipe out any excess. Use another clean wad if needed. Repeat three to four times for a new pan until it blackens."

Source:  Stephanie Lyness, "How to Season a Cast-Iron Pan", Cook's Illustrated, May/June 1997, p. 9.
 
Here's another tip:  If your pan has rusted, sprinkle with coarse salt before you wipe pan with cooking oil or shortening.  Scrub well to remove rust.  Wipe with clean paper towels to remove all salt.  Then rub again with another paper towel with oil only.
Freezing Tomatoes
Posted 9/1/2007 by Joan Shumaker
 
Find yourself with more ripe tomatoes that you can use?  Don't let them spoil--freeze them!
 
You can freeze tomatoes for up to 6 months and you don't have to stand over boiling water in the middle of the summer to do so!
 
To prepare the tomatoes for freezing, do one of the following after you wash and dry the tomatoes:
 
  • For most versitile use of the tomatoes later, simple freeze them whole.  Place in freezer bags, carefully removing as much air as possible.
  • Or, core then cut tomatoes into desired pieces.  Place in freezer bags, carefully removing as much air as possible.

 

To defrost, use one of the following methods:

 

  • Remove the freezer bag from freezer and place in refrigerator to defrost overnight.
  • Or, remove the freezer bag from freezer and place in a bowl of cool water.  Will be thawed enough for use in soups or sauces in about 30 minutes if tomato pieces or longer if whole tomatoes.
  • Or, remove peelings from whole frozen tomatoes by holding the frozen whole tomato under hot running water.  The peelings will then be easy to remove.