Homemade Sausage Making

If any of you are into cooking in cast iron pots/ovens here is a good article on seasoning them with flax seed oil.

Flax seed oil and seasoning cast iron.

Very good article, thanks.

I might have to try the flax seed oil, to clean up and old pan we just toss them in a a dying woodstove fire for the night. they come out squeaky clean for seasoning.

Darwin, are you a "Dutcher"? Good on ya! If you cook with black iron, you can ride my pony and share my campfire any day! Especially if you make good sourdough biscuits! It's nice to have you with us pal!

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

Yup, I like to cook in black iron. I usually only use them during the winter here, or if I get to go fishing up in the mountains. Not fun cooking outdoors here in the summer. I am not much on breakfast, but I do use them for sourdough in the indoor oven following the Tartine Bakery method. Not much better in life than warm fresh baked bread and Kerry Gold butter.

Thanks for that link Darwin. I have a Lodge Pro Grid Cast Iron Griddle that I have never seasoned properly. I mainly use on the barbecue, and there is no better way to do salmon than on that griddle. Recently have been getting a few rust spots on it, so your post motivated me to season it again. Now, just to find time for those six sessions!

I am having to work at getting over the idea that flaxseed oil and linseed oil are the same oil that I use for rubbing into wooden tool handles and work bench tops. I guess that food grade flaxseed oil could be used for wood finishing but linseed oil wouldn't do well as food.

I cook with cast iron every day and I love it! There is no expensive oil in my cast iron and it is a 10.

I need to give my trusty cast iron fry pan a good clean up. After using, while it is still hot I give it a good scrub under hot water, partly dry it and then return it to the hob to fully dry. I then re-season it. Over the years it has got a bit grubby. The blog writer goes to great lengths with using vinegar and then baking it. I do use vinegar now and then to clean my stove top coffee maker.

Cleaning and re-seasoning cast iron pots reminds me of a story I heard on the radio years ago. A guy use to bury his cast iron ports in his veggie plots so that the worms would clean them. He would leave them there for a year, clean them and then season them. One year he forgot that he had left one buried and drove his rotary hoe over it causing both his hoe and the pan a great deal of damage.

Darwin wrote:If any of you are into cooking in cast iron pots/ovens here is a good article on seasoning them with flax seed oil.
Flax seed oil and seasoning cast iron.

Good article, despite the error on nitrates in bacon:

article on seasoning cast iron wrote:...many people substitute bacon drippings, but this is a bad idea. If it`s conventional bacon, you`re baking in carcinogenic nitrates...

We all know better, though, Kiddies. Right? (If not, please re-read CW's writings on nitrite and nitrate. ...well worth a re-read.)

Looks like it's time to haul the old cast iron monster out, season it, and give it another go. I only use mine for gumbo, and these days, Beloved Spouse can't eat anything made with a roux. Hey! I know! I'll make another "Sons-of-Bees" bacon batch. Yeah...

We use cast iron every day around here for almost all our frying, sauteing, tortilla warming, etc. Haven't tried flax seed oil, but lard works great. Best way to clean them that I've found is:
1 - Pour out any oil, then wipe with a paper towel. If there is a lot of food stuck to the bottom, add a little water and heat on the stove, then scrape it out.
2- Put a little water into the partially cleaned skiller and heat on the stove as you simultaneously scrub with a scrubber sponge or green 3M pad.
3 - Rinse and return to the stove to dry.
4 - Rub a little lard on and you're done.

If you use this method you'll develop a smooth, shiny non-stick surface.

Any sausage maker will have plenty opportunity to render lard from fat back.

Cheers,
Jeff

I have to agree with Jeff. Lard works great to keep cast iron pans and griddles in great shape.

Also most of the cast iron pans in that article were vintage cast Iron... there is a big difference between them and the more modern pans like Lodge.

I have some old Griswold and Wagner pans that I can keep in top shape no problem. The surface is much smoother.

My Lodge pans I gave away.