Dear Beloved Cast Iron

Text by Sophie Baron | Illustration by Sarah Skalski

What would we have done without you? With your love and care, my family has been graced with both the tenderest of chicken and the tenderest of memories. The best meals are perfectly curated in a cast iron. Whether it be a crispy fried egg, tangy shakshuka or a gooey chocolate chip cookie, you never seem to disappoint.

Passed down for years, you have been providing generations of family members a stress-free, yet gourmet cooking experience. In order to truly understand the greatness of it, let me tell a little story about how you came to be. It all started when my Bubbe and Grandfather were given their first cast-iron skillet at their wedding. When they arrived home and settled in, Bubbe seasoned her skillet right away by giving it a thick coat of vegetable oil and baking it in the oven. Once seasoned, the skillet would be set to-go for many meals to come.

One of Bubbe’s favorite things to cook for her family was thick-cut bacon. Every morning after a living room slumber party, we could hear the sizzle and pop of the bacon grease on you, her beloved skillet, in the kitchen next door. We would come running in with grumbling bellies ready to devour our family sleepover breakfast. Once Bubbe had passed away, her memories and recipes lived on through her cast-iron skillet which was handed down to my mom.

All that bacon grease has sunk into the metal and deeply enhanced the flavor of anything cooked in the skillet. Now, the cast-iron is home to many of my mom’s best dishes— fried rice, beef tacos, matzo brie and crispy blackened salmon just to name a few.

As she taught me how to cook, I soon learned all the tips and tricks to using you, my skillet. While some may call it a myth, my mom told me to NEVER wash with soap and to always dry immediately. Myth or not, risking the delicate nature of a perfectly seasoned cast-iron skillet is not something I’m willing to try.

While the cast iron is clearly the perfect tool for any cuisine, there’s one crucial factor that ensures everything made in a cast iron is delicious. That secret ingredient is... GREASE! It may sound a little icky, but when it comes down to it, the beauty of a castiron is that it holds onto residual grease and continues to make food tastier and more flavorful the more it’s used. For that reason, there's no doubt that the food tastes better and better with each meal made.

So my dear cast iron, I want to thank you for being there for my family. From my early morning bacon after cousin sleepovers to fried rice after a long day at school, you have been serving my family for generations upon generations. No matter how much grease you soak in or how many chicken bits get burned and crumpled in the process of failed recipes, you have always been there for us without a problem. Because of you, we have been blessed with laughs, tears, celebrations and fond memories served over delicious food.