What NOT to cook in cast iron?

[Hutch]

I'm getting a little bit of the cast iron cookware bug.  I have a couple-three Lodge skillets that I rarely use, and a medium sized Dutch oven I have NEVER used.  That being said, i have started frying stuff in the skillets, as well as oven baking bIscuits in them.  I have adopted the practice of never using soap on the pieces, but using table salt as a scouring powder, preceded and followed up with HOT water rinse (like, from my 190F tap), followed by a little canola oil.

All that being said, are there some foods that SHOULD not be cooked in cast iron?  Spaghetti sauce comes to mind, but I have no clue.  I imagine that recipes that include a rolling boil, the quickly reducing to simmer would be problematic.  Rice comes to mind....

Y'all got any words of wisdom?

[K Frame]

Anything strongly acidic...

Tomato based sauces, tomato based soups, etc., or things with a lot of vinegar.

Sauerkraut can be problematic, as well, if you leave it cook for a long time.

If you have a really good seasoning coat on it, you can risk it, but the longer it cooks the greater the chance of it starting to taste like nails.

[makattak]

Mike has got it. Soups (especially tomato based ones) and such go in the stainless steel in my house.

I just want to clarify what Mike is saying, too. It's both acidic AND length of time in the cast iron. Acidic is bad and gets worse for the pan/food over time.

JUST cooking for a long time is not sufficient for concern for non-acidic foods. I do chicken fricassee and chicken pot pies in my cast iron.

[RoadKingLarry]

My sugar cured bacon and ham will caramelize something awful without a little extra bacon grease to start off with.
A noted anything with a high acid level will risk stripping the "seasoning" off the pan.

[Unisaw]

Boiling water in cast iron should generally be avoided, as it will remove a layer or two of seasoning.

[T.O.M.]

A couple of years ago, for Christmas, my mother-in-law gave me an enamel clad cast iron dutch oven.  I thanked her, and started planning the donation to the Scout Troop.  Then I realized that it is the perfect pot for some things, like bolognese or marinara sauce, or when I do curried pork.  The tomato-based sauce for the reasons Mike listed.  The curry, well I always feel like the next cook or two after a pot of curry still tastes like curry.

[K Frame]

I'd really have to question the sanity of anyone who would willingly give away an enameled cast iron pot.

[RoadKingLarry]

I'd really have to question the sanity of anyone who would willingly give away an enameled cast iron pot.

Well, he's a lawyer so....

[230RN]

Huh!  I left all my mother's antique cast iron cookware with Wife1 when we split the blanket, so I never encountered that problem.  Enlightening.

So what do you get? Ferric Spaghettiate?  Sauerkrautous ferrate?

[T.O.M.]

I'd really have to question the sanity of anyone who would willingly give away an enameled cast iron pot.

First, my sanity is not in question.  Lost it a long time ago.   

Second, I'd had an enamel clad once before.  Hated it.  Food stuck like crazy, and then the damn enamel started flaking off the bottom.  Turns out it was more a fault of the cheap product than it was enamel clad in general.

[Perd Hapley]

1. Your wife

2. Your dog

3. Kale

[French G.]

I have a two cast cornbread pans my mom used when I was a kid. Ought to start a war here. Lodge Dutch ovens were on Walmart clearance one day for $20 and sadly I could only afford one. I have two skillets that were free, the one was twenty years in a barn and rusty, it has a perfect interior now. The other is a lodge so of course it is crap for finish.

[Scout26]

I have a enameled 12' skillet.  I love to cook in that more then either of the two 10" regular cast iron skillet.  (Yes, I know heresy.)  But I can cook any damn thing I want without fear of ruining the seasoning.  Although, when I am warming it up it does give off the aroma of whatever was cooked in it last.

I have a Dutch oven with legs.  I'd use it more in the kitchen, except for the damn legs.  I may see if I can find a flat bottom dutch oven for stove top and oven (I'd like an enameled one), and relegate the other one to the camper...

[T.O.M.]

I have a Dutch oven with legs.  I'd use it more in the kitchen, except for the damn legs.  I may see if I can find a flat bottom dutch oven for stove top and oven (I'd like an enameled one), and relegate the other one to the camper...

Both of my Dutch ovens...traditional and enamel...are flat bottom. The troop has the ones with legs for campfire cooking.

[230RN]

The aforementioned cast iron cookware of my mother's mostly had ridges cast into the inside bottoms.  IIRC, the frying pan and the plain boiling pot were exceptions.

These were either imported from Poland or carried here by my forebears.

Is this normal for today's cast iron cookware?

I do recall my mother being disappointed that once, when I washed the dishes, I really, really cleaned one of them.  

As in wearing out a Brillo pad.

On the other hand, she realized than she had not instructed me otherwise.  (She then told me how to refurbish the required surface.)

She also chastised me once for thoroughly cleaning the family's beer glasses, since "you're not supposed to use soap on beer glasses, it makes them lose the head on the beer."

Y' s'pose that's why I'm such a slob nowadays?

Terry, 230RN