I enjoy cooking as a utility. It completes a necessity. I don’t get fancy, but I also don’t half-ass it as I like to pick what I eat for dinner, and I also like to make things that taste good. The best meals I have ever had in my life have been made in my own kitchen. I don’t work with the best, but I also try to put myself in the best possible situation to succeed.
So I bought a cast iron skillet.
Cast iron skillets seemed like the most overrated thing in the world. The only reviews I got of them was that they work just like any other skillet, except they’re heavier than shit and a pain in the ass to clean. The weight is absolutely true as this thing would definitely break your foot if you dropped it. The great benefit seems to be that you can season a cast iron skillet to help improve the flavor of your food. But that seasoning aspect of the cast iron skillet is either something I don’t understand or just doesn’t make sense.
The cleaning and the flavor go hand in hand. But I will say that the cleaning aspect seems overrated. My wife always gets mad at me when I put our pots and pans in the dishwasher as she claims they never get cleaned in there. I believe they get clean enough, and clean enough is exactly the type of clean that is required for cast iron skillets. The complicated way to clean a cast iron skillet appears to be washing it with water, and then you just scrub it. Add a little oil at the end, and you’re good. So I think the “seasoning” of the skillet is just not cleaning it all that well so you can get old food mixed in with your new food. It makes no sense, but this way of cleaning is easier than what my wife wants me to do since I don’t have to use soap on cast iron.
But does that seasoning work? Does the food taste better? Not that I can tell, but it makes me feel like I’m more of a chef. Is this a tale of a sad, old man trying to stay relevant in the hip world of foodies? Possibly, but for $17.90, that feeling seems worth it.