These days many people use all kinds of different pans. Many of them containing toxic non-stick layers. The traditional pans are cast iron and they are amazing. But you need to know a bit more to know why they are amazing.
Cast Iron pans
Cast Iron pans are amazing. They can last very very long. They can last for generations when treated well. So they are totally worth the investment. In some families they have gone from grandparents to parents to children and are in an amazing state. You just really need to take care of them.
I have purchased several different types over the years. Most brands are pretty good to excellent.
Non-toxic
Cast iron pans can be prepared in such a way that they have a non-stick type of layer as well. This is non-toxic, contrary to many of the non-stick layers in pans on the market. Some are good, but most of them are toxic and some even slowly come off and then end up in your food. That is not something you want to feed to your family.
When you use the pan without the layer you will end up with your food just being in contact with the iron of the pan. This can increase the amount of iron in your food. That is something to be aware of as it is not healthy to have too high an amount of iron in your body. The human body is not very good at excreting that, we are holding onto iron as it’s a very important substance to have in your body for many processes.
Seasoning Cast Iron
To crate the non-stick layer in Cast Iron you need to “season” the pans. The word initially made me wonder what on earth people were talking about, so it took me a bit of time to figure out what that was all about.
Luckily it wasn’t all that hard.
I have read quite a bit about it and learned there are various ways of doing it. I have found my own way of doing it and creating a wonderful non-stick layer, which I love and which lasts quite some time. Depending on how heavy the use some of my pans I have only done once and they are still going strong after years. Some others I have had to re-seasons as I let tomato sauce sit in there for far too long or so. Acidic fluids will damage the layer unfortunately.
I use flax oil for seasoning my cast iron pans and find that this gives a very sturdy non-stick layer.
I usually do 4 layers for a new or fully stripped pan. For one that has already been seasoned and needs some touching up I generally speaking can do just 2 layers.
Below you’ll find a video in which I show you how I do it. I have written a separate post on it as well, which gives you more detailed instructions, which you can find here.
Coaching
As I’m running a coaching business I will talk about this bit as well.
If you would like to have an accountability buddy, I’m here for you. I do this for a living, so just let me know whether you would like some coaching, we can talk once a month. It doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg. You’ll have email support as well. Just have a look at what I have to offer.
Health Coaching might be right up your alley, or Children’s nutrition or Teenager nutrition. In case you are starting to introduce food to your baby then Introducing solids could be exactly what you want.
Here you go to the Coaching tab. There you can have a look at what I all have to offer you. There is something for everyone really.