I have never been one to shy away from new technology or a better way of doing things.
In the early seventies when I was farming in Tay Creek, New Brunswick, north of Fredericton, the provincial capital, the folks in the department of agriculture basically branded me a heretic for using round bales for our haying.
In spite of round bales having no chance of working according to the local experts, we managed to feed our herd of 200 successfully for over ten years. Our cattle also spent the winter in the woods, which was also contrary to official wisdom. We hardly had a vet on the farm during that period.
I enjoy cooking and have always cooked my own breakfast. We got one of the first toaster ovens while we were still on the farm. Sometime along the way, we switched from our old percolater to an automatic coffee machine. My wife, still makes comments about today's coffee not being as tasty.
I am not exactly sure when it happened, but at some point non-stick pans made their way into our kitchen. Some of the cast iron pans got retired. My wife's cornbread pan never left the stable of frequently used pans.
Several months ago my wife and I changed the way we are eating. My favored morning breakfast has become what I call a vegetable ring of fire. It is mostly sauteed onions, red or yellow peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, spinach, or whaterver I have with some spicy chicken sausage, egg whites, spicy salsa and jalepeno spread.
For a while I used our large non-stick pan, but it was starting to lose its non-stick characteristics. At the same time I start reading about the dangers of non-stick pans.
I made a trip into our basement storage area and retrieved one of the few black cast iron frying pans that we had not given away. It appeared to have been unused for a decade or two.
I first tried to make it usuable with vegetable oils, but I quickly found that was not going to work. The oil produced a sticky residue.
My next step was to buy a pound of bacon on sale. Each morning for a week I cooked one piece of bacon in the pan before draining the grease out and cooking my "ring of fire." My wife and I shared the one piece of bacon each morning. I told myself that my dad had bacon each morning almost all his life, and he lived to be over 99.
Within a few days of daily bacon cooking, my pan was almost perfectly seasoned. We finished off the bacon with a dish of shrimp and grits. Our recipe has evovled from the one in the picture, but you get the basic idea of shrimp and grits. My wife actually cooked the shrimp in the cast iron pan after I finished with the bacon.
I think that I am now firmly back in the black cast iron frying pan camp. I use my well seasoned pan for almost all my cooking. Noting sticks, and the pan is easily cleaned up with just hot water. My breakfast cooking is much easier with the cast iron black frying pan.
There were good reasons my mother favored these pans. They work well, the food tastes great, and even after you take the pans off the heat, they keep your food warm. They're also good exercise.
