The truth about cast iron skillets

Is there anything more essential to true Southern womanhood than a cast iron skillet? One that has been perfectly seasoned and whose weight feels just right in a woman’s hand?

I think not.

For generations, Southern women have used cast iron pans for everything from stirring up cornbread to making gravy to holding the kitchen door open to keeping a wayward husband in line.

My great aunt Sadie Belle was legendary for her skill with the skillet. Not necessarily for cooking, though she did make delicious sausage gravy, but rather for the way she kept Uncle Clarence in line with it. After too many nights out with the boys, sipping too much ‘shine, Sadie Belle walloped him one night with the iron pan and 12 stitches later, he was a changed man. For the rest of their lives, she knew where her power lay – in the cupboard – and she never hesitated to threaten its use.

On his deathbed, my cousin asked Uncle Clarence if he feared death. “Nope,” he replied solemnly. “I’ve spent 52 years fearing Sadie Belle and that dang iron skillet. Death, after that, will be a welcomed reprieve.”

I have two iron skillets. One is large and perfect for gravy, fried green tomatoes and, well, anything else I want to fry. The smaller one is used for scrambling eggs and frying bologna or, well, anything else I want to fry in smaller amounts. Either is used for cornbread, both cornbread that is made with sugar and that which isn’t.

But isn’t that what a seasoned iron skillet is made for – cornbread cooking?

Because my iron skillets are used so regularly, I don’t bother to put them in the cabinet. I store both of them in the lower oven. I like to keep them handy.

During a recent shopping trip with Mama, I was admiring a cast iron pot.

“Do you have to season cast iron pots like pans?” I asked her, remembering how she seasoned my first pan by oiling it and baking it on a lower rack for weeks while she did her normal baking.

Mama shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” My eyes bugged out. Now, that’s a first. Usually, if Mama doesn’t know, she just makes it up and sticks to it as if it were the law and gospel sent down from the Mount. If you need any advice on tax shelters, doctoring or legal matters, be sure to call Mama. She can help you out.

But back to cast iron skillets. I’ve been doing a lot of studying up on our favorite frying pans. We need to know all the hot points of these Southern necessities. Here’s what I found out:

Don’t scrub with scouring pad. (There has never been a time when I didn’t scrub mine with a wire brush or Brillo pad. How else do you get crusted pork chop droppings out of it?)

After cleaning, lightly rub oil into it and dry it on a heated stove eye. (Never once have I done this, either.)

One of mine developed some rust, which happens when the seasoning has been rubbed off with a wire brush and then it has not been oiled and dried on the stove eye. Some folks claim when it has rusted, its life is over. Not true.

Cut a lemon in half, dip it in salt then rub the rusted areas until the juice is out of the lemon. Repeat with the other half. The rust will disappear. Oil the pan thoroughly and dry it out on the stove. Good as new.

“What do you do if your cast iron rusts?” I had asked Mama.

“Nothin’ you can do. Gotta throw ‘em out.”

So, when you call Mama to get advice on tax shelters or doctoring, don’t bother to ask her about cast iron skillets.

A woman can’t know everything.

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Readers invited to travel with host Ronda Rich on literary excursion to Scotland, Ireland.

Columnist and best-selling author Ronda Rich will host a 10-day excursion to Ireland and Scotland beginning on Aug. 31.

It is a “storytelling extravaganza” that will explore the roots of Southern storytelling that evolved from Celtic tradition. In 1861 when the Civil War began, 75 percent of the South was descended from Irish, Scots and Scotch-Irish. From this lineage, Southerners developed a strong sense of the importance of stories and lyrics. Rich writes a popular column for dozens of newspapers that is centered in Southern storytelling.

“I’m thrilled with this opportunity to thoroughly immerse myself in the roots of the storytelling that has been popularized in America by Southerners,” she said. “I hope that readers of my column will join us on this tour. For those interested in history and Southern culture, this is a perfect tour.”

The trip will stretch from Dublin to Edinburgh with stops along the way that explore the towns and homes of noted Celtic writers such George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, Robert Louis Stevenson and others.

For more information on pricing and scheduling, please contact Mark Chesney at Travel Planners International at 770-984-2504 or email ino@travelplannersintl.com.

Southern Womanhood

Submitted by TruthinessUberAlles on Wed, 04/25/2007 - 12:35am.

The only thing more essential to southern womanhood than makin black women cook for them is being silent about white rape of black women, senator strom thurman's wife please stand up.

"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." — George Walker Texas Ranger Bush-Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

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Truthiness: all same-same

Submitted by dollaradayandfound on Wed, 04/25/2007 - 7:31am.

Southern women are no worse for being silent than are Mafia wives, daughters, aunts, etc., and dope pushers wives, etc., and thieves, robbers, and mashers wives, sisters, aunts, etc.
Klan Wives, I believe, got together and made sheet robes while the men were "out."
I don't know what black wives do when the "men folks" are out. Go to church, I think.
It is a common story. Don't "snitch."

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