Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Of pots and pans and the essence of a friend

I have Teflon Brain. Seems like nothing sticks to it anymore! I've been aware of that more and more in recent years and have come to accept it as a fact of life. This morning, on a walk with my dear friend Elane, a new element appeared in my personal cookware. My brain may be Teflon, but my soul is iron. As in cast iron skillet.

If you don't have one, you know that Grandma does and she cooks everything it. It's a heavy bugger! And it rusts if you don't take care of it. But if she uses it a lot, no doubt she does take care of it. She probably doesn't use soap on it, but scrubs it a bit and maybe sets it on the still-warm burner to finish drying.

What keeps things from sticking to it? It's certainly not Teflon! She'll tell you it's the seasoning. Not a spice from the cabinet above, but the accumulation of good residue over the years of use. It's the fat from frying chicken in it, the rendering of bacon and beef, bit by bit, day by day. She always removed the surface stuff and even scoured it, but knew that the benefit of leaving some of the fat, the oil, the essence to penetrate and fill the tiny negative spaces of the surface of the pan. 

A brand new cast iron pan is a real pain. But one that has history, well, it's a treasure of a tool.

As my friend and I talked through the nitty-gritty of daily life this morning, her essence was filling and enriching my pan. My soul has been seasoned by her richness and my substance has gained value to the discerning Master Chef.

2 comments:

  1. I love my cast iron skillet, and I love this post! Thanks for sharing.
    Blessings,
    Linda

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  2. Miss you, Linda! Love that you stay in touch by your posts.

    ReplyDelete