(re-post)
Over the past twenty-five years or so, every once in awhile the sight of scratched coated frying pans and/or updated reports on the doubtful effects of such fying pans on our health and/or a good price on alternatives motivated me to invest in cast iron frying pans; an entire set of three when the family was still all at home.
The habit never caught on. It always seemed easier – and lighter! – to use the teflon type and I would buy a brand new one, warn everyone not to use too high a heat and only use the soft utensils in them. Two or three times the cast iron pans got sold at garage sales and then more were bought when the next sight/report/sale occurred.
I'm not sure what triggered the latest decision; it might simply have been digging in the cupboard to find something and seeing the heavy black pan sitting there under the old, scratched, light ones.
The old scratched light ones got thrown out except for one small one in which to make omelettes: all my attempts to make an omelette in a cast iron pan have resulted in scrambled eggs.
It's been more than a month. I liked that pan when it was sitting patiently in the cupboard – there's something solid and reassuring about a cast iron frying pan. I like it a whole lot more now that it is in daily use and sits in plain view on top of the stove. Only once did I begin to pick it up without remembering to use a pot holder….. I am learning how to cook in it so that it doesn't stick and how to just let it soak in water when stuff does stick. My red blood cells are likely darkening nicely.