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The Best Food Comes from the Skillet
By Ellen Zee | September 11, 2008
Although possibly not the healthiest method of food preparation, the skillet has maintained a reputation for delicious food for centuries. One of the earliest methods of cooking, the cast iron pan has carved out its place in America’s belly as one of the best methods of cooking flavorful food. From Cajun food in Louisiana all the way up to fish and other types of items in the Pacific Northwest, the skillet is a ubiquitous part of any cookware collection. With so many different types of pans available, it is not surprising to see so many people making use of this extremely popular cooking implement.
From the earliest days of mankind, preparing food on a flat, hot surface has become a tradition and is well-known for its inherent flavor enhancing abilities. With so much flavor and so much ease of use, it is no surprise that the skillet has made such a mark on the world of food preparation. Compared with other types of cookware, it is most dependable for cooking evenly and thoroughly without burning. With a flat surface and low edges, the capacity is somewhat low. But this should not be considered a drawback, as the extremely popular implement is designed to cook small portions very rapidly. With a focus on the detail and attention to the texture of the food, cooking is a simple matter of rapidly turning and moving the food around in order to prevent burning. With this ease-of-use and extreme functionality, it is easy to see how the popular cast-iron skillet made its way into so many cabinets around the world.
While there are certainly multiple functions for the traditional cast-iron skillet, cooking fried food very quickly on the stovetop is one of the most common. There are all manner of different schools of thought on caring for and preparation of the cast-iron frying pan. Some will say that you should never wash it, and others will say that you should. Some insist on scrubbing it with sand, others would never do such a thing. Whatever you decide, the skillet is certainly one of the most popular cookware implements around the world and can be found in almost every kitchen. In a direct comparison with other, similar products, it is hard to believe that any other product can do as well what the cast-iron skillet does. Quite often, it is something of a family heirloom, as it is handed down from generation to generation.
It is certainly one of the most popular types of kitchen cookware, as nearly everyone is in possession of a cast-iron skillet, and they are capable of cooking almost any type of food. Whether cooking fried foods on the stovetop, baking spaghetti in the oven or even cooking out on an open fire, the skillet can handle almost any job. In fact, it is the campfire that tipped the skillet into high popularity in America during the early years of the country’s formation. It isn’t hard to imagine travelers and drifters doing the majority of their cooking with the skillet over an open fire. Once you were done, you simply cleaned your cookware out with a handful of sand and it’s a done deal. It only makes sense to utilize such an easy to care for cooking implement when you have minimal carrying capacity.
In the case of the romanticized traveling cowboy, many of these drifters had only one type of cookware, the skillet. An indestructible and very utilitarian tool for the preparation of food, it is easy to see why cowboys would place such a high regard on the popular frying pan. After centuries of use, the skillet has changed very little and still looks very similar to the very first skillet ever invented. While it is hard to imagine what that first skillet might look like, you will likely agree that whatever it was used to cook was probably fantastically delicious.
Topics: Cooking |