Sunday, September 21, 2014

Cooking Like Nanny


To cook like Nanny is a goal never actually to be attained. But I try.

Nanny (my maternal grandmother) raised me in the kitchen and taught me about love and family and food. So of course it is fitting that Southern Living's October issue (the month of her birth) has an opening letter from the editor on family recipes handed down by tradition through generations.

To my knowledge, Nanny never owned a cookbook or written recipe in her life. I certainly never saw her use one. Nanny learned from her grandmother, who I am certain learned from hers. All I ever knew growing up was that foods were prepared by mashing until things looked right, by stirring until things felt right, and by seasoning until they tasted right.

I remember in elementary school, a Girl Scouting project required us to bring in recipes to contribute to a troop cookbook. I remember coming home, feeling so excited to get Nanny's suggestions, and feeling quite certain that our recipes would be the most prized contributions to the collection. Equally vivid is my memory of the look on her face, as she tried to explain that she didn't think she had anything to share. We worked and worked to measure and figure out how to write up some version of a recipe, but I have no idea if the final instructions came close to creating whatever they were supposed to make. At the time, I remember feeling embarrassed that our family's "recipes" were somehow not good enough--why couldn't she just use measuring cups like all the other moms? But today I look back and am so thankful for the years Nanny patiently spent teaching me--not how to read steps off of an index card, but how to put my heart into something and serve it to someone I love and connect with people I care about around a dinner table.

In ten days, Nanny will celebrate her 95th birthday but she will not know the meaning of the day. We will gather and eat cake, and we are hopeful she will be having a good day so that she will remember how to chew and swallow it. My children will see an elderly woman in a chair, but they will never know the body of knowledge and love within her, except as I am able to pass it on to them. The woman who raised me is no longer able to remember the recipes of our family, but I am so thankful that my kids will know a piece of her from my kitchen.

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Perhaps the editor's opening remarks were only coincidentally used alongside this month's focus on cast iron cooking, but I'm going to pretend like the overlap was intentional, because there is no better piece of cookware than an inherited cast iron skillet. Mine was my husband's grandmother's, and I cherish it and hope that one day my kids or their kids will remember meals we made together in it. Maybe they will even say, "This meal came from my mother's mother's mother" or "This pan once belonged to my father's mother's mother."

So to honor Nanny's legacy of recipe-free cooking and Gran's fine piece of well-seasoned cookware, this month I have no recipe for you. Just some photos of an amazing dinner of steak and mashed potatoes, inspired by Southern Living's recipe for a Cast Iron Cowboy Steak. I've also scanned this issue's tips on caring for cast iron cookware, because I couldn't find a link to it on their site.



Hope y'all are able to enjoy something delicious with someone you love this month. If you happen to have an old cast iron skillet laying around, preheat it in your oven to 450, sear some ribeyes on high heat on your stovetop, and then finish them back in your hot oven. Just season them before you sear them with salt and pepper until they look right, and finish them with a little butter, herbs and garlic in the pan until the house smells right. If you're serving them with mashed potatoes, be sure to pour a little of those buttery-herbed pan drippings over the top--just enough to where it feels right to you. But whatever you do, don't measure anything. That's just a waste of time.



































25 comments:

  1. Ended up here after doing a Google search on cast iron care. I'm a life long NW Oregon resident, but those photos of steak and mashed potatoes are making my mouth water! I might have to learn to cook like a Southerner!

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    1. Thanks so much, Kevin! NW or SE...good food comes from a place of love. Love and cast iron! ;)

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  2. Thanks for sharing your article. Food is so good cooked in cast iron. That's all my mother used when I was growing up. Particularly liked her cornbread, fried chicken, eggs, and biscuits, Nothing like it! Crust and texture.

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  3. Thanks for sharing your article. Food is so good cooked in cast iron. That's all my mother used when I was growing up. Particularly liked her cornbread, fried chicken, eggs, and biscuits, Nothing like it! Crust and texture.

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    1. Yes!!! Now I'm craving some cast iron skillet cornbread... Yummmm!

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  4. My first time so I want to make sure I season correctly. Is brillo pad ok to use on rust?

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  5. My first time so I want to make sure I season correctly. Is brillo pad ok to use on rust?

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    1. No brill pads That pad has extremely harsh soap in them.

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  6. Check out "Hillbilly Cast Iron Cooking". Lots of info for restoring cast iron and great recipes.

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  7. Love my cast iron skillet...use it almost exclusively!

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  8. Love my cast iron skillet...use it almost exclusively!

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  9. To start over with an iron skillet, you can coat it with oven cleaner and put it in a plastic bag in the sun. This may take a day or two, but it will remove all the built up coating on an old cast iron pan. Wash it and then re-season it.

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    1. Sally Lee, that may take off the coating, but ingesting harsh chemicals from oven cleaner each time you cook is not good...

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    2. I agree. Harsh chemicals are a huge no-no on cast iron.

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    3. I used the oven cleaning method and it took the caked on crud of pan I got out of an old family home that was being torn down. A new round of seasonings and those pans have a beautiful smooth surface. This method can crack pans but I have done a few and have had no problems.

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    4. That is using the self-cleaning setting on the stove, not with oven cleaner.

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  10. The best part of this post is your love and respect for Nanny. May your grand children show you the same.

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  11. Going to make steaks tonight. Normally do sous vide/sear on grill, but am going to pull out my cast iron and give this a try. Thanks!

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  12. can you use a cast iron skillet on an electric glass topped stove

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  13. If you have access to a fire pit or are camping, start a fire and place the cast iron pan in it and wait. It takes about 2 hours but will come out like brand new.

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  14. Yes, I have several cast iron skillets I inherited from my mother. That makes them bout 50 yrs old. I keep them seasoned with plain old solid Crisco after each use. I wouldn't take anything for them. To season a new skillet, if you have a wood stove like me place the new one on the coals. That's what gives them the black color, ashes.

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  15. I have used cast iron all my life and I'm 65. I use to have low Iron till I started using cast iron, it's the best cookware ever made.

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  16. My favorite thing to make with a cast iron skillet is a chocolate chip cast iron skillet cookie. Just whip up your favorite cookie recipe, spread it into the bottom of your skillet and bake in the oven. If the edges get a little to crispy cover it with tinfoil and let it keep baking. Keeps the cookie warm and makes a great dessert! Here is my go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies:

    https://mommysuburbia.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-best-chocolate-chip-cookie-recipe.html

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