Equipment

Cast Iron Skillet

The Apple Pancake recipe should be made in a cast iron skillet – the old fashioned pan your grandmother used. Maybe it’s just that it feels traditional to me but other pans are not as heavy as they should be for that recipe.

When you buy a cast iron pan you need to cure it to keep food from sticking.

Here’s how:

• Place about 4 tablespoons oil in the bottom of the pan and put the pan in an oven that has been preheated to 400°F.
• Use an oil without much flavor, like canola oil.
• After about 3 minutes reduce the temperature to 300°F and leave the pan in the oven for 45 minutes.
• Turn the oven off and let the pan cool inside the oven.
• When the pan is cool enough to touch wipe the excess oil out with a paper towel.

It is best to clean any porous skillet without detergent because soaps strip the oils (and thus your “cure”) from the pan. Simply rinse the pan with hot water and wipe clean. For food that is stuck to the pan scrub gently with salt or a plastic scrub pad.