Cast iron skillets are great for cooking, baking, and sautˇing. A little bit of iron flakes off or is absorbed into the food as you cook with your skillet. It's perfectly harmless and is an excellent, natural source of iron.

Before you begin cooking with your skillet, you will need to season your pan. Scrub your pan out with a steel wool soap pad. This will be the only time you will ever use steel wool on your pan. When the pan is dry, rub a little oil into the pan. My grandmother kept a little pan of bacon grease on the stove and that's what she used when she seasoned her pans. Turn your oven on to 325 degrees and put your pan in for about an hour. The grease or oil will burn into the crevices of the skillet and create a smooth non-stick surface.

Right now your pan is a gray color. What you are aiming for is a nice shiny black pan. It takes several weeks to really season a pan well. I keep a new pan on top of the stove and every time I preheat the oven, I stick the pan with grease into the oven. And every time I finish cooking and turn the oven off I stick the pan back in again.

The first few times that you use your pan, fry something that has a lot of fat in it, like bacon. Stay away from sauteing vegetables that will give off moisture for a few more weeks.

When you need to clean your skillet, quickly rinse it out with hot water. You can use mild dish soap, but remember every time that you use a detergent, it cuts the grease, which un-seasons you pan. My grandmother used to keep a bowl of cornmeal next to the sink. She never used water or detergent on her skillet unless she really had to. She just took a handful of cornmeal and threw it into the skillet and the grit from the meal scrubbed the pan.

After washing your pan, always put the pan back on the stove, turn the heat on low and let the pan dry. Add grease or oil each time as needed.

Cast iron skillets take a little more time and care, but they really hold the heat nicely and cook your food evenly.