A Day In The Life Of A CI Skillet 100+ Years Ago

[W. Hilditch]

Imagination by Hilditch

Mom would get up first to get the stove and coffee going. She would then cook breakfast for her family of six in her skillet. She probably only had one skillet. After breakfast she would scrape it, wipe it out with a rag and put it back on the stove, it’s permanent home.

If there was something to cook for lunch, she would use the skillet again, with a spoon of bacon grease. After lunch the skillet was scraped, wiped out and put back on the stove.

For dinner the skillet was 1/4 to 1/3 filled with lard to fry the meat for the night. Scraped, drained it now might get a shot of hot water from the kettle and wiped. Put back on the stove for the night.

Repeat.

The soap had lye in it so none was used. No chain link scrubber, no steel wool, no running hot water in most cases and no oiling the skillet after use. The seasoning in the skillet was something to behold. Smooth, oh so smooth and shiny.

 

[BenjaminO]

Have you considered writing a novel?
But seriously, you paint a very romantic picture of the life of a skillet.
Appreciated.

 

[MDFraley]

My mom did the same but had a couple additional uses for that skillet. She would heat it up, wrap in in one of her old hand made quilts and use it for a heating pad sometimes. Her other favorite thing was to persuade my dad with it when he didn't do the right thing he was suppose to. Guess having several pounds of a #9 skillet coming toward you would be most persuasive'
Maybe there should be a course offered on using cast iron culinary for other than cooking.....101 The Uses of...
Serious though...it's amazing how such an implement was put through all those cycles on a daily basis and has withstood the test of time. Good article.