YWS Chef Club

Only time I've made dumplings myself I made drop dumplings. Can confirm: v tasty.

I'm looking specifically at this thing, which one of my friends swears by. So it's an oven-safe pan, and a dutch oven.

I'm mostly asking because my mom is currently going on and on about "they rust! they take too much effort! they make food taste funny!" and I wanted to see if there was any truth to that in the slightest.

they can rust...
but not if you take care of them, which honestly isn't that hard.
#1 best way of preventing rust: dry with a dish towel after you wash the pan.
and be careful with the soap, focus on hot water, and if you need to, a brillo pad rather than just a regular scrubby. (nice aspect is that you don't have to worry about scratching or damaging cast iron, just damaging your stove or your foot.)

food tasting funny point: i know that if you haven't used the pan for awhile, it can get an almost like mildew issue or if it hasn't been properly taken care of, re: wash the gosh darn pan.

that pan looks good?
kinda laughing at the description in the bottom that's saying Department: unisex-adult

Yeah, from what I know of the care and keeping, it's a case of not letting the pan soak, keeping a thin coat of oil on it, and storing it in a dry place. My mom, meanwhile, is complaining about the "iron taste" it gives food.

I figure she was blowing at least part of that out of proportion, but I wanted some idea of how much.

the mythos of cast iron cooking is that each time you wash, grease, and store the pan (i 490% recommend hanging the sucker up) you "season" it (including the process of cooking with it) and with age, the pan takes on minuscule amounts of the flavors you've cooked into it over the years. this is mostly untrue, but there is a science behind it that martha stewart explains everything here.

basically if you season it with glorious hard lard PROPERLY, you shouldn't have need for soap again--unless you're a tad scared. i've never had an iron taste in my food, and i'm sure your mother was exaggerating, or doing something terribly wrong in her treatment of the skillet.

This is am old convo but my Dutch oven is perhaps my second most prized kitchen obsession after my stand moxer. I have both the Dutch oven and a cast iron skillet and have never noticed any kind of metallic taste! You do have to be careful not to scour it when you clean it (like, don't use steel wool unless you're getting rust off to reseason). If you care for it well you'll be fine. That said, there do exist oven safe Dutch ovens coated in enamel (le crueset is a spendy one that comes to mind) that don't need seasoning and don't generally rust if you're concerned about caring for standard cast iron.

I did, but I used blackberry jam instead of raspberry. It was v v thick and tasty and I've used it as a glaze more than once if I reduce it.

oooh yummm
I'm glad you liked it and I'm not crazy lol