I finally decided to do something that I have been putting off. I enjoy cooking in my cast iron skillets and use them a lot. When it comes to certain breakfast foods, though, I am afraid to cook them in the cast iron skillets. The two foods that make me the most nervous are scrambled eggs and biscuits and gravy. The reason for this is because in my other cookware these two items stick to the pan and are very hard to clean. I assumed it would be even worse in a cast iron skillet. I decided it was time to give it a try with our two favorite breakfast foods. This is how I cooked breakfast in my cast iron skillets.
About ten years ago, around the time our oldest daughter was born, I threw out all of our t-fall cookware and we splurged on stainless steel cookware. I still use this set but I have since added in cast iron cookware. They are both very good long-lasting cookware and each have their own benefits. Scrambled eggs and gravy make the worst mess in my stainless steel skillets. I was very surprised at the results of how they did in the cast iron skillets. Keep reading for more details and pictures.
Cooking Gravy in my cast iron skillet
I first start by letting the pan heat up, then I add the ground sausage. Once the sausage is brown, remove most of it to a bowl, then add in the milk. As far as measurements go, I don’t measure ingredients for the gravy. I just add until it looks good to me. Since the milk is the base for the gravy, the amount of milk will be how much gravy you want. I think I usually add around three cups of milk.
After I pour the milk in I whisk in about 2/3 cups of all purpose flour. The picture doesn’t show me whisking as I pour because I couldn’t pour, whisk, and hold the camera all at once. I did immediately whisk after I snapped the photo.
Here’s a pro tip for you. Don’t leave your gravy unattended. You need to be able to whisk it often. I don’t know if you can tell in the picture below but my gravy got very lumpy. Why? I left it for just a minute. Just a minute in mom time, to be exact.
The toddler was hollering about a bath which I tried to ignore until I heard the water turn on in the bathroom. So I ran downstairs to a naked toddler getting in the tub. I decided to go ahead and bathe her quickly, got her out and headed back upstairs to check the gravy. On the way upstairs I got distracted by more yelling and had to break up a fight before finally getting to my gravy, all lumpy.
After a lot of whisking I was able to get the gravy back to a normal consistency before I added the sausage into the skillet of gravy, right before serving.
I can not get over how well store bought biscuits look in a cast iron skillet.
Am I the only one who acts like they are holding a bomb when trying to open a can of biscuits? I hate opening biscuits. I feel like I am getting worse as I get older. Maybe one day I’ll finally get tired of the jack in the box game of opening biscuits and just make my own….maybe.
Scrambled Eggs in my cast iron skillet
For the scrambled eggs, I broke 8 eggs into a mixing bowl. I then whisk in a splash of milk, salt and pepper. After it’s all mixed together, it’s ready to go into the skillet.
Don’t forget to preheat your skillet and add butter.
The finished product. The only thing that could have made this better would have been a side of bacon.
The aftermath of cooking in my cast iron skillets
So, if you’re wondering about the mess I was left with. It wasn’t too bad. As you can see in the pictures below the food did stick to the cast iron skillets. This is about how my stainless steel skillets look after I cook these same meals.
There was a difference, though. Especially with the gravy. The gravy cleaned up very easily in the cast iron skillet. I usually have to soak the stainless steel pan for awhile in order to clean the gravy out of it.
I had to scrub a little harder to get the skillet cleaned that had the scrambled eggs in it.
Speaking of cleaning, check out this post on how to clean your cast iron cookware.
