Does deglazing a cast -iron skillet harm the seasoning?

[Henry Joe Peterson]

Is it bad for the "seasoning" on your skillet to deglaze the pan with liquids like wine or booze or anything acidic? I thought I read somewhere that deglazing is not good for the seasoning that you work so hard to achieve on your cast iron. But I can't remember, so I'm asking ...

I've been using my cast iron gear to sear up meats and finish them in the oven. I've also been making a lot of reduction sauces for the meats, but I'm using a separate, stainless or non-stick pan for that. Which means I don't get all the "fond" or browned yummy meat juices and bits leftover from the searing/rosating. I want that in my sauces.

I just don't want to dump some red wine into my cast iron skillet and have it ruin the seasoning on my skillet. Or have the sauce taste nasty.

Any thoughts?

 

[Guest]

I have been deglazing my cast-iron skillet for years with wines, fruit juices, vinegars, etc and have had no problems at all. I don't want to give up all of that fond that I worked so hard to get with the cast-iron.

Tim

 

[Guest]

From Cooks Illustrated (one of the greatest resources out there, not cheap but worth it):

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>The Role of Fond in Pan Sauces

Chances are it's a pan sauce, made with the delicious caramelized browned bits (called fond) that sit on the bottom of the pan after the meat has been sauteed or pan-seared.

Pan sauces are usually made by adding liquid (stock, wine, or juice) to the pan once the cooked cutlets or steaks have been transferred to a plate to rest. The liquid dissolves the fond (a process known as deglazing) and incorporates it into the sauce.

So what makes those browned bits so delicious, so valuable? When meat or chicken browns, something called the Maillard reaction occurs. This process is named after the French chemist who first described this reaction about one hundred years ago. When the amino acids (or protein components) and natural sugars in meat are subjected to intense heat, like that found in a skillet, they begin to combine and form new compounds. These compounds in turn break down and form yet more new flavor compounds, and so on and so on. The process is like rabbits multiplying. The browned bits left in the pan once the meat has been cooked are packed with complex flavors, which in turn are carried over to the pan sauce once the fond has been dissolved. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Tim

 

[Doug D]

Fond? I, too, was intrigued by the use of a word I did not consider a noun. According to Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: 3 fond
Pronunciation: 'fOn
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural fonds /'fOn(z)/
Etymology: French, from Latin fundus bottom, piece of property -- more at BOTTOM
Date: 1664
1 : BACKGROUND, BASIS
2 obsolete : FUND

Maybe there's a connection there, albeit a rather obscure one. Maybe HJP just meant to type "food"?

 

[Henry Joe Peterson]

FOND is what I typed. It is the fancy term cooks use for the pan drippings, or the caramelized meat juices and bits that cling to the pan after cooking. When you roast a turkey or prime rib, all that dark, syrupy liquid left in the pan under that fat layer is fond. When you fry a piece of meat, the dark drippings that stick to the bottom of the pan are fond. It's highly concentrated in flavor and quite yummy. You want that in your sauce. It's good stuff.

You might even say that chefs are "fond" of their "fond. Hardy har har. Buh-dum CHING! I'll be here all week. Enjoy the buffet!

 

[Doug D]

So, when Maillard was roasting a mallard, he looked in the bottom of the pan and found fond?

Thanks for the enlightenment, Henri! /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

 

[Chris Allingham]

Henry,

In one of the recent issues of Cook's, they discussed deglazing cast iron pans. I seem to recall that they were testing for a metallic flavor and found that it was related to how long the deglazing liquid remained in contact with the cast iron pan. If I can find the info when I get home, I'll post here.

In any event, I think their focus was on taste, not on how it affected the pan's seasoning.

Regards,
Chris

 

[Henry Joe Peterson]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Doug D:
So, when Maillard was roasting a mallard, he looked in the bottom of the pan and found fond? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Oui. Until there was an explosion in le kitchen set by Linoleum Blownaparte.

Again...Buh-dum CHING! Please tip your wiatress on the way out....

 

[Chris Allingham]

Henry Joe,

This topic was covered in "Reactivity Revisited" in "Notes From Readers" in the Jan/Feb 2003 issue of Cook's Illustrated.

Cook's made pan sauces for steaks by deglazing well seasoned cast-iron pans using red wine and lemon juice, and both sauces had no off flavor.

They also did a side by side comparison of canned, diced tomatoes simmered in cast-iron and stainless steel pans for over 30 minutes, and the cast-iron version "picked up an unpleasantly tinny, harsh flavor (those in the stainless steel pan did not)."

They believed that the difference had to do with time. The steak sauces were only in the pan for 10 minutes. The tomatoes tasted OK after just 15 minutes, but began to taste funny after 30.

They close by saying, "A sauce with a weak concentration of acid can afford a brief stay in a well-seasoned pan with no dire consequences, but don't try to make a slow-simmering tomato sauce in a cast-iron pan, even one that is well seasoned."

There was no discussion about whether such deglazing causes harm to the seasoned finish.

Regards,
Chris

 

[Kevin Taylor]

Chris's article wraps it up very good. I have been deglazing in cast iron for years. Moppin' up that FOND! However, I ONLY do it in WELL seasoned pans.....for me, over 1 year and I high heat season them to begin with.

I NEVER make a pasta sauce or chili or anything else that has lots of tomato products. However, using tomato juice in a pot roast or stew or jamba seems to be OK. Cooking time for these is usually no more than an hour.

If you DO get a tinny taste after just a short time, that can be a sign of the pan needing seasoning.

Hope these help you answer your questions.

 

[Dean Torges]

I was outta the country and missed this thread. I've grown into an iron skillet afficionado since my wife brought them to our marriage in '61. From a family of country folk, her mother was masterful with them, and she'd cook tomato dishes in them fearlessly. One of my favorite was a pepper steak. She'd brown a cheap round steak, saute some green peppers and onions, add an amount of home-canned tomatoes to the vegetables and meat, cover and bake in the oven until tender. The secret to avoiding the tinny taste, I believe, lies in the foundation of the cure, and the maintenance thereafter. Nothing substitutes for lard, not even bacon fat because of its salt. Any time we are cooking with olive or vegetable oils the cure is deteriorating. I cook with oils in iron skillets often enough, but I rinse with super hot water and restore the cure with lard afterwards.

I don't think you can make consecutive appearances with tomato, but if you monitor your skillet and hold it in good condition, you can keep the acid from eating into the iron.