Making and Feeding Scrambled Eggs to Parrots

[Jenny]

my apologies if Michael already has a video of himself caring for his cast iron, but here's Martha:

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Well, I rarely use dishsoap but I do scrub it out every time I use it. I guess I'm not using enough oil.

I actually use a bit of soap on mine... my main objection to cast iron is that it is hard to keep it sanitary and nonstick at the same time. I'm not a big Martha fan, so I didn't watch the video, but my routine is as follows:

Buy allegedly pre-seasoned pan

Coat the cooking surfaces liberally with peanut oil (it has a high smoke point). Heat on gas stove to smoke point. Allow to cool. Wipe out excess oil.

When using pan, add enough oil to film bottom of pan. Preheat pan until hot. If browning ingredients, rather than doing cornbread or something like that, add food -- preferably room temperature, cold food sticks more -- and resist urge to stir or turn until well browned.

Allow pan to cool to room temperature after use, don't shock with cool water.

Wash as for a normal pan, with soap and water, but do the job quickly and with minimal soap and minimal scrubbing, just what is needed to get the food debris thoroughly out, while attempting not to remove the black, seasoning layer.

Dry thoroghly. I use a clean paper towel, or cloth and then heat on stove to drive moisture out.

Lightly wipe with oil, heat to smoke point, allow to cool and store.

I don't like just wiping and storing, although it's quite a common and frequently recommended technique. Too much risk of growing ickies IMO.

Note that smoking oil is not great for birds to breathe either, so I usually do those steps when they are tucked in for the night, and I turn the kitchen fan up until the pan is fairly cool again.

[Michael]

I don't like just wiping and storing, although it's quite a common and frequently recommended technique. Too much risk of growing ickies IMO.

Hopefully the oil keeps stuff from growing and even if it does, heating the pan up next time should kill anything sufficiently.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Stuff can grow in oil... think about what acne is! Plus, I grew up in FL where roaches will come to anything with traces of food --- BIG ones -- that FLY --- so I tend to err on the side of clean when it comes to kitchen stuff. Actually, I probably would not keep cast iron there, unless it was sealed in ziplocs or something.... even the residual oil in the seasoning layer itself might attract them. Ugh.

At any rate, using soap and water need not ruin the seasoning on the pan. Excessive scrubbing and soaking are IMO much more likely to do so. Hit and run!

[lena]

why not use a microwave to do your eggs
lena x

[HungryBird]

I almost always offer my birds hard boiled eggs instead of scrambled eggs. I boil them for quite a while to make sure they are really hard boiled. Iggy loves eggs. I don't give it to them very often though.

When you guys scramble eggs for the birds what do you put in the pan before scrambling them? I don't want to use butter or margarine or anything like that. Maybe red palm oil? That would be funny and I definitely have some.

[Jenny]

I think Michael has a video lesson on making scrambled eggs for his birds - he just uses water. No oil, or butter, or anything like that.