Okay. I <3 my cast iron. I haven't gone to the full effort of seasoning it like the article says, but I have done a bit of work on it and it's worked great for me. I do dislike the whole "stinks up your house" part, though I've never had it set off smoke alarms--sounds like you may have had residue from other stuff in your oven, or maybe you used too much oil or it had too low a smoke point.
I make tomato (or other acidic things, like spinach or chard) stuff in it fairly regularly and as long as I clean it within a few hours and give it a little mini-seasoning (re-oil, cover with lid, set on hot burner for awhile, turn off and let return to room temp while covered) it's fine. Keeping it covered is key to minimizing the stinky house problem.
Maybe if I followed the article I wouldn't have to do that, but it's just not that hard now that I have the habit and I really like the cooking characteristics of cast iron (how well it holds heat, etc.) so I'm going to stick with it (pun intended ^_^ )
I make tomato (or other acidic things, like spinach or chard) stuff in it fairly regularly and as long as I clean it within a few hours and give it a little mini-seasoning (re-oil, cover with lid, set on hot burner for awhile, turn off and let return to room temp while covered) it's fine. Keeping it covered is key to minimizing the stinky house problem.
Maybe if I followed the article I wouldn't have to do that, but it's just not that hard now that I have the habit and I really like the cooking characteristics of cast iron (how well it holds heat, etc.) so I'm going to stick with it (pun intended ^_^ )