OT: Cast Iron Frying Pans

[54ny77]

there's endless opinions on the topic. what i did: if new, coat the interior of the pan with vegetable oil, stick it in the oven for about an hour or so at 500. open your windows, there will be smoke. turn oven off, then leave it in the oven to cool down slowly. that'll take awhile.

i use cast iron skillet largely all the time for main ingredient cooking. on stove, in oven, etc. getting it crazy hot makes for an awesome sear for scallops, a steak, etc.

cleaning: rinse with hot water, occasionally boil water inside to loosen residue and use a soft scrub brush with dish soap if it's particularly nasty & crusty. especially if the gunk is from a fish-based dish. otherwise, i rinse off, wipe with soft sponge, stick back on stove to dry and then apply a light coating of vegetable oil on the surface. i prefer to not use olive oil to do that. flash point is a lot shorter and it tends to (or can) smell funky.

[Ozz]

Originally Posted by fmradio516

Someone please debunk this myth, but another thing to note is any raw(non-enameled) cast iron cannot have any acidic substances in it or it will apparently leech.

https://www.americastestkitchen.com/...ast-iron-myths

"In the end, our tasters could detect metallic flavors in the tomato sauce only after it had simmered for a full 30 minutes. So, while you can definitely cook with acidic ingredients in your cast-iron skillet, you have to be careful. First, make sure your pan is well seasoned; seasoning keeps the acid from interacting with the iron—to a point. An acidic sauce can afford a brief stay in a well-seasoned pan with no dire consequences. You should also be careful to remove acidic dishes from the skillet after they finish cooking; don’t let them sit too long in the warm skillet and transfer any leftovers to an airtight container. (These rules do not apply to enameled cast-iron skillets; the enameled coating makes it safe to cook acidic ingredients for any length of time.)"

Which myth?

Don't cook acidic food in them or your food will taste metallic?

You should not cook acidic food in cast iron....mostly because it will remove the seasoning if you let it simmer....note the "brief stay" comment. If I want to get my stainless pans nice and shiny, I cook tomato sauce in them.


I have found that the spatula you use is important to. Make sure it has a perfectly flat tip. A lot of spatulas are slightly curved and this can "dig" into the seasoning.

I wash mine in mostly hot water...occasionally with dish soap. Dry well and give a wipe with some vegetable oil.

[gdw]

Lodge provides basic instructions on their website and you can find numerous threads on seasoning, reseasoning, cleaning, etc from people who use their cast iron cookware outdoors at Bushcraft USA. This thread might be useful:
https://bushcraftusa.com/forum/threa.../#post-3182951

[11.4]

I have a hoard of cast iron and steel pans that rivals my bike collection. In other words, pretty bad. Here are a couple comments.

1. First, learn how to cook with a pan like this. Here's a good review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB-SCA1reqE

If you don't do it properly it'll never work the way you'd really like. Note the physics involved and how you can actually heat a pan higher to stop sticking of a steak on a cast iron or steel pan. It's pretty cool.

2. Cast iron pans are in these days, with basic Lodge pans and fancy $300 machine milled pans. You don't get anything more than what you get with the Lodge pans, but a few warnings on any cast iron. First, if you look at old antique cast iron pans (and I have a bunch of them), you see some cracks and pits but probably two thirds of them are warped so they'll never sit flat and heat properly on a cooktop. That comes mostly from people who dunk them to cool them, or put them in a sink while hot and fill them with water for them to soak. Always let them cool down naturally after cooking.

3. Season them with grapeseed oil (very cheap in 2 liter bottles for $15 at Costco). It has the highest burning temperature of any of the common oils (flaxseed oil burns even higher but it's expensive and people rarely cook with it). The reason people recommend bacon or butter is because you're trying to get the fats to polymerize on the surface of the pan and bacon and butter fats do so at a very low temperature. But shortly above the polymerization temperature they start to burn off so an oil like grapeseed is much more durable. Use it for the first 4-5 seasonings at least, and then you'll be fine using almost anything.

4. You should be using a scrub pad to get any food off the pan and then rinse in hot water. It should be clean enough that you can wipe it dry with a rag and not have dark gunk come off. If it's still dirty scrub and rinse well again. After that, if you need soap, use it. It won't kill your finish. It's just that your pan should rinse clean so soap is unnecessary.

5. I'd also recommend you look at carbon steel pans. The thermodynamics of a carbon steel pan are basically the same as for a cast iron pan, they're lighter, they come in more useful shapes, and they create a beautiful seasoned finish. They're the standard with most professional cooks. Check Amazon for DeBuyer pans. I only actually cook with cast iron when I need a special shape (like a chicken fryer) these days; otherwise I use steel. There are also a number of blue steel pan makers who hand-hammer their pans and have huge demand for them. Beautiful pans. And the best Chinese woks are made the same way, hand-hammered carbon steel, and put local imitation stuff to shame.

[OtayBW]

Originally Posted by 11.4

And the best Chinese woks are made the same way, hand-hammered carbon steel, and put local imitation stuff to shame.

I've got a beautiful hand-hammered Chinese wok sitting in a box in my basement for some years now because I have an electric stove, and I find it more or less useless without direct high flame heat....

[tv_vt]

That stupid movie quote thread has me thinking of this one:

No, I hit him on the head with a frying pan so he wouldn't get hurt.
Makes perfect sense.

[Seramount]

the only thing I use to wash my Lodge pan is hot water and a nylon brush. would never use soap on it.

if I make tomato-based sauces in it, cooking a couple strips of bacon gets it back to a proper level of seasoning.

[summilux]

I'm one of the bacon grease users. My pan (~25 years old now) is smooth like glass. No problem with using soap and a sponge to clean

[fmradio516]

Originally Posted by summilux

I'm one of the bacon grease users. My pan (~25 years old now) is smooth like glass. No problem with using soap and a sponge to clean

Regarding bacon grease. Do you do the actual seasoning process? Or you just use bacon grease when cooking?

[jtbadge]

Originally Posted by fmradio516

Regarding bacon grease. Do you do the actual seasoning process? Or you just use bacon grease when cooking?

Both: use the grease instead of oil when seasoning, then also when cooking.

[djg]

Originally Posted by fmradio516

Someone please debunk this myth, but another thing to note is any raw(non-enameled) cast iron cannot have any acidic substances in it or it will apparently leech.

https://www.americastestkitchen.com/...ast-iron-myths

"In the end, our tasters could detect metallic flavors in the tomato sauce only after it had simmered for a full 30 minutes. So, while you can definitely cook with acidic ingredients in your cast-iron skillet, you have to be careful. First, make sure your pan is well seasoned; seasoning keeps the acid from interacting with the iron—to a point. An acidic sauce can afford a brief stay in a well-seasoned pan with no dire consequences. You should also be careful to remove acidic dishes from the skillet after they finish cooking; don’t let them sit too long in the warm skillet and transfer any leftovers to an airtight container. (These rules do not apply to enameled cast-iron skillets; the enameled coating makes it safe to cook acidic ingredients for any length of time.)"

I love my cast iron pans for various purposes -- for some things, they seem to me far and away the best choice. Still, if I'm slow cooking a ragu -- mostly meat, but with wine, and tomatoes, etc., as well -- I always use my enameled cast iron dutch oven; and for a quicker tomato sauce for pasta I'm more likely to use stainless steel.

But, yes, the cast iron pans that are not enameled should be seasoned. I've got a couple of Lodge pans that I like as well as anything else -- simple, inexpensive, and excellent.

[nooneline]

You have to learn how to get the desired results out of any pan - be it cast iron, stainless steel, or teflon. So the level of mystery or uncertainty around cast iron isn't justified. The guidelines are simple:
1. the flatter and smoother the surface, the more non-stick it is.
2. Seasoning isn't that mysterious. It is just a layer of built-up, hardened oil. you can see it. acid and soap remove it (as does some starchy stuff). to build it back up again, cook oil hot - going just above and then below the smoke point.
3. scraping with a hard flat metal spatula is good.
4. got stuff stuck to it? just add water. then scrape.
5. cook stuff hot and with room.

[johnniecakes]

My wife forbids me using cast iron on our glass cook top. Someone told her using cast iron on it will ruin it. Does anyone here use CI on glass cook tops?

[livesadventure]

Congrats ! Cast irons are great for cooking and last so long.

A few things I’ve learned:
-let the pan heat up enough before you throw ingredients in it. It takes 5 to 10 minutes for the pan to evenly heat, which is a lot longer than many pans
-I like the plastic lodge scraper (has a straight side, a curved side and a side with small teeth) for scraping. Other than that, just wipe away with oil, salt and paper towels.
-I’m unsure as to whether or not soap really changes the seasoning, but you don’t need to soap it, so why take the risk ?
-take advantage of the ability to sear / sauté then throw the pan in the oven with the ingredients


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[fmradio516]

Originally Posted by johnniecakes

My wife forbids me using cast iron on our glass cook top. Someone told her using cast iron on it will ruin it. Does anyone here use CI on glass cook tops?

I think that the rough surface of the cast iron has the potential to scratch the cook top, but idk.