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Butterfly Valley posted:My first cast iron pan, a 12.5 preseasoned no name brand, arrived today from amazon. I’m loathe to turn into a massive sperg about it, as I have been wont to do with various things in the past, but I also want to know that I’m treating it properly. From the sounds of it, the most important upkeep advice is to wash with water, not scrubbing too hard, and drying immediately. I should cook with peanut or sunflower oil rather than olive oil, and other than that just not worry about it too much? How necessary is the whole ‘dry on the stove over a medium heat and then rub down with oil and heat for another minute or two’ step? Should I do this every time I use it? You can use soap. The popular misconception of soap ruining seasoning dates from the days when soap had lye in it. I just cook in mine, whatever. I don't think about it too much. I did build a really obsessive seasoning at first, but honestly the factory season is fine. After I'm done cooking, I wash it with soap and water, then I dry it over high heat until most of the water is gone, the carry over heat does the rest. Then I take it off the heat and don't worry about it. Scrub as hard as you want. Also cook with whatever oil you want. Oh, and do dry immediately, that's a pretty important thing.
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Jun 7, 2019 17:40
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Simmering anything with a lot of liquid can be hard on it, but doesn't mean you can't do it
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Jun 7, 2019 17:47
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SymmetryrtemmyS posted:You can use soap. The popular misconception of soap ruining seasoning dates from the days when soap had lye in it. Ah. That explains why I've never had a problem scrubbing mine with dishsoap and soft bristle brushes. Butterfly Valley posted:How necessary is the whole ‘dry on the stove over a medium heat and then rub down with oil and heat for another minute or two’ step? Should I do this every time I use it? Unecessary unless you're living on a boat in a salt water environment. Even then, probably still not necessary unless you're going to be leaving the boat uninhabited for a couple of months. This does not apply to normal people. SymmetryrtemmyS posted:After I'm done cooking, I wash it with soap and water, then I dry it over high heat until most of the water is gone, the carry over heat does the rest. I used to do this until the day I wandered off to take care of something and came back to an glowing pan with a warped bottom that won't sit flat on the stove anymore. Again, probably doesn't apply to normal people lacking a defective, ADD-addled brain. The Slack Lagoon posted:Simmering anything with a lot of liquid can be hard on it, but doesn't mean you can't do it Shakshuka (tomato-pepper sauce) and spaghetti sauce are no problem. Rendering beeswax (melting and purifying old comb over a layer of boiling water) did require re-seasoning. You have to ask yourself though - what normal person thinks rendering beeswax in a cast iron pot is a good idea?
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Jun 7, 2019 23:58
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Personally I like the thinnest coat of oil, that is, 1/2 tsp rubbed in with one paper towel then dried off with a new one. Pan is never sticky, which is nice when you nest more than one. E: Sunflower oil from Trader Joes is best from my years-ago research, if you don't do flax BrianBoitano fucked around with this message at 02:16 on Jun 8, 2019 |
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Jun 8, 2019 02:02
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Anyone know where I might get lucky and find a lid for an old Lodge dutch oven? I found one for $15 sans lid at a thrift store and I'm curious if anyone might have any ideas. Otherwise I've got the dutch oven re-seasoning right now and I can't wait to use it.
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Jun 23, 2019 22:26
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Butterfly Valley posted:My first cast iron pan, a 12.5 preseasoned no name brand, arrived today from amazon. I’m loathe to turn into a massive sperg about it, as I have been wont to do with various things in the past, but I also want to know that I’m treating it properly. From the sounds of it, the most important upkeep advice is to wash with water, not scrubbing too hard, and drying immediately. I should cook with peanut or sunflower oil rather than olive oil, and other than that just not worry about it too much? How necessary is the whole ‘dry on the stove over a medium heat and then rub down with oil and heat for another minute or two’ step? Should I do this every time I use it? Just remember that regardless of how poorly or well you treat it, the pan will probably outlive you. One hundred years from now, someone will find it, rusty and hosed up, in a garage sale or antique shop, strip it down, reseason it, and be happily cooking steaks. Dango Bango posted:Anyone know where I might get lucky and find a lid for an old Lodge dutch oven? I found one for $15 sans lid at a thrift store and I'm curious if anyone might have any ideas. You can order them new from Walmart and Amazon, it looks like. May cost you as much as the oven itself!
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Jun 25, 2019 20:13
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What do you all prefer for deep scrubbing something like burnt eggs? I have the nice official lodge scrub with the nice wooden handle. It works great for a risne/wipe down but the bristles are far too soft Brillo pad? Green pad? Vegetable brush? Steel wool?
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Jul 17, 2019 03:24
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For most hard to scrub crud (only necessary with sticky stuff I let sit over night, or eggs if I didn't use enough fat/oil when cooking them) I usually boil some water in the pan while gently scrubbing with one of those chain mail things. I sometimes rinse & repeat a couple times with this so I can see what places I've missed more easily. Boiling water & steam rule for cleaning.
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Jul 17, 2019 03:31
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I have a copper scrub pad for tough jobs and I love it. Assuming you do three true polymerized seasoning, it won't scratch it. Works great for any metal cookware, like sheet pans, too. A bit odd that the other day I found it is attracted to a magnet, which shouldn't happen unless it's only copper coated or it's an alloy or something, but it still works fine so 
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Jul 17, 2019 11:49
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Nylon pan scrapers are cheap and effective.
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Jul 17, 2019 16:28
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I hit it with soap and water and steel wool. I also give no fucks.
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Jul 17, 2019 17:19
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Kosher salt and a paper towel. Once the crud is off, a bit of soap and a nylon dish brush.
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Jul 17, 2019 22:28
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I recently re-seasoned my skillet with a few sessions of corn oil for lack of anything else on hand following Lodge's directions, and found it a little sticky after that so I started tossing it into the oven whenever I was cooking to continue to polymerize it or whatever this wizardry is. Anyway the last time I did this, I was cooking some ziti on the top rack and made the mistake of putting the skillet inverted on the bottom rack, no foil underneath (because there's nothing to drip, right?), and the oven's heating element ended up overheating and catching fire. The thing was burning like a sparkler, even after turning off the oven it continued to burn and spark. After standing there like a fool debating what to do next, realizing the oven wasn't going to be oxygen deprived, considering the fire extinguisher and wondering at what point to call the fire department I ended up throwing the fuse to kill it. This has been a public service announcement! Maybe the pan being inverted allowed for a particularly hot spot or something, but I'm going to be keeping my cast iron away from the bottom level altogether in the future.
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Jul 18, 2019 05:46
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I think you may have inadvertently placed a reflector dish pointed straight at your oven’s heating element.
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Jul 18, 2019 07:50
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I picked up a dutch oven, a huge wok and a couple of frying pans at a flea market. I experimented with seasoning the pans, but wasn't too happy with the result, so I'll redo them. The dutch oven however: It sat a while after being steel wooled and cleaned:  Then, after 5 coats of canola oil:  I set the oven at 500 degrees F/250C, and just let it sit until it stopped smoking for each pass, which was about 30 minutes for the pot and 20 for the lid. Definitively redoing the frying pans next and getting better results on them!
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Sep 9, 2019 21:56
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random question: cool to scrub a seasoned skillet with steel wool? Just do it lightly or?
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Sep 11, 2019 03:38
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Nostalgia4Dogges posted:random question: cool to scrub a seasoned skillet with steel wool? Just do it lightly or? if it's well seasoned, go for it, the seasoning is harder than steel wool
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Sep 11, 2019 07:22
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If you're concerned, they sell copper wool in most supermarkets, which is softer than steel wool but tougher than brillo. I am a tiny bit concerned, though, since mine appears to be ferromagnetic, but it hasn't caused me any problems.
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Sep 11, 2019 12:26
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I've spent the week restoring something fun for this thread, though it will have to wait until after my ICSA post.
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Sep 11, 2019 14:56
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evobatman posted:Then, after 5 coats of canola oil: I must have done something wrong, it just sat on the kitchen counter for a few days, and when I went to check on it it had rust all over  The frying pan I did looks pretty promising, have given it a few rounds of eggs and bacon, and it's not sticking too bad and pretty smooth.
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Sep 16, 2019 14:25
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Grabbed a pretty nasty Wagner skillet at a thrift store. Can just barely make out the 'sidney' beneath a thick layer of nonsense.  Currently soaking it in lye, hopefully it'll clean up nicely!
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Oct 21, 2019 23:17
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I use mine all the time. I've not touched my Lodge skillets in forever.
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Oct 22, 2019 00:32
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evobatman posted:I must have done something wrong, it just sat on the kitchen counter for a few days, and when I went to check on it it had rust all over Just looking at your pictures, it's covered in rust prior to seasoning. I've never done a strip and reseason before, but I understand a bare iron pan starts to rust in like... minutes. Don't you need to oil it immediately?
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Oct 22, 2019 01:00
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litany of gulps posted:Just looking at your pictures, it's covered in rust prior to seasoning. I've never done a strip and reseason before, but I understand a bare iron pan starts to rust in like... minutes. Don't you need to oil it immediately? Yeah, after the rusty picture I went over it with steel wool to get rid of all the rust, then dried it off and oiled it. Probably wasn't fast enough, and microscopic rust must have sat in all the pits in the texture. Still haven't taken the time to redo it. The weird bit was that it was nice for 3-4 days, before it suddenly totally broke overnight. The frying pan I did 5 layers on is doing well though, and has gotten even better after a few rounds of bacon.
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Oct 22, 2019 17:11
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Has anyone done the whole "sand all the cast mold texture smooth as butter before seasoning" thing? Lots of people online talking about that being a huge factor in non-stickiness
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Oct 22, 2019 19:19
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BrianBoitano posted:Has anyone done the whole "sand all the cast mold texture smooth as butter before seasoning" thing? Lots of people online talking about that being a huge factor in non-stickiness I’ve done it with 3 pans. Honestly a good seasoning on a regular bumpy pan isn’t worse. It’s just easier to get there with a sanded pan. Minor negative being that one time my first initial layer of seasoning just sheeted off of the sanded pan. So it isn’t a pure win. If I bought a new pan I’d probably still grind it down just because I already have the tools but I wouldn’t rebuy an angle grinder only for this.
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Oct 22, 2019 20:28
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BrianBoitano posted:Has anyone done the whole "sand all the cast mold texture smooth as butter before seasoning" thing? Lots of people online talking about that being a huge factor in non-stickiness I've sanded two of my pans and I love them more because of it. I'm not sure if it actually improves things or if it's placebo, but I highly recommend. A mirror finish on your cast iron is so satisfying.
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Oct 22, 2019 20:33
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so what's with these enamel cast iron skillets I see now. Is that the new hotness? Anyone bothered to get rid of their regular cast iron for one? I noticed since people are moving away from teflon a lot of new non-stick options have been coming out, arguably a bit faddish? Costco always has some new latest and greatest pan and someone doing a cooking demo. Some of them just straight up look like granite. Steel always seems like the overall safe bet but is it possible to use those and not burn crud to the pan? Like drat. I know this is the cast-iron thread but has anyone been swayed or impressed by the newer options they've seen? SymmetryrtemmyS posted:if it's well seasoned, go for it, the seasoning is harder than steel wool BrianBoitano posted:If you're concerned, they sell copper wool in most supermarkets, which is softer than steel wool but tougher than brillo. Thanks! didn't know copper wool was a thing. Honestly I'd get by just fine with a brillo green pad most likely, just didn't have any lying around at the time but I should. Probably gonna order some "copper cloths" as well. Also forgot to say thanks for all the tips above for cleaning crud! I know there's not just one science to it, was curious what others were doing.
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Oct 22, 2019 20:57
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Enameled cast iron doesn't need seasoning, and still gets you the heat retention properties of cast iron plus you can cook up a tomato sauce without worrying about the acidity. Not really sure how it compares in apples-to-apples usage with regular CI cookware though.
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Oct 22, 2019 22:08
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I have found it is way easier to clean the inside, but oil dripping down the side while cooking might get "seasoned" on and I don't know how hard it is to clean off because I haven't bothered. I'd be nervous about trying to get it super hot for sous vide searing or whatever, but otherwise I think it's an improvement
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Oct 22, 2019 22:14
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TITTIEKISSER69 posted:Enameled cast iron doesn't need seasoning, and still gets you the heat retention properties of cast iron plus you can cook up a tomato sauce without worrying about the acidity. I've cooked a million tomato sauce based things in my cast iron pans and never had a problem. My pebbly surfaced Lodge pans have also become smooth over time. I think the answer is always just cook more bacon.
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Oct 23, 2019 02:18
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litany of gulps posted:I've cooked a million tomato sauce based things in my cast iron pans and never had a problem. My pebbly surfaced Lodge pans have also become smooth over time. I think the answer is always just cook more bacon.
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Oct 23, 2019 05:17
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Lhet posted:Grabbed a pretty nasty Wagner skillet at a thrift store. Can just barely make out the 'sidney' beneath a thick layer of nonsense. Had to scrape a bit on the bottom, but it cleaned up nicely!  
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Oct 25, 2019 04:02
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Looks good!
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Oct 25, 2019 18:59
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I've got several Lodge skillets now, and I'm wondering about getting a rack for them. Will any old standing rack do, or is there a goon-favored one?
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Nov 30, 2019 18:14
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This doesn't directly answer your question, but I store mine in the oven. They're too heavy for most racks.
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Nov 30, 2019 20:26
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Would if I could, but my roommate uses the oven fairly often and I'm sure he's not keen on emptying it out every time.
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Dec 1, 2019 00:55
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I just put a bunch of screws in the side of the cabinet above my stove and hung them there.
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Dec 1, 2019 02:08
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TITTIEKISSER69 posted:Would if I could, but my roommate uses the oven fairly often and I'm sure he's not keen on emptying it out every time. Would you be filling the oven? I store 2 cast iron pans and a pizza stone, and just let them ride along and provide thermal mass when I’m baking or roasting.
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Dec 1, 2019 02:46
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I store my cast iron on top of the fridge. Only metal shelf in the house.
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Dec 1, 2019 03:23
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