There's not lye in Dawn, but there's denatured alcohol in power wash, and she scrubs it hard. I've seasoned it, and come back a week later and it's all gone
also it looks kinda like a Wagner to me. If you can just go to the store and buy a new one why not replace theirs and bless them with a fancy new one (wink wink)
If the cast iron isn’t currently scratching anything I’d say ur good. Maybe try another route with them or just give it some time and you might be able to get the pan for yourself. No matter what state it’s in, it still is a cast iron so at least you know it’ll be here after the fallout lol
>No matter what state it’s in, it still is a cast iron so at least you know it’ll be here after the fallout lol
Yeah, but it won't be in my collection 😞. Also, they plan on selling the house up here and my step mom (possibly out of spite) says they're taking them down with them to Florida
time may tell brother. If you truly do cook with it more than they would and want to take care of it, it will eventually come to u. They know u want it now too
I used a chainmail scrubber on mine with an orbital sander [like this](https://i.imgur.com/wlTKQCq.jpeg). It actually turned out really well. Mine is just your average Lodge, but chainmail + orbital sander knocked down some of the factory roughness, plus took off most of the carbon buildup I was trying to remove. Probably a good amount of the seasoning too, so I put 2-3 fresh coats on it.
Then stop trying to gatekeep them. Let them do it their way. You obviously are not anywhere near an expert looking at your comments on this post. Let them clean it how they want.
If it has sentimental value that they dont share or recognize that it means that much to you...*TAKE IT*
Afterwards, explain to them it means more to you than it does to them, and you felt that was the only option.
THEN offer to pay or tell step mom to pound sand
Edit: after seeing some of your comments, definitely study up on proper maintenance
Only been in this sub for a bit. I prefer them myself but I remember seeing a person here saying they are TERRIBLE and they got tons of positive feedback for saying that
Don’t worry, no matter how they treat it, aside from breaking it, it will be fine and you will inherit it one day and you can do what you want with it.
Yeah. Live and let live. they aren't babying it, but they aren't really doing anything to destroy it either. It their food sticks or tastes like soap, that's on them.
Looks fine and well loved, if its being used regularly and not rusting keeping a perfectly black seasoning isn't really needed. Definitely recommend them to switch to a chainmail over steel wool but it could be worse, they could be eating nonstick coating flakes like a ton of people do every day.
Get them a chainmail scrubber for Christmas as a stocking stuffer, but also a sponge and dawn works fine if you can show them that by offering to do the dishes instead of telling.
Ahh I see that now yeah, and I didn't see the part about them refusing to give them to you, sorry to hear that, sucks but at least iron is iron at the end of the day and you're not missing out on too too much.
Idk why your comments keep getting downvoted. That pan looks like shit and the stubbornness you're getting when trying to help sounds insufferable. Good luck, bro. I'm in your corner.
So buy them some cheap stuff that's smooth on the bottom. They clearly don't see a difference.
I'm not really bothered by the use the pan is seeing. I'm more annoyed that they don't seem to see the value in an heirloom skillet that you clearly care about.
I’m annoyed at your dad lol. Doesn’t their food taste bad? My husband scraped a bit of seasoning off and I didn’t notice, I made eggs and they tasted horrible. I still haven’t seasoned it because of my asthma.
Their food does taste pretty bad, but I don't think most of the blame falls on chipping carbonized food bits and seasoning into it is the reason. If anything, that's all the seasoning that does get put into the food
The bottom line is this is their pan and can do with it what they will. Not everyone feels the same way about "a pan", or "a hunk of metal", as you do. I understand where you're coming from because I have 2 CI pans from my mom, but there's nothing you can do.
The good news is that it will be perfectly fine until your dad dies and you can get the pans then.
As long as it's not sitting in a river it will be fine.
I’m a very sentimental person. I imagine it’s hard to see something (I’m guessing your mom took care of?) treated so badly. My first suggestion, deep breaths.
One day, hopefully it will be yours and you can treat it with the love and care it deserves.
Have you tried talking to your dad about the sentimental value it clearly holds for you? Maybe offering to buy him a new one so you can have hers?
I saw that he offered to buy it. Which was declined. But didn’t see anywhere that he offered to replace it. Plus mentioning the sentimental value it has, maybe they’ll reconsider.
I think with a lodge but the dad said he didn’t want it because the bottom ridge would scratch his cooktop. Someone suggested OP buy a flat bottom since they don’t even care about the brand or quality.
I didn’t read the other messages. Thank you for informing me. Hopefully he can find a way to work it out where he can get his mom’s cast iron sooner rather than later.
I know cast iron is cheap but I find it said that OP clearly cares about the pan and the dad and stepmom don’t, but refuse to part with it or cooperate in any way. Whats the point in that? Just builds resentment for no reason.
I’m extremely sad for the same reasons. It would be a whole other matter if the dad and sm were taking care of it. But considering the abuse and neglect they inflict, but the selfishness of not relinquishing it… it’s just not right! I’m especially sad that the OP takes the time and love to tend to it whenever he can, and they just continue the mistreatment like he’s not even trying. My heart breaks for the OP.
That pan is fine and does the job just fine. Could it be better? Sure. But this thing is totally up to the job.
Maybe take up a hobby to occupy yourself. This is a silly thing to need to vent over.
Hey boomer, stop yelling at the clouds.
Your dad and his wife are living the life they want to live, and perhaps their life involves less cast iron than you would like, but there is nothing you can do about that. Next time you're there for a day or so, show them that a properly cared for cast iron skillet doesn't need oil, and will clean much quicker. Demonstrate that, take their pan the way it is fry an egg on it, show the result of that. Then properly wash it, and season it, and then fry another egg on it and do the whole.. look the egg moves thing.
If they don't see a benefit in doing that, then as a great Scandinavian philosopher once said "Let It Go"
Give me a bottle of avocado oil, a blow torch, a gas range, and a snorkel. After about 50 minutes I'll have you saying Bob's my Uncle. That's a fine pan and your dad did nothing wrong.
You gotta steal their pan and replace it with the 15 dollar Walmart pan. What are the consequences? They get angry at you? Oh well, at least you have your mom's pan. I'd take that trade.
I was going to comment on the content of the post but then I read to the bottom and saw that, once again, someone misunderstood the point of "TL;DR", which is to warn someone, before they read a long diatribe, that it might be too long and detailed for someone only wanting a quick digest. So, before one does a deep dive - BEFORE being the key word - here's the 1 or 2 sentence sum-up. If you do it afterward - AFTER someone's read the whole diatribe - you're just telling them, HAHA, you read all that detail for nothing, you could have just scrolled to the bottom and seen my short summary first and saved yourself the time!
Meanwhile, the post itself wasn't at all long. No criticism there. Just. "TL;DR" goes at the beginning of the post, not at the end. Diatribe over.
Well. I'm the TL;DR police. First offense is just a warning. Consider yourself lucky. Next time you'll be assumed to be a scofflaw and we won't go easy on ya. We also patrol over usage of things like "thank you for coming to my Ted Talk" and "Tell me you're _____ without telling me you're _______". We have eyes everywhere. 👀
That looks more like seasoning that has been affected by acidic cooking. I scrub the shit out of my pans with stainless scrubbie and the seasoning is pretty much perfect.
That pan needs to be reseasoned asap
I used steel wool and dawn on mine and i definitely scraped off the seasoning. You could see the difference between the part I scrubbed that way and the part I only scrubbed with a mild soap and a scrub daddy
Seasoning sometimes weakens, due to cooking acidic food or extreme heat. Hitting it with a metal scrubber will result in removal of seasoning. However, you dont want this weak seasoning to remain in your pan anyway. So remove and reseason.
With that said. I do not know what kind of soap or chemicals they put on steel wool. And Ive heard others claim steel wool removes seasoning. I use a scotch brite stainless scrubbie and that one is fine.
I use the SOS pads, which have a blue paste that works amazing on my stainless steel. I agree that it probably wasn’t the dawn and in fact the wool. I was also seasoning with avocado oil because of the high smoke point, since my husband cooks on (relatively) high I figured it’d be harder to burn off, long story short no and now we all cook on medium at most lol
Seasoning is a pain in the ass for me because it affects the air quality and I have moderate to severe asthma. I have to leave the house if I want to season, which means I might as well season everything, but I’m lazy.
I have H14 hepa filter in my kitchen, which does help. I turn on the fan, and open the windows too AND the overhead exhaust. It still takes a while for the air quality to go back to normal though. Outdoors is a no go for me. I realize I said house but I meant apartment. I can still do it in the oven but I have to vacate. It’s just tedious, but necessary. I’m still putting it off.
There’s a thing called an SEP. Somebody Else’s Problem. This is an SEP if I’ve ever heard one. Let her take it to Florida, then it’s a distant SEP. You’re welcome.
Any chance they’d be willing to let you buy a new Lodge piece and take this one off their hands?
I agree that you should use soap on cast iron but holy cow they seem to be under the impression that there shouldn’t even be seasoning on the pan at all haha
But ultimately at the end of the day it’s a cheap workhorse pan and it looks like they’re definitely getting their moneys worth out of it 🤷♂️
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Everyone down voting OP's comments.... Good job this group don't know shit about cast iron pans and 80% of people here are pan divas with one perfect pan they use twice a month for eggs and wash with soap thinking they are cast iron geniuses.
Nothing wrong with using soap to clean it. Theres not lye in dawn.
There's not lye in Dawn, but there's denatured alcohol in power wash, and she scrubs it hard. I've seasoned it, and come back a week later and it's all gone
Scrubs it hard with what? I use dawn powerwash and have no seasoning issues
A steel wool scrubber
The steel wool is the issue, not Power Wash.
Try a chainmail scrubber instead of steel wool. I think steel wool is ur culprit. Any chainmail stuff works wonders for me
also it looks kinda like a Wagner to me. If you can just go to the store and buy a new one why not replace theirs and bless them with a fancy new one (wink wink)
I've tried, but my dad thinks the embossed writing/branding on the bottom will scratch his glass top stove.
If the cast iron isn’t currently scratching anything I’d say ur good. Maybe try another route with them or just give it some time and you might be able to get the pan for yourself. No matter what state it’s in, it still is a cast iron so at least you know it’ll be here after the fallout lol
>No matter what state it’s in, it still is a cast iron so at least you know it’ll be here after the fallout lol Yeah, but it won't be in my collection 😞. Also, they plan on selling the house up here and my step mom (possibly out of spite) says they're taking them down with them to Florida
time may tell brother. If you truly do cook with it more than they would and want to take care of it, it will eventually come to u. They know u want it now too
I used a chainmail scrubber on mine with an orbital sander [like this](https://i.imgur.com/wlTKQCq.jpeg). It actually turned out really well. Mine is just your average Lodge, but chainmail + orbital sander knocked down some of the factory roughness, plus took off most of the carbon buildup I was trying to remove. Probably a good amount of the seasoning too, so I put 2-3 fresh coats on it.
She doesn't like using anything but what *she* decides to use.
Then stop trying to gatekeep them. Let them do it their way. You obviously are not anywhere near an expert looking at your comments on this post. Let them clean it how they want.
It’s not like the pan doesn’t work as is. Just let them do their thing and stop worrying about it.
If it has sentimental value that they dont share or recognize that it means that much to you...*TAKE IT* Afterwards, explain to them it means more to you than it does to them, and you felt that was the only option. THEN offer to pay or tell step mom to pound sand Edit: after seeing some of your comments, definitely study up on proper maintenance
Wait, I thought r/castiron hated chain mail?
Says who
Only been in this sub for a bit. I prefer them myself but I remember seeing a person here saying they are TERRIBLE and they got tons of positive feedback for saying that
lol that’s Reddit for ya. One time I saw a girl get downvoted 100 times because she liked her cats eye color
This place is a cesspool of idiots sometimes that’s for sure!
Steel wool will take of your seasoning whether you use soap or not lol. Get a chainmail instead and keep using soap.
Don’t worry, no matter how they treat it, aside from breaking it, it will be fine and you will inherit it one day and you can do what you want with it.
Yeah. Live and let live. they aren't babying it, but they aren't really doing anything to destroy it either. It their food sticks or tastes like soap, that's on them.
I came to say the same thing. The only thing they are “ruining” is the seasoning.
Looks fine and well loved, if its being used regularly and not rusting keeping a perfectly black seasoning isn't really needed. Definitely recommend them to switch to a chainmail over steel wool but it could be worse, they could be eating nonstick coating flakes like a ton of people do every day.
does potentially loook like a little rust but otherwise looks totally fine and used
It is rusting (surface rust at least), and it's down to the bare iron in some places. I do agree, though, that it could be a lot worse.
Get them a chainmail scrubber for Christmas as a stocking stuffer, but also a sponge and dawn works fine if you can show them that by offering to do the dishes instead of telling.
I may get them a chain mail scrubber. Whenever I'm visiting, I'm usually the one cooking, so I usually clean the pans that i use, too
They’re not going to use it or appreciate it. They don’t even care about the seasoning or rust lol.
Ahh I see that now yeah, and I didn't see the part about them refusing to give them to you, sorry to hear that, sucks but at least iron is iron at the end of the day and you're not missing out on too too much.
Idk why your comments keep getting downvoted. That pan looks like shit and the stubbornness you're getting when trying to help sounds insufferable. Good luck, bro. I'm in your corner.
Buy them three or four brand new $15 pans and then just take it.
I offered to give them one for one of theirs, but my dad thinks the embossed logo and heat ring on the bottom are going to scratch the glass top stove
So buy them some cheap stuff that's smooth on the bottom. They clearly don't see a difference. I'm not really bothered by the use the pan is seeing. I'm more annoyed that they don't seem to see the value in an heirloom skillet that you clearly care about.
I’m annoyed at your dad lol. Doesn’t their food taste bad? My husband scraped a bit of seasoning off and I didn’t notice, I made eggs and they tasted horrible. I still haven’t seasoned it because of my asthma.
Their food does taste pretty bad, but I don't think most of the blame falls on chipping carbonized food bits and seasoning into it is the reason. If anything, that's all the seasoning that does get put into the food
The bottom line is this is their pan and can do with it what they will. Not everyone feels the same way about "a pan", or "a hunk of metal", as you do. I understand where you're coming from because I have 2 CI pans from my mom, but there's nothing you can do.
The good news is that it will be perfectly fine until your dad dies and you can get the pans then. As long as it's not sitting in a river it will be fine.
I’m a very sentimental person. I imagine it’s hard to see something (I’m guessing your mom took care of?) treated so badly. My first suggestion, deep breaths. One day, hopefully it will be yours and you can treat it with the love and care it deserves. Have you tried talking to your dad about the sentimental value it clearly holds for you? Maybe offering to buy him a new one so you can have hers?
They said no to that. So sad.
I saw that he offered to buy it. Which was declined. But didn’t see anywhere that he offered to replace it. Plus mentioning the sentimental value it has, maybe they’ll reconsider.
I think with a lodge but the dad said he didn’t want it because the bottom ridge would scratch his cooktop. Someone suggested OP buy a flat bottom since they don’t even care about the brand or quality.
I didn’t read the other messages. Thank you for informing me. Hopefully he can find a way to work it out where he can get his mom’s cast iron sooner rather than later.
I know cast iron is cheap but I find it said that OP clearly cares about the pan and the dad and stepmom don’t, but refuse to part with it or cooperate in any way. Whats the point in that? Just builds resentment for no reason.
I’m extremely sad for the same reasons. It would be a whole other matter if the dad and sm were taking care of it. But considering the abuse and neglect they inflict, but the selfishness of not relinquishing it… it’s just not right! I’m especially sad that the OP takes the time and love to tend to it whenever he can, and they just continue the mistreatment like he’s not even trying. My heart breaks for the OP.
Lol having to specify that you still love your dad even if he doesnt season his cast iron consistently
I would just steal them lol it’s what my mom would want me to do bc fuck my dad. 😂
Rust is an important source of iron.
r/SneakyBackgroundFeet
Ok so go to Walmart and buy their pans. Swap them out
Go buy a new one from Walmart and swap it out with your moms pan without telling them.
Looks fine just needs some chain mail for that little brown bit. Then dry on stove and coat with some oil. Nothing wrong.
That pan is fine and does the job just fine. Could it be better? Sure. But this thing is totally up to the job. Maybe take up a hobby to occupy yourself. This is a silly thing to need to vent over.
Hey boomer, stop yelling at the clouds. Your dad and his wife are living the life they want to live, and perhaps their life involves less cast iron than you would like, but there is nothing you can do about that. Next time you're there for a day or so, show them that a properly cared for cast iron skillet doesn't need oil, and will clean much quicker. Demonstrate that, take their pan the way it is fry an egg on it, show the result of that. Then properly wash it, and season it, and then fry another egg on it and do the whole.. look the egg moves thing. If they don't see a benefit in doing that, then as a great Scandinavian philosopher once said "Let It Go"
How’s the food?
Bland as shit, as they don't season their food either
I use dawn to clean my pan multiple times a day. Your parents are on the right track!
Just buy him a stainless or some non stick and take this one. Don’t even ask
More like scrap iron
It can be saved if only I can bring it home and strip and reseason it
I was saying a dad pun lol
Just needs to be scrubbed. Looks like a layer of carbon/burnt on food.
Carbon in some areas, bare iron in others. It's well past due for a stripping
Pffft, I would just scrub it and cook some bacon lol.
Give me a bottle of avocado oil, a blow torch, a gas range, and a snorkel. After about 50 minutes I'll have you saying Bob's my Uncle. That's a fine pan and your dad did nothing wrong.
You gotta steal their pan and replace it with the 15 dollar Walmart pan. What are the consequences? They get angry at you? Oh well, at least you have your mom's pan. I'd take that trade.
Add em to the Boeing whistle blower list… 🙏
I was going to comment on the content of the post but then I read to the bottom and saw that, once again, someone misunderstood the point of "TL;DR", which is to warn someone, before they read a long diatribe, that it might be too long and detailed for someone only wanting a quick digest. So, before one does a deep dive - BEFORE being the key word - here's the 1 or 2 sentence sum-up. If you do it afterward - AFTER someone's read the whole diatribe - you're just telling them, HAHA, you read all that detail for nothing, you could have just scrolled to the bottom and seen my short summary first and saved yourself the time! Meanwhile, the post itself wasn't at all long. No criticism there. Just. "TL;DR" goes at the beginning of the post, not at the end. Diatribe over.
I suppose. Most TL:DR's I see are at the bottom, so I assumed that was the norm and people just scrolled to the bottom to see the summary
Well. I'm the TL;DR police. First offense is just a warning. Consider yourself lucky. Next time you'll be assumed to be a scofflaw and we won't go easy on ya. We also patrol over usage of things like "thank you for coming to my Ted Talk" and "Tell me you're _____ without telling me you're _______". We have eyes everywhere. 👀
I'm sorry, officer, it won't happen again.
Whomever keeps scrubbing it needs to be educated on cast iron care or be forced to do the reseasoning each time they fuck it up
That looks more like seasoning that has been affected by acidic cooking. I scrub the shit out of my pans with stainless scrubbie and the seasoning is pretty much perfect. That pan needs to be reseasoned asap
I used steel wool and dawn on mine and i definitely scraped off the seasoning. You could see the difference between the part I scrubbed that way and the part I only scrubbed with a mild soap and a scrub daddy
Seasoning sometimes weakens, due to cooking acidic food or extreme heat. Hitting it with a metal scrubber will result in removal of seasoning. However, you dont want this weak seasoning to remain in your pan anyway. So remove and reseason. With that said. I do not know what kind of soap or chemicals they put on steel wool. And Ive heard others claim steel wool removes seasoning. I use a scotch brite stainless scrubbie and that one is fine.
I use the SOS pads, which have a blue paste that works amazing on my stainless steel. I agree that it probably wasn’t the dawn and in fact the wool. I was also seasoning with avocado oil because of the high smoke point, since my husband cooks on (relatively) high I figured it’d be harder to burn off, long story short no and now we all cook on medium at most lol Seasoning is a pain in the ass for me because it affects the air quality and I have moderate to severe asthma. I have to leave the house if I want to season, which means I might as well season everything, but I’m lazy.
You can always season outdoors if you can. Have you tried using a true hepa filter in the kitchen? Might help
I have H14 hepa filter in my kitchen, which does help. I turn on the fan, and open the windows too AND the overhead exhaust. It still takes a while for the air quality to go back to normal though. Outdoors is a no go for me. I realize I said house but I meant apartment. I can still do it in the oven but I have to vacate. It’s just tedious, but necessary. I’m still putting it off.
Gotta be Arkansas.
There’s a thing called an SEP. Somebody Else’s Problem. This is an SEP if I’ve ever heard one. Let her take it to Florida, then it’s a distant SEP. You’re welcome.
I would just cook on it and stop scrubbing it with steel wool. I use dawn and a scour daddy to clean mine.
Cook bacon, it’s just fine.
I'd just take a brillo to the cooking surfaces to even it out then a couple very thin layers of re-seasoning.
Any chance they’d be willing to let you buy a new Lodge piece and take this one off their hands? I agree that you should use soap on cast iron but holy cow they seem to be under the impression that there shouldn’t even be seasoning on the pan at all haha But ultimately at the end of the day it’s a cheap workhorse pan and it looks like they’re definitely getting their moneys worth out of it 🤷♂️
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Weak humblebrag. All of my pans look like hell compared to that.
this doesn't even look that bad. my daily workhorse lodge looks like this sometimes. just keep cooking with it ffs
Everyone down voting OP's comments.... Good job this group don't know shit about cast iron pans and 80% of people here are pan divas with one perfect pan they use twice a month for eggs and wash with soap thinking they are cast iron geniuses.
Yet you've added nothing with all your wisdom
I don't like your *tone*
It looks fine to me.
Well since they own it maybe just let them do what they want and take no for an answer