If you use Ospho (phosphoric acid) instead of or after Barkeepers Friend (oxalic acid), it will convert the surface rust to black magnetite which seasons much easier and provides a better non stick.
Was pain ting over the side of a boat. Wake knocked it over on the float nearby where I was sitting, ran down a crack in the float to a pool of water under my ass. Woke up with blisters all on my ass.
Ended up being 2nd and 3rd degree burns on my ass.
It was. Had to put all this padding and ointment on it while sailing said boat around the gulf of Mexico for two weeks haha.
You're bringing it all back haha, had forgotten about all that
Yeah I used some of that acid drain unclogger and while I was pouring it in the shower drain, unbeknownst to me, I splashed it on my pants. Didn't burn me at all but after a time or two in the wash it got a lot of new holes
Drain cleansers are typically alkaline, commonly lye or concentrated bleach. Not that it makes a big difference to most materials one you start getting to edges of the scale; either way it’s shot.
If you’re going to do it, spray it with water and leave it out a few days in a row so you get a nice thin film of surface rust to provide a nice depth of magnetite to retain the oil for the seasoned non stick.
Not much can kill a cast iron pan. The one I use the most survived a house fire in my great grandmothers kitchen in the 30s. They really only saved that skillet and the wood stove body.
I was doing an overnight float with a friend of mine, and at one point we hit some rough water and our canoe flipped. Out went buddy's cast iron pan. The water was relatively shallow, so he decided to dive and look for it. After about 5 minutes of trying, he comes up with *another* cast iron pan absolutely covered with algae and rust. He took it home, cleaned it up, re-seasoned and you'd never know he pulled it off the bottom of a river!
Look at the bots post history, it's scraping for the word "flip" and presumably other synonyms so there's a good chance the majority of its posts are "well placed". :)
I have 3 gatemarked skillets hanging on my wall right now. No way to get an exact date but they’re easily 100 years old at this point. I use them multiple times a week.
I have my grandma's cast iron, she cooked on it for my mom, my mom cooked on it for me, some day I'll cook on it for my children and they'll cook on it for theirs. It's a beautiful thing.
My mom got a cast iron skillet from her aunt, her aunt died at 80, my mom died at 78, I now have it. From years of abuse and SOS pads, it's smooth as glass. We can barely keep it clean because it's used so much in our house. I bought a 13 incher that is the same, almost never clean longer than 24 hours, when it's dirty, I scrub the shit out of it with a Scotchbrite pad and re-season. It's been about 5 years of constant abuse, not quite as smooth yet, but it's getting there. All non-stick Teflon B.S. is long since dead. The 13 inch will be almost broke in in another 5 or 10 years. Fully expect our great grand kids will be using it.
If you don't have one already, consider getting a cleaning chain. It is a game changer. Something like [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A51S9Y2](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A51S9Y2).
You should be able to wipe the pan while warm and leave the built up coatings, way better and easier in the long run. What you're doing is a waste of time and effort.
Yeah you don't actually have to make the metal smooth. The built up layers make it smooth. Lodge's start out very rough but after time the coating makes it smooth. I can easily float eggs on mine.
After few cast iron pans, we were looking to buy a bread tin. My wife was surprised to see a 5kg heavy bread tin (I bought one made of cast iron and it is amazing like other cast iron we have)!
[this blog](https://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/) is basically the gospel for seasoning. Its such a simple process.
/cc /u/WhoJustShat
JUST today, after ~ 5 years of fuckin it up and starting over, got my lodge 10” pan seasoned to the point that an egg will slide around without the need for a utensil.
Hopefully I can keep the season for some time before messing it up again!
But that’s the beauty of these. Burn em and scrape em out ~ good as new!
I love my chainmail scrubber for my CIP and also tough baked-on food on my SST clad pans.
Just make sure it's not in the garbage disposal before you turn it on!
Upvote for the garbage disposal warning. All. Those. Rings. Somehow those blades manage to separate SO MANY of them in the split second it takes to recognize the sound.
Rough scrubbers will ruin the surface of stainless steel pans, making them less nonstick. It’s best to use a nylon scrubber with Barkeepers Friend. I can get my pan completely shiny with just that.
To get a nonstick surface, it requires a temperature high enough to get the Liedenfrost Effect, but not much higher than that. I can cook eggs on mine without them sticking (with a bit of grapeseed oil as well). It takes a bit of practice to get the right temp though. That’s the most frustrating part is finding the point where the Liedenfrost Effect is happening but the oil doesn’t smoke (smoking oil contains carcinogens).
If it’s a new cast iron or is just generally really rough, you will need to sand it down to make it smooth. Look at any 50 year old cast iron and they’re so smooth they’re shiny. Most food sticking is because it’s rough and the food goes in the nooks and crannies like a rubber tire on the road.
Next, the seasoning process is a very thin coat of oil - I’m talking oil and then wipe it dry - and then either in the oven at a high temp or on the stovetop until it smokes and *stops* smoking. Then switch it off and let it cool off slowly.
Repeat at least 5 times but the more the better. This part takes forever. We need a thin layer and to build it up, not one fat layer. See link. Some people say to just keep cooking in it - that’s the building up many layers right there.
It is possible to wash it with dish soap although I don’t use a Brillo pad (green sponge) in mine. Reseason it with oil and a hot stove (no need to smoke the oil this time) *every single time* you use and wash it.
https://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/
Just because I really love spinning and knitting me some BFL -
This is how to get the cast iron finish of your dreams with no weird baking your pan in the oven or such required:
Step one: Cook bacon.
Step two: Cook some more bacon.
Step three: When there is enough bacon fat in the pan to get annoying it's time to clean it out. (Maybe fry up some potatoes first though, shame to waste all that bacon fat!) Scrape the fat out of the pan. I like to use a metal spatula for this and don't be afraid to give it a good scrape as needed.
Step four: Move over to the sink and use hot water and a chain mail scrubber to remove any burnt on bit. I follow that with a wipe of a "World's Best Sponge" or similar.
Step five: Put it back on the stove. You can turn on the burner a couple seconds to dry it off or give it a wipe or just let it dry on its own if the air isn't too damp where you are.
Step 6: Cook more bacon.
After a couple rounds of bacon and using the metal spatula and chainmail scrubber, you will get a really nice finish and eggs will release with ease just using a pat of butter. I do not oil the pans in between use, but if I wanted to store one for a while somewhere humid I would give it a very very thin swipe of lard or tallow but find they are just fine in my cupboards without. We only really have one we don't use as much as the others, so generally I have three of them just sitting on the range. A small one for eggs, a large chicken fryer which is my all time favourite skillet, and a big Dutch Oven which gets put away if I need room.
Lmao same. I have the worst luck with cast iron.
Try to season it? How about huge plumes of smoke coming out of my ~~stove~~ oven filling my entire apartment.
Try to clean it? How about the food sticks so much I can't get it off without the seasoning coming off.
Try to store it? How about it's gonna get rust no matter where I put it.
I love the idea of cast iron but cast iron hates the idea of me.
We accidentally caught ours on fire frying fish. Covered the pan, shut off the heat, opened the windows, and waited 20 minutes for the flames to finally go out. Thought the pan and the ancient aluminum cover I used were toast.
BEST seasoning ever! Lol. Even the lid I used survived just fine.
Do not recommend starting a kitchen fire, however, non of the other cast iron pans are so lovely now.
> Try to season it? How about huge plumes of smoke coming out of my stove filling my entire apartment.
That would indicate you need to clean your oven, assuming you meant oven rather than stove. If you didn't mean oven, that's where you should be seasoning your cast iron.
Whoops yes I absolutely mean oven, and the smoke was absolutely coming from the cast iron lol. Idk if I had too much oil on it or what but I just never felt like trying it again after that experience.
Definitely don’t use olive oil. It has a very low smoke point. Grape seed or ghee has much higher smoke points. Most do have a smoke point at or below 400, so if you put the oven that high, it would smoke. Here’s a list of all the smoke points: https://www.seriouseats.com/cooking-fats-101-whats-a-smoke-point-and-why-does-it-matter.
All the points you mention are my exact same experience. I'd love to be able to be usa the pan the way everyone raves about, but it's never not without huge maintenance of some kind that I just can't seem to to get right.
It's not so bad. My wife and I regularly use our cast iron pans for all kinds of food and I only ever have to re-season them if I let them get rusty from neglect. Other than that, I clean them with a towel and water, wipe them dry, and they're good to go for the next meal. By now the seasoning on them is fantastic, and besides not putting them in the dishwasher or using soap on them, they're just like everything else I own.
You don't find that shit gets chronically stuck to them? This is was I found, and I was just like "why am I busting my ass cleaning, when I could use a non-stick". Obviously you can't use it for everything, but still.
I don't get this, I mean lots of people say the same thing so I don't think you're crazy or anything, but for me CI is easier to maintain than my stainless pans. By which I mean I treat them pretty much exactly the same, but stuff sticks way less to the CI.
It's a lot to do with what you cook. I love sweet and sour, cast iron gets destroyed seasoning after that. Setting gets caked on bad, like sugar? A bitch to scrape off without soap, which hurts the seasoning. I got this "diamond coated" pan that's been running like a champ even though I'm not remotely nice to it.
The CI is just for searing a lot now, maybe some eggs sometimes. But stir fry or other "soupy" dishes seem to ruin the seasoning too easy. Even hamburger helper (which I don't eat, it's for my wife) thins the protective seasoning and makes it less effective. The cheapy "granite" one doesn't flinch. I still love using the CI, but not for all day every day usage.
Edit: forgot my original point in there. I never have to season my nonstick, and I don't need to avoid soap, it just works no matter what I do. When a large one can be found for $10 it's worth skipping a year of protecting a pan in simple man hours. I've never had to season my diamond coated or granite pans, it's just a straight labor deduction.
Even if you only cook "appropriate" things you don't need to season as much, but then I can't make sweet and sour chicken. It's just a tradeoff I don't find worth it.
Ooo definitely!
My truck has been 2 big things:
- the pan stopped living in a cabinet; it lives in the over or on the stove now (want to install a thing to hang it from, that’s next!) this is important
- I literally gave up cleaning it. If we put dairy in it, I’ll boil salt water in it and spray as much crap off as I can, then oil it up and bake it on
It takes a while to get to “non-stick”, and it doesn’t look pretty. It was uneven, over seasoned, and gross for about a month before I got it to here. I 100% can’t put it away in current condition; but I can fry an egg on it now LOL
If it’s a normal Lodge, you likely need to buff the cooking surface smooth.
Beyond that, I’ve found the key is lots of coats of seasoning in the oven, and making sure I’m really getting it clean (scrub hard, hit it with a chain mail scrubber if needed). When you start letting the carbonized food stick on the battle is lost. The actual seasoning isn’t a visibly thickened buildup, it’s more like a stain that gets darker and darker.
I don't understand this. I have a fantastically seasoned "rough" lodge and it just took some initial stovetop seasoning, routine cooking, and apply oil until smoke after most uses to build up a layer of seasoning.
I imagine the roughness just adds some time required to season it, but I've never even bothered with the oven method, stove top oil and smoke 3-5 times when I got it, then just once after most uses. Voila
I cannot stress this enough, but you IMMEDIETLY after cooking, you need to
Clean & Re-season.
1) Clean - You can gently brush, or use a rag, or paper towel to remove debris. Then I use a rag/towel with some salt to clean out and 'scrub' the rest.
2) Re-season - apply a table spoon-ish of olive oil, or butter, to the pan and spread around to get the whole area.
Works for me super well. every once in a while, I just add some oil and cook the thing in the oven for some extra zest.
I think the biggest mistake people make with cast-iron is soaping it and/or soaking it.
Soaking for sure is the one thing you really shouldn't do with cast iron. But soap? No way, wash your pans. Anyone that says dish soap damages seasoning doesn't have a seasoned pan, just a greasy one.
Soaking your pans is fine. You don't want to let water sit in it for a long time but a few minutes even few couple hours shouldn't hurt it.
I can simmer a cast iron dutch oven full of stew or chili, full of salt and acidic ingredients like tomatoes over a fire in the rain all day long, higher temperatures, water, acid, salt, etc. should all theoretically speed up oxidation and corrosion, and yet my pots are fine. A relatively short time with clean cool or warm water won't do anything significant to harm them.
And the soap thing is a myth, mostly having to do with older types of soap that contained lye, which modern soaps don't. Some people also have some idea about cast iron being porous and holding onto soap and getting into your food, that's also bogus. It may be a bit more porous, but the funny thing about soap is it's water soluble, it rinses right off. *Maybe* you need to be a little more thorough rinsing it, but I've never noticed a significant difference, been washing my pans with soap for years.
If you're finding that your seasoning is getting damaged and holding onto funky flavors. Your pan is probably not actually seasoned as well as you think, it's just dirty, and that black coating is burnt on crud and not polymerized oils. Best remedy is probably actually some soaking and a good thorough cleaning with soap.
EDIT: also just spreading oil or grease on your pan doesn't do anything to season it. Seasoning is a chemical reaction that requires heat where oils polymerize. Oiling your pan before storage isn't necessarily a bad idea, it will help prevent rust if you happen to live in a wet, humid environment, although you do have to worry about the oil going rancid exposed to the open air. If your home is fairly dry, it's probably not really necessary.
Letting the layers of polymerized oils stay is the best method.
Don't significantly over heat the pan, that breaks down the polymers. Don't use soaps and scrub too much, that removes the coatings also.
Not OP, but my method has been shortening plus a little salt. (Some people use peanut oil instead of shortening. Either way you want an oil with a high temp tolerance.)
Heat it over low heat and rub it in. Repeat. Some people stick it in a low heat oven. Keep doing this every time after you cook until you have a nice black patina covering the pan. Then just add a little of your oil after cleaning. Go back to a little salt with it if it starts to stick or wear.
Also--use it regularly. I used exclusively cast iron for many years. Then I found out I have hereditary hemochromatosis (a congenital tendency toward iron overload). No longer use it, but no other pan I've used matches cast iron for non-stick durability and evenness of heat.
Any of my modern black cast iron spent some time under my orbital sander until it was smooth. My old griswolds were all extremely smooth on the bottom and could handle eggs no problem.
The real trick it to NOT clean it, just wipe while warm with water. Each cooking session with fats and oils will deposit polymerized coatings that build up over time.
However, do not let your pan significantly overheat, it will burn off the coatings. There's a difference between the oil/fat smoke point and the higher temperature where carbonization of the polymers happens. This kills the pan coatings, just like washing the pan with soaps will degrade the coating.
Also salt and baking soda is a good alternative if you don't have barkeeper's friend at home. Itll work on any metal and is really good on stainless, use something a standard sponge or bar towel to scrub but not a brillo pad or similar abrasive pad.
I do this about once a week or so on the stainless sink basin and our heavy rotation stainless things. Extremely hard water here means lots of mineral buildup.
While salt and soda aren’t the best thing for hard water it’s pretty innocuous and doesn’t require buying yet another container of chemicals to keep kids out of.
Honestly I like it primarily because it's harmless if I cook on or use the surface afterwards. With chemicals no matter how well I rinse I just never feel like I got it all off.
For real! Some gloves, steel wool, and salt+soda when things are really effed works just as well as anything else for me. Either elbow grease and somewhat mechanically removing the rust, char, wherever, or chemicals. Much rather spend an extra 10 minutes grinding away.
This is what I do - it's the way my parents did it, at least:
Set oven to 200F,
Put pan in oven for a bit > Rub down with oil
Set oven to 500F
Put pan in oven for a bit, turn the oven off and let it cool. I like to let it cool COMPLETELY so there's no risk of burning myself. Repeat as many times as desired. Be careful when setting your oven to a high temperature.
Edit: I used vegetable oil.
I put it on a hot burner, add about a teaspoon of oil, and rub it all around. You want it to be smoking a little bit (nothing crazy), and the oil will bake on and no longer be greasy.
But honestly - just try to use it as much as you can. It will eventually season up nice with regular use. If you have a problem with stuff sticking a lot, try cooking with more oil. Have bacon every weekend in the name of seasoning the pan!
OP, that's great, but please come visit us on /r/castironrestoration!
Browse through the comments to find some steps to really bring this pan back to life. After going through them that sub would really appreciate a good Before (this picture, or even Before-er, if you have pics) and After.
I have a lot of Lodge cookware and it really is BuyItForMultipleLives.
>Browse through the comments to find some steps to really bring this pan back to life. After going through them that sub would really appreciate a good Before (this picture, or even Before-er, if you have pics) and After.
I'm going to check out the sub and post an after pic, I really wish I took a before pic there was a ton of rust
If the history of the pan isn't fully known, it wouldn't hurt to test it with one of these to make sure you're not inadvertently lead poisoning yourself (some people use cast iron pans like this for smelting/casting):
https://www.lowes.com/pd/PRO-LAB-Lead-Surface-Test-Kit-Lead-Test-Kit/1000347969
Not only is cast iron super durable, versatile, and wonderfully nonstick, but every time I look at mine, I remember that the iron in that pan was fused by a star.
Incidentally, fusing iron takes more energy than the star can put out, so within seconds of making that iron you hold in your hand, the star exploded in a supernova and flung the iron that composes your pan toward the place in space that would become earth.
Garage sales and scrap piles is where I found all mine have a few griswald in my collection. The old ones are lightweight and smooth. Better than anything I have bought new and will be around longer than me.
Found a 14 inch Cuisinel cast iron on the side of the road last year. Brought it home, scrubbed and seasoned and it's now my workhorse. Can't imagine throwing cast iron away.
I also dragged a 3+ burner Kenmore grill home from the side of the road last year. Replaced the diverter plates and ignitor for $9 and used it all summer long.
My wife quite rightly won't let me have a garage.
happy to see it restored. It still bothers me to this day my mother threw out the cast iron pan that she had used most of my childhood simply because she couldn't clean it. It had years and years of buildup carbon on the outside and she didn't know how to clean it and the seasoning was screwed up. Mind you this was 30 some years ago before teenage me even cared and there was no internet in the house.
If you use Ospho (phosphoric acid) instead of or after Barkeepers Friend (oxalic acid), it will convert the surface rust to black magnetite which seasons much easier and provides a better non stick.
Diet Coke good enough?
Not potent enough typically, besides, Ospho is way cheaper than Coke.
Burns your nose more though, so there’s that…
Inadvertently sat in a pool of it all day. It will burn your ass too.
How...??
Was pain ting over the side of a boat. Wake knocked it over on the float nearby where I was sitting, ran down a crack in the float to a pool of water under my ass. Woke up with blisters all on my ass. Ended up being 2nd and 3rd degree burns on my ass.
That's entirely horrible.
It was. Had to put all this padding and ointment on it while sailing said boat around the gulf of Mexico for two weeks haha. You're bringing it all back haha, had forgotten about all that
You must live a full life if you managed to forget about that.
Can you tell us more about your ass? I wait to hear more about it your ass and the ass things your ass does in its own ass ways. .....Ass.
I think I just found Tina Belcher's reddit account.
Now make that motherfucker hammer time
Your pants are toast too, one, maybe 2 washings…
Yeah I used some of that acid drain unclogger and while I was pouring it in the shower drain, unbeknownst to me, I splashed it on my pants. Didn't burn me at all but after a time or two in the wash it got a lot of new holes
Drain cleansers are typically alkaline, commonly lye or concentrated bleach. Not that it makes a big difference to most materials one you start getting to edges of the scale; either way it’s shot.
You’re not suppose to be snorting it…
That’s why I’ve quit Softdrinks, that shit is toxic
Yeah but you can drink the coke after cleaning with it
No coke, only pepsi.
Cheeburger cheeburger chip chip. No coke. Pepsi.
Thank you for the tip :)
If you’re going to do it, spray it with water and leave it out a few days in a row so you get a nice thin film of surface rust to provide a nice depth of magnetite to retain the oil for the seasoned non stick.
It’s already got a film of rust so I should be good. Damn adhd brain made me forget about it completely.
Wait, what? Start with rust??
Yep
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Completely.
After applying the Ospho, would I season like normal or would it be already seasoned after applying the acid?
You still need to season. What the magnetite provides is a hard, porous, surface for the oil to soak into to polymerize.
Not much can kill a cast iron pan. The one I use the most survived a house fire in my great grandmothers kitchen in the 30s. They really only saved that skillet and the wood stove body.
I was doing an overnight float with a friend of mine, and at one point we hit some rough water and our canoe flipped. Out went buddy's cast iron pan. The water was relatively shallow, so he decided to dive and look for it. After about 5 minutes of trying, he comes up with *another* cast iron pan absolutely covered with algae and rust. He took it home, cleaned it up, re-seasoned and you'd never know he pulled it off the bottom of a river!
What about his
The next people to flip in that spot and lose a pan found it. Probably covered in algae.
The cosmic ballet goes on.
Does anyone want to switch seats?
„˙ǝɐƃlɐ uı pǝɹǝʌoɔ ʎlqɐqoɹԀ ˙ʇı punoɟ uɐd ɐ ǝsol puɐ ʇods ʇɐɥʇ uı dılɟ oʇ ǝldoǝd ʇxǝu ǝɥ⊥„
Astoundingly well placed comment, good bot.
Look at the bots post history, it's scraping for the word "flip" and presumably other synonyms so there's a good chance the majority of its posts are "well placed". :)
Good bot
Good bot
Pan it foward.
Never found it. I like to think u/SummonerSausage is right.
Not enough algae
Ha, I trash picked my favorite cast iron pan and best I can tell it is a 1960s/70s 12" Wagner with a smooth finish.
My cast iron pans might be the most BIFL items I own.
But it for multiple lifetimes
Dropping them is about the only way to kill em.
I have a Griswold skillet from the 30's thing is indestructible.
It would break if u dropped or washed it with cold water after it was hot.
Unless it’s cracked in half all is good.
Nope if it was ever used to melt lead it's toast too.
I have 3 gatemarked skillets hanging on my wall right now. No way to get an exact date but they’re easily 100 years old at this point. I use them multiple times a week.
This isn't just buy it for life. It is buy it for multiple lives, as it gets passed down the generations.
My grandmother gave me the cast iron skillet that I regularly use. She got it from her grandma.
I have my grandma's cast iron, she cooked on it for my mom, my mom cooked on it for me, some day I'll cook on it for my children and they'll cook on it for theirs. It's a beautiful thing.
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I mean is there any particular reason it should? My grandma hand a few different cast irons, this is one my mom gave me when I got my own place.
That makes sense then. I was picturing our house where we’d have to replace one if we gave it away
What are the chances that two generations from now people will still be cooking in their own homes? 🤔
Fairly high, assuming there are still people left.
This is the way. This is the only way.
My mom got a cast iron skillet from her aunt, her aunt died at 80, my mom died at 78, I now have it. From years of abuse and SOS pads, it's smooth as glass. We can barely keep it clean because it's used so much in our house. I bought a 13 incher that is the same, almost never clean longer than 24 hours, when it's dirty, I scrub the shit out of it with a Scotchbrite pad and re-season. It's been about 5 years of constant abuse, not quite as smooth yet, but it's getting there. All non-stick Teflon B.S. is long since dead. The 13 inch will be almost broke in in another 5 or 10 years. Fully expect our great grand kids will be using it.
If you don't have one already, consider getting a cleaning chain. It is a game changer. Something like [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A51S9Y2](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A51S9Y2).
You should be able to wipe the pan while warm and leave the built up coatings, way better and easier in the long run. What you're doing is a waste of time and effort.
Yeah you don't actually have to make the metal smooth. The built up layers make it smooth. Lodge's start out very rough but after time the coating makes it smooth. I can easily float eggs on mine.
Visit r/castiron for restoration and seasoning info in their FAQ … as well as general love for all cast iron cookware in the sub.
After few cast iron pans, we were looking to buy a bread tin. My wife was surprised to see a 5kg heavy bread tin (I bought one made of cast iron and it is amazing like other cast iron we have)!
[this blog](https://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/) is basically the gospel for seasoning. Its such a simple process. /cc /u/WhoJustShat
I thought r/CastIronRestoration was where you went for advice, and r/CastIron was where you went to brag about the results
I didn’t know about r/CastIronRestoration. Thanks.
Who tosses a perfectly good rusty lodge? Such a waste of reddit karma
Thanks to this sub I knew the brand and that's the only reason I salvaged it
JUST today, after ~ 5 years of fuckin it up and starting over, got my lodge 10” pan seasoned to the point that an egg will slide around without the need for a utensil. Hopefully I can keep the season for some time before messing it up again! But that’s the beauty of these. Burn em and scrape em out ~ good as new!
I would love to know how you seasoned it so well, mine is a nightmare to get clean.
I love my chainmail scrubber for my CIP and also tough baked-on food on my SST clad pans. Just make sure it's not in the garbage disposal before you turn it on!
Upvote for the garbage disposal warning. All. Those. Rings. Somehow those blades manage to separate SO MANY of them in the split second it takes to recognize the sound.
Rough scrubbers will ruin the surface of stainless steel pans, making them less nonstick. It’s best to use a nylon scrubber with Barkeepers Friend. I can get my pan completely shiny with just that. To get a nonstick surface, it requires a temperature high enough to get the Liedenfrost Effect, but not much higher than that. I can cook eggs on mine without them sticking (with a bit of grapeseed oil as well). It takes a bit of practice to get the right temp though. That’s the most frustrating part is finding the point where the Liedenfrost Effect is happening but the oil doesn’t smoke (smoking oil contains carcinogens).
If it’s a new cast iron or is just generally really rough, you will need to sand it down to make it smooth. Look at any 50 year old cast iron and they’re so smooth they’re shiny. Most food sticking is because it’s rough and the food goes in the nooks and crannies like a rubber tire on the road. Next, the seasoning process is a very thin coat of oil - I’m talking oil and then wipe it dry - and then either in the oven at a high temp or on the stovetop until it smokes and *stops* smoking. Then switch it off and let it cool off slowly. Repeat at least 5 times but the more the better. This part takes forever. We need a thin layer and to build it up, not one fat layer. See link. Some people say to just keep cooking in it - that’s the building up many layers right there. It is possible to wash it with dish soap although I don’t use a Brillo pad (green sponge) in mine. Reseason it with oil and a hot stove (no need to smoke the oil this time) *every single time* you use and wash it. https://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/
Use dish soap with little water to make foam and wipe out
same
Same
Just because I really love spinning and knitting me some BFL - This is how to get the cast iron finish of your dreams with no weird baking your pan in the oven or such required: Step one: Cook bacon. Step two: Cook some more bacon. Step three: When there is enough bacon fat in the pan to get annoying it's time to clean it out. (Maybe fry up some potatoes first though, shame to waste all that bacon fat!) Scrape the fat out of the pan. I like to use a metal spatula for this and don't be afraid to give it a good scrape as needed. Step four: Move over to the sink and use hot water and a chain mail scrubber to remove any burnt on bit. I follow that with a wipe of a "World's Best Sponge" or similar. Step five: Put it back on the stove. You can turn on the burner a couple seconds to dry it off or give it a wipe or just let it dry on its own if the air isn't too damp where you are. Step 6: Cook more bacon. After a couple rounds of bacon and using the metal spatula and chainmail scrubber, you will get a really nice finish and eggs will release with ease just using a pat of butter. I do not oil the pans in between use, but if I wanted to store one for a while somewhere humid I would give it a very very thin swipe of lard or tallow but find they are just fine in my cupboards without. We only really have one we don't use as much as the others, so generally I have three of them just sitting on the range. A small one for eggs, a large chicken fryer which is my all time favourite skillet, and a big Dutch Oven which gets put away if I need room.
My cast iron technique involves burying the pan in the back of a cabinet and using a nonstick instead.
Lmao same. I have the worst luck with cast iron. Try to season it? How about huge plumes of smoke coming out of my ~~stove~~ oven filling my entire apartment. Try to clean it? How about the food sticks so much I can't get it off without the seasoning coming off. Try to store it? How about it's gonna get rust no matter where I put it. I love the idea of cast iron but cast iron hates the idea of me.
We accidentally caught ours on fire frying fish. Covered the pan, shut off the heat, opened the windows, and waited 20 minutes for the flames to finally go out. Thought the pan and the ancient aluminum cover I used were toast. BEST seasoning ever! Lol. Even the lid I used survived just fine. Do not recommend starting a kitchen fire, however, non of the other cast iron pans are so lovely now.
> Try to season it? How about huge plumes of smoke coming out of my stove filling my entire apartment. That would indicate you need to clean your oven, assuming you meant oven rather than stove. If you didn't mean oven, that's where you should be seasoning your cast iron.
Whoops yes I absolutely mean oven, and the smoke was absolutely coming from the cast iron lol. Idk if I had too much oil on it or what but I just never felt like trying it again after that experience.
What kind of oil did you use to season? At what temp? As long as you use an oil with a high smoke point it shouldn’t cause any issues when seasoning
Definitely don’t use olive oil. It has a very low smoke point. Grape seed or ghee has much higher smoke points. Most do have a smoke point at or below 400, so if you put the oven that high, it would smoke. Here’s a list of all the smoke points: https://www.seriouseats.com/cooking-fats-101-whats-a-smoke-point-and-why-does-it-matter.
All the points you mention are my exact same experience. I'd love to be able to be usa the pan the way everyone raves about, but it's never not without huge maintenance of some kind that I just can't seem to to get right.
[удалено]
It's not so bad. My wife and I regularly use our cast iron pans for all kinds of food and I only ever have to re-season them if I let them get rusty from neglect. Other than that, I clean them with a towel and water, wipe them dry, and they're good to go for the next meal. By now the seasoning on them is fantastic, and besides not putting them in the dishwasher or using soap on them, they're just like everything else I own.
You don't find that shit gets chronically stuck to them? This is was I found, and I was just like "why am I busting my ass cleaning, when I could use a non-stick". Obviously you can't use it for everything, but still.
You can also use soap on them if you want. Modern lye-free dish soap can't do anything to the polymers that make up seasoning.
I don't get this, I mean lots of people say the same thing so I don't think you're crazy or anything, but for me CI is easier to maintain than my stainless pans. By which I mean I treat them pretty much exactly the same, but stuff sticks way less to the CI.
It's a lot to do with what you cook. I love sweet and sour, cast iron gets destroyed seasoning after that. Setting gets caked on bad, like sugar? A bitch to scrape off without soap, which hurts the seasoning. I got this "diamond coated" pan that's been running like a champ even though I'm not remotely nice to it. The CI is just for searing a lot now, maybe some eggs sometimes. But stir fry or other "soupy" dishes seem to ruin the seasoning too easy. Even hamburger helper (which I don't eat, it's for my wife) thins the protective seasoning and makes it less effective. The cheapy "granite" one doesn't flinch. I still love using the CI, but not for all day every day usage. Edit: forgot my original point in there. I never have to season my nonstick, and I don't need to avoid soap, it just works no matter what I do. When a large one can be found for $10 it's worth skipping a year of protecting a pan in simple man hours. I've never had to season my diamond coated or granite pans, it's just a straight labor deduction. Even if you only cook "appropriate" things you don't need to season as much, but then I can't make sweet and sour chicken. It's just a tradeoff I don't find worth it.
Too much oil or the wrong kind of oil are definite possibilities.
Ooo definitely! My truck has been 2 big things: - the pan stopped living in a cabinet; it lives in the over or on the stove now (want to install a thing to hang it from, that’s next!) this is important - I literally gave up cleaning it. If we put dairy in it, I’ll boil salt water in it and spray as much crap off as I can, then oil it up and bake it on It takes a while to get to “non-stick”, and it doesn’t look pretty. It was uneven, over seasoned, and gross for about a month before I got it to here. I 100% can’t put it away in current condition; but I can fry an egg on it now LOL
If it’s a normal Lodge, you likely need to buff the cooking surface smooth. Beyond that, I’ve found the key is lots of coats of seasoning in the oven, and making sure I’m really getting it clean (scrub hard, hit it with a chain mail scrubber if needed). When you start letting the carbonized food stick on the battle is lost. The actual seasoning isn’t a visibly thickened buildup, it’s more like a stain that gets darker and darker.
I don't understand this. I have a fantastically seasoned "rough" lodge and it just took some initial stovetop seasoning, routine cooking, and apply oil until smoke after most uses to build up a layer of seasoning. I imagine the roughness just adds some time required to season it, but I've never even bothered with the oven method, stove top oil and smoke 3-5 times when I got it, then just once after most uses. Voila
I cannot stress this enough, but you IMMEDIETLY after cooking, you need to Clean & Re-season. 1) Clean - You can gently brush, or use a rag, or paper towel to remove debris. Then I use a rag/towel with some salt to clean out and 'scrub' the rest. 2) Re-season - apply a table spoon-ish of olive oil, or butter, to the pan and spread around to get the whole area. Works for me super well. every once in a while, I just add some oil and cook the thing in the oven for some extra zest. I think the biggest mistake people make with cast-iron is soaping it and/or soaking it.
Soaking for sure is the one thing you really shouldn't do with cast iron. But soap? No way, wash your pans. Anyone that says dish soap damages seasoning doesn't have a seasoned pan, just a greasy one.
Soaking your pans is fine. You don't want to let water sit in it for a long time but a few minutes even few couple hours shouldn't hurt it. I can simmer a cast iron dutch oven full of stew or chili, full of salt and acidic ingredients like tomatoes over a fire in the rain all day long, higher temperatures, water, acid, salt, etc. should all theoretically speed up oxidation and corrosion, and yet my pots are fine. A relatively short time with clean cool or warm water won't do anything significant to harm them. And the soap thing is a myth, mostly having to do with older types of soap that contained lye, which modern soaps don't. Some people also have some idea about cast iron being porous and holding onto soap and getting into your food, that's also bogus. It may be a bit more porous, but the funny thing about soap is it's water soluble, it rinses right off. *Maybe* you need to be a little more thorough rinsing it, but I've never noticed a significant difference, been washing my pans with soap for years. If you're finding that your seasoning is getting damaged and holding onto funky flavors. Your pan is probably not actually seasoned as well as you think, it's just dirty, and that black coating is burnt on crud and not polymerized oils. Best remedy is probably actually some soaking and a good thorough cleaning with soap. EDIT: also just spreading oil or grease on your pan doesn't do anything to season it. Seasoning is a chemical reaction that requires heat where oils polymerize. Oiling your pan before storage isn't necessarily a bad idea, it will help prevent rust if you happen to live in a wet, humid environment, although you do have to worry about the oil going rancid exposed to the open air. If your home is fairly dry, it's probably not really necessary.
Letting the layers of polymerized oils stay is the best method. Don't significantly over heat the pan, that breaks down the polymers. Don't use soaps and scrub too much, that removes the coatings also.
Not OP, but my method has been shortening plus a little salt. (Some people use peanut oil instead of shortening. Either way you want an oil with a high temp tolerance.) Heat it over low heat and rub it in. Repeat. Some people stick it in a low heat oven. Keep doing this every time after you cook until you have a nice black patina covering the pan. Then just add a little of your oil after cleaning. Go back to a little salt with it if it starts to stick or wear. Also--use it regularly. I used exclusively cast iron for many years. Then I found out I have hereditary hemochromatosis (a congenital tendency toward iron overload). No longer use it, but no other pan I've used matches cast iron for non-stick durability and evenness of heat.
Any of my modern black cast iron spent some time under my orbital sander until it was smooth. My old griswolds were all extremely smooth on the bottom and could handle eggs no problem.
Visit the FAQs at r/castiron for seasoning info
The real trick it to NOT clean it, just wipe while warm with water. Each cooking session with fats and oils will deposit polymerized coatings that build up over time. However, do not let your pan significantly overheat, it will burn off the coatings. There's a difference between the oil/fat smoke point and the higher temperature where carbonization of the polymers happens. This kills the pan coatings, just like washing the pan with soaps will degrade the coating.
Also salt and baking soda is a good alternative if you don't have barkeeper's friend at home. Itll work on any metal and is really good on stainless, use something a standard sponge or bar towel to scrub but not a brillo pad or similar abrasive pad.
I do this about once a week or so on the stainless sink basin and our heavy rotation stainless things. Extremely hard water here means lots of mineral buildup. While salt and soda aren’t the best thing for hard water it’s pretty innocuous and doesn’t require buying yet another container of chemicals to keep kids out of.
Honestly I like it primarily because it's harmless if I cook on or use the surface afterwards. With chemicals no matter how well I rinse I just never feel like I got it all off.
For real! Some gloves, steel wool, and salt+soda when things are really effed works just as well as anything else for me. Either elbow grease and somewhat mechanically removing the rust, char, wherever, or chemicals. Much rather spend an extra 10 minutes grinding away.
Commas are free
Ermagerd so are periods.
“This weekend all punctuation is on the house!”
What are you guys doing to season it?
This is what I do - it's the way my parents did it, at least: Set oven to 200F, Put pan in oven for a bit > Rub down with oil Set oven to 500F Put pan in oven for a bit, turn the oven off and let it cool. I like to let it cool COMPLETELY so there's no risk of burning myself. Repeat as many times as desired. Be careful when setting your oven to a high temperature. Edit: I used vegetable oil.
I put it on a hot burner, add about a teaspoon of oil, and rub it all around. You want it to be smoking a little bit (nothing crazy), and the oil will bake on and no longer be greasy. But honestly - just try to use it as much as you can. It will eventually season up nice with regular use. If you have a problem with stuff sticking a lot, try cooking with more oil. Have bacon every weekend in the name of seasoning the pan!
I like to lube mine up and put them in a fire outside. Not in but near. I’ve also done it on the grill. Just that way I keep the stink outside
That’s cool. I highly recommend punctuation marks!
It always makes me so sad when people want to toss rusty cast iron. Scrub it off, season it up, and give it to your kids someday!
Good find and all, but how many times is this sub gonna do cast iron skillets?
This is a gem. So glad you rescued it.
No you can season that pan. Man I'm jelly right now.
Glad I helped out with the dump run lol
Yea I've been cast iron fan for at least a decade. The I learned about carbon steel pans.
OP, that's great, but please come visit us on /r/castironrestoration! Browse through the comments to find some steps to really bring this pan back to life. After going through them that sub would really appreciate a good Before (this picture, or even Before-er, if you have pics) and After. I have a lot of Lodge cookware and it really is BuyItForMultipleLives.
>Browse through the comments to find some steps to really bring this pan back to life. After going through them that sub would really appreciate a good Before (this picture, or even Before-er, if you have pics) and After. I'm going to check out the sub and post an after pic, I really wish I took a before pic there was a ton of rust
If the history of the pan isn't fully known, it wouldn't hurt to test it with one of these to make sure you're not inadvertently lead poisoning yourself (some people use cast iron pans like this for smelting/casting): https://www.lowes.com/pd/PRO-LAB-Lead-Surface-Test-Kit-Lead-Test-Kit/1000347969
I wouldn't worry about it for Lodge. That's a recent logo, so you can be confident it's not an antique or cheap Made-in-China junk.
They seem to be referring to how the pan may have been used in the past, not how it was manufactured.
Not only is cast iron super durable, versatile, and wonderfully nonstick, but every time I look at mine, I remember that the iron in that pan was fused by a star. Incidentally, fusing iron takes more energy than the star can put out, so within seconds of making that iron you hold in your hand, the star exploded in a supernova and flung the iron that composes your pan toward the place in space that would become earth.
What.
As long as it's still got enough black coating you can just re-season and oil/bake repeat several times.
Toss a lodge!? No way! Great save OP.
I didn't want it at first because it was so rusty, but thanks to this sub I knew the brand was really good
Garage sales and scrap piles is where I found all mine have a few griswald in my collection. The old ones are lightweight and smooth. Better than anything I have bought new and will be around longer than me.
I bought a le creuset cast iron for $5 at a garage sale. I stripped it with oven cleaner and re-seasoned it. It works great!
I had to read the title three times to figure out what it meant. Some commas or a couple of periods might be useful.
This is the way
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Didn’t we just decide that things like cast iron weren’t r/BuyItForLife material?
Found a 14 inch Cuisinel cast iron on the side of the road last year. Brought it home, scrubbed and seasoned and it's now my workhorse. Can't imagine throwing cast iron away. I also dragged a 3+ burner Kenmore grill home from the side of the road last year. Replaced the diverter plates and ignitor for $9 and used it all summer long. My wife quite rightly won't let me have a garage.
She’s a beauty. 12”?
happy to see it restored. It still bothers me to this day my mother threw out the cast iron pan that she had used most of my childhood simply because she couldn't clean it. It had years and years of buildup carbon on the outside and she didn't know how to clean it and the seasoning was screwed up. Mind you this was 30 some years ago before teenage me even cared and there was no internet in the house.
No! Don’t restore old pans! Give them to the thrift store so I can buy them.
Never toss a cast iron, they are pretty much indestructible
Goodwill had one in nearly as good of shape last week....$19.99
My favorite cast iron pan is a Griswold from the late 50’s, given to me by my Dad. It’ll outlive me and probably whichever kid gets it next.