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I saw some greentext about some list of caring for castioron/developing and maintaining seasoning. The list was some collection of a bunch of progressively more absurd tips. The comments were:
I own cast iron, and none of these are true.
I own cast iron, and all of these are true.
I own cast iron, and some of these are true.
Thank you!
The thing is, cast iron cookware is a criminally under researched segment of metallurgy and food science. Like, most of what is known is just oral tradition and folklore. It’s mystical in a sense, we preform these old practices and rituals in an attempt to coax an outcome in to being, not based on rigorous testing or knowledge based conjecture, but on myths and ancestral knowledge.
Like we can draw parallels from other areas of metallurgy to get a rough idea of what is going on but most of the modern research is for industrial uses (not cooking) and not for cast iron specifically because it’s not a super common material in engineering anymore.
Some of these old rituals and practices were developed in specific circumstance that are different from the modern day, and from each other, leading to conflicting ideas and practices as different traditions run In to each other. Some old knowledge is applied incorrectly, like people saying you can’t wash it with soap because that will damage it, which is true in the context of an 1800s homestead where they’d be using lye and fat based soap which would strip away the polymerized oil coating, but most dish soap is surfactant based and won’t strip the seasoning.
This level of mystery is not true. It’s just a hunk of iron that gets a polymerizered coating of oil on it. That used to be hard to achieve before we had reliable ovens and cooking oil. Now it’s easy.
That’s all there is to it.
They’ve continued to today because some people are paranoid / like to feel special / don’t understand things well, so default to perpetuating rules they heard someone say confidently rather than questioning why that rule was created in the first place.
There is actually a lot we don’t really know about the polymerization and how it layers and adheres. Particularly about how certain heating regimes and oil type effect it. There are a handful of papers about it, but there is a lot missing particularly about what effects the resiliency, porosity, and toughness of the layers. Best practice for what oils to use for seasoning, and how to best apply them and get them to form even layers is up in the air.
We understand generally what is happening, but the specifics are poorly understood and not well researched.
I for one am onboard with pursuing this research. Not just because I think it’s interesting and love to scientifically dispel (or support!) “traditional wisdom” but also because pursuing knowledge for knowledge’s sake is an admirable goal on its own.
Knowledge is shareable power and I don’t believe in “knowing enough” about something we clearly don’t know enough about. Knowledge and research have far reaching effects; researching cast iron pan seasoning is an intersection between several sciences and engineering disciplines and no one can guess what knowledge may be gained until we gain it.
Best practice for what oils to use for seasoning, and how to best apply them and get them to form even layers is up in the air.
Best practices are not up in there. Best practices are to use a thin layer of high smoke point oil like rapeseed oil, baked above it’s smoke point for like 20m. Repeat to create a thicker layer.
What you are describing is min/maxing, and getting more specific from there. Yes, eventually researchers may discover even better oils or treatment plans for cast iron, but right now, best practices are known, reliable, not a mystery, and not hard to follow.
If there is min/maxing to be done then by definition our current practices are not best. They may be (and generally are) good and functional practices but until the research is done we don’t know what best practices are or when to apply them.
For the big stuck on pieces, you use a stainless steel chainmail scrubber. For cast iron pans you can scrub as hard as you can with that and you aren’t hurting the pan. Try doing that on your aluminum, Teflon non-stick pan, or your nicely polished stainless steel pan and let me know how that goes (don’t do this). For cleaning off oils and grease off cast iron, regular liquid dish soap works great and is totally okay to use for cleaning cast iron.
I recommend people use lye-based cleaners and put them in the dishwasher in a whim.
You can throw a cast iron pan off a fucking roof, leave it in a wet ditch for 2 years, it won’t be harmed.
Quarter teaspoon of oil rubbed in, be back to cooking.
I usually just wipe up oil and leave it. Thin layer can remain for the next time I use it
…why are you not cleaning your cast iron pan?
sEaSoNinG
polymerizing long-chain hydrocarbons onto a metal surface with excess heat creating a semi-hard, crystalline coating.
It’s old wisdom from way back when soap was made from lye.
That kind of soap is much harsher and can dissolve the seasoning, which is just a bunch of layers of polymerized oil that protects the metal from rust and gives it a glossy, almost non-stick coating.
Modern dish soap is nowhere near that harsh and is completely safe to use on a seasoned cast iron pan. It’s just that your grandparents and great grandparents beat that lesson into their kids and it stuck.
Cast iron is fine to cook on, but I much prefer stainless steel. It’s a bit harder to get the results you want, but it’s way easier to maintain.
Godort’s grandma probably: come here Godort. Grandpa’s gotta beat you again for using soap on the cast iron pan
at least Godort didn’t use The Good Scissors
AHHHHH NOT THE GOOD SCISSORS
They say high temp stainless basically becomes non stick. I just get stuff sticking then immediately burning and smoking out my kitchen.
It takes practice and making sure it’s at the correct temperature. If I can fry eggs in stainless steel without sticking you can too friend. Follow the instructions on this page to get you started:
https://theskillfulcook.com/how-to-know-when-stainless-steel-pan-is-ready/
no, medium-ish temp.
stainless steel has pores that close at the right temp so food wont stick.
you need to practice it on your cooktop yourself to find out what setting. after its heated, drip a big drop of water on it and it should dance around and sizzle. too hot or too cold it will stay where it is in the pan. theres prob a video you can watch to see what the drop of water should look like
Heat up the pan on medium setting and then apply oil, if it smokes it is too hot. And don’t use olive oil, use an oil with a reasonably high smoke point. And you need to use more oil/fat than you’d normally do on other (non-stick) pans.
Don’t use extra virgin / virgin olive oil.* Regular olive oil has a higher smoke point.
Lower your temps. Stainless only sticks like that if you get it too hot.
This but also stop trying to unstick stuff when its not finished cooking yet.
That was one thing i had to learn when moving to stainless, you need to wait for the protein to unstick itself. Which when you’re so used to cooking on non-stick seems insane and risky.
Oh yeah good call good call. I’m so used to doing that with cast iron I didn’t even think about that. But yeah it’s harder with stainless for sure.
Thats interesting, I heard it was a smear campaign by marketing companies to sell Teflon pans.
There’s a good chance the dry detergent for a dishwasher can still strip the seasoning off cast iron. Especially generic brands. They’re supposed to have buffers in them to prevent it, but every additive, and mixing time, adds cost.
Your typical hand dish soap is probably safe as long as you’re not scrubbing with steel wool.
IIRC, powdered dish washing detergent is mildly abrasive, and it gets jetted around at relatively high speeds (compared to hand washing). That’s also why it’s bad for knives.
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IIRC the forever chemicals are not the coating that stays on the pan. The Teflon coating is inert, the toxic part is the water soluble PFAS they use to apply it that would go away (away meaning everywhere, each and every corner of the planet) while or shortly after manufacturing, or with the first uses.
So if you already own non-sticky pans don’t get rid of them, but look for another alternative when you buy a new one tho.
Don’t they release microplastics as well?
It’s not quite inert, a too-hot Teflon pan will release toxic gasses that can kill smaller pets like birds.
It’s still inert.
Inert simply means that the chemical bonds are relatively stable, not that they’re indestructible.
You can decompose anything if you get it hot enough.
And cause flu like symptoms in humans
The old cast iron skillets might have lead.
Only if someone melted lead in it. I can do that in a new iron pan too.
Everything contains chemicals, and if it lasts forever it must contain forever chemicals.
But it doesn’t have PFAS which is good.
Holy crap, people really don’t get your joke it seems. Guess my upvote can only give so much relief, but I thought it was funny if that helps.
no, cus it is just iron. the “seasoning” is the cover you make yourself which is why most people say you can’t clean it.
I think they just meant “chemicals” in the sense of “chemical element”, as in “to last forever, it must be made of something that lasts forever, and everything is made from chemical elements, so this must contain ‘forever chemicals’”. It was just a joke… And the PFAS statement that followed made it pretty clear that they know what they were talking about.
Well but that seasoning is also random collection of polymers, probably not very healthty either when dissolved in a tomato sauce
it’s just an oil? like rapeseed oil is what I used – like you make it yourself you know 😁
Yeah start out as oil but with temperature end up a bioplastic
Even cast iron pans have toxic things in them like lead, cadmium, and antimony. https://www.mychemicalfreehouse.net/2025/08/le-creuset-toxicity-review-lead-cadmium-pfas.html
It’s just very unlikely to get into your bloodstream and even then it’s an incredibly small amount. Completely different than PFAS where you’re getting double dipped on toxic chemicals: those dumped by the chemical companies into nature and those that offgas into your home.
lead
I’ve seen multiple people recommending to test the lead levels of any cast iron pots you buy secondhand, since apparently a common use for them is melting down scrap lead to make your own bullets and family members sell them off after their owner dies without knowing they’ll now poison anyone who cooks with them.
Yeah that’s good to do, but the link I provided was testing brand new pans. Turns out metal doesn’t just come out of the ground as one big blob, but mixed together with lots of other metals that are hard to separate! 🤷
But yeah good to check.
I have one that I only use to make cornbread. Cornbread doesn’t make it dirty and cast iron is the only thing that will give you a proper crust on the cornbread.
That’s why it was originally called a cornbread pan. Cast iron is actually a miss translation.
Keeping the old tradional of cast iron misinformation alive.
Little Miss translation, we called 'er.
I use mine for steaks. Since I can put the whole thing in the oven after searing them.
Yeah, I use mine on the grill for the same reason. It’s the only pan I have that can just get tossed on without worrying about anything melting or cracking
Yeah, I don’t really eat steak. Or any meat in slab form actually.
I’m a vegetarian and use mine for pizzas and breads
Folks love to harp on about how “iTs So HaRd To CaRe FoR” but honestly Teflon pans (the more common option) are worse
Cast iron:
- be a little careful when washing it
- will last longer than your grandkids
Teflon:
- don’t get it too hot
- don’t use metal tools
- don’t use too much oil
- often not oven-safe
- will last like 10 years at most
I thought Teflon coatings were only good for 5yrs before the shit PFAS start leeching out.
It’s entirely possible, I’ve actually never even had one last even that long and just kinda guesstimated how long a pan that had been absolutely baby’d would last.
Sorry for linking R*ddit, but this thread seems to mirror my suspicions, 3-5 years on average, 10 if you treat it insanely well.
The fuck? Nonstick lasts like one year, MAYBE two. It’s not worth it.
Also cast iron also cooks different. Not better, different.
You’re buying trash pans if they only last a year.
I cook everyday and throw them away as soon as there’s any visible sign of wear. Then after the third buy that damaged so soon, stopped buying nonstick.
But also, yes, I was buying cheaper pans. (Edit: tramontania i think?) Those aluminum ones with the nice red silicone handles. Fantastic pans, but degraded far too fast.
Now, I just use my cast iron skillet from a hundred years ago and it’s easier to cook in AND makes better eggs AND I can use my metal spatula.
To clean it, I’ll wipe it out with a paper towel, rinse it with warm water really fast, then every week or few days or if it smells, use a dollop of dawn and some warm water and sponge wash it for like 10 seconds and rinse it out, then one paper towel it clean, add in a tiny bit of canola oil, wipe it around, heat it until it starts to smoke on the stove, then turn it off. That process takes like, maybe 30 seconds, not including heating it until it smokes, which realistically is like only another 30-90 seconds.
The eggs are runny yolks and browned and crispy bottoms. And I’m not eating teflon, which to me is absolutely fantastic!
throw them away as soon as there’s any visible sign of wear
Well there’s your problem
Sending this to my wife. How does she bake shit in so bad? Jump her shit
I exclusively use stainless steel pans in my kitchen. None of the weird chemicals from teflon, I can scrape the shit out of them with metal tools and I can toss them in the dishwasher with no second thought. The only downside is that I have to deglaze from time to time while cooking to get stuck bits off, but it’s really not that bad.
Can you explain the deglazing process and reasoning. I just got two stainless pans and I’m very curious.
Sometimes brown bits get stuck to the bottom of the pan while cooking and the best way to get them off is to toss some water into the pan before those bits can burn. Not much, maybe like a tablespoon - it dissolves all the brown bits into a very tasty brown sauce that coats the rest of the food in the pan. It’s really not complicated, but the added moisture sometimes makes the cooking take a bit longer and isn’t ideal when your goal is to cook something very dry and crispy (like when frying tofu)
Now, that being said those browned bits are delicious and are the starting point for a lot of sauces. A dirty steel pan is an opportunity for loads of flavor (provided were talking about a seared or sauteed food, not like pasta or something.
You can deglaze with alcohol as well, and then reduce it into a delicious sauce.
I agree with you on the stainless. I do still have one cast iron pan that I swear by for certain things but I also don’t baby it in any way. I also have a couple of ceramic coated pans for specific things that love to stick to stainless. I mostly use the stainless and the cast iron, though.
Yes this. Literally just handwash with soap and water. Season occasionally (clean & then scrub with steel wool to get an even surface, very small amount of oil/lard spread over pan very thinly, oven at 260c/500f until totally dried/hardened, repeat a couple times).
Oven safe, nonstick, durable.
Also teflon is TOXIC
A common misconception, the teflon molecules are very stable and don’t react with almost everything, when ingested it usually just goes through your system in and out, no considerable interaction.
Now the other chemicals used to make Teflon ARE TOXIC, and are present literally, and I mean literally, everywhere on the globe.
Here’s an educative video from Veritasium about the subject, super interesting watch.
Stainless steel pans are quite nice too.
They’re better than cast iron for some things in my experience. Acidic dishes, eggs (scrambled always stick to cast iron for me). But cast iron’s heat retention is superior, providing a more even cooking surface on electric ranges in my experience - good for searing meat and most other applications.
The best ones imo. No microplastica, zero maintenance, extreme durability, not hard to wash and not so expensive nowadays.
My grandmother still uses her stainless steel pans that are like 50 or 60 yo, and they still look perfect, almost like new, if not for the scratches. They were a gift when she married, and she literally never bought pans for herself in her life.
Acidic stuff will eat into the seasoning on cast iron, so that be careful with those.
Honestly I’ve been told this a bunch, but I cook so much tomato-filled Italian/Mediterranean food and then just leave the pan until the next day to clean, never seen any serious issues from it. Seasoning is also regenerative, so even if you do fuck it up a bit, a couple of meals later it will be basically back to normal.
Yeah, it’s not hard to rehab a cast iron skillet after messing it up. 🙂 I still got a cheap stainless skillet after some sauces experiences though.
I make shakshuka in mine fairly often and never had a problem, but if that’s all I used it for I could see it causing trouble
Teflon Poisons the entire planet. Also when over heated, creates Florine gas that may be harmful if you are in close proximity.
Yeah i dont wanna bother having to sort through all the misinformation and contradictory advice on cast iron pans at this point. Cuz I’ll read someone say “I wash it all the time” and then the next comment will be “I washed mine and it rusted instantly”
I just use carbon steel and it treats me right.
You need to really be into cooking before something like cast iron versus whatever else will ever be an issue in your life.
I yanked my set of cast iron out from under an abandoned single-wide trailer in the desert next to a junk-yard, they were partially buried in an ant mound. Over the last couple decades I have abused them hard, both in restoration and in cooking/cleaning, they’re just work-horse cookware I don’t have to be too concerned about, but if I put a little extra effort in I can use them to get a perfect crust on a ribeye when I cook meat for friends and family. If that kind of thing is important to you… well don’t worry, you can also get that with steel!
People who obsess about their cast iron just either really, really enjoy micromanagement in their lives, or have nothing else that makes them feel special.
Even with rust, it can be fixed with a decent scrubbing. Small trace amounts of rust shouldn’t harm you either, just give you more small metals than usual.
Yeah except it only rusts instantly if you royally fucked up lol. This is not rocket science. It’s not even slightly challenging. A six year old can do it.
I mean, carbon steel is basically the same thing in terms of how you care for it.
Of course it’s going to rust instantly, that’s why you hit it with the brillo pad and then re-season it immediately after.
Eh, a little extra iron in your diet ain’t the end of the world. I just boil some water in it, pour it our, hit it with the chain mail, then rinse and smear around a decent sized dollop of pig fat in it and call it a day.
Ain’t nobody got chain mail and pig fat lying about!
Really??? You can get a chainmail scrubber at most places that sell cast iron pans, and pig fat is leftover Bacon grease. Lots of people have that, right?
Had to Google the chainmail scrubber, that’s really cool. Maybe they haven’t made it over to Ireland yet haha. I want one.
Most of the care tips you see on cast iron are just superstition.
It’s actually super easy to care for. You just scrub it with some salt and a boar bristle brush, dry it with a linen towel, then store it in a marble sepulchre facing North.
That better be magnetic north
My sepulchre hasn’t been marble 100 percent of the time, I’ll try harder
And all the ley lines intersect there
if I don’t have a sepulchre will a charnal house do?
If you’re not going to take this seriously, just get a Teflon pan.
Absolutely fucking not
*super easy to clean … but it doesn’t look clean, but it is.
Hear me out, though…nitrided iron.
Lol, I keep seeing ads but never looked into it. Is there actually something to that or is it just marketing BS?
It feels different from cast iron, but hard to describe how exactly. A different consistency to the metal? Slightly slick, in the way that gun metal is. It doesn’t seem to need to be seasoned, and seems rust-resistant. Still great for searing meat and veggies. Holds heat like cast iron, and has the same weight.
Hear me out, 316 Stainless.
If you consider the lifetime, it’s the cheapest type of pan by far.
Also you can clean them stop spreading misinformation.
If it’s too heavy for you there is stainless steel or carbon steel which also last but those aren’t as cheap.
The lifetime is usually about 1 week. I can leave all my other pans soaking in the sink for a day without rusting… I don’t have the time or energy to do dishes every day.
If you’re soaking it to get stuck on stuff out of it… well stuff shouldn’t be sticking to it that aggressively. and if you’re soaking it to keep stuff from drying on, well, just rinse it out before leaving it to clean later.
Okay even if you forget to clean it and it rusts, you can just use a steel sponge to get all the rust off and then you just need to re-season it for a few mins and you’re good to go again
I usually put water right into the hot pan. Flakes all the food off instantly, and it’s a lot of fun to quench it. Then a squirt of dishsoap (I keep a bottle of diluted dish soap by the sink, super handy!), scrub, rinse, and you’re done in actual seconds.
Don’t soak it if you aren’t going to wash it… like just leave it on the counter or if you want to really get ahead for it pour some salt in the pan and let that sit until you feel like cleaning it. Because you can use metal on it without damaging it it’s not even hard to clean.
Teflon pans are disposable with a limited life that releases toxins into your body which is bad
Stainless steel is much less non stick but can at least stand up to soaking
Carbon steel also shouldn’t be soaked
Copper is expensive and also has care requirements
This. Just leave it on your stove with oil / food in it til you’re ready to clean it. Then use soap water and a chainmail scrubber. Be as aggressive as you want. The smoother it is the better. If you have a cheap lodge, taking the time to actually use a sander will bring it to high quality smooth like a more expensive finex or other.
After cleaning toss back on the stove on the heat for like 1 min to dry it out and you’re good to go. Ideally toss a little oil in the pan after heating and use a paper towel to rub it around, but if you are in a rush don’t even have to do that.
Honestly I just swipe it with a dish sponge until everything is off, rinse, then swipe it with a dish towel
Lol.
A) yes you do. You’re conflating not wanting to slightly alter your habits with not possible.
B) you can also leave it on the counter or the stovetop. You shouldn’t leave any metal object soaking in the sink for a day. Leave them on the counter and then put them in the sink to soak like 5 min before you start cleaning them.
A) you don’t know someone’s situation so don’t pass judgement when there are very valid reasons theg may not have the time of energy, as if mental health isn’t a valid reason already
B) soaking for 5 minutes is definitely not the same getting a good long soak
Yeah I’ve been using my mom’s cast iron pan since she died like 7 years ago. Barring a level of fuck up I don’t think I can manage it should last the lifetime of the person who inherits it from me
You basically have to drop them from a second story window to break them
And you will break the floor too
Preferably the street
I did warp one slightly one time by getting it super hot and allowing it to cool unevenly. I still have it and use it. It might not sit flat on a cooktop but it’s just fine for camping.
I’ve got a little pan that’s on it’s third lifetime now, and no idea what it originally cost, but guaranteed it was worth the price for a multigenerational product.
I was done with cast iron when I got a new cast iron pan that rusted the same day because it was humid and I didn’t get a chance to glaze it for just a few too many hours.
Oh well, I prefer to do big batches of one-pot cooking anyway. Simple, easy, efficient.
You can just scrub the rust off and glaze it, it’s fine
More expensive???
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I put mine in the dishwasher like maniac. And I don’t season it, I just spray pam on it. Works fine, purists are just being weird about it.
I thought the concern was rust more than anything
It is, it’s important to dry them quickly. Some dishwashers have a heated dry that could help, but I wouldn’t trust it personally.
A good seasoning should withstand some pretty brutal punishment. And even if it doesn’t, you can easily reseason the pan which you’ll have to do from time to time regardless.
I season my cookie sheets the same way. I’ve put them in the dishwasher, hit them with those steel wire soapy things, used barkeeper’s friend, not much has taken the seasoning off once it’s on there.
Except for lemon juice. Lemon juice fucks it right up.
Lemon juice. Tomato sauce. That one egg that for some reason decided to be a real motherfucker.
I love my cast iron cookware, but it can be a fickle bitch.
Never really had a problem with frying eggs on cast iron, often do pancakes on it.
If the yolk directly touches the surface, the emulsifiers could potentially mess with things?
There are a lot of myths and legends around cast iron that are due to older circumstances that are no longer applicable. And spray on oil seems like a pretty efficient way to season given that it’ll apply a fairly light and even.
Most spray oils are high smoke point for frying, which is the opposite of what you want for seasoning
I mean, there are a lot of types of spray cooking oil I’ve seen. Coconut, olive oil, and soybean (vegetable oil) are what I see most commonly, and none of those have particularly high smoke points.
What? You want high smoke point oils for seasoning. You want to season the pans in temperatures higher than you would be normally cooking in, which means higher smoke point oils. I season all of my cast iron and carbon steel with canola, works great.
If you season with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, it’s going to burn the seasoning off under normal circumstances.
https://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/
tl;dr Flax oil is best, low-smoke-point oils in general polymerize better, resulting in better and tougher non-stick coatings, but there’s more to it than just smoke point
I seen a quote yesterday that I liked and it seems fitting here.
Tradition is not an excuse to not think critically.
While you are technically correct, I think essentially tradition IS the excuse to not think rationally.
