RIP Santa Clarita Diet
I’m still mad
Just needed one more season. Or cut the last episode 5 minutes sooner.
My boy went and machined his lodge!
It works if you don’t get it too smooth. One of my daily drivers is a 18 buck walmart ozark trail I sanded down a bit. I left it rough enough that the seasoning sticks. Did four layers of seasoning. It does a great job and cleans up quick.
I sanded down a bit.
That’s the key. I sufferred for 20 years with a cast iron pan that barely worked. I always assumed it needed one more coat.
Eventually I gave up, sanded it with 220 grit, cleaned it with acid to remove any rust, then immediately coated with oil and started seasoning process . It’s like the teflon that everyone said cast iron could be and I thought they were exaggerating.
Ya Boi is accidentally pretty smart. One of the biggest issues I have with Lodge cast iron is the poor bottom finish - such rough tool marks. I have sanded the bottoms smooth on several of the pieces I’ve gotten over the years. A quality smooth finish, (like you find on good vintage cast iron pieces), makes for easier curing and a slicker surface.
So do what Lodge didn’t do and sand those insides shmoove.
Well, I didn’t get it because I don’t know very much about cast iron cookware or the Lodge company, so I was grateful for their explanation 🤷
It’s turns into all sorts of drama and flame wars from people who care way too much about ever smaller details.
- according to Lodge, their pans are intentionally rough to better hold seasoning. It’s easier and more forgiving: you don’t have to follow a strict process.
- according to other manufacturers and people here, a nice smooth surface gives a smoother seasoned result. You may have to follow a stricter process to keep it seasoned but the results can be better.
Personally I find the Lodge approach compelling. My cast iron is pretty much non-stick and the only real care most of the time is cleaning them right after dinner and not putting away wet. Oh yeah, and get a chain mail scrubber: so much easier to clean with in case something does stick
lol I can totally see how specialty cookware like this is ripe for that kind of devolution. Thank you for the context, and the tips!
phrasing
Boom… Bumper!
We’re not doing phrasing anymore.
Damnit, you ruined it! Cast iron skillets aren’t meant to be clean like that after many uses.
Are you simple?
This guy is misinformed.
That’s his ex-wife.
I also choose this guy’s ex-wife
ew a reddit meme 🤢
We allow JD Vance posts?
JD Vance puts his skillet in the dishwasher.
At least, the pan as such is not ruined. You’ll just have to season it back into the proper condition.
And this is how I discovered pan seasoning.
Given the recent horrible things about non-stick pans, I wonder if I should just buy seasoned cast iron pans.
You can buy pre seasoned cast iron.
My advice, as someone who has owned a cast iron pan for a while, is to take care of the pan. When you use it, wait for it to cool after use, then immediately clean it. Once cleaned, use heat to dry it (just put it back on the stove and heat it up to boil off any water), let it cool again, then add oil to protect the pans surface.
Don’t use just any oil for it, there’s a specific set of oils used to condition/season cast iron. I use grapeseed oil, but there’s plenty of others. A quick Google search should yield some options for you.
The main focus is on keeping the pan protected from water, as it will rust the iron. Using water while cooking/cleaning is fine, but having water standing on the surface of the pan, even microscopic amounts, will cause rust to form. The moisture in the air can also cause the pan to rust, hence the oil coating after cleaning to protect the surface of the pan.
I got rust on my cast iron once after I left the pan for too long after cooking with mushrooms, which are very high in moisture. I had to scrub away the rust, which left a shiny spot on my pan (where the seasoning/conditioning was lost), and I had to re-season the pan.
IMO, cast iron cookware is a pain in the butt to take care of, but well worth it. Easily one of my favorite pieces of cookware. It holds heat really well and it cooks pretty much everything very well. Something that’s always bothered me about regular cookware is the thermal cycling, you throw room temperature ingredients into a hot pan and suddenly, the pan isn’t hot anymore… It takes a while to get back up to temperature. Not nearly as bad of a problem with cast iron.
Just so you know my favorite way to clean cast iron is to run it dry until the bits start to burn then throw in water to deglaze it hot, dump the water and wipe with a cloth then back on the heat to dry and a little bit of oil back in the pan.
I get water is an issue but it shouldn’t be that much of an issue.
By the time my cast iron cools, I’ve left the kitchen, so tbh i generally clean it before the next time i cook with it, and have never had rust issues no matter what i cooked in it last. Every once in a while i notice the seasoning getting a little thin after scrubbing it, so I reseason it with a single layer on the stove.
With my carbon steel wok, i regularly clean it by tossing it on the wok burner at full blast until it’s entirely red hot and everything has carbonized off of it, and maybe splash some water in to help clear that off. Then i wait for it to cool enough and reseason it with a quick wipe of oil while it’s still hot enough for the remaining heat to polymerize the oil.
Basically, I’ve never spent significant effort taking care of my cast iron of carbon steel cookware, and it’s all still perfectly functional and non-stick and not rusted.
You and I have had very different experiences.
That’s fair. I don’t mean to invalidate your personal experience with cast iron rusting, but I do want to present a counter experience so people don’t think it’s definitely like that.
I can only tell you about my experience, I’ve made the switch half a year ago.
Cast iron is heavy, REALLY HEAVY and comparably more expensive than cheap non-stick pans. It’s a hassle to work with because it’s so heavy, no easy flipping stuff by throwing the pan around (inertia is a bitch), you shouldn’t clean it with soap, just hot water and some elbow-grease and you should always keep is slightly oiled. Oh and there is no “the handle doesn’t get hot”, it always does and you should wrap a cloth around it.
But Oh My Goodness!
I’ve needed some tries to get the seasoning right, needed some time to adjust my cooking as to not leave acidic food in the pan or pot over night, but now that my pan and pot are very well seasoned and I know how to handle them… nothing sticks, at least not for long. I can make a fried egg or some bacon and after sticking for the first few seconds it just… lift’s off the surface and moves freely in the pan. No non-stick pan has ever given me a non-stick experience like this and making steak has become one of my most fun experiences, because the pan keeps its heat when I throw the cold slap of meat into it and evenly browns the beef without any sticking.
Absolute game changer. just don’t heat an empty pan too much, because you can burn the seasoning off again.
Stainless Steel also is great. We have one and not to much really sticks and you can clean it very easily.
Soap is ok for washing (as long as it doesn’t contain lye).
And carbon steel pans are a lighter alternative.
I’ll look into carbon steel if I ever need a new one, thanks. But honestly, cast iron is just build to last.
And I don’t trust the soap around here, my first seasoning-tries went horribly flakey after I used soap on them. I’d rather just hot water and scrub, stuff usually just wipes off.
I have a carbon steel wok and I absolutely love it. I have a couple cast iron pans but I haven’t used them in a while because of it.
The weight, and Alton Brown, are why I started getting carbon steel pans. All the benefits, still the seasoning, a fraction the weight.
I don’t think I’d trust a pan that says it’s “pre-seasoned.” Get a cast iron pan and learn how to season it yourself. It’s kind of an ongoing process anyway; every time you fry something in it with butter or oil you’re maintaining the coating.
I have a fair amount of cast iron and the pre-seasoned ones aren’t the best. I’ve always ended up seasoning it further or stripping it down and doing it again from scratch.
Meh, one of my pots came pre-seasoned and I just started using it as if I’d seasoned it myself, after the first couple of weeks of simply using it, it now has the exact same surface as everything I seasoned myself, because every time you fry something in it, it just improves the seasoning.
shrug
I mean I’m happy I know how to season my stuff, but if it lowers the entry-barrier to cast iron I think it’s worth it.
And see I’m getting to an age where I’m not convinced there’s a procedure for anything. Get eight people together, ask them how they season their cookware, you’ll get nine different answers and none of them work for you. Half of what that guy said, some of what this guys says but I’ll use this detail from the third guy, that works well enough for me and my life improves drastically the instant I stop giving a shit.
Following the full recommendations on every piece of equipment you buy would result in every waking hour of your day being filled with maintenance and busywork.
If the pan works for you, who gives a rat’s ass?
I recently used my cast iron pan to roast peanuts. 20 minutes roasting on low flame, preceded by two hours of flame torture to burn off dust and re-glassify the 60-year-old layer of burned grease.
60 years of good meals. That pan could end up being some important artifact of our time period in the far future.
My ex is obsessive about cleanliness and genuinely enjoyed doing the dishes. She was also a terrible cook. So we had an arrangement where I’d cook and she’d do the dishes.
We quickly had to ammend the rules so that I also cleaned the cast iron because she’d obsessively scrub the pan for an hour and ruin it.
I trained (for lack of a better word) my husband to wash the cast iron without wrecking the finish. He used to leave it soaking, I didn’t freak out but told him that was bad for them and he could just toss them into the oven dirty if needed and I’d deal with them (like you, I am the cook not the clean) but then he’d want to make eggs or something and the pan would be dirty so he asked how to. I got a chainmail scrubber and he loves doing it now because he loves the chainmail scrubber. Like - I will sometimes use soap on mine because I can judge the finish but he will not put soap now, will only scrape and has begun to love the pans too, after so many years he realizes because they never wear out just get better.
I did have to reset a couple of mine once, burn off the seasoning and sand them and restore and yes they looked like this picture. It was terrifying but they got great again. Such durable goods they are!
I can usually boil water in them to soften stuff.
It helps that I’ve got an inductive stove that will boil water in like 30 seconds, so there really isn’t any reason to soak them.
That was not cast iron, was it?
yea, you can see Lodge on the handle, he grabbed his camera quickly before the rust kicked in
That is what cast iron looks like if you strip it down to the bare metal. It’s not actually ruined, but it will be unusable until someone goes through the process of re-seasoning it
Wouldn’t even call it unusable as is.
I am pretty sure you could cook bacon or similarly fatty stuff in there right away.
Then again there are people that see cooking bacon as a legitimate form of seasoning a pan.If my cooking senses are right, it would be like cooking bacon in a stainless steel pan, which is sticky and burny but not impossible
No, they’re right cooking bacon is a way people season cast iron! You have to cook a lot of it though, and it’s really not the best way to do it lol
But it’s the tastiest way to do it!
Can’t we just get a Tefal so we can clean them like normal people?
Cleaning cast iron is actually super easy, this person didn’t “clean” it though they sanded it down to the bare metal which makes things more difficult
Which is a bit time consuming and takes a little practice, but is a pretty great feature for getting a pan back into working condition in situations where a steel or aluminum pan might be ruined.
I had a few imperfections on a lodge that were catching the spatula, but too big to just knock off with said dpatula. After a light 5 minute sanding with an orbital sander, a wash, and a couple hours for the new seasoning to bake on it was back in business.
Now it is my favorite cast iron pan!
(I cook most things on ceramic non-stick though)
You can season aluminum and I think steel (although I don’t see the benefit of steel)
Yes. Aluminum sheet pans for baking and roasting are awesome. They take a seasoning really well and when fully seasoned to a dark brown/black they become amazing tools for browning and roasting foods!
Really? I’ve never tried but now I’m interested
(although I don’t see the benefit of steel)
I could be wrong, but I think carbon steel skillets and woks are supposed to be treated the same way as cast iron.
Not me thinking that “seasoning” meant to let stuff stick to it for the flavor. 💀
I had a roommate who thought this, and therefore never washed or rinsed their cast iron. They refused to believe otherwise.
You should avoid washing and rinsing it as much as possible, especially avoiding soap. When food sticks, I usually just soak it, scrub it using a loofah, and then dry it over a hot burner or in a high-temperature oven.
I saw one guy on YouTube who scrubbed his out using salt. I think I’m going to start using this technique, because it avoids water altogether.
I got a chain mail cloth thing that does a pretty decent job of getting the pan clean without using soap. When it fails I use steel wool that doesn’t come pre-soaped.
Chain mail and dish detergent every time. Usually just needs a quick wipe, then dry with a paper towel.
Occasionally something sticks but you’re already set to scrub. In that case, you’ll need to touch up the seasoning after
If you put enough time and effort into it, you can grind down and polish a cast iron pan until it has a mirror like finish. Some people prefer this so that after seasoning the pan is very smooth and glossy black, like a well-cared-for carbon steel pan.
Dude started with 80 grit and went from there.
My 40 year old Swiss steel pan still going. Lighter than iron.
I wipe it off with paper towel, no washing.
Untoasted sesame oil is great for starting a new seasoning, then whatever one prefers to cook with. I like avocado oil and ghee right now.
My co-workers wife did this once.
My co-workers exwife did this once.
Cringe
You should to that once in a while. After you do reseason.
Once every 50 years or so
That’s way to long. The build up will break the smooth surface overtime which can lead to uneven cooking or sticking. Best to sand if off once in a blue moon. I would say every 1-2 years
Bro, if you gotta strip it down to metal every year then you are not cleaning it nearly well enough day to day. Stripping it down to bare metal every 50 years might even be too frequently imho.
I think I meant 3-5 years. (Maybe longer or shorter) I actually don’t keep a log so I don’t know. I just sand it down so it is flat once it gets bumpy. I don’t sand it down to complete shine but I remove any buildup and create a clean smooth surface. From there I season it on the grill a few times.
It shouldn’t ever be bumpy. If your cast iron is growing lumps and bumps in the pan, you’re not cleaning it properly. A chainmail washcloth is a great tool for cleaning the bulk off then pan. Then use a non-lye soap, like dawn, to wash it. (Yes you can use soft soap on cast iron! It’s only lye-based soaps that eat through the seasoning.)
If you buy one of the chain link scrubbers to wash your pan with, it essentially keeps the high spots knocked down all the time, so it never really gets bumpy. Also, if you want a smooth cast iron, you have to buy a more expensive one than a Lodge, or power sand/grind it down yourself. Casting is a rough process. The only smooth bottomed pans are cut down flatter after they’ve been cast.
I always appreciate hard work
I’m doubtful “seasoning” cast iron changes flavours of food at all.
Try summer
It’s not really for the food, it’s for the pan. Seasoning is basically self-healing teflon.
That’s not the point of seasoning, it’s to prevent the pans surface from sticking. The reason people say food doesn’t taste the same if the pan isn’t seasoned is because it sticks and cooks wrong.
It’s not that kind of seasoning my dude
I can taste metal in an acidic dish when it isn’t treated, but seasoning mainly makes the pan easy to clean.
Seasoning in regards to cast iron has nothing to do with taste. It’s a polymerized layer of oils that acts as a nonstick coating. The process of seasoning cast iron is to lightly coat it in oil and heat that oil to smoke point and repeat that process several times.
Thanks. I’m around 30 and I learned something new today
I started doing something like this with a Teflon pot when I was seven years old. My mother stopped me before I finished my ‘cleaning’, but the pot was ruined. She wasn’t happy.
