Posted: 2/2/2014 4:48:22 PM EDT
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Been looking at starting to cook more on cast iron cookware.
Does anyone here cook on cast iron? If so, is there a brad you like? What are the do's and don'ts to using them? I am told they tend to cook food better and more evenly. Is this true? How do you clean them? I have been told there is a certain way to clean them. Thanks for the help in advance. |
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i just did an alton brown steak in one. easy peasy.
to clean: while hot put in sink add some water and scrape with a metal spatula. wipe with paper towel. they cook evenly cause its a giant hunk of iron and that spreads out the heat. get a lodge or if your spendy a griswald, even a thrift store might have one for a few bucks. to get started all you do is cook bacon in it thats it to season it. some times ill rub it down with some bacon grease or olive oil if i know I'm not going to use it for a while after cleaning. |
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We use a handful of cast iron cookware. I'd like to start baking in dutch ovens, but that's too much effort for now.
Mostly Lodge brand. Ours are well seasoned, but never get the famed "eggs slide right off" slickness that cast iron is supposed to. Greatest success is the Alton Brown steak method. Do this. To the letter. It's fantastic. The cast iron is dense and holds a lot of heat, so it does a great job of branding/searing meat and putting a crust on it. We clean them by sprinkling in some coarse salt and 'scrubbing' it with a paper towel. Then swiping the dirty salt into the trash. They never go into the sink. Curious to see if other folks are having better luck getting theirs to be slick. |
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I use my cast iron quite often. I have a Griswold that I LOVE. Holds heat and cooks verrrry evenly. Cast iron pizza is the BEST!
I also have a Lodge that I use mostly for camping and over the fire. For 15 dollars, I use it mostly as a beater and use the Griswold for the majority of my cooking. To clean, I let it cool and wash the cast iron in the sink with water. NO SOAP. I than dry it and than lightly oil. As far as oil, you have a ton of options. I use olive oil but there are a bunch of other oils you can use. I would suggest you buy a Lodge and search antiques stores for a Griswold or Wagner. Both are great but the older ones are usually better quality. Do a google search on how to season the cast iron if you buy used from a antique store. No need to season a Lodge as they come from the factory seasoned. |
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I have around 10 cast iron pans of various size, I pick them up at garage sales.
I use roloc sanding disks and then their scotchbrite disks to polish the insides. After seasoning nothing sticks and wipes out with a paper towel. My least favorite brand is Lodge. Takes more work than any other brand I have used, |
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A lot of good information here: http://blackirondude.blogspot.com/ |
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I have used them in my kitchen since 81. There is almost always one pan out ready to go. I have used them on every kind of stove top. In general I prefer gas but they work good on the new glass top ranges as well because both give you good, immediate temp control. I used one today to brown meat and sauté onions.
If you are lazy don't use them. The key is to season the pans and maintain that coating. I prefer to season with canola oil due to higher temps before it smokes. The easiest way to season a pan is wipe it with oil and bake in oven at a low temp for a couple hours. More oil does no good. Small amount and wipe interior with paper towel. Excess oil just pools in pan or burns off. Soap never touches the pan period. Remember Dawn cuts through grease and grease is the coating that makes it "no stick". Next avoid scraping interior with metal spoons and so on. Metal scratches the surface. I will cook with a metal spoon but I won't scrape or beat the inside of the pan with metal. Third in general not great for cooking sauces that are tomatoe based. Acidic tomatoe sauces eat the finish off the pan. Easiest way to clean it is to put under running hot water while it is warm and scrape pan with a synthetic/plastic spatula. For scraping the pan think harder than a finger nail, softer than steel. If you have owned any of the baking stones, the rectangular scraper that they come with is ideal for stuck on crap. Small, easy to use, one corner is curved so it cleans the edges. The better your pan is seasoned, the less anything sticks. As soon as I clean my pans with hot water, I wipe them off and put them on the stove top to dry them. I never let them air dry, they can rust. Plus it gives you a chance to look the pan over. I periodically wipe a layer of oil on the pans while warm on the stove top. While I am doing other stuff I might cure the pan on the stove top with some oil BUT if you walk off and forget......smoke. BTDT, which is why oven is best. Once or twice a year all the pans go in the oven for a seasoning bake. I prefer American made pans. You can find stuff at garage sales for dead old people estates, just like guns with wood stocks. If a pan is total shit or rusted it can be sand blasted or heated way up on a turkey fryer burner. I have down both. If you super heat a pan, let it cool slowly after (duh). You may have to season it a few times to build it up. In general probably the best way to go is a pan and lid but 90% of the time I won't use the lid. I have a Dutch oven in the kitchen and the lid fits the pans if I need one. They are also great for food you might heat in a pan but finish in the oven. I also like to make cornbread in small one. Pretty versatile. Dutch oven is also nice to have and use. |
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The trick is getting your inlaws to give you one of their well-seasoned second-generation used skillets. Dutch Ovens are the same; if you can get one that has been used and taken care of for 60 years it will work AWESOME.
For cleaning, never use soap. I suggest olive oil and soaking if you need to get some really chunky shit off there, but normally just hot water and a clean cloth will do the trick. I always use olive oil on a towel to rub it down before putting it away, but it probably isn't necessary most of the time. The best steak places always pan sear and bake their steaks. For two 10-12oz filets, preheat the skillet in the oven to 450*F, and preheat a burner on an electric stove (not necessary for gas as you can just turn the burner on right when you put the skillet on there). Sear the steaks on the stovetop on all sides for around 45-60 seconds each, or as long as it takes for there to be no red showing. Stick the skillet back in the oven and cook for 8-12 minutes, depending on how you like them prepared. 8 min. will be cold to warm rare, 10min. should be about perfect medium rare, and 12 should be medium. Mosre steaks means more time to get the same temperature, so I add 1 min to the times about for every steak over two in the pan. The size of the steak also means a slight change in cook time may be necessary, so you have to learn your equipment. |
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Quoted:
I have around 10 cast iron pans of various size, I pick them up at garage sales. I use roloc sanding disks and then their scotchbrite disks to polish the insides. After seasoning nothing sticks and wipes out with a paper towel. My least favorite brand is Lodge. Takes more work than any other brand I have used, Do you have any pictures of them before and after? |
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These have already been mentioned, but are important: A smooth cooking surface. If you have one of the newer pans with a pebbly surface, get some 60 grit going on that, or machine it off if you have a mill.
I season mine with bacon grease (never vegetable/seed oils). Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil, put it in the oven. Put a light coat of bacon grease all over the pan, and put it on the cookie sheet at 400f for about an hour. Repeat as necessary. I also use bacon grease for cooking. Wash only if necessary, and then only hot water, and a plastic scrubber if needed. I'm not afraid to scrape the pan with a metal spatula if needed, and just wipe it out with a paper towel. In fact, a warm pan and a paper towel is the way I clean it most of the time. Most of my cooking in that pan is bacon and eggs. This subject also comes up about once a month in GD. 
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We have a dutch oven (old Griswold my father in law got from a garage sale for $10), a Lodge we got for our wedding, a porcelin coated grilling pan, and a big Calphalon griddle.
The Lodge pan and the procelin uniits get the most work. I really like the porcelin coated grill pan - makes clean up super easy, with all the benefits of having a nice, dense pan to retain heat when cooking. Cleans just like a non-stick. Our Lodge gets the second most use out of them. My father in law suggested to get it seasoned, to cook up a bunch of Dutch Baby's for breakfast. The butter makes a really nice coating, and I think it's made the best impact on it's surface. For cleaning, I've dedicated a metal scraper to the kitchen, and use that to get food stuffs off the surfaces. If it needs a deeper cleaning, I try to stay away with water, and I'll put any vinegar we have on hand in the pan while it's warm. It seems to help loosen the crud, while not removing too much of the helpful stuff. ETA: Another thing that we love our Lodge pan for is naan - sorta pita-like bread. The pan holds heat so much better than anything else, and we can turn out the bread pretty quick. |
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These have already been mentioned, but are important: A smooth cooking surface. If you have one of the newer pans with a pebbly surface, get some 60 grit going on that, or machine it off if you have a mill. I season mine with bacon grease (never vegetable/seed oils). Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil, put it in the oven. Put a light coat of bacon grease all over the pan, and put it on the cookie sheet at 400f for about an hour. Repeat as necessary. I also use bacon grease for cooking. Wash only if necessary, and then only hot water, and a plastic scrubber if needed. I'm not afraid to scrape the pan with a metal spatula if needed, and just wipe it out with a paper towel. In fact, a warm pan and a paper towel is the way I clean it most of the time. Most of my cooking in that pan is bacon and eggs. This subject also comes up about once a month in GD. Really? People mill them flat? I avoid GD like the plague. When I have gone there I leave feeling dumber. |
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I use Bobby Flay's pizza dough recipe for pizza and bread sticks too. I also do them on the grill. Having a mixer with a dough hook is how we roll, so to speak.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/pizza-dough-recipe.html As for the milling them flat, that's what you truly want. I think a lot of newer ones have circular mill marks or something and those work against you big time. Think of painting metal, the final outcome is greatly affected by the prep work. If your goal is to have a smooth no stick surface you need a smooth metal surface underneath it. No different then when you refinish guns. |
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I use Bobby Flay's pizza dough recipe for pizza and bread sticks too. I also do them on the grill. Having a mixer with a dough hook is how we roll, so to speak. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/pizza-dough-recipe.html As for the milling them flat, that's what you truly want. I think a lot of newer ones have circular mill marks or something and those work against you big time. Think of painting metal, the final outcome is greatly affected by the prep work. If your goal is to have a smooth no stick surface you need a smooth metal surface underneath it. No different then when you refinish guns. Ok smooth. I didn't know if the pebble like surface was somehow part of the heat control or something. I guess it's just part of the casting process. So a mirror like finish is best. |
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Exactly. You get a lot of variations on how to care for and use these things but smooth is smooth and you need that. That blog link above has some good info on that fact. The guy is a bit over the top and not an expert but obviously anal retentive and has dove in to this stuff. To his credit he describes a lot of stuff the way I was thinking it.
Get a pan, make it smooth and rust free, oil it up and cure it for a couple hours at 300-400 and you are off and running. Its like a car from the 70s or 80's that had 16 layers of candy apple red paint on it. Each layer goes on thin and is hand rubbed to a deep luster. Once you get it built up, all you gotta do is wax it and protect it. |
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Quoted: We have a dutch oven (old Griswold my father in law got from a garage sale for $10), a Lodge we got for our wedding, a porcelin coated grilling pan, and a big Calphalon griddle. The Lodge pan and the procelin uniits get the most work. I really like the porcelin coated grill pan - makes clean up super easy, with all the benefits of having a nice, dense pan to retain heat when cooking. Cleans just like a non-stick. Our Lodge gets the second most use out of them. My father in law suggested to get it seasoned, to cook up a bunch of Dutch Baby's for breakfast. The butter makes a really nice coating, and I think it's made the best impact on it's surface. For cleaning, I've dedicated a metal scraper to the kitchen, and use that to get food stuffs off the surfaces. If it needs a deeper cleaning, I try to stay away with water, and I'll put any vinegar we have on hand in the pan while it's warm. It seems to help loosen the crud, while not removing too much of the helpful stuff. ETA: Another thing that we love our Lodge pan for is naan - sorta pita-like bread. The pan holds heat so much better than anything else, and we can turn out the bread pretty quick. Mmm...naan. Makes sense, that would be somewhat like the dense clay walls of the tandoor. What is the recipe? Now all I need to find is the tamarind chutney they have at most Indian restaurants -- addictive -- never been able to find it packaged. |
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Quoted: You can get tamarind on amazon, so make your own? I dunno if it's that simple, I've never, ever, eaten at a Indian restaurant. Yeah, I've found the tamarind. Haven't really found the instructions to make what it is I like from the Indian restaurant. I'll have to experiment and figure it out. It would probably just be easier to go buy some from Habib... You should try the lunch buffet. I bet you will just might like something. The bright red Tandoor Chicken is not spicy though it looks like it is -- cooked in a clay lined oven like the naan (bread). |
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Ok so what does everyone cook in theirs? I see steak, eggs, bacon, pizza <--how do you do that? What are some other things? Use it like any other pan? Green chile brats and onions in a beer bath, you can use whatever flavor brat suits you but here in New Mexico everything has to have green chile in it. |
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If you have a pan of unknown origin or have one that has lost its no stick seasoning you need to clean it and reseason
Run it in the oven clean cycle and every bit of gunk and coating will be gone leaving it a whitish grey. It will smoke like a fiend doing this so open a window and get a fan going to draw smoke out Once its cool coat it on every inch in a layer of lard or bacon grease NOT vegetable shortening. Set oven to 400 with something to catch drips pan foil cookie sheet whatever bottom rack next rack up place your pan upside down let it bake for a couple hours. It will turn cast iron black. Let it cool repeat once more. Once you got that done cook some bacon and wipe it down. You now have a no stick cast iron seasoned pan. If you just got a new one its been seasoned with vegie shortening and needs to be redone correctly. Getting the pan hot and running water over it removes a lot of seasoning. It should only be warm so you can still touch it barehanded. Wash under hot water only no soap. I only need a sponge to clean mine even when doing hard searing. Never use vegetable oil or veggie shortening in them. Olive oil is ok. I use bacon grease and lard for a frying medium occasionally olive oil. If your cooking with tomatoes clean the pan soon as done cooking. |
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Looks like most has been covered here. The big thing is that it has to be smooth and don't use soap. You'll (as I'm sure you've noticed) find many opinions on the best way to season and clean but I suspect they all work.
I had a hard time getting my newer Lodge sorted out, then I read that they need to be sanded. Worked like a charm. In fact, I re-seasoned it about a month ago and sanded it again. I went a little bit further with it and went down to steel wool. The first thing I cooked in it was bacon, let it go through it's heat/cooling cycle, then some sausage, then just started using it. It's not 100% black yet, but yesterday I was able to fry eggs on it with no sticking. I do use a steel spatula because I feel it keeps the seasoning layers smooth. Other's disagree. I don't like the "bake it in the oven with lard" technique to season as I've found many thin layers works better for me. I use any oil/grease. Again, I think they all work. |
Before you could find an answer for everything on the internet, I once tried to clean a cast iron pan with some soapy water & an SOS steel wool pad. When I pulled it off the drying rack the next day, it was a big orange circle that looked sorta like the Dang! logo.  Like I said, I only did it once.
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Before you could find an answer for everything on the internet, I once tried to clean a cast iron pan with some soapy water & an SOS steel wool pad. When I pulled it off the drying rack the next day, it was a big orange circle that looked sorta like the Dang! logo. Like I said, I only did it once.So that's where the logo came from |
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So that's where the logo came from Quoted:
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Before you could find an answer for everything on the internet, I once tried to clean a cast iron pan with some soapy water & an SOS steel wool pad. When I pulled it off the drying rack the next day, it was a big orange circle that looked sorta like the Dang! logo. Like I said, I only did it once.So that's where the logo came from Lol. Yeah, my subconscious may have been at work when we decided on that logo, but I can assure you that I said something other than "Dang!" when I saw that pan the next day. |
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Quoted: Lol. Yeah, my subconscious may have been at work when we decided on that logo, but I can assure you that I said something other than "Dang!" when I saw that pan the next day. Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Before you could find an answer for everything on the internet, I once tried to clean a cast iron pan with some soapy water & an SOS steel wool pad. When I pulled it off the drying rack the next day, it was a big orange circle that looked sorta like the Dang! logo. Like I said, I only did it once.So that's where the logo came from Lol. Yeah, my subconscious may have been at work when we decided on that logo, but I can assure you that I said something other than "Dang!" when I saw that pan the next day. Dognabbit? Golly gee whiz?  |
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Mmm...naan. Makes sense, that would be somewhat like the dense clay walls of the tandoor. What is the recipe? Now all I need to find is the tamarind chutney they have at most Indian restaurants -- addictive -- never been able to find it packaged. Quoted:
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We have a dutch oven (old Griswold my father in law got from a garage sale for $10), a Lodge we got for our wedding, a porcelin coated grilling pan, and a big Calphalon griddle. The Lodge pan and the procelin uniits get the most work. I really like the porcelin coated grill pan - makes clean up super easy, with all the benefits of having a nice, dense pan to retain heat when cooking. Cleans just like a non-stick. Our Lodge gets the second most use out of them. My father in law suggested to get it seasoned, to cook up a bunch of Dutch Baby's for breakfast. The butter makes a really nice coating, and I think it's made the best impact on it's surface. For cleaning, I've dedicated a metal scraper to the kitchen, and use that to get food stuffs off the surfaces. If it needs a deeper cleaning, I try to stay away with water, and I'll put any vinegar we have on hand in the pan while it's warm. It seems to help loosen the crud, while not removing too much of the helpful stuff. ETA: Another thing that we love our Lodge pan for is naan - sorta pita-like bread. The pan holds heat so much better than anything else, and we can turn out the bread pretty quick. Mmm...naan. Makes sense, that would be somewhat like the dense clay walls of the tandoor. What is the recipe? Now all I need to find is the tamarind chutney they have at most Indian restaurants -- addictive -- never been able to find it packaged. We use the recipe from BudgetBytess. I've been following her recipes for a few years. We haven't made everything, but the naan and shawarma are two we make regularly, both for ourselves and guests. Tip on the shawarma - cut the chicken into small hunks first, then put into the marinade. We don't drain the marinade off either - we cook the chicken in the marinade all together, and it makes a nice coating around the chicken. The yogurt sauce that goes with it is also really tasty to dip veggies in. |
| If you do "get into" cast iron make sure other people understand bigger is not always better, especially if you have a family under 5 or 6 members or like to camp. At some point someone is going to get the idea to give you a big ass pan, like 15" or bigger and you are going to be challenged to find good uses for it outside of making Paella or a couple pounds of bacon. If you happen to own and use mules for camping, then sure pack it along. |
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Headed out today to get a new pan. I am just going to start with a 12" Lodge. I like a challenge. I am going use a DA sander and start course and work up to a 2000 grit, and see what I can accomplish. You are on the right track if you ask me. Sand that thing down, but know that you'll still see pits in it. Those small pits will fill up as you use it. Bacon time! I found that with a freshly sanded pan, low heat with bacon is the best way. |
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You're better off with a vintage one from Craigslist or Ebay. I came here to post the same thing. Lodge is like a gateway drug when it comes to cast iron. Their stuff is functional, but they take shortcuts in the machining process to keep costs down. Old school cast iron was hand ground to a mirror-like cooking surface and used better ore. The beauty of cast iron is that you just can't kill it. It takes probably less time to recondition an old pan than to sand down a new Lodge (and with a better cooking surface, to boot). You can find some killer deals, too, if you're willing to take the time with something that's rusty and crudded out. I've got some that are over 100 years old and look brand new now. |
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Headed out today to get a new pan. I am just going to start with a 12" Lodge. I like a challenge. I am going use a DA sander and start course and work up to a 2000 grit, and see what I can accomplish. I'm gonna bet you give up well before 2000 grit. :) Maybe its just me, but I cant see going beyond 400 grit at most. Maybe 320. It's cast iron, not a multi coar lacquer job. |
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I'm gonna bet you give up well before 2000 grit. :) Maybe its just me, but I cant see going beyond 400 grit at most. Maybe 320. It's cast iron, not a multi coar lacquer job. Quoted:
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Headed out today to get a new pan. I am just going to start with a 12" Lodge. I like a challenge. I am going use a DA sander and start course and work up to a 2000 grit, and see what I can accomplish. I'm gonna bet you give up well before 2000 grit. :) Maybe its just me, but I cant see going beyond 400 grit at most. Maybe 320. It's cast iron, not a multi coar lacquer job. Good sir, it seems as if you have thrown down the gauntlet. I accept! I will take pics of my progress as I go on. Start 
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| My best friend that is basically my brother and I camp and hunt on his mom's property a lot. She and her husband are old pioneer enthusiasts and frequent many rendezvous events. We have cooked many a meal out there and then one day she comes down and brings us a stick of bees wax. She told us to wipe the pans out when done, put water in em and boil it for a few minutes then wipe them out again and then finally take the bees wax stick and schmooey up the surface with the wax. After you coat it, let it sit for a few minutes and then wipe it out with papertowel. We asked about this bees wax thing and she did not give us any info. However it seems to work really damned well, it keeps it from rusting and everytime we use the pan to cook the next meal, absolutely nothing sticks. |
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All day Sat and Sun with no updates? How bad could you possibly hurt yourself with a DA? lol Not hurt, just have a lot going on. At the moment all I have for discs for the da are 600 and 800. I am going to start with a 120, then 240, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1,000, 1,500, then 2,000. This won't be done overnight. I appreciate you enthusiasm. 
On a side note. I did add another wound to the list. I cracked a rib coughing last Tuesday. Hurt like a mother for a couple of days. Now it's better but it will take a while to be completely better. The 2 lower ribs on my left side are all swollen, and looks kinda messed up. |
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Admitted right at the top of the thread that our pans aren't as slick as everyone seems to brag about. I want it to work out. So I can follow suit after you blaze the trail. Keep track of your materials for me. I think all of the seasoning methods work in their own way, but starting with a smooth, clean pan is the key. |
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Good sir, it seems as if you have thrown down the gauntlet. I accept! I will take pics of my progress as I go on. Start http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1293/4220040/24402601/408734405.jpg http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1293/4220040/24402601/408734406.jpg Quoted:
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Headed out today to get a new pan. I am just going to start with a 12" Lodge. I like a challenge. I am going use a DA sander and start course and work up to a 2000 grit, and see what I can accomplish. I'm gonna bet you give up well before 2000 grit. :) Maybe its just me, but I cant see going beyond 400 grit at most. Maybe 320. It's cast iron, not a multi coar lacquer job. Good sir, it seems as if you have thrown down the gauntlet. I accept! I will take pics of my progress as I go on. Start http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1293/4220040/24402601/408734405.jpg http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1293/4220040/24402601/408734406.jpg Saw this exact same pan today at Walmart. Figured I'd wait to see how yours turns out before I take the plunge. |
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I started thinking about how to smooth the pan. A DA sander seems fine for getting in the flat area. Might be awkward for the sides of the pan.
Considered a 4" right angle grinder with the rubber backer and grit. That should make easy work of the sides. When I use that arrangement, it has to stay moving or it will eat 'cup marks' into the material. Cast iron should be robust enough to avoid that. How to hold the work piece? Rag around handle and clamp in a vise? |
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I started thinking about how to smooth the pan. A DA sander seems fine for getting in the flat area. Might be awkward for the sides of the pan. Considered a 4" right angle grinder with the rubber backer and grit. That should make easy work of the sides. When I use that arrangement, it has to stay moving or it will eat 'cup marks' into the material. Cast iron should be robust enough to avoid that. How to hold the work piece? Rag around handle and clamp in a vise? I found hand sanding it worked the best because you can contour the paper to the pan. It only took a few minutes and worked much better than I thought it would. |