Cast Iron, Eggs and Sticking

[Jim]

.....I wash my cast iron skillet after every use with dawn dish soap and hot water. I scrub the heck out of it.....

Oh, LORD!

If Janet caught you with one of her cast iron pans in one hand and a bottle of Dawn in the other, you'd end up on a milk carton!!

[Love Life]

What if I was helping unload cleaning supplies while trying to move the skillet at the same time?

[blueeyephil]

Oil or butter and pepper the pan before putting the eggs in it. The pepper will help keep the eggs from sticking.

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[Jim]

What if I was helping unload cleaning supplies while trying to move the skillet at the same time?

You're pushin' yer luck hard there, LL. When Janet comes outa' her office with that model 19 Smith, I'm gone, brother! You're on yer own!

[Love Life]

Yikes! No dawn near the cast iron at your place. I'm to young to be perforated.

[B R Shooter]

I use a stiff metal spatula, you have to scrape the pan to be sure there is no build up. You can feel it with the spatula. I often cook bacon then my eggs, same pan. Once the bacon is done, and before I pour out the grease, I scrape the pan, using the grease as a "cleaner" so to speak. When it feels slick, you're good to go. Maybe a dedicated pan is better....

[Boerrancher]

A trick I learned at the Rendezvous was to take your dirty cast iron, fill it with water and a couple cups of the white ash from the fire, not the charcoal gray stuff. Let it boil for 15 to 20 min, then scrub it real good with a brush and get it real clean. Super extra clean is the key before you go on to this next step. The last and final key to not sticking is after it is super extra clean put it back in the fire and pull out your tin of bee's wax. Once the pan is good and hot give the inside of it a good coat of bee's wax and cook it down to carbon. Keep doing this until your skillet is nice and slick on the inside. The last go around on the bee's wax you will not want to cook it to carbon. You want a thin layer of wax to protect your carbon layer. Unlike other fats and oils the bee's wax will not go off and taint your skillet. After each use boil water in it wipe it out and re-coat with bee's wax. If you get a good carbon layer and keep a thin layer of bee's wax on it, you will never have a problem with your eggs sticking whether you cook them in butter or bacon grease.

Best wishes,

Joe

[Jim]

I remember watchin' my Uncle John make breakfast for him and me using a cast iron pan. All he did when done was pour out any grease left over, wipe the pan out with a paper towel or two and put it back under the stove. That's it. That pan was black as graphite and slick as teflon. Janet does the same thing and she's got two pans that look like that.

[blackthorn]

Jim---I treat my cast iron just like your Uncle John!!

[bob208]

get pan hot then some olive oil. do the eggs . then it will wipe out with a dry paper towel. or fry the bacon or sauage first then hen eggs in the grease left.

[Four-Sixty]

Thank you for all the replies Gentlemen. I can say I tried lowering the temperature of my stove, and had great luck. I did not ruin the seasoning I had on there when I was done. I was able to just wipe it out and put it back. Getting another smaller skillet just for eggs sounds like a good idea to. There are many good ideas here; there are too many to mention. Thank you.

True story...

I sat on Grand Jury Duty about 6 years ago in Middle Georgia. One of the cases we heard was of a divorced couple, who still lived in the same house. They had a fight over the left over bacon grease. The question was who did it belong to. Mind you, they were divorced, and living in the same house. Well, the woman stabbed the man with a kitchen knife over that bacon grease. We handed down a felonly charge of assualt with a deadly weapon... over bacon grease.

[Love Life]

Bacon grease is a hot commodity throughout the south east. I know if somebody tried to take my fat drippings jar a bout of fisticuffs would ensue.

[WILCO]

I can count on one hand the number on pans we have that are not cast iron.
Count the cast iron you will need at least 10 people and use all the fingers both hands on them.
Cast iron is all we cook in, PERIOD, yall that are using it to make ingots are
just wrong.

Keep preaching brother! I hear ya!

[Jammersix]

I cook half a pound to a pound of bacon in the skillet first, and then just dump the eggs in on top of what's left.

[Jim]

I cook half a pound to a pound of bacon in the skillet first, and then just dump the eggs in on top of what's left.

Jammer, I read your post to my wife. She said "That's what I'M talkin' about!"

[Tom W.]

I read the posts again and couldn't stand it any more. I just finished up some eggs in my cast Iron, and they were good, too! With not a hint of sticking....

[BD]

Olive oil for cooking eggs, and no soap in a cast iron pan ever. If the oil smokes, you're running it too hot. If you screw up and stick something, when you're done cooking just put a cup off plain water in while it's still hot and use a chore boy on it 2 minutes later. NO SOAP, EVER. I use a Griswold handle griddle for eggs. It's been in the family at least three generations.
BD

[Love Life]

Why no soap? I use soap and scrub out all my cast iron after I cook. Nothing ever sticks. Does that mean my cast iron is magic?

On to a more serious note. Ever sine this thread started I have been dreaming about them sweet potato donuts Jim mentioned on the cookbook thread.

[Fishman]

There are some things that no-stick pans are really good for. Eggs over easy is one of them. I loves my cast iron but to me eggs taste better not drenched in oil.

[DukeInFlorida]

You can re-season a good frying pan by rubbing the entire interior surface with olive oil, and allowing it to soak in for 5 minutes.
Heat your oven to about 250 degrees, and place the empty frying pan in the oven for about a half hour. The olive oil will bake onto the surface of the pan, and create a thin non-stick surface. 2-3 times doing that will create a pretty rugged stick free surface.

It's the same technique that you use when you buy NEW cast iron item, and want to condition it.

I've had my well meaning kids run my best fry pan through the dishwasher........... got all rusty........ sanded the rust out, and reconditioned it, and it's as good as new.