Cooking on cast iron

[MaryB]

Pam has other stuff in it to thin it and make it spray better... it will instantly gum up a teflon pan.. only thing I use pam for is to coat the bbq pit and to spray the inside of the pellet stove in spring so it doesn't rust

[Duckiller]

Reseason your cast iron pans with hot flax oil.

[PB234]

Favorite pan is a roughly 1900 8 inch skillet made by Erie. Acquired it in about 1980 at a flea market. It sits on my stovetop used very ofter. Get great results. Look on Amazon for products called cast iron clean. It will be a pad made up of circles of steel which one rubs over the cooking surface after using the pan and placing some water in the pan. To reduce grease in the pan try placing some really hot water in and then scrub it with this ad of steel links. The run water over the pan and dry it off.

Suggest not using Pam and trying Canola or Olive Oil. My pan is going strong and how many tools from 1900 are doing the same. Probably would not buy the newly made pans and continue to search eBay or Facebook groups to add to my cast iron tools. The old ones are better.

[redneck1]

I never knew a frying pan could be so complicated
I have two cast iron pans that I use for pretty much everything.
A big one and a little one , and I do mean everything , from eggs to pizza .

I can vaguely remember using lard to season them way back when .
I've washed them with soap , without soap and I've even run them threw the dishwasher a time or two .

No matter what I do , just as long as I remember to warm them and give em a light coat of oil after washing nothing seems to change .

If something does stick to them it always seems like it's because I either forgot to oil after washing or I oiled them cold .
I've never had to re-season either pan. Just warm them up , oil , let cool and they are back to normal .

Edit .. thinking about pans made me think about food so I had to put mine to work
Attachment 250720

[Wayne Smith]

Stainless Steel wool size 0 is what I use to clean my pans.

[jsizemore]

Edit .. thinking about pans made me think about food so I had to put mine to work
Attachment 250720

Looks like they did a fine job!

[yeahbub]

I vote for flavors passed on from prior cooking. One of the problems in the restaurant business is over-using the shortening in the deep-fryer and having annoying off flavors as a result. It could be something was cooked or overdone in your cookware and the remaining oils are tainting the current endeavor. I've used various pan sprays and suffered no bad tastes from them, but I like oil and pour my canola out of a bottle. I do prefer pan spray for making pancakes and crepes, though. No one seems to go for oily pan cakes.

Posted by jimlj: Don't give up on a cast iron pan. There is a bit of a learning curve to using them but the results of a well seasoned pan are hard to beat.

I agree. I had to cycle through all the "old wives tales" about cast iron cooking before I acquired a decent understanding of what works. I hate to break it to all the loyal followers, but that business of only cleaning a skillet on odd-numbered Tuesdays under a full moon while yodeling and holding one foot off the floor? Not true. We can all stop now. I've learned that washing cast iron cookware with hot soapy water does no harm, as long as it is done in a couple of minutes and doesn't remove all the oil in the seasoned surface. Rinse, then back to the stove to be heated until hot to the touch to thoroughly dry it and apply enough oil to restore the black shine. Throwing it in a sink-full of soapy dish water and leaving it soaking for hours will slowly strip the remaining oils and introduce that metallic off taste to future dishes as well as open it to rust. The same for throwing water into a very hot skillet, which will de-glaze it the same as deglazing a restaurant grill, which cleans it very well, but cast iron will need to be re-seasoned.

Pan spray tends to be a little thicker than bottled vegetable oil and makes excellent case lube in sparing amounts. A light spritz across a tub of clean cases, thoroughly mix them and they'll size slick as a whistle. Oven cleaner and dish soap to get large quantities squeaky clean again. Roll them in a folded old towel for small quantities.

[Todd N.]

I never knew a frying pan could be so complicated
I have two cast iron pans that I use for pretty much everything.
A big one and a little one , and I do mean everything , from eggs to pizza .

I can vaguely remember using lard to season them way back when .
I've washed them with soap , without soap and I've even run them threw the dishwasher a time or two .

No matter what I do , just as long as I remember to warm them and give em a light coat of oil after washing nothing seems to change .

If something does stick to them it always seems like it's because I either forgot to oil after washing or I oiled them cold .
I've never had to re-season either pan. Just warm them up , oil , let cool and they are back to normal .

Edit .. thinking about pans made me think about food so I had to put mine to work
Attachment 250720

I am with you 100%.

After nearly 40 years with the 10" Lodge skillet we were given as a wedding present, I have learned how simple they are to use and maintain. Use and maintain them properly and there will not be any odors retained in the pans.

[WILCO]

Did I ever tell you folks that I love cast iron cookware?
Redheaded women too.

[Squeeze]

I have this stainless steel chain mail kitchen scrubber that I love for the cast iron.

[facetious]

cooking spray's have lecithin in them that will build up to make the pan stickie.

I Googled it for fun and it would seem most think it's the worst thing you can do to cast iron, and some who use it to season with.

https://www.leaf.tv/articles/how-to-...ray-from-pans/

https://oureverydaylife.com/how-to-u...-12346043.html

[PbHurler]

You guys don’t use Crisco to season your cast iron?

That's what I use. Got the idea from this website:
http://www.castironcollector.com/

A wealth of good information here, how to remove rust, strip, season etc.

[waksupi]

I have this stainless steel chain mail kitchen scrubber that I love for the cast iron.

Absolutely! I have one in the kitchen and one in my camper.

[Tom W.]

When I met Lori she had two or three pans that were her grandmother's pans and she'd put them in the dishwasher all the time. When they got done she'd re-season them and put them away. The bottoms are as smooth as anything....Old pans made in Japan, believe it or not. My Lodge pans seldom if ever got soap to clean them.I did have to take a pancake skillet out to the shed and put my angle grinder with the sandpaper head on it to get it squared away, you couldn't fry anything on it without having it stick and tear badly. Even scrambled eggs came out bad.
Today I fried some deer backstrap butterflies in the Lodge pan I got at Walmart some years ago that was labeled as a chicken fryer. The meat was pretty, but I haven't had deer that tasted that bad in several years. If I do get to go this season and get one it will be ground into burger......I can use it better that way.....especially on the CHARCOAL grill....

[tja6435]

I’ve found lard to be the best for seasoning cast iron with. I bought a Stargazer 10” skillet last year, was polished smooth inside, it took a while to build up a good seasoning, but now I can fry eggs with zero sticking.
I also have an old deep, 10.25” BSR skillet that was my grandmother’s, it is fantastic. I found a lid for it on eBay for $50

[Walks]

I use a little round whisk broom thingy if it doesn't come clean for some bizarre reason.

Pan is a slippery Redhead. She's a good lube for push thru sizing. But I wouldn't trust her to do anything else.