Help me love my cast iron skillet

[Rochey]

Yes, they aren't any where near as temperature consistent as most claim. The generally accepted canon on cast iron is all myth.  Get away from that and it's all good!

Yes!  I was teaching Mason how to make a grilled cheese sandwich and one side of the bread was hardly cooked while the other was brown.  Part of it may have been positioning on the glass stovetop, but it wasn't what I was led to believe. 

[Honey Badger]

I got one of these things to scrub any burnt on guck off.  Works great.


Amazon "The Ringer"

[monster2]

I got one of these things to scrub any burnt on guck off.  Works great.


Amazon "The Ringer"

This is now on my list!

Sent from my SM-G900T1 using Tapatalk

[radial]

I thought the goal with cast iron was to cultivate a nicely seasoned coating that bonded with the iron and filled in the irregularities to give you a glassy smooth cooking surface.  Not sure how scrubbing everything down with those chain mail thingies would be helpful. 

[The Turtle Whisperer]

I thought the goal with cast iron was to cultivate a nicely seasoned coating that bonded with the iron and filled in the irregularities to give you a glassy smooth cooking surface.  Not sure how scrubbing everything down with those chain mail thingies would be helpful. 

You got to knock off the big bits with something.  That thing will leave some marks, though.  You wouldn't use it on much else you cook with. 

These days most cast iron needs some help from the grinder to get a glass finish.  It's why the older stuff still brings more money.  Way smoother bottoms from the factory. 

[BonitaApplebum]

Ugh, I had a perfectly seasoned pan and I wrecked it the other day. I have to reseason it entirely. It's the worst mess I've ever made of a pan, and I've been cooking on cast iron all my life.

[radial]

The Recipe for Perfect Cast Iron Seasoning

The basic idea is this: Smear a food-grade drying oil onto a cast iron pan, and then bake it above the oil’s smoke point. This will initiate the release of free radicals and polymerization. The more drying the oil, the harder the polymer. So start with the right oil.

Go to your local health food store or organic grocery and buy a bottle of flaxseed oil. It’s sold as an omega-3 supplement and it’s in the refrigeration section because it goes rancid so easily. Check the expiration date to make sure it’s not already rancid. Buy an organic flaxseed oil. You don’t want to burn toxic chemicals into your cookware to leach out forever more. It’s a fairly expensive oil. I paid $17 for a 17 ounce bottle of cold-pressed, unrefined, organic flaxseed oil. As it says on the bottle, shake it before you use it.

Strip your pan down to the iron using the techniques I describe in my popover post. Heat the pan in a 200°F oven to be sure it’s bone dry and to open the pores of the iron a little. Then put it on a paper towel, pour a little flaxseed oil on it (don’t forget to shake the bottle), and rub the oil all over the pan with your hands, making sure to get into every nook and cranny. Your hands and the pan will be nice and oily.

Now rub it all off. Yup – all. All. Rub it off with paper towels or a cotton cloth until it looks like there is nothing left on the surface. There actually is oil left on the surface, it’s just very thin. The pan should look dry, not glistening with oil. Put the pan upside down in a cold oven. Most instructions say to put aluminum foil under it to catch any drips, but if your oil coating is as thin as it should be, there won’t be any drips.

Turn the oven to a baking temperature of 500°F (or as high as your oven goes – mine only goes to 450°F) and let the pan preheat with the oven. When it reaches temperature, set the timer for an hour. After an hour, turn off the oven but do not open the oven door. Let it cool off with the pan inside for two hours, at which point it’s cool enough to handle.

The pan will come out of the oven a little darker, but matte in texture – not the semi-gloss you’re aiming for. It needs more coats. In fact, it needs at least six coats. So again rub on the oil, wipe it off, put it in the cold oven, let it preheat, bake for an hour, and let it cool in the oven for two hours. The picture above was taken after six coats of seasoning. At that point it starts to develop a bit of a sheen and the pan is ready for use.

If you try this, you will be tempted to use a thicker coat of oil to speed up the process. Don’t do it. It just gets you an uneven surface – or worse, baked on drips. Been there, done that. You can’t speed up the process. If you try, you’ll mess up the pan and have to start over.

The reason for the very hot oven is to be sure the temperature is above the oil’s smoke point, and to maximally accelerate the release of free radicals. Unrefined flaxseed oil actually has the lowest smoke point of any oil (see this table). But the higher the temperature the more it will smoke, and that’s good for seasoning (though bad for eating – do not let oils smoke during cooking).

I mentioned earlier there’s a myth floating around that vegetable oils leave a sticky residue. If the pan comes out of the oven sticky, the cause is one of three things:

• You put the oil on too thick.
• Your oven temperature was too low.
• Your baking time was too short.

It’s possible to use a suboptimal oil for seasoning, like Crisco or bacon drippings, and still end up with a usable pan. Many (most) people do this. But the seasoning will be relatively soft, not as nonstick, and will tend to wear off. If you want the hardest, slickest seasoning possible, use the right oil: flaxseed oil.

http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/

[BonitaApplebum]

Thanks. That's basically my technique, with the flaxseed oil. It gives a better finish than anything else I've tried.

[Chasing Amy]

I tried the flaxseed seasoning method - six coats. Tossed a marinated chicken breast in there and it got unbelievably stuck. Huge mess. What the hell?

[BonitaApplebum]

The only thing I can think is that you are treating cast iron like teflon? As great as cast iron is, it's NOT 100% nonstick. You need to use butter or oil with it, especially with less fatty foods. Scrambled eggs, for example, will pretty much always stick in a cast iron pan IMO.

Are you using any oil in the pan?

[Chasing Amy]

The only thing I can think is that you are treating cast iron like teflon? As great as cast iron is, it's NOT 100% nonstick. You need to use butter or oil with it, especially with less fatty foods. Scrambled eggs, for example, will pretty much always stick in a cast iron pan IMO.

Are you using any oil in the pan?

Of course. There was a generous coat of olive oil in there.

[hally]

Of course. There was a generous coat of olive oil in there.

Did you get it really hot before you threw in the chicken?

[The Turtle Whisperer]

Of course. There was a generous coat of olive oil in there.

Did you give the meat time to release on it's own, or did it just stick and burn? 

[radial]

Did you take the chicken out of the plastic wrap first?   

[Chasing Amy]

Did you get it really hot before you threw in the chicken?

yes

Did you give the meat time to release on it's own, or did it just stick and burn? 

yes

Did you take the chicken out of the plastic wrap first?   

yes

[hally]

yes

yes

yes

Well, some things are just not meant to be for some people. Like me and the crock pot. The insert is good for soaking beans though.

[Chasing Amy]

It seemed like the seasoning was good - smooth sheen and not sticky. But the seasoning seemed to "come off" as soon as I started cooking.

[rocketgirl]

Boyfriend just tried to re-season his pan.    I don't know what oil he put on it, but "smoke point" set off the smoke detectors. 

I re-seasoned (ish anyway) a pan my now ex husband owned.  I'm pretty sure it had been through the dishwasher.  I probably just used a vegetable oil.  I did not go to smoke point, but I think I left it in the oven for probably 4 hours.  I don't know how great is was, but it was better than it had started.

I had read they didn't recommend using cast iron on a glass stove top (damage to stove top).  If I got one, I'd probably get the porcelain enamel on the outside.  Although cast iron is heavier than I want to deal with as it is and that makes it heavier.  Maybe one with two handles would be manageable, but then I'd have to store it somewhere.

[Honey Badger]

Ugh, I had a perfectly seasoned pan and I wrecked it the other day. I have to reseason it entirely. It's the worst mess I've ever made of a pan, and I've been cooking on cast iron all my life.

How did you wreck it? I'm curious as after I move I'll be cooking with gas again and would like to start using my cast iron more.

[BonitaApplebum]

How did you wreck it? I'm curious as after I move I'll be cooking with gas again and would like to start using my cast iron more.

By being an idiot!

I put some water in the pan to cook off some cooked on food. And then I walked off and forgot about it, and all the water cooked out. Idiot!!!