• BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      7 months ago

      I knew nothing about cast iron pan care when I met my SO and I did his dishes for him one day and washed it with soap and water. I still hate the damn things and think they’re filthy and nasty.

      • pelya@lemmy.world
        0·
        7 months ago

        Just burn it on the highest flame after every use. The grime will be all disinfected by the heat. You can stop when you smell the specific odor of burning rubber and see black fumes, this means your burnt oil coating is denaturating.

        • trolololol@lemmy.world
          0·
          7 months ago

          I wish you said it’s supposed to be cleaned before using. What good is it in knowing it was disinfected after it’s last use … 10 months ago?

          • pelya@lemmy.world
            0·
            7 months ago

            You burn the grease after cooking so that your skillet won’t stink with rotten lard when you don’t use it for a year.

            Reapplying the oil coating before cooking is a good practice, you’ll also burn all the dust. But you then need to let it cool to allow oil to polymerize and lock all that cancer below the coating.

            • trolololol@lemmy.world
              0·
              7 months ago

              As someone allergic to dust and averse to cancer, I’ll mute this cursed thread and sign up to a normie cooking sub 😂

      • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
        0·
        7 months ago

        They don’t need the hell scrubbed out of them like stainless steel and they don’t cause cancer like Teflon. They also sear meats way better than any other pans.

        Then as others have already said, it’s fine to gand wash them if you’d like. You just don’t grind/scrub off the carbonized oil layers.

          • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
            0·
            7 months ago

            Well what the ueck are you doing, because I sure have. We have a higher end ss pan and it’s way worse than our cast iron skillets. Cook scrambled eggs in it and you’ll need a power sander to get that thing clean.

      • Sh0ckw4ve@lemmy.world
        0·
        7 months ago

        It’s actually fine to use soap and water, otherwise it is in fact, filthy and nasty. Don’t believe the indoctrinated

      • cmac@lemmy.world
        0·
        7 months ago

        It’s fine to wash them with modern dish soaps. The reason people say not to is because dish soaps used to have lye in them, which would destroy the seasoning. Just make sure you wipe the water off instead of letting it air dry or it can rust.

        • devfuuu@lemmy.world
          0·
          7 months ago

          I keep reading the word seasoning, and for non native speakers this is hard. What are you all meaning? You put some garlic, salt and pepper on the pan and let it be?

          • Natanael@slrpnk.net
            0·
            7 months ago

            Seasoning in this specific context means the residue of the food oil which forms a surface coating when heated up to a certain temperature. It protects the surface from rusting.

            • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
              0·
              7 months ago

              It does protect from rust somewhat(water can still cause rust if left on it) but the big deal is it makes the cookware non-stick without Teflon.

          • stankmut@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            7 months ago

            It’s more like like a seasoned veteran, not cooking seasoning.

            You aren’t throwing garlic on the pan and then putting it in the cupboard. You build up layers of polymerized oil on the pan as you cook on it.

          • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            0·
            7 months ago

            In this context, it means to coat the cast iron with oil and/or fat and heat it until the oils polymerize as a thin film stuck to the surface of the pan. This prevents the cast iron from rusting and presents a non-stick surface. It’s honestly more like varnishing the pan than “seasoning” it.

          • jjagaimo@lemmy.caEnglish
            0·
            7 months ago

            Oil is placed on the pan and then it is heated to form a non-stick coating. This layer can have small holes in it, so the process is repeated many times. The holes do not line up, which makes the path for water to get through much longer or blocks it. This means water can not easily make it through all of the layers. That also means any water that gets in can’t easily get out, and it can cause rust to form if it makes it through the coating and is left on there.

          • Drivebyhaiku@lemmy.world
            0·
            7 months ago

            English is dumb. We got the term “seasoned” to mean like a veteran fighter, something aging properly and using salt and spice from the French “assaisoner” which means “to ripen / to improve with time” which we expanded upon by being like “when things become tastier” which is how we started applying it to using spices and salt…

            In this case it means sort of speed running getting the oil sheen a cast iron cooking implement used to naturally get by just using it over and over when cooking over wood or peat hence “ripening” the pan. Way back in the day in England and France they didn’t really use soap for dishes. You washed them with water and left them outside in UV light to sterilize them so all iron cooking things tended to naturally develop that nice carbon coat. Time and use made them better hence “seasoned”.

        • can@sh.itjust.works
          0·
          7 months ago

          What if you have a new cast iron and accidentally let a wet dish sit on it in a drawer and it rusted? Hypothetically of course…

              • TheOgreChef@lemmy.world
                0·
                7 months ago

                Not OP, but the Lodge seasoning guide is a pretty good starting point. Cast iron being used forever is proof of how resilient it can be, there’s not too many things you can do that are irreparable.

                Also, you don’t really need to baby it as much as most people say. Just keep using it and it’ll keep getting better.

              • dumbcrumb@lemmy.worldEnglish
                0·
                7 months ago

                Avocado oil is really good, and it’s important to have a super thin layer of oil. Just put a little in the pan and then evenly coat it with a papertowel and wipe out as much oil as possible… and then wipe it out some more. It will look like there’s nothing there and thats how you want it. Place in the oven on its highest setting like 450+ for 45min, let it cool a bit and then do it again. You should do this 3-4 times for a nice seasoning.

              • variants@possumpat.ioEnglish
                0·
                7 months ago

                There’s this old cowboy on YouTube that has a good video on restoring cast irons I forget his name though

              • bluewing@lemm.ee
                0·
                7 months ago

                That’s the cool part- no matter what happens to your cast iron pans, it can be fixed. You scratch or chip a non-stick coating and the pan is pretty much ruined.

  • Wilzax@lemmy.world
    0·
    7 months ago

    coat that sucker with avocado oil and bring it up to 200°C for a few minutes. Allow it to cool, repeat until the sides don’t hold any oil, then switch to crisco solid shortening for a few rounds.

      • Natanael@slrpnk.net
        0·
        7 months ago

        You can use various different food oils, the important part is that it can leave a (food safe) polymerized coat that binds to the surface, protecting it from rusting as well as making it non-stick

      • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        7 months ago

        In addition to what the other person said, olive oil has a high smoke point, meaning it has to get pretty darn hot before it creates smoke. It handles heat a lot better than other oils.

        • nomous@lemmy.world
          0·
          7 months ago

          The thing is, if you take care of it, the pan will outlive the owner. There’s just not many products with that kind of life these days.

  • EnderMB@lemmy.world
    0·
    7 months ago

    I love my cast iron pan, but I really cannot get the perfect sheen that everyone else seems to get. The bottom of mine is non-stick now, and I season regularly, but the sides always seem to chip away eventually. Once the chipping starts, I have no idea how to stop other than to strip it entirely and start again.

  • MonkderDritte@feddit.de
    0·
    7 months ago

    Btw, copper sponge is really good for such things. Hard enough for cooked-in stuff but soft enough to not scratch.

    • King3d@lemmy.world
      0·
      7 months ago

      I find the scrub daddy brushes to be the perfect fit for cleaning my cast iron as well.

  • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
    0·
    7 months ago

    I’ve got one that I need someone to do this to so I can start over. It’s older than I am and was poorly taken care of for several years before I got it.

    The cast iron I bought for myself is all in good condition. That one means a lot because of where it comes from but I don’t have the patience to scrape all that shit off. I wish someone would do it for me so I could enjoy the pan my grandaddy cooked me bacon in.

      • orcrist@lemm.ee
        0·
        7 months ago

        That really depends on the condition of the pan. I’ve had some where power tools were insufficient.

        • bluewing@lemm.ee
          0·
          7 months ago

          I have yet to see any kind of powered abrasive that WON"T get to the bare metal in a right quick manor. It’s kind of what the stuff is made for…

      • Laurentide@pawb.socialEnglish
        0·
        7 months ago

        My oven uses some weird “eco-friendly” self-cleaning process that involves pouring water into it and steaming the dirt off, which doesn’t sound like it would be good for the pan. Got any alternatives? I found a Griswold at the thrift store a few years back and I’d like to be able to restore it without damaging it.