Rediscovered my cast iron skillet

[silverpig]

Not really, but only a few vegetable fats work well, notably coconut and palm oil.

I'm not going to cook everything in coconut oil. Most people use olive or canola. In my fridge I have rendered duck, pork, and beef fats. On the counter I have canola, peanut, olive, and walnut oils.

The cast iron gets pork fat and I can't get anything to stick to it. With any of the vegetable oils, things stuck on occasion.

I have some anodized aluminum too and make crepes in them from time to time. The creeps stick every time guaranteed with any of the vegetable oils. With animal fat, it is like using greased Teflon. Crepes in duck fat = mmm by the way.

 

[Kaido]

I love my cast iron pan. Alton Brown introduced it to me as the means of cooking the Ultimate Steak. I also like to cook egg scramble in it (scrambled eggs, a Jimmy Dean sauage-veggie mix, and some spices) because of the yummy way it comes out.

Food is delicious :thumbsup:

 

[Born2bwire]

I have some rather cheap cast iron pans that I got a few years from some store I don't usually go to (department store of some kind, I dunno, Kohl's maybe). It was a hot deal from here or gottadeal but the pans have the rough Chinese cast, not the smoother Lodge Logic surface. Seasoning had gotten messed up before (there are some people who think pans are pans) and I spent most of last year restoring it nicely (aka mmmm bacon). Had some company over the holiday season, wanted to cook for us. I came walking in the door to see a brother-in-law with my cast iron at the sink, hot water pouring, soap bubbling, steel wool in hand. I was so pissed. He should know better too.

Going to run my orbital sander over it tomorrow actually. Will start from scratch and give it a fairly smooth surface to begin with and start seasoning anew.

I had my cast iron in storage and after I pulled it out and started using it again the seasoning just wasn't right. So I finally had enough and went at it with soap, water, steel wool, and sandpaper. I couldn't get it down to the steel as much as I would have liked but went with it anyway. Then, a few weeks later, my girlfriend used the pan and put it on the burner and forgot about it. I come back to see that the pan is now down to the steel and I have fine particles of ash all over my range. But the plus side was, I have never gotten that much of the seasoning off of it before. It gave me a real start from scratch for this round of seasoning. So far, it looks like this one will take.

 

[lxskllr]

I had my cast iron in storage and after I pulled it out and started using it again the seasoning just wasn't right. So I finally had enough and went at it with soap, water, steel wool, and sandpaper. I couldn't get it down to the steel as much as I would have liked but went with it anyway. Then, a few weeks later, my girlfriend used the pan and put it on the burner and forgot about it. I come back to see that the pan is now down to the steel and I have fine particles of ash all over my range. But the plus side was, I have never gotten that much of the seasoning off of it before. It gave me a real start from scratch for this round of seasoning. So far, it looks like this one will take.

To get rid of chunks and stuff you can burn it in a fireplace, or outside on a fire if you have access to such facilities.

 

[bearxor]

I have a glass stovetop and a couple cast iron skillets and don't have any problems. But, I don't move and shake the pans around.

I also use soap to clean mine. The two cast iron skillets I have are ridged on the bottom. I use them only for steaks. Warm them in the oven, turn the stove top on, then pull them out, put them on the stove top, throw the steak in. Minute and a half each side, 6 minute each side in the oven.

They get a rinse, soap with a soft plastic brush scrub so I can really get in between the grooves, a rinse, paper towel dry, then a paper towel with peanut oil to oil them back up, then back in the warm oven until they cool off. Not perfect, but the way unlike to do things.

The main problem I have with cast iron in my house is that, every once in a while, the inlaws will decide to clean my grill press and stick it in the dishwasher.

 

[Cerb]

I'm not going to cook everything in coconut oil.

I'm not, either (most of it goes to popcorn and soap). But it works every bit as well as bacon grease for the cast iron, and is excellent for pan-frying (which makes sense, if you look on the label of the package). Animal fat imparts flavors that don't always work, like with a curry.

I have some anodized aluminum too and make crepes in them from time to time. The creeps stick every time guaranteed with any of the vegetable oils. With animal fat, it is like using greased Teflon. Crepes in duck fat = mmm by the way.

I just use butter. I've never tried making crepes w/ vegetable fat, and at this point, haven't used aluminum in at least 10 years.

 

[Howard]

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

 

[Born2bwire]

To get rid of chunks and stuff you can burn it in a fireplace, or outside on a fire if you have access to such facilities.

I've got a flat so I've got neither. The best I can do was set it on the burner at its highest setting. It cleared the bottom of the pan for the most part which was where I was having the trouble.