need help with cast iron!

[MommyofSeven]

OK, I've not seasoned a lot of pans but do have a few suggestions from watching gramma...

 

1. Her pans weren't smooth like glass. They had bumps and ridges on them, but they were part of the seasoning, not "stuff" that wuldn't come off like food or something...kwim?

 

2. Put the aluminum foil on the rack underneat the pan, then you won't have part of it sitting on the pan.

 

Mo7

[Belle]

I start with mine upsidedown, then turn them upright. That way, if gunk builds up, it will be on the bottom of the pan and will burn off when I use it. That, also, helps keep the inside from getting sticky from too thick a layer of grease building up in it.

 

As far as them being smooth. Mine is not smooth, it's a little bumpy, but nothing that will come off. Of course, it's only about 30 years old. I have my mother's skillet, too. It's really smooth, but it has gotten a lot more use. It's 55 years old, if it's a day. It might have been smoother to begin with, though.

 

I've always heard you should scrub off the coating that is on them when you buy them because it isn't durable enough and will, eventually, cook off. Does anyone know if that's true?

[Genoa]

Mommy of Seven and Belle,

 

Thanks for your answers. Belle, I hope you don't have to scrub off the original seasoning on the Lodge cast iron, as I just added more seasoning over what they had done already. I'd hate to think I'd have to scrub it all off and start over again.

[Belle]

Genoa, I hope you don't, too! That would be an awful job!

[Amber]

Hi Belle,

 

The new cast iron is generally coming from China and has a hard waxy overcoat so to speak. It needs to be heartily scrubbed off, although what the guys on the cast iron yahoo groups do is put it on the propane campstove outside and burn it off. Then they season it like it should be done.

 

The recommendation is to take it off first, and a metal scrub pad, hot water, and soap will work, with a LOT of elbow grease, -- if you don't burn it off. If you try it in the oven, you will get a lot of smoke -- guaranteed.

 

If, however, your cast iron is from Lodge Manufacturing, then it is from the USA and they tell you how to clean it, either on a paper tag with the pan or their on-line web page. If it was a Lodge preseasoned, then I'd wash it, dry it, and then season over their seasoning, anyway.

 

I've learned all this from the yahoo group, dutchovencooking, which does talk about cast iron and it's care besides dutch oven cooking.

[Genoa]

Thanks Amber. This skillet is from Lodge. The other cast iron pot and lid which I need to season next is from Cajun Classic. The tag says it is in Mamou, Louisiana. Do you know anything about this company? Although it says it is pre-seasoned, it feels very rough to me and isn't as dark as I would expect. I don't see any obvious wax coating on it, but then I'm not that experienced with cast iron and maybe I'm missing something.

 

Thanks, too for the name of the group. I'll look that up, as well.

[Belle]

Thanks, Amber! Although I have a number of cast iron pans, I am considering adding a bigger griddle. Since it won't likely be Lodge, I'll be sure to burn it off or scrub it good.

[Amber]

I did a quick keyword search over there (yahoo groups) for cajun classic and the couple of emails I read said it was from China and heavily waxed. It may be hard like a lacquer, and not sticky like I would think a waxy coat would be. It has to be hard enough for the trip over and not let rust start, remember.

Was your pot new? Or previously used? Can you tell?

 

One guy said he did not like the performance (lids not fitting correctly on the pot, wobbling) but said others had good luck with them. Remember, some of these guys are purists and they cook in them a lot, so preferences are due to the performance of each brand. I would guess that for us, it depends on what you are cooking -- baking needs the steam to escape and stews and slow cooking do not.

 

The main consensus is that any cast iron pot should be uniform in thickness -- because you want even heating, not irregular.

 

They say most of the cast iron coming in is thicker in general anyway -- as opposed to the American made Lodge.

 

In my opinion, go ahead and clean it up, season it several times, and use it. If you try it out a few times and like what you get, then it is fine. If you have problems every time, then maybe it is the pot and not the cook...

[Genoa]

Thanks for taking the time to look that up for me. I found the posts you referred to and pretty much came to the same conclusion you did. Nice to have that confirmed.

 

One other question for you---Do I need to be careful what type of utensil I use when cooking (i.e., spatulas, spoons, etc.)? Does it matter if they are metal? I have some of the nonstick spatulas/pancake turners, but they're not my favorite to use.

[Amber]

Well, I've see pics of them using old metal spoons at some of the cookoffs, but when they talked about it recently on one of the lists I joined; they said metal utensils will scratch off the seasoning while you are cooking. So maybe they were just using them in the deep been pots or dutch ovens and were very careful not to scrape the bottom?? or something.

 

So the recommend is for wood utensils. Or plastic, but remember if you use plastic, that a hot cast iron fry pan or griddle will melt plastic (My DH and DD have done this a lot of times -- I've replaced several plastic pancake turners) and you cannot leave it sitting in the pot. And Said That melted plastic is almost impossible to get off cast iron. Remember cast iron is porus and when stuff gets baked/cooked in there it sticks.

 

Then they went on to discuss how to take care of wood utensils, which is get some you like (from the dollar store), and use mineral oil to season the wood. Another guy said he used olive oil, baked it in, olive oiled it again, let it sit overnight, wiped it down, etc. -- so it seemed mineral oil is the best to use.

 

I bought a bottle of mineral oil to use on my new cutting boards, and it says food grade, FWIW.

 

There are some wood utensils out there that have flat edges or slightly rounded for fitting into cooking pots and pans. They sometimes look like someone took a larger spoon and cut an inch or two off the end.

 

I have a couple I found somewhere, at a harvest festival, I think, that are wood spatulas -- you can find them on line from woodworker guys. I also got a couple of bamboo rice spatulas for my rice cooker -- which specifically said NEVER to use metal in there. So I have a head start, and can transition some of my wood spoons/spatulas over to cast iron cooking (dutch oven cooking) easily.

 

Now after having told you all the above, I will admit that I have used metal spatulas and spoons in my cast iron fry pans for years. They are old pans and very well seasoned (BLACK) and I reseason after each use, so they are pretty well taken care of. I don't dig in, so to speak, so I don't mess them up.

 

When first married to this DH, it took me over a year to get him to stop using brillo pads to scrape off the black stuff and get to metal every time he washed them. He had a hard time understanding the nature of cast iron seasoning. He could not fathom just putting some hot water in to soak for a few minutes, or slightly heating water in them on the stove, and then use the nylon scrubby to get pork chop bits and burned on spice bits off. He loves teflon and my scraped up teflon plans show his love in that the black teflon is missing in places also -- from metal spoons...and we've been eating that stuff. I really am going back to plain stainless steel pans and have now been getting more cast iron. I have also been 'training' DH on how to let pans soak a few minutes while doing other chores in the kitchen, and then washing pans up last.

 

[mistylady]

I've made a mess. Big sticky mess. I put oil in the pan and put it in the oven 350 degrees for about 40 minutes then turned up the heat to 380 for twenty minutes. The pot was upside down. Now its sticky inside. And kind of brownish. Its a Lodge. What did I do wrong?

 

Pretty bad when you can't cook cast iron right!

 

Also has anyone bought from this place -www.castironcookware.com?

[Genoa]

What kind of oil did you use? I used Crisco shortening, rather than oil.

[Mouse Kitty]

Quote:

[Belle]

I use Crisco, too. Oil just doesn't seem to do right (it gets sticky rather than 'hard') You might try baking it longer at a higher temperature. Put it into a cold oven, right side up, put a sheet of aluminum foil on the lower self (to catch any drips), and turn the temp to 450. Leave it there until the smoke makes your eyes water. Open a window, then turn the pan upside down. Coat lightly with Crisco, if needed, and repeat steps (if the smoke is really bad, you can finish it tomorrow). When you can't breathe good, turn off the oven, leave the pan inside to cool, turn on a fan (blowing out the window), and leave the room till the smoke clears.

 

That's how I do it. I've never been successful at seasoning a pan without smoking up the house, but the end result is so worth it. I've refurbished pans that were solid rust (but I got them for a song!). I wish I had a camera so I could show you my dutch oven! It was nothing but rust when I got it, but now it's a real beauty! It's worth about $50, but I only paid $4!

[mistylady]

I used Wesson veggie oil. It was all I had around. I'll get some Crisco and try that. Washing the sticky out isn't going to be fun though. The pan is one of those preseasoned ones.

 

Thank you ladies!

[Shawna]

Yeah, you don't want to use vegetable oil on your pans for seasoning. Crisco or animal fat are the best things for that.

 

If I were you, I'd boil my pan that got sticky. If it's sticky on the inside, I'd fill it with water and let it obil on the stove for a while....it'll pull the oil up and out of the pan. If it's sticky inside and out, I'd find a pot bigger than the sticky one and fill it up with water and place your sticky pot in it (the bigger pot) and boil the whole darn thing.

 

I am sorry your pan came out sticky! Such a bummer when you're all revved up for something and it doesn't turn out right

Shawna

[Amber]

Hi Misty, if you have not started to fix the pan already, then you might try baking it again. Only, start out at a lower temp for maybe 1/2 hour. Then up it to 350 degrees for an hour and then up it to 425-450 degrees for another hour or more. You really want to bake it on hard.

 

A kitchen timer helps you remember to change temperatures.

 

One, This should eliminate the smoke in your kitchen.

Two, it may need higher heat to solidify the wesson oil. Let it cool in the oven, overnight if you have to. Then check the seasoning to see if it is still sticky. If less sticky, then do it again. When it is no longer sticky, then season with crisco.

 

Go ahead and use it for frying something. The heat from cooking may help.

 

Ultimately the seasoning should go very dark brown to black. Black is what you aim for. Higher heat does that.

 

When seasoning, bring it up to a warm temperature first, low heat in the oven, then put on the crisco, and then do your graduated seasoning several times until it seems right. After that all you need is minimal maintenance as we talked about at the start of this thread.

 

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.

[Snowmom]

I just did a search and came up with this site. Seasoning Cast Iron:

 

http://www.kitchenemporium.com/info/castiron.html

 

There is a LOT of information on that site.

 

Ok, now I have a question about washing these, don't you wash them like any other pan?? I have always washed them in soap and water. I know we did when we were at my parents home. But, I too think they are different now, or it is just that Mom's had been used a LOT more than mine.

[mistylady]

Thanks Amber! And a great link there Snowmom!

 

I'm going to retry it this afternoon. I wasn't energetic enough to clean it up last night so it still has the sticky on it! LOL Its so cold right now that I need a reason to use the oven! 12 degrees outside.

 

I'll let you know what it looks like in the morning!

[Amber]

Snowmom, on the dutchovencooking site at yahoo groups, the main view is that you do not wash with soap. They say that the cooking and seasoning kills any germs. Soap is made to 'dissolve' grease and help it wash away.

 

I would agree with this to a point -- with newly seasoned pans. On the new pans the black seasoning is not established and not very deep. Therefore possibly porus and more easily removed with washing. You would not want the soap taste in there early on. Hot water opens the pores on the cast iron, allowing grease melt, and soap to penetrate I'd imagine.

 

After the pan has been in use for awhile and the seasoning has really built up, then I think soap washing is fine. I think we've all done washing with soap and hot water without problems because our pans were already well established/seasoned.

 

For everyone else reading this, when I've looked back at the messages where people said they had problems, I am of the opinion that baking them at low temperature for a short time is most of the problem. Most sites say 300 degrees for an hour. I think that is not enough time. If you are going to do low temperature then do it for several hours. The grease has to be hardened really well in order to stick on the pan.

 

Also they say to use crisco on the pans and not vegetable oil.

 

For no smoke in the kitchen, the gradual increase of temperatures from low (250-300) to high (450) over 2-3 hours --or a little more-- will avoid that problem.

 

Also the yahoo dutch oven (cast iron) 'guys' in several places said to warm the pan first (open the pores), then apply the crisco, then bake. I'd probably move the pan once or twice during baking so as to stop a build up of grease puddling where ever the pan edge meets the grill bars of the rack.

 

The only reason I mention them a lot is that I searched the web first looking for information. There is a lot out there. It is all static and pretty general.

 

However, the people on the group site at yahoo really use their pans, like to buy new sizes, cook in them regularly, and have to deal with the seasoning or re-seasoning from finding old pans, and they do this fairly often. They are users in the current sense. I go with their expertise. They sometimes have different opinions, to be expected. I read their posts a lot and got a sense of what works for the majority and went with that. So far it has been working well for me, and I pass it on when it works. BTW, I have not smoked up my kitchen yet using the gradual heat up method.

 

The pan I am working on now is coming along fine. I have a stack of cast iron to clean and reseason. I just got four thrift store pans (grungy) and a newer dutch oven and frypan I got from a lady that have had a couple of seasonings by her -- and they feel greasy because they were not hardened. Paper towels under them get real greasy looking. A well seasoned pan should not make a grease spot on the paper towel in my opinion -- at least not to that extent.

 

My 2 cents, FWIW. ...