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Using a cast iron skillet ain't so hard!

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posted 3 years ago

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I don't know if these are on the market or not but my son made me a small piece of chain mail for cleaning my cast iron. It works really well and he made it in less than an hour. He used stainless steel hot wire.

Tiffaney Dex

Posts: 83

Location: La Bretagne

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posted 3 years ago

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Jeff Marchand wrote:Does anyone have any experience with cast iron on induction ? Sounds like it would be a no brainer, but Ive found that many things that are obviously true have considerations that are nt obvious. Such as will the cast iron scratch the stove top? One of my pans has 1/8th inch ring around the bottom, does that mean that only the frying surface above the ring will directly get hot?

My sister cooks with cast iron on a glass top induction stove. The cast iron has very much scratched up the stovetop. She doesn't have a pan with a rim on the bottom for me to say from her (and mine, too, when I'm with her) experience that only the rim would be heated up, but it makes complete sense that that would be the case.

Mike Ruggeri

Posts: 28

Location: NE TX, zone 8a

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posted 3 years ago

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Jeff Marchand wrote:Does anyone have any experience with cast iron on induction ? Sounds like it would be a no brainer, but Ive found that many things that are obviously true have considerations that are nt obvious. Such as will the cast iron scratch the stove top? One of my pans has 1/8th inch ring around the bottom, does that mean that only the frying surface above the ring will directly get hot? Thanks.

We use cast iron cookware, frying pans as well as coated cast iron (Le Creuset) Dutch ovens on our induction cooktop daily. The most important consideration is a smooth surface on the bottom for good contact with the induction area. The cast iron heats relatively quickly, and responds quickly to temperature setting changes. We haven't had any issues with scratching of the glass surface of the cooktop, but we are careful with the cast iron.

Timothy Norton

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Location: Upstate New York, Zone 5b, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall

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posted 1 year ago

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I know that it is essentially a shaped piece of iron, but it carries so many stories as they pass generations. I'm happy that I have been given my grandparents cast iron because none of my siblings would have used it.

This is what helped feed my ancestors, it has seen mistakes and wonderful creations. It has been held by who knows how many people but now it is held by my hand.

Cast iron cookware is a neat heirloom that with care can last multiple lifetimes.

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Cécile Stelzer Johnson

pollinator

Posts: 1602

Location: zone 4b, sandy, Continental D

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posted 1 year ago

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Timothy Norton wrote:I know that it is essentially a shaped piece of iron, but it carries so many stories as they pass generations. I'm happy that I have been given my grandparents cast iron because none of my siblings would have used it.
This is what helped feed my ancestors, it has seen mistakes and wonderful creations. It has been held by who knows how many people but now it is held by my hand.
Cast iron cookware is a neat heirloom that with care can last multiple lifetimes.

Thanks, Tim for encouraging the use of cast iron. Yes, it is heavy and if you don't season it well and often, it will stick, but hey, that beats eating the Teflon out of so called "non-stick" pots and pans. None of these non-stick coatings are good for you because, let's face it, at the end of the first year, the coating starts peeling. Where does it go? You know where it goes!
I have rescued a number of cast iron items for the kitchen from the dump and they are all beautiful and functional. All had been mistreated and were rusty of had gobs of food still attached. A good scrubbing with steel wool was all they needed! A couple of griddles and different sizes of frying pans are now oiled and ready for work. A little lard or oil once in a while and they are like brand new.
By and large, things stick because they are unattended or the heat is too high for too long. When you fry bacon in it, make sure it is real bacon. Lately, they are selling bacon that just oozes water when you try to fry it, and that will remove the seasoning off of cast iron. When you are done, first have a piece of paper towel with some lard on it ,or duck grease [but any grease will do]. Second, never buy that type of bacon again!
Cast iron, or cast iron covered with ceramic, or stainless steel are my go to whenever I cook something.

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Tiffaney Dex

Posts: 83

Location: La Bretagne

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posted 1 year ago

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Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:
Cast iron, or cast iron covered with ceramic, or stainless steel are my go to whenever I cook something.

Hi Cécile,
Here, cast iron is hard to come buy, unless it is covered in ceramic. I have managed to get some plain cast iron that has come from England and the U.S. and I much prefer them to my ceramic coated cast iron. The ceramic that coats cast iron eventually gets chipped. I was told a long time ago told that you should never use them once they have a chip and always thought that the information must come from sellers. And I always used them with chips. And then I had a nasty surprise one evening. While cooking dinner, the area around a chip began snapping and breaking off. I had ceramic chips in our dinner! Of course, I had to throw it out (not even in the compost, and quickly figure out something else for dinner. And I became very wary of our French cast iron.
Take care

Cécile Stelzer Johnson

pollinator

Posts: 1602

Location: zone 4b, sandy, Continental D

433

posted 1 year ago

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Wow, Tiffaney, I'm French and I live in a small town in Wisconsin and I have no trouble getting the French brand "Le Creuset" at a number of retail stores. They also have just cast iron but I see that they do prefer to enamel theirs... and I am starting to see some "non' stick crap.
I wonder why in Bretagne, France of all places, you would have trouble finding them.
In France, we say: "Le cordonnier est toujours le plus mal chaussé".
It seems to hold true here.
States side, the go to brand for cast Iron in Lodge. .... And look what I found available in France:
https://www.metro.fr/marketplace/product/50e95852-3da1-441d-81a3-464cdf56bac6?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=fr_mm_ag_text_all_dynamic_nontm_all_url_all-products&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwte-vBhBFEiwAQSv_xSYmrWNntq2-y2BL74uuXT4hZ1xCw5tUXiIM-WfRlH8l9VY_EWVW6RoCwKEQAvD_BwE
Apparently, the brand "Lodge" is sold by WarmcookFrance and they are located in Marseilles:
https://www.metro.fr/marketplace/seller/99bd04aa-a99c-4174-b800-a15e85b6b1d8
They are not cheap but if you are close enough, or if they have some other stores in France, and one near you...?
Bonne chance! J’ espère que vous trouverez les poêles en fonte dont vous avez besoin

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May Lotito

gardener

Posts: 2149

Location: Zone 6b

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posted 1 year ago

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We cook predominantly with cast iron except soups. I use a 8" round 2" deep pan for all the cooking but my husband likes specific cookware for different things. He bought all kinds of them including:
Square one with square weight for bacon strips
Round one with round weight for smash burger
Tiny 4" for single egg or toast
Divided one for egg and sausage
Extra large round one for 12" quesadilla
Even the grill is cast iron. It gets so hot as to melt aluminum.
It kind of reminds me of the cat hole and dog hole joke but when everybody wants different things for breakfast, we can get it done all at once.

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

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David Milano

Posts: 40

Location: North-central Pennsylvania

posted 1 month ago

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To reclaim a crudded up iron pan without chemicals (and without a lot of elbow grease) put it into the woodstove. That will effectively burn off the deposits, but you must remember… DO NOT COOL THE PAN QUICKLY! It will crack! Instead let the stove and pan cool to room temperature slowly and naturally. Remove the cooled pan from the now finished fire, scrub it with soap, water and a relatively non-aggressive abrasive pad (e.g. #0000 steel wool) then begin the seasoning process. I’ve successfully reconditioned many pans this way. Pictured is the latest—a #3 Griswold. As you can see in the second pic, it performs perfectly (after seasoning of course). That egg was fried in a relatively small bit of lard.

By the way… nothing can fix the pits and scratches in a severely misused pan except a grinder/sander. When scoping out pans to purchase, in addition to going for a good name (Griswold or Wagner), I try my best to determine if the surface hasn’t been too damaged. Pans can be ground flat and smooth, but it’s a job, and of course it thins out the pan a bit, often not evenly. Notably the pictured pan had a wee bit of pitting in the cooking surface, but this one turned out to be good enough, which is to say the pitting was pretty minimal. Nevertheless, it’s best to stay away from a gouged pan.

IronPanReclamation.jpg

Reclaimed-pan.jpg

Khara Phetteplace

Posts: 33

posted 1 month ago

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paul wheaton wrote:If one had a cast iron skillet with gunk on it that the chisel couldn't get out, I wonder if a person could use a self cleaning oven? Just put it in there during the cleaning? That seems far less toxic.

Anybody ever tried this?
I have baked/burned off the built up gunk on an old cast iron frypan in a camp fire & then scraped the flakes off with a butter knife. Once down to bare metal, then season in a slow oven with avocado oil as it withstands high heat & hardens well.

Mona Shewchuk

Posts: 3

Location: Manitoba

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posted 1 month ago

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I've read that (and use on my own) flaxseed oil as it has a very high smoke point. I have used a wire brush on the drill to mechanically remove/strip down old pans rather than the oven cleaner route. Then use the BBQ to heat the pan (500 degrees ish). Thin coats of oil. Half an hour back in the BBQ. About three coats. That is enough polymerization to be able to clean almost all food using small amounts of dish soap and the green or blue scratchy pads. My understanding is that as the layers have been polymerized, unless you are very aggressive, regular soap/scrubbers aren't going to damage the layers.

Bob Hutton

Posts: 37

Location: Northwestern Ontario

posted 1 month ago

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Just started seasoning my new pans today. Last Time I moved between provinces the ones I had got misplaced somehow. Last week they had a 40% sale on some decent quality ones that I couldn't resist. Have my eye on a cast pizza skillet that I can put inside the woodstove but its pretty expensive right now. My thoughts were to make the dough and spread on the skillet then put on top of the woodstove to preheat while I prepared the toppings, then stuff inside the woodstove till cooked. I think it will be a good experiment.

2026-02-02-seasoning-new-pans.jpg

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