Cast iron...

[Wannabefree]

My family has drove me crazy washing my cast iron. I have reseasoned two of my skillets about a thousand times. Now I threaten bodily harm if they so much as look at it and the soap within 30 seconds of each other I NEVER wash mine. I just cook anything greasy in it, and scrape scrape scrape and wipe the excess out with a cloth and put it away. It makes the best grilled cheese sandwiches and steaks

 

[Mr.Andersson]

http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=326195#p326195
Here is the last discussion on cast iron, hope it helps!

 

[Hinotori]

I actually went out and searched high and low this last year to find a good spatula flipper for my cast iron. Old one broke. I had a dickens of a time finding a metal one with an actual flat edge so it would scrape level in the pan.

All I do is scrape and wipe, then wipe with oil after dry. If something is stuck, I'll simmer it with water, then scrape and wipe.

I don't like the pre-seasoned pans they sell in the store. I'd rather do it myself. Of course, after getting these really old pans at the antique store and the joy of actual finished cast iron that is smooth, I don't like the pans in the store.

 

[Cindlady2]

For a couple of my cast iron pans.... I'm the third generation (and I'm almost 60! ) So I have some nice very well seasoned pans! I also have a few newer ones (I started a "thing" with my kids...when they move out they get 2 of moms fry pans.) I will not give up my very old ones! The kids will have to fight over them when I'm gone. LOL I can only imagine how much bacon grease they saw! Anyway, I try to only use bacon grease to season them. If I have to wash any, or if I have to season one, it "lives" on the top rack of my oven for a couple of weeks. Use it, wipe it out, or re season... back on the rack until I think it's done. Works great because every time you use your oven it cures.


Totally understand the spatula thing! Somehow my favorite one disappeared almost a year ago... I was so lost without it! Found another that's OK but not near as good! So hard to find ANY metal ones much less a good one.

 

[~gd]

Thanks! That's what I had thought. I was reading up on it, and everything I found said to use soap and re-season it every time you cooked bacon... Seems stupid to have to go through all of that if you can just scrape it out. Pretty stupid to have to reseason it every single time you cook bacon... Didn't think scraping was a problem, but BF had me wondering. I've always just scraped it out and he's never noticed, but he busted me this time, lol.

Let HIM clean it! I make small batches of chille in mine and you can see the high chilli mark where the acid has changed the seasoning but it is still nonstick.

 

[Bettacreek]

Well, I try not to create extra work for him, lol. He's apparantly content with my cleaning though, as he hasn't redone it. I figured if I just got it cleaned back up before he got home from the gym he'd be fine. That pan is his baby, lol. Well, one of them... His car and bike are the others. He is always immaculate with all of his belongings. I think I've destroyed enough of his stuff, from scratching the one rim on his car (ratchet strap while hauling the tires, the wrapping came off and scratched it to hell), to burning the bathroom, so I definately didn't want him to have to clean the pan because I used it, lol.

 

[~gd]

For a couple of my cast iron pans.... I'm the third generation (and I'm almost 60! ) So I have some nice very well seasoned pans! I also have a few newer ones (I started a "thing" with my kids...when they move out they get 2 of moms fry pans.) I will not give up my very old ones! The kids will have to fight over them when I'm gone. LOL I can only imagine how much bacon grease they saw! Anyway, I try to only use bacon grease to season them. If I have to wash any, or if I have to season one, it "lives" on the top rack of my oven for a couple of weeks. Use it, wipe it out, or re season... back on the rack until I think it's done. Works great because every time you use your oven it cures.


Totally understand the spatula thing! Somehow my favorite one disappeared almost a year ago... I was so lost without it! Found another that's OK but not near as good! So hard to find ANY metal ones much less a good one.

I finally found a good one in the Lee Valley catalog They found a firm that still makes the old fassioned kind that tapers in thickness and springlyness from handle to edge. If anyone wants it they will have to steal in from my coffin because I plan to take it with me! Hot fire where I am going.
What I am searching for is a cooking fork, 3 tongs neddle sharp but rough enough that the meat stays on when you stab it. I was the 4th generation on that fork and I managed to break it. I took it to a smith who said it was wrought iron not cast. I have brought several granny's forks over the years, the design is a classic but the material is wrong.

 

[hqueen13]

I swear I have to get the two cast iron frying pans that we found fixed up. They're rusty I need to try the coke trick that someone suggested, and if that doesn't work I suppose I'll find a sand blaster and have them blasted. I really need to do it cause I really wanna cook on cast iron! I feel so left out!

 

[the_whingnut]

we use the self cleaning oven with a brick for it to sit on to restore our cast iron finds.

the problem we run into with our cast iron is the darn stove top, its electric and it just burns through the protective coating on the bottom. the older stuff is sooooooooooo much better. i have a ton of newer lodge cast and its ok for campfire cooking making stews and using in the oven but you can't cook an egg in them for crap.

we got lucky with our Wagners, i got a *set* of skillets for free because the couple didn't want them anymore! i thank them every time i see them.

 

[~gd]

Well, being on an Atkins-inspired eating plan, every am I cook bacon, pour off some grease cook my eggs, set the skillet aside. Repeat the next am. If I don't get all the egg out I wipe it out the next am with a paper towel, otherwise that's it. Once a week or so I use that pan for something else and swish it with hot water and maybe a little soap, back on the hot burner to dry and back to the bacon and eggs next am. I've not ever heard of needing to season or clean after cooking bacon in a cast iron pan.

how old are you? way back When Bacon was cured and came in slabs that you could throw on your pack horse for a sic month trip, rather than crylovacs and kept in refrigerators where it still goes "off" in about 2 months. My point is that bacon has changed. Bacon used to have a LOT of salt and nitrates and nitrites in the cure. My granny would get out her slab after supper. Slice the bacon and soak overnight in either an enamled pan or a pottery pot.This rehydrated the red meat and removed a lot of salt. Salt will attack stainless steel and eat cast iron for lunch. When she had finished frying she would add water to her pan and add everything to her grease pot. After the long of it, The short is remove the salt it will attract moisture from the air and eat (rust) your cast iron. Striping and reseason is just the the overkill from salty bacon.