The first and most important thing when starting out with cast iron is “Be Patient” preheat, cook slower, it just gets better
· Cooking in cast iron is, in some ways the antithesis of modernity and instant gratification
· It is about durability (How many times has someone said to you “This Teflon pan was my grandmother’s?”)
· It is about patience
· It is honoring tradition
· It is a wonderful skill to master
· It is versatile, Indoor / outdoor, stovetop to oven, oven to stovetop, either on their own, or even serving
· It retains heat very well
· Nothing sears better
· It can be very, very non-stick
· It can be an improvised weapon 😎
· It is actually easier to care for than other types of cookware
· You can use virtually any type of utensil you want without worrying about it
· It is collectible (controversy alert, I use all of mine)
· Cast iron just gets better the more you use it
· If you mess it up, you can just redo it, start over and it is no harm, no foul
Tips
· Pre-heat the iron, put it on the burner 8-10 minutes before you want to cook with it and heat it gently
· Put the fat in and let it get happy
· Cook at a much lower setting than you would with other cookware, you really almost never go over a medium setting
· If you are baking in it lower the temperature that a recipe calls for by 25 degrees
· With your new piece, we need to do a “Breaking In” seasoning period
· You don’t really want to jump right in with a new piece and try to cook over-easy eggs or scrambled eggs, for example
· Cooking bacon is one of the best things you can do at first
· Cornbread is wonderful for seasoning pans
· Grilled cheese sandwiches will help your seasoning and are amazing done with cast iron. (Put the butter in the pan, not on the bread.)
· You don’t need to use any soap on the pan, but don’t be scared to do so
· The best way to clean it is with really hot water and a stiff brush. Don’t let the pan cool before you clean it. Serve the food, put it into any dishes you want for serving or storage, and then work on the pan
· Don’t let the piece soak for a long period
· Don’t air-dry the piece
· Don’t feed it after midnight (Just kidding)
I know it sounds like more work but it is actually easier in the long run and much more durable
Post use care:
Get some Lard
from the Mexican or Hispanic section of the supermarket or online (They have it at Walmart and most everywhere else) this is your new best friend. Even as much as I use cast iron and restore it for friends, and myself, it lasts a very long time. If you don’t like pork, eat Halal or Kosher, you can substitute shortening such as Crisco for lard.
from the Mexican or Hispanic section of the supermarket or online (They have it at Walmart and most everywhere else) this is your new best friend. Even as much as I use cast iron and restore it for friends, and myself, it lasts a very long time. If you don’t like pork, eat Halal or Kosher, you can substitute shortening such as Crisco for lard.After you cook in it, wipe it out with a towel or a paper towel, rinse if needed with hot water and heat it on the stovetop. If you have food that is stuck on, you can add water to the piece and simmer it a bit then scrape it off.
Until your seasoning is bulletproof, after you cook, you can wipe it out and flip it upside down and heat it on a medium burner for 10 minutes, or just until it starts to smoke. This will speed up your seasoning process and help you get to non-stick much quicker. It will also repair any damage you may have inflicted like scraping the pan or acidic foods.
I still do this anytime I cook acidic things such as tomato sauce that you are not supposed to be able to cook in cast iron. I immediately remove the caustic food, rinse in very hot water with a stiff brush, dry it and then gently re-season on a burner. You can do this as long as you want and it will never hurt anything.
After you do this for a while, eggs and anything else will slide around like skaters on an ice rink.
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Hi Jason, I bought a new cast iron pan, spent a huge amount of time seasoning it (several cycles of oiling and heating in my outdoor BBQ.) It now has a ton of black flakes that peel off into the food. Any suggestions to fix this?
Thanks,
Kim
The problem is with your factory seasoning that comes with new cast iron. It pretty much always does that and I have had it happen to me and I’ve seen it many, many times on peoples iron. It really is a pretty easy fix though. You need to strip the factory seasoning off and re-season it.
Whatever you do, please don’t throw it in a fire to strip it or use a self-cleaning oven, both of those techniques can warp, crack, or cause permanent heat damage even though some people will tell you to do that.
There are 2 safe and easy ways to strip a piece, with lye or use electrolysis. Electrolysis is a pretty involved process using a DC power source, water, wires and things that many people aren’t comfortable with or it just doesn’t make sense if you only have a couple of pieces to do.
Really, you will almost certainly be best served by using lye, it is perfectly safe for your iron. You have a couple of routes you can go with to use lye. The easiest one is to use Easy-Off Oven Cleaner with the Yellow Top. It is 100% sodium hydroxide or lye, the other is to use a lye tank or lye bath.
For the Easy-Off technique, you put the pan in a trash bag and coat it well with the oven cleaner. Close it up, wait a few days and rinse it off. That really is all there is to it.
Here is a link where I explain the process of stripping a piece and safety precautions. (It isn’t really dangerous but some people need to be reminded) https://www.castironronin.com/how-to-strip-cast-iron-with-lye/
Then, you will want to season the pan from the bare metal and you won’t ever have that problem again. Here is where I tell you how to do that. https://www.castironronin.com/to-season-cast-iron/
If you have any questions at all, just let me know, I’m always happy to help.
Thank you Jason, and one more question, is the enameled covered pans any better or harder to care how. and are you selling the pans that are at the end of this post.
Sure. I’m always happy to help and answer any questions.
Enameled pans are really nice. They are really great for tomato sauces and soups etc. They are very easy to clean up and you don’t have to worry about acidic foods damaging your seasoning. You have to be careful with the enamel though, it is easy to chip or scratch and once that happens, it can’t be undone. You shouldn’t use metal utensils in them for example. With black iron, if you mess up the seasoning you can always repair it or even start over.
The pans that are are ones that I use but I don’t actually sell them. They are sold by Amazon on my recommendation and I get a few cents if someone buys them through the links. If you have any questions about one of them though I will always be completely honest like I am in my reviews.
You can even contact me through the contact form any time if you don’t want to comment publicly.
Thanks for reading my post and thanks for your comment!