recently inherited these cast irons that are at least 40 years old. they were sitting in a cabinet for a few years and nasty with rust and crusty, old seasoning. i scrubbed the shit out of them with steel wool and lots of soap, then applied 4 coats of new seasoning! feel free to roast my seasoning, i have no idea if it’s good since it’s my first cast iron and would like to know.
for each coat of seasoning i just wiped the pan with peanut oil then set the oven at 435F for 20 minutes, then 460F for 10 minutes
ive been using only stainless steel for a couple months and im abt to give away my nonstick cookware. nonstick cookware is counter-revolutionary
Seasoning cast iron gets built up to be this big magical thing and it absolutely is not. You’re heating oils on the iron surface until it polymerizes. All the people talking about having ancient seasoning going back to the iron age and saying it makes their food taste better are just repeating folk tales.
How to care for cast iron
1- if it rusts chuck a stainless steel brush in to your power drill and run the brush until it shines
2 - if it’s dirty wash it with a little dish soap and warm water
3 - if the season sucks spray some pam on it and put it in the oven for 450 for an hour or two
4 - if you need to replace the season for any reason remove it with degreaser, clean the pan thoroughly, then repeat the pam thing.
The idea that soap ruins seasoning is from back in the day when soap had lye in it. The lye would rip the polymerized oils apart. Modern dish soaps mostly don’t have lye or an equivalent degreaser and don’t really effec the polymerized coating.
I go a step further and do not bother to season my cast iron at all. It just doesn’t need it; Beans, eggs, reduced sauces, nothing sticks to it anyway, and anything still in it just scrubs off with water and steel wool in two seconds, then I leave it on the hob to dry. I’ve had zero problems in so far two years of ownership.
Atop that, no hate to anyone who does season, but I’m personally sceptical about the idea of cooking food with a bunch of burned oil. Just sounds like a bad idea.
it’s polymerized oil, not burned. it’s kept below the smoke point for 20 minutes, then brought slightly above the smoke point for 10. when it’s polymerized it acts as a nonstick coating. the polymer of the oil can take much higher temperatures than the oil itself. also, seasoning prevents rust
I certainly don’t understand the science, but fair enough. Reading about it leaves me feeling the topic is confused and conflicted.
As I say, not had any stick or rust issues without any seasoning anyway, maybe different humidity or something matters to make it important for others.
Are you sure you haven’t just built up a seasoning layer by using it? Are you actually scrubbing it down to bare grey iron every time? Are you using actual steel wool and not just one of those brass/copper/chainmail kitchen scrubbers? Even then, I think you’d be hard pressed to get into all the pores of the iron if you’re not using a pretty intense degreaser. It’s probably more seasoned than you think.
But cast iron is almost indestructible so do whatever works for you.
I mean maybe? I definitely scrub it with real steel wool each time, but I do rarely use soap. I am also careful never to go past smoking point so I’m definitely not seasoning it as in the way people recommend.
If I am accidentally seasoning it, then even more argument that it’s not necessary for me to actually season them I guess. But I struggle to see how anyone wouldn’t be doing the same unless they’re never using oil to cook with.
A good seasoning layer is nice to prevent sticking but the most important function of it, as far as I know, is just to keep a barrier between the iron and the air so you don’t get rust. If you’re not having problems with rust then I guess it doesn’t really matter. Worst case, you end up using a bit more oil to prevent sticking than you otherwise would need.
The true point is cast iron is great.
A little hard plastic scraper is handy to keep by the sink for getting stubborn crap off without extra scrubbing/soaking.
the stainless steel brush is perfect! i had to go at it with the steel wool for a long ass time to get the rust off. thanks for all the tips!