Caring for cast iron?

[mambera]

So we recently bought a couple of cast iron pans.  I haven't owned cast iron before, except for a griddle my MIL leaves here between visits.

The pans were supposed to be pre-seasoned, and I followed their instructions on initial care (wash with hot water alone, coat with oil, fry a few potato peelings briefly, then re-rinse, re-coat, and store). I recoat them with oil to store after each use, and I use more oil for cooking.

Unfortunately they aren't anywhere near nonstick.  Food keeps getting stuck to them and I'm not sure how to get it off without using soap and/or soaking and/or abrasives, all of which are supposed to be a no-no.  I re-seasoned one of the pans (coated with oil and baked at 350 for an hour) after a particularly bad episode.  This helped slightly but not much.  The pans smell like old food which is disgusting (and honestly the reason I avoided cast iron for years, I really did not like the idea of not washing my cookware with soap).

My MIL's griddle is absolutely slick.  Nothing sticks to it ever, it looks about a thousand years old and I feel ok just scraping it down and cleaning it with hot water and a regular sponge.  (Of course it's a griddle so we're not cooking sticky stews or sauces in it, but anyway.)

How do I get the new pans into this type of condition?  Is it just years and years of use?  Do I need to constantly be reseasoning my pans?  I feel like I am stuck in a cycle of using soap/abrasives --> losing the nonstick property --> getting more food stuck --> needing to use more soap/abrasives.  I'm not sure how to get out. 

(As an aside, what kind of vehicle do you use to rub the oil into the pan?  I use cloth for most kitchen tasks but this is the one thing where a paper towel seems unavoidable - all my rags/towels leave tiny bits of lint on the pans.)

TIA!

[Arduinna]

I personally do not like seasoning with oil, I prefer solid fats and use lard. For new preseasoned pans I use it repeatedly for high fat foods or frying before I even try cooking anything like eggs in it. Generally I just pull out a new pan anytime I'm frying bacon or other high fat foods. I do wash my cast iron with soap and scrub it anytime it has a greasy feeling. I tend to just use hot water and a sponge when I've cooked dry non greasy foods like eggs or cornbread, in my seasoned pans. Always dry on the stove and use a thin layer of lard applied with a paper towel. That is the method I learned from my mother. 

[puddle]

I clean with hot water and a brush and coat with coconut oil (applied by paper towel).  I guess if you really wanted to avoid the paper towel you could try to rub it in with your hands, but that's about the only way I can see getting around it for this task.  I agree with the PP about cooking high fat foods like bacon in new pans. 

[craft_media_hero]

Oh, you're going to love them! I would ssay keep re-seasoning and don't use soap! No soap! Not til they're real slick and then only in emergencies--I use a steel wool and oil to scrub them but don't scrub too hard--just kinda wipe.  You can simmer water in them to loosen really stubborn stickies. Use lots of oil/fat when cooking til they're really seasoned, then you can back off. /If doing sauce or gravy, just spray out w/ water immediately after emptying and then wipe out, dry on low heat and re-oil when dry, leave on low heat for a bit while the oil "seeps in". I use old cut up towels for wiping. You can use blank newsprint for wiping(usually free from newspspers coz they can't use the end of the roll--can also be used for other household tasks).

[mambera]

Thanks for the tips everyone!

I never thought about the issue of solid vs liquid fats.  I will have to try that.  I think I have some coconut oil around here somewhere, although I don't know if it's food-grade or not.

I like the cleaning-with-oil tip too, so the steel wool is OK as long as you are using it with oil then? 

I'm not sure about the animal fats, they're just so far out of our repertoire.  DH doesn't eat red meat or pork, DD doesn't like them and while I don't avoid them necessarily they're just not a part of our regular diet at all.  We eat chicken or fish a couple of times a week and the rest of the time it's mostly veg.  If I wanted to cook bacon I'd have to go buy it specifically for this purpose and either eat it all myself or throw it away, which seems silly.  I don't even know where I would get lard, do they sell that in the supermarket?

[Llyra]

I rinse mine with water, and rub with a stiff plastic brush. If stuff is really stuck on, you can fill the pan with water, and bring it to a boil, and then rinse-- the boiling will usually loosen whatever it is, so you can wash it out. No soap, ever. Then I dry it on the stove, and apply fat. Right now I'm using lard, but I've used canola in the past with no problem, and peanut oil.

I apply the fat with a pastry brush. We don't use paper towels, and greasy rags are gross, and the brush works nicely, and is easy to clean.

That perfect non-stick surface just takes time, and patience. I found with my last cast-iron acquisition ( a dutch oven) that I needed to season half a dozen times, and use lots of fat in my cooking, for a few months, before it really achieved a good surface. And my best pans are the ones that got handed down from DH's great-grandma.

[beebalmmama]

When I re-season mine in the oven (after a couple of bad episodes of dh leaving them on a high burner) I've used coconut oil with really good success. I've tried re-seasoning with canola oil and was left with a really sticky feeling pan and had to re-season again. I've heard lard is great too but like you mentioned not really a part of our household either.

I usually wash mine with soap and water but don't scrub it much. But I've had mine for a few years now. Initially I washed with plain water and sprayed with a light canola spray when putting away. Lately I'm lazy and haven't been oiling it before putting it up.

[Shantimama]

 The other thing to remember when cooking with cast iron is to get the pan really hot before adding food to it. This is what makes the pans non-stick. Starting to cook in a cook or only slightly warm pan will lead to food sticking.

[redvlagrl]

Originally Posted by Shantimama 

 The other thing to remember when cooking with cast iron is to get the pan really hot before adding food to it. This is what makes the pans non-stick. Starting to cook in a cook or only slightly warm pan will lead to food sticking.

This. I also use a huge dump of salt on mine with hot water and then scrub with a scrubbie. Then I dry it by heating it on the stove (after wiping out the water) and then wipe with oil or lard.

ETA: as a side note, i just bought a used one forom a thrift store ($1.70!) and it is honestly amazing. Just like a non stick pan. I can fry eggs and they slide right out. My 5 year old one is no where near as good.

[CookAMH]

My regular routine is to scrape any food off with a plastic food scraper, use hot hot water, and then scrub with a scrub brush, no soap. If the food has been sticking or got particularly cooked on, I'll coat it in lard or coconut oil with my hands and bake, like you have done. I usually only stick it in about 15-20 min.  If it's particularly bad, you may need to season it a few times.  I would think the coconut oil you have should be fine, and I wouldn't go out and get animal fat *just* for seasoning, if you wouldn't already have it around.

Do you use oil or fat when cooking?  Commercial nonstick don't really need that and will still release, but I have found I still need a fat base when cooking to get non stick. But, we fry eggs in ours daily with no problems.

My mom was reading recently that for better performance, slowly heat the pan with a fat and that sorta freshly seasons it, and something about the way it heats slowly seals things up better.

For the pans that are in bad shape now, you may need to do that rough scrubbing with soap (someone else may correct me though) then do a few good seasonings before it'll be good. But, maybe try coarse salt with a wet dishrag first as a good scouring agent, apart from soap. Also, soaking for long periods can negate seasoning, so we don't soak our pans at all. However, if food was really cooked on, while it's still hot, I'll put some water in and let it sit on the burner while we eat dinner, then it's usually easy to clean. But no overnight soaking.

The pans we use were pre-seasoned too. I think since we cook eggs in it daily, and basically rinse any solids off with the brush leaving a lot of oil residue, they stay seasoned fairly well.

I hesitate to use steel wool on cast iron, unless it's a one time thing to bring it back to a better condition if there is ton of old, cooked on food.

[Llyra]

Yeah, the having it really hot thing is really helpful. I usually put mine on the stove, and turn the burner on low, before I start mixing or gathering ingredients, so that it has a good ten minutes to get nice and hot before I add any food to it. If it's already piping hot when you add the fat, you shouldn't get sticking. I even fry my eggs on one pan I have that is kinda poorly seasoned, and I do fine as long as it's nice and hot when I begin. If I get impatient, then the eggs stick.

[motherhendoula]

I just watched a cooking show about care of cast iron pans - she scrubbed off food bits with vegetable oil and coarse salt , daily care was to pour about a cup of water and turn on the burner and take a plastic scraper or spatula and sort of loosen everything - then 'rinse' with a paper towel after the water had boiled off.  She mentioned cleaning the pan pretty much as soon as the food was out of it! 

They also said to season a new pan by pouring vegetable oil in - about 1/4 to 1/3 of an inch into the pan - put it in the oven on 200 degrees for an hour or so.  when done....LET COOL -discard the oil - and that it should be ready to use.  Also that you should run a little oil (or lard i guess  - do you guys mean Crisco or REAL lard??)  after EACH use...that sounds like so much work to me.....but i guess after a while it wont seem like so much!

[Pepper44]

Letting it get good and hot before you put anything on it is totally the secret to cast iron cooking!  For example when I cook eggs I put my burner on 4, then wait five minutes.  Then I throw on the butter and melt it all around the pan, and wait another minute before I dump the eggs on it.  When I wash it I will scrape out any crusties with a plastic food scraper (it actually came with my stone wear pan) and then rinse with very hot water, rubbing the pan clean with my hand or a sponge.  Then I put it on the burner and let it get hot enough to start drying.  I don't even add oil after cleaning and my pan is completely non-stick now. 

Every once in a while it starts to look kind of dry, not as shiny and black, so I coat it in spectrum organic shortening or bacon grease if we have any.  Don't use liquid canola oil or crisco, it makes the pan gross and gummy. 

Once it's well seasoned it's ok to let it soak for a little while when it's crusted.  I leave mine soaking over night by accident sometimes.  It's also ok to swipe it with a soapy sponge and rinse well when you can't get something out.  Every time we make tacos I have to wash it with a drop of dish soap because the grease and spices won't come out, no matter how long you rinse the pan still smells like taco meat until you use soap...

[Mom2M]

I love my cast iron pans. Heating them first is the best, food really doesn't stick. Until mine were really, really seasoned, I never used soap, only oil and salt. Now I use water if there is any sticking, heat it on the burner and wipe it out. If it is something that really needs to be washed, I do use soap and water.
I dry the pan on low on the burner and then coat it with olive oil and leave it on the burner on low for a while. Works really well for us.

[Llyra]

Originally Posted by motherhendoula 

do you guys mean Crisco or REAL lard??

Real lard. We don't use a lot of highly processed vegetable oils here.

[Lovemy3girls]

Anyone else here use different sized cast iron pans? I use the different sizes for particular foods: small and medium for eggs, large for meats, etc. The hardest one to clean and season is the meat pan of course. I need to use very hot water and a stiff metal brush (and sometimes use salt) to scrub it, but it often needs reseasoning after that. I use coconut oil or olive oil. The other no meat pans are so much easier to care for.

[Llyra]

Originally Posted by Lovemy3girls 

Anyone else here use different sized cast iron pans? I use the different sizes for particular foods: small and medium for eggs, large for meats, etc. The hardest one to clean and season is the meat pan of course. I need to use very hot water and a stiff metal brush (and sometimes use salt) to scrub it, but it often needs reseasoning after that. I use coconut oil or olive oil. The other no meat pans are so much easier to care for.

I have several different sizes. I have a large frying pan, a small frying pan (four inches), a dutch oven, an enormous wok, and a double-burner griddle with a reverse side for faux-grilling. I wouldn't know how to cook without cast iron... I use them all for all sorts of purposes, though-- I don't keep then specifically for different kinds of food, like meat or not-meat. I've got my dutch oven seasoned well enough that I can even make tomato sauce in it, and it does okay.