First Cast Iron Pan

I know cooking with cast iron has come up on here before, but the fiancee just got me a cast iron skillet for my birthday last and I am looking for any tips or tricks.

Skillet was new but came pre-seasoned. I know it still needs to be broken in for best results. So far I am frying up bacon before cooking anything else in the pan to be sure it's nice and greased. I am not using soap. I am cleaning it while it's still warm, drying it immediately, and then giving it a thin layer of cooking oil to protect it.

Any other care, usage, or recipe suggestions now that I've got this bad boy?

You will be able to pass this pan down to your grandchildren - they last that long!

I have seen the talk here of "care" but I have been using the same one for 15+ years. It has been wrongly put in the dishwasher by my then new wife (no harm.) It dented the flooring in my old kitchen from dropping (no harm to pan.) It has been washed w/ soap and washed w/o (no harm.) The darn things are indestructible. I have a 12" and a 8". I have a glass/clear lid from a different 12" pan that fits the iron perfect. Mine are both Lodge Brand.

I now have a super fancy Induction Cooktop but I am happy to report that the iron works perfectly on it.

My preferred cleaning method is hot water and steel wool pad.

My mother still uses the same one that was "old" when I was a kid. There won't be many heirlooms in my family but I would like to get that pan when she is done with it.

I seasoned mine when I moved out of my parents house. That's been a long while ago so can't remember exactly. I think you just rub oil on it and bake it for a bit. Since then, I just wipe it out with a paper towel after use. You're not supposed to scrub them as I understand it. It sits on the stove all the time and is my go to for a lot of cooking.

We bake biscuits and cornbread in the CI around here.

haven't needed to season one in a while - last one specifically for deep dish pizza - steel wool/soap - dried it, extra virgin olive oil and baked it for about an hour around 300-350* I think. Now, you just wipe it out and rub a little fresh oil in after use.

I do all my frying in my cast iron pan...

You've got a pretty good plan there, but if you want to go the extra mile, filter the grease from the bacon, get all the crusty bits out of the pan, then pour the grease back in. Bake for an hour or so, then set it on the stovetop and let it cool slowly on it's own.

A couple rounds of bacon now and then keeps it right, and baking cornbread in it helps the pan too, once the initial season is set

I usually clean with hot water and a plastic scrubbing pad. Only usually need to re-season when someone does a silly and leaves it over heat empty and cooks the coating off...

Light coating of vegetable oil, 200 degrees for several hours. It polymerizes the oil, leaving a nice nonstick coating.

Hrm... Just googled for polymerization on cast iron, and came up with a well-written-looking article on the process, though her technique is different: http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/

I have a Lodge brand 12" pan that I bought brand new about 20 years ago. When new, it came with instructions about seasoning it by putting it in a hot oven with a generous coating of Crisco for a certain amount of time, then letting it cool before wiping the excess off.

At least I think thats what the instructions were. Its a een a long time and I've never had to re-do it. Wiki-how: season cast iron cook wear

What do you guys think for cast iron cooking grates on my grill? I coated them with shortening, then let cook on the grill for 20 minutes, then cool to room temp. Still sticks to food.

watch putting them on a hot stove while cold. always put pan on before turning on burner.

i had an awesome 5" frying pan that i had just brought home from an estate sale, cleaned up and seasoned. i put it right off the wall onto a warm burner and it cracked in half.

Mine has raised ridges in the bottom, ideal for steaks, burgers, etc. Nice grill lines first, then into the oven to finish.

I clean mine with coarse ground salt.

Beer Baron wrote: Any other care, usage, or recipe suggestions now that I've got this bad boy?

Toss it in the scrap bin and get a proper non-stick pan? I can't stand cooking with/cleaning cast iron anything. Yes, yes I know I'm doing it wrong.

In reply to Beer Baron:

Cook with it. Do it a lot- the more you do it, the better it will get.

Be bold- fry an egg.

Not so bold- grilled cheese. That's a no brainer that adds some oil, and nothing that will stick.

Cook, cook, cook.

Steak, cornbread, whatever. I'd avoid acid foods for a little while.

Just cook.

Enyar wrote: What do you guys think for cast iron cooking grates on my grill? I coated them with shortening, then let cook on the grill for 20 minutes, then cool to room temp. Still sticks to food.

I've never had mine not stick. Spray oil, shortening, wipe on oil- not much helps.

I think the best has been- warm up to 500, let it burn everything off, a little oil, and then start the meat searing for one min on each side. Seems to work ok.

But it still rust pretty badly- I'll have to replace them in a few years- it's about 13 years old now.

We have two that we have used exclusively for 15 years. I seasoned both when we bought them and have never done it since. But we do a lot of stir frys with very hot oil so I think that helps keep them a little oily. And they just get scrubbed in the sink with a stiff brush and dish soap along with everything else. But still non stick.

Only down side is that they are heavy. I have trouble tilting the big one on its side to fill plates with one hand while using a spatula with the other. But I can still do it, at least for now.......

They are good for baking too because no plastic parts to melt.

Get the pan screaming hot. Like, leave it on high heat until it starts to smoke a bit.

Drop a steak in that sucker. SEAR IT!

Yeah. Smell that? Nice.

Flip it over. SEAR IT!

Remove from stove, bake in oven to desired cooking level.

Eat it.

I only ever wipe them out, when cooking meat, you must clean IMMEDIATELY, while its still hot, and follow by rubbing in some olive oil, while its still hot.

I season when rarely needed, by getting it smoking hot and rubbing olive oil in with a paper towel. If you want to start fresh, put it in a self cleaning oven and hit clean.

alfadriver wrote: In reply to Beer Baron: Cook with it. Do it a lot- the more you do it, the better it will get. Be bold- fry an egg.

That is my plan. I've only used one other pan since getting it and only because I was already using the cast iron for one dish and needed to cook something else.

Did bacon and eggs this morning. Holy carp did those eggs turn out great. Fried brussels sprouts were also awesome. Less luck trying to do bratkartoffeln (German style fried potatoes), but that seems to be an issue with my technique trying to copy what I had in Germany.

I will definitely have to try out the seared steaks as suggested. Maybe with some green beans or asparagus on the side.

I use my cast iron pan on the grill. Just a few hours ago, in fact, I made a pork roast and fried potatoes outside. I also like to make fajitas on the grill - veggies in the pan (onions, 'maters, multi colors of peppers), chicken and or steak on the grates. I wipe it out after cooking, and oil it up slightly when I pre-heat it.

I wash mine...sometimes. Usually just wipe it out. My sister had one that was terrible. I adopted it for a few weeks and cooked a large amount if eggs in it. It's perfect now. Sometime we leave our soak in the sink for a few days if something is really stuck. If things get sticky though a few eggs cooked in olive oil fixes it right up.

Joey

JohnRW1621 wrote: You will be able to pass this pan down to your grandchildren - they last that long!

I have a cast Iron griddle one of my great grandparents bought that is at least 100 years old. I also have a 14" frying pan with matching lid my Mom bought in the 1950's. Finally, I have a 10" frying pan I bought 15 years ago. none of them are anywhere near the end of their usefulness. My wife, who tends to think we to replace any household item over 10 years old, is starting to see why I will not get rid of them.

joey48442 wrote: I wash mine...sometimes. Usually just wipe it out. My sister had one that was terrible. I adopted it for a few weeks and cooked a large amount if eggs in it. It's perfect now. Sometime we leave our soak in the sink for a few days if something is really stuck. If things get sticky though a few eggs cooked in olive oil fixes it right up.

What is so special about eggs? And does it matter how you cook them? Like, do you scramble them to spread the egg-ness around, or will over easy work fine?

In reply to Beer Baron:

its the oil and low heat that is key. You could just put the oil on under heat for about the time it takes to cook an egg but you would just running up the bill.

I use a top from an electric hot plate and just leave it over one half of the stovetop. It covers two burners pretty well and does a good job as a flat top grill. If any cooks out there have used them in a restaurant you might know how useful they are. I use a spatula from a restaurant supply store to flip/cut/scrap it clean when still hot.To cover food while it cooks/reduce splatter I use a lid with a knob. Otherwise just add coconut oil or (non virgin) olive oil before cooking anything. The only other metal pan we use is a wok