Virtually Non stick cast iron cookware

I don't know how many of you guys feel that a humble cast iron skillet is an important tool which needs special care or even use them.
Growing up my Grand mother and mother shared the kitchen and in our kitchen there were dozens of heavy cast iron pots pans & skillets
In fact except for a few thick copper and some pyrex cook ware there were little else the exception being cake pans and cookie sheets.
You couldn't find a single thing made of aluminum in their kitchen let alone any of the new fangled Teflon coated stuff that started coming into popularity later on in the late 60's
After I got married to my 1st wife I bought her what ever she wanted for her kitchen but it was not cast iron and since she grew up a city girl from a different culture she was not exposed to this type of cookware Heck when we got married she didn't even know how to boil water without burning up an aluminum pot , she actually did that once.
Anyway I was no kook by any stretch of anyone's imagination. I could grill steaks & burgers or cook bacon & eggs but that was about it.
Someone gave us an old cast iron skillet blackened and crusted up from many years of use but the inside was smooth and slick almost shiny it became my favorite skillet to use when I would have to make my own breakfast
Skip a couple of decades 2nd wife great cook and by this time out of self preservation I had become a fair hand in the kitchen as well.
Skip another decade or so living in another country we buy some new cast iron stuff it takes forever to get it properly seasoned it seemed
Skip another 10 years having to buy more new cast iron skillets this time I decide to short cut the seasoning time.
First off I used a sander to smooth the inside I kept sanding until I was using 400 grit making the inside look like a mirror then poured in cooking oil and heated on an outside grill until oil had completely burned away. I polished it and did this again a couple of times
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Attachment 18932 Attachment 18933 Attachment 18934 Attachment 18935 Attachment 18936
And the flat skillet
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4 years later
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Try using Flax seed oil,(raw Linseed),you don't need food grade. After cleaning scrub with detergent to clean, warm slightly before coating and let soak for a while before heating to smoke point.
A well seasoned cast iron pan beats hi-tech coatings hands down and the extra mass provides even heat.
I use salt to clean the hard stuff like residue from fried beans. Cove pan, heat, scrub with wadded paper towel and rinse. a wipe with a bit of cooking oil on a paper towel is all that is needed to keep perfect.

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Originally Posted by Frank S

I don't know how many of you guys feel that a humble cast iron skillet is an important tool which needs special care or even use them.
Growing up my Grand mother and mother shared the kitchen and in our kitchen there were dozens of heavy cast iron pots pans & skillets
In fact except for a few thick copper and some pyrex cook ware there were little else the exception being cake pans and cookie sheets.
You couldn't find a single thing made of aluminum in their kitchen let alone any of the new fangled Teflon coated stuff that started coming into popularity later on in the late 60's
After I got married to my 1st wife I bought her what ever she wanted for her kitchen but it was not cast iron and since she grew up a city girl from a different culture she was not exposed to this type of cookware Heck when we got married she didn't even know how to boil water without burning up an aluminum pot , she actually did that once.
Anyway I was no kook by any stretch of anyone's imagination. I could grill steaks & burgers or cook bacon & eggs but that was about it.
Someone gave us an old cast iron skillet blackened and crusted up from many years of use but the inside was smooth and slick almost shiny it became my favorite skillet to use when I would have to make my own breakfast
Skip a couple of decades 2nd wife great cook and by this time out of self preservation I had become a fair hand in the kitchen as well.
Skip another decade or so living in another country we buy some new cast iron stuff it takes forever to get it properly seasoned it seemed
Skip another 10 years having to buy more new cast iron skillets this time I decide to short cut the seasoning time.
First off I used a sander to smooth the inside I kept sanding until I was using 400 grit making the inside look like a mirror then poured in cooking oil and heated on an outside grill until oil had completely burned away. I polished it and did this again a couple of times
Attachment 18931
Attachment 18932 Attachment 18933 Attachment 18934 Attachment 18935 Attachment 18936
And the flat skillet
Attachment 18938 Attachment 18939
4 years later
Attachment 18937

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is that how the story ends?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NortonDommi

Try using Flax seed oil,(raw Linseed),you don't need food grade. After cleaning scrub with detergent to clean, warm slightly before coating and let soak for a while before heating to smoke point.
A well seasoned cast iron pan beats hi-tech coatings hands down and the extra mass provides even heat.
I use salt to clean the hard stuff like residue from fried beans. Cove pan, heat, scrub with wadded paper towel and rinse. a wipe with a bit of cooking oil on a paper towel is all that is needed to keep perfect.

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Yep really low maintenance stuff also in the wrong hands a pretty lethal weapon

There is never an end to my stories LOL
I've used cast iron skillets flat griddles dutch ovens and I used to have a cast iron coffee pot for all of my adult lift and taught 2 wives how to use them and take care of them. The ones I have now that were bought new I sanded and polished as explained they are so well seasoned and used that I doubt if burned milk would stick in them
I've heated up 2 skillets as hot as I could get them on the stove top then dropped cookie dough in one then covered it with the other reduced the heat and baked cookies on the stove top a few times although I will say that cookies turn out better if placed on a metal sheet and placed on something to hold them below mid way between both skillets
My grand mother used to bake pies and cakes in a dutch oven hanging in a fire place./ The best beans you will ever eat in your life will be those cooked in a 10 gallon cast iron pot that has been hanging over an open pit fire after a day or so just add more beans and water as the contents get eaten. Once on a pipeline the cajon line cook kept a pot going for 2 weeks he just kept adding beans water and slabs of pork plus his secrete spices any time you were hungry just ladle up a tin bowlful grab a hunk of corn bread and feast out
Don't worry about gas he always counted the beans and added 239 beans each time because 1 more would be 2 farty

You had a Cajun cook? Reading that I have just lit the gas to heat a cast iron pan and start cooking as that description induced severe hunger pangs!

Man you just can't pipeline without a cajun cook About 20 of us drove from Texas all the way to north of Fargo North Dakota one winter for a 200 mile 12" line that was going to have a few pumping and heating stations along the way towards Bismark, once we found out the line cook was from Boston we didn't even bother to test out, just turned west and drove over to Billings Montana to look for the other end of the line we found out their cook was named Dupre so we figured he had to be from south Louisiana. Turned out he was the one I mentioned about the beans.

Wise choice.

My mother in law was the best cook(not chef) on the planet. Her go to skillet was cast iron she got from her mom. I don't know if it went back further than that, but like you said Frank, it was like glass inside. Nothing ever stuck and she could make anything with it on a stove top. When she passed I was hoping nobody would claim it but my idiot brother in law got the old O'keefe&Merrit stove and the skillet. His house was so small he couldn't get the behemoth stove in and left it out and decided to steam clean both the stove and the skillet(did I mention he was an idiot?) and last I saw as we were moving both were outside in the weather rusted up.

I lucked into an even nicer old O'keefe&Merrit and bought a new cast iron skillet. But I'm going to have to do your process as the new skillet just can't hold a candle to the old one. Nothing beats good cast iron cookware. I found a cast iron griddle that somebody left in a fire pit in the mountains. I think it was basically new. I'm not sure if they just forgot it or just left it. Its very handy too but I'm going to have to do your process to it too.

Thanks so much for sharing.

C-bag here's a tip on heating the skillet. I found it best to build a large charcoal fire in a grill much larger than the skillet. then just as if you were going to grill a steak as the coals begin to die down a bit place the skillet on the grill you want the heat to come up slowly and evenly everywhere even the sides of the skillet. I used peanut oil but that was just what I had at the time. I left it on the coals until all of the oil was burned away and peanut oil takes a long time to burn away. then I removed the skillet scrubbed it with steel wool and rock salt (ice cream salt) then wiped it clean and put it back on the coals again after I had re stoked them with more charcoal then did the oil burn the second time finally just cleaned it up and let it cool before taking it in the house or at that time into my RV.
I've done this to several now and with the exception of 1 cheap no brand someone gave me I have been very satisfied.
the cheap one cracked all the way around the bottom so I don't know if I heated it too fast or if it was flawed it had a too thin bottom I felt to begin with.

My younger sister wound up with grandma's 60" 6 burner O'keefe&Merrit stove and my youngest sister has the old oil and coal 4 pot 20" oven stove it is in their hunting cabin up in Colorado she uses it to this day when they go up there.

So the charcoal is necessary? The only BBQ we have is propane.

It's funny, I always wondered why that griddle I found seemed to work better than the skillet I have. I know the folks who left it didn't douse the fire, they just left the griddle in the coals. Only one handle was sticking out of the ash and thats what caught my eye. Couldn't believe it when I pulled a perfectly good griddle out of the pit. Wonder if they tried to cook their pancakes on it and they came out scrambled so they left it in the pit?

Sorry C-bag I don't have any faith in propane grills might as well the the stove top but then again I've never owned a gas or propane fired grill either. But from all of the ones I have ever seen in the stores only have a long tube shaped burner with a heat deflector to attempt at spreading the heat over the surface of the grill.
You could do the same treatment in your oven if it can get up to 500° but at those temps any oil in a skillet will not only burn but will create enough vapors to act like a bomb
Most gas stove tops have too small of a burner diameter to effectively heat evenly
Why not find an old steel pick up rim like about 16" in diameter lay it dish down raised off the ground a few inches and supported on 3 or 4 bricks so the air can circulate from underneath. fill it with match light charcoal lay a grill over it and use that.
baring that you can just polish the inside of the slkillet and try using your grill or stove top if you have an electric use the large burners. you can still make the oil burn into the skillet or just keep it just under the flash point until the oil is consumed. Remember doing this in the house can be dangerous should the oil flash over .
If you keep the heat just below the flash point for a couple of hours it will season up as well.
One other note I see adds all the time for new cast iron skillets grills and such to all of those I say nuts because no manufacture can afford to take the required amount of time to truly season their product properly and for sure they are not going to spend the effort to sand and polish the inside then get their product hot enough to open the pores of the metal allowing the sluff from sanding to burn off
And one thing I failed to mention the first heating should be done dry allow it to cool down some then add in the oil but it needs to be preheated to around 350° before pouring it in the skillet this will help to prevent a sudden flash over. Then heat it up until the oil burns
Good luck.

If anyone comes across rusty cast iron, degrease any oil fat etc with an alkaline cleaner like Caustic Soda then plonk into a container of Water & Molasses at 1:40 - 1:60 and soak as long as you like. This will remove rust and convert the surface to inert Ferrous Magnetite. Once cleaned off,(rinse and scrub), and dried oil. The Magnetite filling the pores will hold oil that will oxidise with the heat of seasoning and give you that 'glass' surface when buffed.

Thanks for the tips guys. Turns out my next door neighbor has a wood BBQ and also has cast iron skillets and only knew about the usual myths about seasoning cast iron. I think we might do a run and do both our pans as both of us were both familiar with a good seasoned pan. Then the trick will to be extremely careful with leaving them to let our SO's to use them as they only know Teflon and both believe cast iron is worthless and never used a good seasoned pan. For me it won't be hard as my wife doesn't cook so I only have to make sure I don't leave the pan out after use.

Never put one in an automatic dish washer, but if you find that one simply must be washed with soap and water place it on the stove and smear it with lard then heat it until the lard has burned away just wipe clean and put it away. You can ask my first wife what happened after she left one in the dishwasher for 2 weeks after it was washed while we were gone. Current wife of 28 years has never used an automatic dishwasher in her life so we get along fine. since for the past 10 years I have done all the cooking and she does the dishes

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NortonDommi

Try using Flax seed oil,(raw Linseed),you don't need food grade. After cleaning scrub with detergent to clean, warm slightly before coating and let soak for a while before heating to smoke point.
A well seasoned cast iron pan beats hi-tech coatings hands down and the extra mass provides even heat.
I use salt to clean the hard stuff like residue from fried beans. Cove pan, heat, scrub with wadded paper towel and rinse. a wipe with a bit of cooking oil on a paper towel is all that is needed to keep perfect.

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You need food grade, or one that is certain not to contain dryers, which are lead in the old days, cadmium today. Raw linseed likely won't have dryers but going to a health food store & getting flax oil is safest. The process is putting a linseed oil finish on the metal. Coat it, warm it to under smoke point to polymerize, cool & coat, warm to polymerize....
VERY important to not use "boiled" linseed oil as it just about always has dryers

That was the reason I put RAW Linseed in brackets.

Being a lifelong believer in cast iron cookware i thought I could tell what I learned over the years..
Back when in 1970s Colorado 2 older fellows that had cooked all their lives for other people
decided to open their own little 9 table diner. They swore by cast iron to cook with. When I went
in I usually set at the counter where I could chat with them and watch them cook.
The tip I learned from them is as follows. When they were finished cooking they cleaned with a mixture
of coarse salt and baking soda about 50-50 they kept in a container above the sink. They scrubbed this
mixture around and ONLY used water to rinse. They kept an old heavy cotton sock with this same
mixture in it tied at the top. This was used to clean up the pan and sort of preserve the finish.
i imagine today or even then it wouldn't pass muster with most inspectors but they cooked the best
food I ever ate on that iron ware. I still use the process today but still can't cook like them. lol
I had wondered about polishing some of my cast iron today especially the more modern stuff.
So Thanks for the posts and helpful reply's.

As an after thought ever wonder why so many people take vitamins or iron supplements but our
ancestors didn't... maybe the cast iron cookware.
Makes one wonder what we are getting from aluminum cookware, something to think about.

I have always used raw linseed oil on the stock of my M1 Garand. It does have a peculiar smell to it, but I have learned to love it.
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I hope you warm your stock by a fire before and after oiling. Takes a long time to dry but sure preserves the wood and easy to repair a ding.
Can't tast anything when used on cast iron except good food.

I made a mistake once trying to season a 2 qt cast iron pan I did my polishing on the inside then started slowly heating it until it was just beginning to show some colorization to teh polished surface I added in regular vegetable oil not noting that it was of the non fat variety. The oil just got hotter and hotter until it finally flashed over after it was finished and I had cleaned up the pan with salt once it had cooled I noticed that it hadn't glazed like other pans and skillets had done. It was then that I realized it was the fats in which ever oil you use that has to caramelize into the open pores of the metal once they cool and close it is the trapped crystalline particles left from the fats that actually serve to prevent foods from sticking.
Just like was mentioned about the ferrous magnetite once it is polished off to become smooth then sealed with the fats from the oils
I've never used flax seed for anything and have only used linseed for treating wood so I cannot comment on its use
But I do know that pure old rendered hog lard was the preference back in the day. But you know your skillet is well seasoned when you can cut up a batch of potato wedges skin on and fry them to golden brown in just a table spoon of fresh churned butter without having to scrape them out of the bottom you have done your job.

For the record Flax seed oil IS Linseed oil. As long as it is raw you can season cast iron with it or any other vegetable oil or animal fat of your choice. Pork fat or lard was used if you had pigs, tallow if you had cattle or sheep. As far as I have been able to find out the move to vegetable oils or fats was due to some having very high smoke points and as mentioned by someone else when polymerized seal the pores and remain unaffected by normal cooking temperatures.
Mid Winter here and pouring rain so not going to head out and attack the barbeque anytime soon but here's something related to looking after metal. I've found that Grape Seed oil oxidizes quite quickly out of a sealed container and painted on equipment I don't use that often or which is exposed like the bit of lathe bed under the chuck that the saddle does not contact but gets splashed if a soluble oil is used dries to give a reasonably waterproof coating,(indoor use only). Oil any mating/sliding surfaces with mineral oil first so nothing gets gummed up and only paint on bits easy to get to. I don't mind a brown colored covering as long as it isn't rust.

My wife has her Aunts cast iron cookware, most of it is Le Creuset enameled cast iron, and it is pretty awesome stuff. We also got a couple of cast iron pans that needed some love. I followed the tutorial here, and the pans are as non stick as our old aluminum pans. We have passed the aluminum pans to our youngest daughter, and now we use pretty much cast iron for all of our stuff. We would like to find an old griddle, and add it to our collection. I do make sure that the Linseed oils are kept in different places, so we don't confuse the boiled and the raw. I have to say that the Garand stock likes the boiled Linseed oil better than the raw. Semper Fi.

I have to say that the Garand stock likes the boiled Linseed oil better than the raw. Semper Fi.
I agree, wood generally likes its oil cooked.

The wife told me she was tired of my complaining about our sauce pans we have several 2 & 3 qt size SS and 1 non coated mystery metal 2 qt. too heavy to be aluminum too light to be cast iron dull finish inside and out but it cooks well. it is just that it is the only one that has the proper side height in relation to the diameter The SS pans are fine but low sides. SO she said the next time we have to drive to the city she doesn't care if it takes us all day to locate them we are going to buy several old and rusty or new cast iron pans of every size we can find I said great as long as we buy a medium and a large dutch ovens and lids for all of them SO hopefully I will have some more curing to do soon.

Sounds like a few new tools might be needed to if there was a perceived need to modify any pans to the 'right' height? One thing I have always wondered about is why there are no cast iron omelette pans.

This is what I always use to make my omelets, fried eggs, pan cakes, sausage patties, bacon, or hamburgers in
Attachment 20939

What about ceramic cookware? I mean what is the difference between cast-iron cookware and ceramic cookware? And what is the defination of healthy ceramic cookware!

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Originally Posted by cemransh

What about ceramic cookware? I mean what is the difference between cast-iron cookware and ceramic cookware?

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I guess the main difference is that cast iron cookware is not just come coating that is infused onto a metal base.
I do in fact have one of those ceramicoat copper colored pans and the ceramic coated ones that came with both of my nuwave cook tops, I bought the copper one because when I was having to use a portable induction cook top it heated faster than the cast iron plus it was larger than the ones that came with the cook tops. My cast iron cookware is mostly Lodge brand and has a ridge ring on the bottom that is mostly there to direct the heat from a gas flame and it did not allow a large enough area of the induction cook top to heat perfectly.
But I find that since ceramic is a coating it begins to degrade from the very first use even if using silicone tools and not using a metal spatula Where as cast iron is through and through not a coating.
After polishing mine then seasoning them the way I did, now several years later they have only improved with age

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Originally Posted by cemransh

What about ceramic cookware? I mean what is the difference between cast-iron cookware and ceramic cookware?

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There are cast iron cookware that is ceramic coated, like the Le Creuset brand. We have a set of Le Creuset pots that are at least 50 years old, and nothing sticks to them. The price difference between a standard cast iron pan and the ceramic coated cast iron is like comparing a Yugo to a Ferrari.

Is there a good argument for enamel coating (essentially powdered glass) cast iron besides ease of cleaning? Does it have some properties that are beneficial for certain types of cooking? I've heard the "certain types of delicate sauces" argument in favor of enameled pans, but I don't know what those sauces are. I do see there is a legitimate but rarely applicable issue of iron leaching.

Per Frank S's method (which we've adopted successfully for our own cast iron pans), isn't the cleaning argument eliminated? I've found that cleaning enameled cast iron pans is difficult (both the fancy Le Creuset and the generic knock-offs), and even a thorough cleaning per manufacturer instructions never really returns the pan to a new appearance. Can I sand enamel coated pans to clean them? Can I wire wheel them and then just re-coat them?

Jon there is an unfortunate truth to simmering certain sauces in cast iron like stewing tomatoes however I often make my pasta sauce in my cast iron skillets they have been used for so long that clean up has never been a problem I can usually just wipe out the remains with a paper towel then return to the stove and pour in a small amount of water once it turns to a steaming boil a quick wipe with a towel will remove any remaining residue then I will pour in a tbs of oil heat it then wipe it around then the skillet is ready for the next meal.
this is what 1 of my skillets looks like after 5 years of use
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Leaching is one of the subjects about cookware that was more or less thought up by a stainless steel water-less cookware salesman.
when 1 comes to your house the first thing he wants to do is try and scare the person who does most of the cooking in the family about all of the dangers of ingesting particles form their pots and pans.Usually they are referring to aluminum but even their analogies in that regards are flawed
What Everyone Needs to Know About Aluminum Cookware -

Saw a good post on this on a blog Annals of commerce: product downgrades ...one reason those old skillet work so much better than the new ones is that companies like Lodge are cheaping out on production. Yustabe they did that 'grind the pan 'till it's smooth' step before they put on the factory 'seasoning' now you just get the rough cast surface.

I'm on wife #3 after a divorce from the first and the second passing away. None of them were/are accomplished cooks. I do all the cooking. I have a pretty well seasoned skillet and another that is rough that I never use. I will give it your treatment and it may end up being my preferred one. Thank you for the information.

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Originally Posted by Floradawg

I'm on wife #3 after a divorce from the first and the second passing away. None of them were/are accomplished cooks. I do all the cooking. I have a pretty well seasoned skillet and another that is rough that I never use. I will give it your treatment and it may end up being my preferred one. Thank you for the information.

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When you can almost wipe the skillet clean with a paper towel after frying hamburgers in it, then you will appreciate polishing before seasoning

Things like skillet scalloped potatoes with onions garlic sliced kielbasa sausage grated sharp cheddar and mozzarella is the hardest thing I've found to cook in any skillet but if during the cooking process you keep the potatoes from sticking while they cook then once you are finished if you will run a little hot water in it you can usually clean it using a paper towel as a dish rag. My cast iron skillets and pots are cleaned and put away almost the moment they come off the stove and are emptied.
And NEVER NEVER EVER ever ever use detergent to clean them with. Did I mention never use detergent on them? If you happen to leave food in them or it gets baked on from being in the oven then fill them with hot water place on a burner and boil use a stainless steel spatula to loosen the food then rinse and repeat if necessary I've never had that problem.
Recently I bought a new 4 qt round pot so I filled it with water and set it outside to allow the water to evaporate and cause the pot to rust I want it to age for a few months with surface rust in it before I clean it up polish and season it