No non stick chemicals healthier for ya. Food taste better more flavor the more u use it the better it gets.
This piece is well written, but I "DO NOT AGREE" with his cleaning method of the self cleaning oven. Over heating a pan can and will crack it down the line. Read about his experience of sanding and trying to get the surface smooth! I keep saying, "take your time" don't bee in a hurry. Sanding is not the option necessarily if you can avoid it! http://www.richsoil.com/cast-iron.jsp
Newer cast iron cookware isn't polished to a smooth finish like the older stuff. It may or may not help. You probably just need to clean and season it again. Even the newer cast shouldn't stick if it's properly seasoned. The only negative to cast iron is that you have to cook with some fats to prevent sticking. I'll take the good stuff in butter and olive oil over who-knows-what in non-stick cookware.
Also, I use crisco and pam to season my pans and I haven't had any issues. I first coat with crisco, bake at 350 for 1/2 hour, then spray with pam and do it again! I never had a bad pan yet.
Yeah, whatever works. I've used coconut oil a couple of times, and it worked okay. I have better luck with animal fats like lard and butter. It's polymerization process, doesn't really matter much what you use. Not talking about seasoning, though. Need a little fat in the pan when cooking. I find it best to heat the pan some, add olive oil or butter or whatever and let it heat some more, then add food. Most of the time I can toss whatever I'm cooking, though the skillet can get a bit heavy.
I use the Pam with Butter in it, It's awesome. The good thing about seasoning with Pam is it has Canola oil in it, and thats a real good oil to get it started in the polymerization. Also with the Pam, you don't get the calories... Some of us have to watch our girlish figure.
Sanding didn't take long. Do not polish it. Just knock the high spots down some. I wouldn't use Anything less that a 180 grit. Real benefit is healthier cooking/eating. Once a pan is seasoned you don't need oil/butter/fat to cook with. No teflon coating to chip off. Will last a couple lifetimes If taken care of.
Like this? I went 80 grit, then 120, and finished with 140. Before and after below, I forgot to take a pic of "after" but before I seasoned it so that is why it is yellow/brownish... Worked ok, we shall see after I use it a few times.... Took about 20 or 30 minutes in total.
So that pan above was seasoned after I ground it down by wiping down with canola oil and baking it in the oven for 1 hour at 450. I cooked some eggs on it afterward and it did not go so well. The eggs were sticking really bad. I scrubbed the pan down really good with a scouring pad, and wiped down with oil, and heated on a burner for 15 minutes, then wiped with oil and put away. Since, I cooked on it twice more, and this morning I cooked eggs and sausage on it. Today to my suprise. the eggs were sliding around like a brand new Teflon pan. So I guess I had to build up some "seasoning", and now it is good to go. The sasuage burnt onto it a bit as usual, but after wards the crispy burnt stuff came right off with a light scrap of the stainless spatula. So at first I thought this did not work to well, now I am a happy camper and will do my 2nd Lodge pan the same way, a 10"er. Now that I have done this, and looked closely at the Lodge pans, I'm wondering what the heck the black stuff on the pans out of the box is?? When you grind it down you can clearly see there is a 1/16th of an inch of this black coating, that almost looks like a Teflon coating or something?? What is that? Is that what they call "pre seasoned"? Sure looks lime a metal coating to me. After the grinding, and re-seasoning now, it is not black like it was before, it is silver with a brownish tint. So what the heck is the black stuff that comes on these pans...??
Yea, but was the pan silver before? or black? There is definitely a black coating of something on it.
What you are looking at is called mill scale. That is the natural color of cast after cleaning. then the pans are heated up and pre seasoned, it's nothing to be worried about. It's funny, I have a new'r lodge pan that looks like your original and after cooking with it several times, I can sling eggs out of the pan like it was an ice skating rink…
I've got a cast iron dutch oven that Mom bought for me recently, and 2 small skillets that Mom also gave to me that she said were her Moms/my Grandma. Still learning to cook in these bad boys. From what I've learned (not much) is that you want a fairly high heat and a decent amount of fat/oil in the pan. Do you heat the pan then add your fat/oil............................or add your fat/oil to the pan and then heat??? When do you add you food????? When a drop of water will dance on the fat/oil???? I'm still in the hunt for a 10-12" skillet.
"OIL or FAT" in first! then heat. I recommend getting an oil temp probe, basically a long thermometer. "WATER" bad juju…. don't do that unless you want facial burns!, even a drop! "yes people do it, NOT ME"! Add food slowly when you have the desired temp and enjoy. "NOTE" have a lid and be able to shut heat off incase of flair. Just cover, "don't panic" and shut off heat.
Give a quick basic here for temps I should want to see for certain food if you would. Thanks in advance.
