Just taught my 14 year old how to make eggs in a CI pan and cook them in an easy to clean method. get the pan hot, really hot, hotter still. Now some oil, then in go the eggs, scrape slowly and intermittently, flip flip, stir, done. Taught him the clean up routine with salt, then a bit of oil. When he goes off to college (ok second year when he isn’t in the dorms) he’ll get a skillet of his own. just like his pappy!
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Future article idea:
CAST IRON CLEANING TEST
Take your well seasoned cast iron pan and cook some eggs in it. Document how easy it is to get your (probably overcooked) eggs out.
Now wash with soap and water like SamSam recommends and repeat the experiment.
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Get a similar skillet now and periodically swap it into use. Don’t tell him at all. When he goes off you get to give him a gift of something you’ve been using together for years already. There are tears. It’s beautiful.
Then you come home and keep using your current one. He comes home at Thanksgiving thinking you went out and got a new one and spent the last few months getting it just like the old one.
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You sure look happy to have found that fine cookware!
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That’s for reseasoning a pan, not for cooking.
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I love my cast Iron and my life substantially improved when I got over the “THOU SHALT NOT USE SOAP” thing. Trying to get bacon fat cleaned up was a PITA before I just started wiping it down and then hitting it with a little soap and hot water.
The other big kitchen myth I’ve had debunked is that I a) must soak my pinto beans over night and b) that I cannot use salt during the soak before slow cooking. Total crap. Beans just as good without the soak and even tastier when infused early with the salt. I eat way more beans now that I don’t forget to start my dinner a full 24 hours in advance.
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I use the residual soap in the scrubbie I am already using to clean up the rest of the meal, then hit it with just a dusting of spray Pam, hang it up and done!
Some oils, like linseed, tung or canola, are film forming oils. They naturally dry to a nonstick coating.
I use canola to season cast iron cookware. Coat and bake twice and it is done.
I would not use a non-edible oil for seasoning cast iron, or a film forming oil for cooking. No scientific basis, but the idea of ingesting a film forming oil just seems odd to me.
You wouldn’t cook with canola oil?
Tried the kosher salt thing. Stripped my pan to bare metal. Never doing that again.
I have a nylon bristle brush that is only used to clean my cast iron (because detergent is the enemy of oil). I brush off any food material under hot running water, dry it, oil it and put it away.
For seasoning, do this:
http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/
It results in a pan that is unbelievably slick, like glass.
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Some people are unaccountably flipped out by canola oil and refer to it as “industrial seed oil.”
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This seems like a reliable source:
https://www.lodgemfg.com/use-and-care/seasoned-cast-iron-use-and-care.asp
[quote]To Soap or not to Soap…
If no soap is too scary, wash with mild soapy water and dry and oil immediately. However, consider that cookware is 400ºF in 4 minutes on medium heat and is sterile at 212º F, so soap isn’t always necessary.
Dishwashers, strong detergents and metal scouring pads are not recommended, as they remove seasoning.
Rust?! Don’t Panic, it’s not Broken
Without protective seasoning iron can rust.
It’s really easy to fix. Scour the rust, rinse, dry, and rub with a little vegetable oil.
If problem persists, you will need to thoroughly remove all rust and follow our re-seasoning instructions (below).
Refurbish Your Finish
While maintaining the seasoning should keep your Cast Iron
and Carbon Steel in good condition, at some point you may need to
re-season your cookware. If food sticks to the surface, or you notice a
dull, gray color, repeat the seasoning process:
- Wash the cookware with hot, soapy water and a stiff brush.
(It is okay to use soap this time because you are preparing to
re-season the cookware). - Rinse and dry completely.
- Apply a very thin, even coating of MELTED solid vegetable
shortening (or cooking oil of your choice) to the cookware inside and
out. Too much oil will result in a sticky finish. - Place aluminum foil on the bottom rack of the oven (not directly on bottom) to catch any drips.
- Set oven temperature to 350 – 400 degrees F.
- Place cookware upside down on the top rack of the oven to prevent pooling.
- Bake the cookware for at least one hour. After the hour, turn the oven off and let the cookware cool in the oven.
- Store the cookware uncovered, in a dry place when cooled.
- Repeat as necessary. [/quote]
A Cast-iron tip nobody has mentioned: If you get ahold of an old pan or yours just gets to crusty to deal with, the easiest way to restart fresh is to put it in the oven for its cleaning cycle. This is a nuclear option, and it burns all the seasoning off and you get a light silver pan with some dust in the bottom, ready to re-season. I’ve tried oven cleaner too, but it doesn’t seem to work as well, and will leave you with chemical burns on your hands the next day.
However, I’ve tried a number of seasoning schemes, including linseed, crisco, canola, multiple layers, etc., and have never been satisfied. The advice people give is inconsistent and I don’t trust anyone in this matter anymore, even the people who claim have taken a scientific approach, because invariable they haven’t really—they’ve just spouted some mumbo-jumbo about chemistry you end up taking on faith. I want an empirical A/B test, dammit.
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I’m told these can go for a hundred bucks! All I had to do was scour out some surface rust and bake on the shiny oil finish.
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Well, you have to admit “rapeseed oil” is just a marketing team nightmare.
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Not if you are selling to frat houses. 
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Correct – but for reseasoning, I still choose to use food-grade flaxseed oil, not commercial wood-finishing “boiled” linseed oil with cobalt-manganese and other fun ingredients.
I used to have a cast iron pan and I regret getting rid of it. But one drawback for me is that I live in smaller rentals and inevitably the seasoning process (oiled in oven) ends up setting off the fire alarms and generally making the entire apartment smell like cooking oil.
I do however wonder about one thing. Since there are publicized cancer risks from charring/overcooking meat, I wonder if there are any health risks from the seasoned layer on a cast iron pan. Just curious–I realize that the seasoning isn’t done with animal fat.
I’ve never looked back after ditching my cast-iron pans and just going to heavy-duty stainless steel with laminated bases. Even heat and a breeze to clean.
Modern stainless seems much easier to clean than the earlier stainless in my first cookware (decades ago). We only ever use soft plastic scourers, and often don’t even need that. Maybe it’s just that I can now just afford better quality.
We do have a couple of Le Creuset enamelled cast iron crock pots as well, but no more naked iron for us. Can’t see the point, really.
I don’t know what @stefanjones is drinking in his avatar photo, but I’ll have what he’s having.
IANAC but I think that’s the thing: Most people conflate soap with detergent. Dish “soap” is usually detergent, not soap. Dr. Bronner’s, fine, Dawn, not so much.
Anyway, you don’t really need either. Hot water will take care of solidified grease, dobie/scotchbrite/salt for whatever cheese you burnt, paper towels to mop up the excess so you’re not dumping fat down your sink. Germs? It’s a frying pan. (Or other thing that gets very hot on a regular basis.) Stovetops and ovens are not generally microbe-friendly environments, and if you’ve got hostile prions around you got bigger problems than Madge can help you with.
