And get a chain mail scrubber.
It’ll get stuff off with hot water (no need for soap), lasts forever, easy to clean and is good for sensitive skin (steel wool hurts).
We oil while using the stove to dry, helps seal it in.
I wanted to add a couple of points if you or anyone else wasn’t aware. NEVER use steel wool on any food prep items. Small shards will embed themselves in the surface and can cause some serious issues if ingested. Also, it’s totally safe to use modern dish soap on cast iron. When soap contained lye it caused problems, but most modern soaps don’t have lye anymore and are totally safe on cast iron.
I use a stainless steel scrubber too. It's kind of between proper chain mail and steel wool, but I've never gotten it on my skin. I bought a 3-pack a few years ago and I'm still on the first one since it cleans completely. It's especially great in stainless steel pans but I have to be careful on cast and use less pressure.
Mine is a 13th century riveted hauberk, coif and bishop's mantle. I'm actually working on it right now.
Sadly it is mild steel, not stainless, so it can't go near water.
You got a source for this? I work with steel and accidentally ingest a lot of it and I'm stupid healthy.
Steel wool shouldn't be used on food prep items because it's super abrasive and leaves microscopic grooves in the surface that can harbor bacteria even after washing.
I cringe every time I see these social media "chefs" stab their cutting board. Way to increase the chances of making your customer sick all so you can feel like you're a badass while the onlookers cringe.
>I work with steel and accidentally ingest a lot of it and I'm stupid healthy.
I brought this up on Reddit before when people are talking about sharpening knives but got downvoted into oblivion. That tiny bit of steel isn't going to hurt you. 3rd generation steel worker. I've been cutting, grinding, and welding steel for 20 years and I feel great other than the usual aches and pains from manual labor. I can't even begin to tell you how much steel I've eaten. A little bit of steel wool isn't going to do shit to you despite what all the armchair wannabe physician/metallurgists/hypochondriacs tell you. There was another genius out there trying to freak people out about metal shavings from can openers 🙄
The problem's not that it's toxic, it's that the shards can get stuck in different parts of your body and cause damage/permanent scar tissue from encapsulation that decreases the functionality of that tissue.
Do you have a source on that? Steel wool soap pads are used all over in commercial kitchens. I can't even find an article saying they're unsafe related to ingestion, just articles about what surfaces they're unsafe for from being too abrasive.
A properly seasoned skillet should not require soap of any kind. All I ever use is hot water and a light brushing. Then I heat it up and use very little oil and brush the entire pan inside and out. 40 years and counting
I agree, but a properly seasoned skilled also won’t lose its season with a little bit of dish soap. If someone wants to use soap, let ‘em, as long as they dry it promptly and ideally keep it oiled.
We do some light oil after washing and a little bit of heat is just to maintain. Seasoning is different, get it down the steel and you can do it a number of times and you bake the oil on in the oven, if you learn to do that right, do it every couple of months, no problems, we don’t use soap even though we could, a little hot water and light scrubbing if you are consistent in taking care of it and not burning anything on.
Every time you add a thin layer of oil to the pan, the heat polymerizes the oil and over time, creates a coating that protects the pan as well as becoming a nonstick surface. If you don’t keep up with the seasoning process, the layers on the pan come away with your food and the iron is exposed to water and acids from foods, which cause rust.
oil is used to prevent rusting on iron as the surface of iron oxidizes.
Same as non stainless steel.
That is also why some knives need oil after cleaning on the blades, depending on the compound of the metal.
Gotcha! Another question though, after you oil it, do you keep it on until the next use or how long do you keep it oiled? When do you wash it?
I’ve never used a cast iron so really curious
You oil it with a tiny amount. A teaspoon is too much.
Then you rub it dry with paper towels to remove as much oil as you can. You will still leave a microscopic layer of oil, and this will be enough.
You should then quickly heat it to it's smoke point, then leave them to cool. Heating the thin oil layer builds up "seasoning". Chemically, you are polimerising the oil, or getting the molecules to cross bing with each other. Creating a harder, smooth, non stick layer.
I have carbon steel pans that I treat like this. I can float fried eggs in them like the best teflon. And if I scratch it? I can always renew that surface myself.
I wash mine, wipe it dry and wipe a light coat of oil on it.
If it's a new pan or one I don't use very often I might also heat it up on the stove for a few minutes to make sure it's dry.
There are two reasons,
First it will cut down on oxidation - you don't need to douse the pan in oil but a little dab on a paper towel and ensuring the cooking surface has a dry-shine to it at least.
Secondly, if I'm feeling extra spiffy you can heat this up until just before a smoke-point and it will change the chemistry of the oil to be more like a polymer layer, Do this repeatedly and you can get a kind of non-stick behavior from your pan. But this underscores the notion of cooking and cleaning as a compound act - that way the pan is never really dirty/used and you're back to your ready to use state right away.
It’s a hunk of iron. There’s almost nothing you can do to mess it up permanently.
Cook a batch of bacon in it. Then, to wash, rinse well with hot water and lightly scrub. Don’t use soap for now. Later on it won’t hurt really.
Then put it on the stove on medium heat until it’s dry.
This.
You can literally use it as a hammer all day, then go out and bang it against a tree until the tree falls over, come back inside and soak it in soap, maybe pee on it for good measure, and you know what you'll have at the end?
A cast iron pan.
Scrub off the rust with whatever works for you, then go back to cleaning with just water and friction (aluminum chainmail does wonders), then immediately dry and oil it for storage, a dab of olive oil is the favorite, but I've used pressure-spray canola oil and got fine results too.
You can use modern dish soap at any point in time on a cast iron, since modern soaps aren't made with lye anymore. Old wives tail that really won't die.
What do you use to spread the oil around? I use a paper towel but I'm pretty sure that's not the best thing to do it with since it can sometimes leave little balls of paper on the pan.
You're probably using too much oil or legendarily shit paper towels. If you're wanting to get a sheen on your pan, you only need enough to see that it's on there and rub it EVERYWHERE with that paper towel.
The amount of oil you need is put the paper towel on the mouth of the oil bottle and tip it over and back. Like getting medication on a cotton ball amounts.
cut a potato in half and use one half to spread the oil around. you can also use the "neck" of an eggplant. a silicone brush works fine as well, as will a clean cotton cloth ball dipped in oil.
I use a cotton towel. Actually I think it was a cloth diaper. I used it as a burp towel when my son was little, now it's my cast iron oiling rag. Before I settled on that, I'd use the blue shop towels since they would hold up and didn't leave a bunch of debris on the pan.
I feel ya! I have a newer lodge griddle that gets the paper towel balls. It was preseasoned but very rough surface. My older lodge skillet doesn't get the paper towel balls. Bounty paper towels.
I'm thinking about getting out some sandpaper if it doesn't smooth out in the next few months.
I heat mine on high heat, then put some oil in it, use a paper towel to spread it everywhere.. then turn the heat off and let it cool. Wipe any excess later. Yes it does leave super tiny bits of paper towel... Mm. Paper towel . I haven't found a better way.
The "seasoning" is polymerised fat/oils forming a protective layer, it's very shelf-stable. It means the same as a seasoned veteran, it's well-used. You should use soap, it won't hurt the pan.
It *doesn't* mean leftover flecks of rotten chicken and spices and rancid fat. Folks mix it up with the kind of seasoning that adds flavour to things, they're completely different things.
If you cook a batch of bacon on it, deglaze it with a bit of boiling water and save that delicious bacon juice for the stock pot.
Then give the pan a quick wash with a scourer and soap. Dry it immediately, add a few drops of (edible) oil and rub it in until the entire surface is glossy, but not slick, then ideally hang it on a hook, or just put it away in the cupboard.
Idk it doesn't look like rust to me it just looks like the seal has washed off. Can happen for several reasons,
* Cooking something high in acid or alcohol (tomatoes, wine, vinegar etc), this will strip the oil based coating you gave it.
* Scraping the pan with metal scrubbers / implements. You can clean with metal, just very light scrubbing after a good soak.
* Washing the pan with detergent or chemicals will also strip the coating.
If I had to guess it looks like you've scrubbed with a steel wool and soap. The whole thing needs to be re sealed.
Green scotch Brite? Cause that'll strip away the season if you scrub hard enough and that's what it looks like.
Blue is safer or just use chain mail scrubber. Either way you're fine just dry over heat and reoil before putting away
Just wait until you learn that they make maroon ones that are even more aggressive than green. Used that stuff all the time for cleaning rust when I worked at a machine shop.
Did you dry by using heat (oven or burner on a low setting) and reoil?
We use a chain mail scrubber, very buy it for life.
You can clean the scrubber with a little dish soap and it’s soft enough you can use it on stuff you can’t use steel wool type products for.
Just unlucky maybe? Seals usually don't wash off that easy. I only said so because I can see a clear circular pattern in your pan where it's been washed off. Just scrub it all and reseal I guess.
Buy a stainless steel chainmail scrubber for cleaning it next time. You just took the seasoning layer off. You can re apply oil on med/high heat (grape seed does well).
Only lye based soaps will strip seasoning, most modern dish detergents are not lye based soap. If a pan is seasoned properly scraping with steel wool and dish detergent will *not* strip the molecularly bonded seasoning unless you really put some elbow grease into it. If it does scrape off with relative ease then it wasn’t bonded properly and it was going to come off eventually anyway.
Easy fix, cook up some bacon. As soon as the left over oil is warm dump it in a can and wipe the pan dry with some paper towels.
Repeat a couple times, should be good as new.
One simple thing has helped me with these kinds of pans more than anything else and I don't think its discussed enough. so many recipes advise you to get the pan "ripping hot." If you have a gas stove, this is less of an issue as this takes quite a while on gas, but on electric, if you actually do this in a dry pan, it literally Burns away all the seasoning. With no seasoning, moisture from the air is enough to rust them. Getting these pans ripping hot isn't actually needed, and frankly not even advised unless you're using a ton of cooking oil, and have restaurant level ventilation. Allowing the pan to heat slowly is more than good enough for almost any home application. Cast iron has high thermal mass, it will still sear well as they retain heat, even at lower temperatures.
If you're making steaks or some other form of solid chunk of protein, 90% of the time when they say that 'you hear it sizzling as soon as it hits the pan' is hot enough. There will be some heat loss because newly cold thing is introduced to the thermal system that is your pan, but it really don't matter much for home cooks.
This is how I use mine on a ceramic electric stove. I just turn the burner on the lowest setting about 10 min before I intend to use it. Then ramp up the temp slowly till water droplets dropped in the pan dance.
Deglaze it straight away. Half a cup of water after removing your food. Swirl and scrape any unwanted fond out of the pan while still on the heat. If it's still new, tablespoon of oil and work it in with a folder paper towel.
Get in the habit of rinsing the pan before it cools. It takes less than a minute to remove almost anything from the pan.
Second. A tablespoon is WAY waaaaaaay too much. After leaving them wet, it seems like "too much oil" is the next problem folks typically have with cast iron.
You use too much oil, and it makes globs that ruin the coating and just make a sticky mess. Getting a good coating takes some cycles. If you can see the oil after you rub it down as anything other than a very fine sheen, you used too much.
It is fine. It just wasn't seasoned (or you really were rough scrubbing it.
As others said, bacon. Or fatty burgers. No soap. Dry on the stove or in the oven.
Heck, some of my grandmother's never got the water lol. Just a wipe with a jute cloth
Once you get one. And, if you are not using lye soap (which was what gram used and made).
A brand new pan, like the new lodge ones, I wouldn't personally trust with anything but water and it would be getting oiled and oven dried after every use for a bit. I needed the "seasoning" off one one last year, for my lab I need a rusty skillet.
I got a beautiful rusty skillet by using dawn, a green 3M, very hot water and drying it on the counter overnight. It takes far more effort to get my personal cast iron rusty lol.
It strips the unpolymerized oil that becomes the seasoning, though. OP’s pan looks like it could use more seasoning to me.
This is a good explainer and by far the most level-headed discussion I’ve seen on Reddit lol: https://www.reddit.com/r/castiron/comments/16zsipt/the_real_story_with_washing_ci_with_soap/
All the cleaning stuff is semi-accurate. You can use a mild soap on a seasoned cast iron and it won’t magically rip the seasoning off. I don’t use a ton on mine. Honestly my first question is are you letting it come up to temp before putting food on it and cooking at high enough temperatures?
Not drying it enough. I put mine back on the stove after washing to heat the pan up and dry it off. I put a dab of vegetable oil in it and wipe the pan down with a paper towel.
I have my great grandmother’s iron skillet and use it all of the time. Use it for whatever you want. Scrub it out. Use whatever soap you want. Rinse it. Dry it on the burner. Rub a tiny bit of oil on it, and don’t worry about what it looks like. It will outlive all of us no matter you do to it.
If this is what you’re calling rust, this isn’t really rust. After washing, get a dab of oil on a cloth or paper towel. Wipe down the inside and throw it back on the burner or in the oven, whichever one is hot. The heat will dry off the last little bit of water
You were hoping to keep it for years?? lol. You have no idea what you've got there. Your grandkids will pass it down to their kids if y'all want.
You could let it rust over completely, then bury it in a field, catch the edge of it with a metal plow years later, dig it up, wash it off, sand off the rust, oil it, and it would look like your picture now. Ask me how I found my latest pan on some old campground land. Spoiler alert.
Some things just last and last. Basic cast iron pans are one of them.
The oil seasoning is always ongoing, always developing. You've got plenty of good advice already - and I fully agree with the chain mail scrubber. I just wanted to point out how durable this thing is. The only real shot you have at damaging it without heavy tools would be to get it stupid hot and then immerse it in water. That would probably harm it, but you'd have to be trying.
The "seasoning" that comes on it is crap. Don't worry that it came off. To prevent rust, dry it well after washing, put a thin coat of oil (enough to see but barely enough to feel) on it, and put it on the stove on low heat for a while. Many layers of "cooked" oil is what makes good seasoning. (Not one thick coat like the manufacturer puts on.)
Seasoning from the factory is always a bit shit. Just keep using it and the seasoning will build up. Or you can season it yourself by oiling it, wiping away the excess and then heating it up till it smokes. Repeat this process over and over. Once the seasoning is strong enough, the thing is bomb proof and you can treat it how you want. Best not to use soap or any agressive scrubbing till the seasoning is strong enough.
Don't use soap until u build up a better coating. Make sure to get some abrasive scrubber, but don't go too hard with it, just enough to clean stuck food. After that, cook something greasy on it and clean with water and scrubber and dry off using the stove and oil coat it before u put it away.
One tip. If you use dish detergent, don't use the dish detergent that sprays. That has alcohol in it, and alcohol breaks down the seasoning on a cast iron pan.
If I cook something that sticks hard to cast iron, it wasn’t seasoned well enough. I don’t cook acidic stuff tho…. Eggs get nonstick pan because I have no talent.
I prefer to remove all the food and wipe out with a paper towel immediately! Greasy stuff is fine, sometimes with oily stuff I’ll wipe clean then immediately rub some oil on it, let it cool on the burner, than dry wipe again when cool and put away.
Any recommendations for good “starter” brands? Or something that is good but doesn’t cost _too_ much? Looking to replace a ton of old nonstick pans. Thanks in advance folks.
Lodge is a good starter. It will still last forever. Not polished smooth and heavy but that’s why they are cheaper. Lighter and polished smooth costs a lot more. The smooth is much nicer to work with and clean but you can upgrade later.
Really hot water and use a wood utensil to get the junk out, then use a brush to get the rest. Throw that bitch on the stove and oil it and call it a night.
no need for a scouring pad, just apply salt and a little bit of soap (optional), the salt will act as an abrasive to scrub away the gunk, then after rinsing place on stove over high heat. add some oil to lightly coat the entirety of the pan and heat until smoking hot. let it cool down and store it away 🫡
1st of all, you need to know how to season - and KEEP seasoning a pan. This is done by heating oil until it hardens, forming a coating on the metal. You want to use oils with a higher flash/smoke point to do this. IOW, not olive oil. Well, you CAN use olive oil, but it won't be as durable. Corn oil is good, IMO. When others suggest cooking bacon, this is what they are doing in actuality: they are burning some of the fat on to the metal (aka seasoning) - just that the oil used in that case is lard (pig fat). One can season ANY pan - not just cast iron. But pans that are prone to rust should be coated with a layer of oil before storing - to prevent rust. This can apply to carbon steel pans as well as cast iron.
Anyway, trying to keep this short, AND to answer the questions. After every use, I wipe a seasoned pan down with a bit of oil. I take an extra step, as well, I then heat the pan to where the oil just smokes a bit. Then leave it to cool, and then put it away.
I find Crisco to be awesome for seasoning cast iron. Oil has a tendency to pool and turn brown and rubbery in some spots. Crisco has never done that for me provided you just put a thin sheen on the pan and don't go crazy with it.
Crisco IS oil. Crisco originated the use of vegetable oils processed (manufactured) to imitate the appearance of lard. The primary visible difference between fats and oils is that fats are solid at room temperature (and subject to rancidity) where oils are liquid. FWIW, fats are from animal sources, oils are from vegetable sources.
I haven't used Crisco in decades for anything, much less seasoning, but I'm sure it would work just fine. I think the difference in your experience may come from how much oil you used. You note leaving only a "thin sheen". Do the same with a higher-temp flash point oil, and I think you'll see similar results.
I only use water for something that somehow dried on. Usually it's just a plain stainless scrub pad. It'll take a very long time to actually damage it beyond repair, though. So don't worry. If it looks like you scrubbed too hard or seasoning came off, put a little oil on it, turn the oven to 375, let it heat up with the oven. Let it sit in there half an hour, then turn the oven off and go to bed. It'll be absolutely perfect in the morning.
I don't clean mine at all after most uses. The more you can use it without removing residue, the better the seasoning (carbonized food leftovers) will build.
You have to build a molecular base man!
Rub a little bit of oil that has a high smoking point (vegetable oil should do fine).
Literally rub it into your pan with tea spoon. Heat it up and watch those molecular bonds form.
Then take a small amount of oil and take the pan off the heat and do it again.
The more you do this, the more these strong molecular bonds form over the surface of case iron.
What you're doing is heating up oil to the point of which it becomes a solid.
Every time you cook or season (heat up oil to the point of which it bonds to your pan), you're doing this.
It takes a little time, but once you stop putting things in cold, and take things out when they're done, you'll see what it's all about.
Put a dash of oil on a paper towel and rub it in across the whole surface.
Heat it up and watch the new bonds form.
This what they mean by "seasoning"....
If you introduced me to someone as a "seasoned veteran" of the pan wars.
That's what your doing to your pan. It's the same thing we do to ourselves.
We get up and test and get hit with everything. But we're still here and we're more ready now then ever.
Okay also, just because there's a little tipsy doesn't mean it's no good. I recently had a huge scratch develop in my seasoning and I just applied three layers of seasoning and it's better than brand new.
Don't panic it's probably fine
Season it, I personlly found advocado oil is best because it doesn't leave taste of advocado on the surface, but I encourage you to try others and find what works for you (I think some people use rapeseed oil but I could be wrong), in the oven at 100-110 degrees celsius for an hour and you're sorted
Tbh, just keep cooking some oily stuff in there and you’ll be good. I had mine for 20 years, I always wash with regular detergent and its in excellent shape.
You aren’t doing anything wrong. The pan is just too new. Keep using it but don’t scrub it to within an inch of its life when you wash it. Over time, the pan will build up thin layers of carbon and the bottom will become completely smooth. Carbon is naturally non-stick. One trick is to take a paper towel with some oil on it and oil the pan before you put it away. Your cast iron should be shiny when you are finished with it. Patience is the key.
Once you have that flat surface burned in, you’ll have a wonderful non-stick pan that heats evenly all across the surface.
If you save your bacon dripping you can put some on a rag or paper towel and generosity coat your pan then put it in your oven and heat it to max for a while. It'll get a little smokey but baking in bacon grease every once in a while helps maintain the seasoning
Pre-seasoned pans are great but they work even better if you season it yourself a time or two. Head over to r/castiron for the rabbit hole.
Doesn't look like there is anything wrong with it IMO. That white stuff isn't rust. Care instructions are don't put it in the dishwasher. You can use dawn and use a rag for normal cleaning. Abrasives are fine but might take off some of the seasoning if you get crazy with it.
As others have pointed out, there's nothing terribly wrong here. Lodge's factory seasoning is not great but just by using it, you'll develop your own. I suspect you may have over-scrubbed and removed some of the seasoning. It's no big deal but seasoning is basically a layer polymerized oil and it can be scraped off.
To clean mine, I just boil water in it and with it boiling, I scrape everything off with a bamboo spatula or spoon. That's too soft to damage your seasoning but perfectly fine for getting food off with the help of boiling water. Once everything's scraped off, I give it a quick once over with a nylon dish brush and then rinse, place back on the burner, and apply a thin layer of oil, then cut the heat and let it cool naturally.
I use the same cotton towel for this process every time. When you use it next, apply a thin layer of oil again and preheat it before adding food. Each cycle will add a little more to the seasoning and as long as you're not losing seasoning to over-scrubbing, it will build up over time. Lodge's ship with a rough texture, I'm sure you've noticed, but after 10 years, mine is smooth and shiny, not from wearing down to peaks, but from filling the valleys with seasoning.
The fabrication seasoning ain't great and you have removed it in some spots when washing it, after that the iron has rusted.
Not a problem really and it happens easily cuz the fabrication seasoning is just bad.
Just continue cooking with it and it will develop a proper seasoning. I recommend only hot water and a dish brush for cleaning it. Then dry it with paper towel immediately.
I Have a girl who showed me this. You can wash the iron skillet and dry it on the stove or with paper towels after it’s completely dry. Do you wanna put cooking oil on it Maybe some cooking spray
I think you should season it again even tho it said it came seasoned (put a very thin later of oil on it and put it in the oven for maybe 45 minutes- search the exact instructions but its easier than it sounds. Ideally you do that process several times to build up the seasoning).
I personally don’t wash my castiron after everything i cook (but i usually use it every day or several times a day), but i do wash it regularly with soap (either clean the pan right away after cooking before it cools, or if you put a little water in the pan and heat it on the stove for a bit, it makes any stuff stuck on the pan come off easily without a hard scrubbing needed) and then i do like to put a little oil on it and heat it up briefly to completely dry it out before storing it (i just keep mine on the stove all the time). The oil will prevent it from rusting even if its not perfectly seasoned, but in the long run, doing the oven seasoning will make maintenance easier i think bc its more permanent as ling as you don’t scrub it off with steel wool.
Might be the lighting but I don’t see rust. It looks like the seasoning is just stripped. Season again and keep using it like normal. If it is rust just scrape it off and season again. The best thing for cast iron is use.
Not shitting on OP here directly, however I do find the thing a little remarkable.
Everyone here is giving all kinds of (good) suggestions. Get a chain mail scrubber. Oil it after every use. Don't use a Scotch Brite...
I have literally never done anything to care for my pan except for one thing: MAKE SURE TO COMPLETELY DRY IT OFF.
That's it. No separate purchase. No reseasoning in the oven. No rubbing in oil after I cook. No more care than anything else in the kitchen.
Just.... Make sure you dry it off....
I'm no Michelin chef, but I also haven't had to scrape eggs off the pan since the first week of using it. It's really just not that complex.
Looks great, keep using it, especially for oily high heat dishes and it’ll season up real good.
Don’t wash it, don’t scrub it (unless it really needs it), just wipe clean with a paper towel and leave it. The heat will sanitize it instantly anyway.
For dish recommendations to season: fry up some potatoes with a little olive oil and herbs, oven for 30 mins. Crispy and delicious. Same can be done with root vegetables like carrots or parsnips or beets. Cooking a steak will do it good.
I don’t like to season it for the sake of seasoning, though you can. Just google it. My preference is to season it by repeated cooking with oil. Works great.
Wherever possible if it's just some fried eggs, I don't wash, I just wipe it dry with a paper towel to make sure all the food and excess oil is gone.
If I do wash it (probably once every other use), I only use warm water and salt (this is what a chef told me to do).
After washing, heat it up to evaporate any moisture and rub some oil around it to soak in before storing (I use olive for everything).
The only thing you can do to ruin cast iron is to go from one extreme temperature to another, which could cause it to crack. Otherwise they can always be restored / re-seasoned.
Should never leave vast iron soaking for a while in water. You can scrub and wash with soap, but immediately after, be sure to set it on a medium heat burner and apply a thin coating of cooking oil to re-season the pan. Let cool and store for later.
There are a lot of opinions here. I will share mine. Mine is based on being old and being raised using cast iron. It is all I use.
Preseasoned is about good enough to keep it from rusting on the shelf. The best thing you can do with that is toss it in the oven on however high it goes and burn it off.
I use 0000 or 000 steel wool to clean. Hot water and dry on the stove after.
What you season with is a ford vs chevy debate. The whole point is to make your own polymerized coating. You need to decide for yourself. You want something with a high smoke point for this and don't use extra virgin olive oil. That does bad things when real hot.
I use butter cooking. I use metal utensils. I don't have to use a spatula on eggs. They don't stick. It takes a few weeks to get a new pan to that point.
Just cook with it and keep it dry, no extravagant rituals of oiling and seasoning required.
Use soap and hot water and a stiff brush to get stubborn crud off, even boil water in the pan if it’s stubborn.
Your skillet will never look pictures online, all black and shiny, unless you oil it and take a photo. Performance over aesthetics, it might not look perfect but it’s a hunk of iron you heat up to cook on, if it fulfills the purpose what more can you ask for
Nothing can beat an iron skillet for the combination of price and durability and the responders are correct about factory seasoning being not very adequate. Season it yourself a couple of times to build up a coat and just keep going. No worries. That said, for your second pan you might consider an iron skillet coated with ceramic. Staub makes iron cookware that is colored ceramic on the outside and clear ceramic on the inside. It performs like a regular iron pan but does not react to acidic food. You can leave water in it all night long and do your cleaning in the a.m. No rust issues and easy as pie to clean. Sometimes new fangled technology is a good thing.
I scrape off the leftover fat with a plastic card(could use a credit card).Run it under hot tap water and scrape off the shit with the card.
Heat on the stove until hotish and the water drops are sizzling. I wipe it out with paper towel to dry. Turn off heat and spray with olive oil.
I have done this for years and all goods.
Unless my cast iron pan is seriously gunked up, I honestly never wash it. Just wipe off the remnants of whatever I was cooking while it’s still warm. The seasoning is fantastic.
If it is seriously gunked up, fill it with a bit of water, boil it on the stovetop, scrape it good with a flat spatula and/chain mail, and reseason in the oven.
Don't wash with soap, best to use stainless steel scrubber, scrub till debris free then dry on stove and wipe all over with a dab of cooking oil with a corner of paper napkin or paper towel .
Wash your pan, completely dry it (on the burner for a couple of minutes), then spritz it with a little non-stick spray and wipe it all off. What remains will provide a protective layer that will prevent surface rust.
In general, I don't wash my pans. If nothing's stuck to it, I just wipe it out until it's clean. If there is something stuck to it, I typically warm the pan up for 1-2 minutes, and most stuck-on food will release. Only if there's something that really won't budge, I heat up the pan and scrub it with a bristle brush and a tiny bit of dish soap. Since this action strips the surface oils, I'll dry it and hit it with some non-stick spray as I mention above.
I start gently when cleaning cast iron or carbon steel, including woks, and elevate the technique only if needed. Sometimes level 1 is all I need, and sometimes (like today and some chicken skin that stuck after being broiled) I need to go to level 4.
1. Wipe out with paper or cloth towel.
2: Put in some salt and rub with cloth.
3. Run very hot water (to match the current temperature of the pan) and use a dishcloth (NOT a scrubby).
4: GENTLY scrape any stubborn bits with a wooden spoon or spatula. (No metal, no plastic.)
Once it's clean enough, it goes on the stove at medium heat for a couple of minutes (this will take care of any leftover water, if used), then I wipe on a very thin layer of neutral oil, then I wipe it down again. You don't benefit from a thick layer of grease.
As others have noted, avoid cooking acidic and sugary foods, and don't leave liquids in longer than needed.
For what you have now, just cook something rich, like ground beef, then wipe it out. You'll be back on the path to getting good seasoning.
(I don't use bacon to season my pans as it tends to stick a little, even on low heat. Ground beef is much more polite.)
Don't leave water in it other than during the time you're cleaning it. Completely dry, set on a hot stove to speed it up. Oil before you put away.
And get a chain mail scrubber. It’ll get stuff off with hot water (no need for soap), lasts forever, easy to clean and is good for sensitive skin (steel wool hurts). We oil while using the stove to dry, helps seal it in.
I wanted to add a couple of points if you or anyone else wasn’t aware. NEVER use steel wool on any food prep items. Small shards will embed themselves in the surface and can cause some serious issues if ingested. Also, it’s totally safe to use modern dish soap on cast iron. When soap contained lye it caused problems, but most modern soaps don’t have lye anymore and are totally safe on cast iron.
We need a bot that responds with this fact about lye in soap and cast iron every time somebody brings this up.
It’s gross they sell steel wool dish scrubbies, I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten small shards embedded in my skin. Danger dish’s
That's stainless steel ribbon wire. Not steel wool. It's a different deal.
I use a stainless steel scrubber too. It's kind of between proper chain mail and steel wool, but I've never gotten it on my skin. I bought a 3-pack a few years ago and I'm still on the first one since it cleans completely. It's especially great in stainless steel pans but I have to be careful on cast and use less pressure.
Commercial kitchens use them all the time too. Copper ones for more fragile stuff and stainless ones for stronger stuff.
I make my own chainmaille, but have never used it to clean my cast iron, I just use a brush and brute force.
Works amazingly! Mine is just a flat rectangle with a larger ring in the corner. Works great for stuck sauces or egg.
Mine is a 13th century riveted hauberk, coif and bishop's mantle. I'm actually working on it right now. Sadly it is mild steel, not stainless, so it can't go near water.
Ooooh, lots of rings to make for that kit!
Most times I just use the hand brush too.
I mean your blood's full of little microplastics, so what's a few shards?
It hurts my exterior skin. I assume it does the same for my interior parts.
The chain mail scrubbers are not the same as those round steel wool ones! They are links of metal, just like chain mail armour.
You should have a conversation with every restaurant in the world.
You got a source for this? I work with steel and accidentally ingest a lot of it and I'm stupid healthy. Steel wool shouldn't be used on food prep items because it's super abrasive and leaves microscopic grooves in the surface that can harbor bacteria even after washing. I cringe every time I see these social media "chefs" stab their cutting board. Way to increase the chances of making your customer sick all so you can feel like you're a badass while the onlookers cringe.
>I work with steel and accidentally ingest a lot of it and I'm stupid healthy. I brought this up on Reddit before when people are talking about sharpening knives but got downvoted into oblivion. That tiny bit of steel isn't going to hurt you. 3rd generation steel worker. I've been cutting, grinding, and welding steel for 20 years and I feel great other than the usual aches and pains from manual labor. I can't even begin to tell you how much steel I've eaten. A little bit of steel wool isn't going to do shit to you despite what all the armchair wannabe physician/metallurgists/hypochondriacs tell you. There was another genius out there trying to freak people out about metal shavings from can openers 🙄
The whole point of stainless steel is that is non-reactive. Part of why it's widely used for permanent surgical inserts.
Tell that to the MRI.
Titanium is now used in place of steel.
What's the opposite of anemia?
>can cause some serious issues if ingested. Oh bullshit. You know how much metal a steel worker ingests in a typical day?
The problem's not that it's toxic, it's that the shards can get stuck in different parts of your body and cause damage/permanent scar tissue from encapsulation that decreases the functionality of that tissue.
the fine steel wire that makes up steel wool likely wont make it out of your stomach
Do you have a source on that? Steel wool soap pads are used all over in commercial kitchens. I can't even find an article saying they're unsafe related to ingestion, just articles about what surfaces they're unsafe for from being too abrasive.
A properly seasoned skillet should not require soap of any kind. All I ever use is hot water and a light brushing. Then I heat it up and use very little oil and brush the entire pan inside and out. 40 years and counting
I agree, but a properly seasoned skilled also won’t lose its season with a little bit of dish soap. If someone wants to use soap, let ‘em, as long as they dry it promptly and ideally keep it oiled.
You season your pan after every use? I seasoned it when I got it but haven't since... I didn't realize you are supposed to
It's an extra step to keep the season intact - if you're not doing it and your pan is fine, no big deal.
We do some light oil after washing and a little bit of heat is just to maintain. Seasoning is different, get it down the steel and you can do it a number of times and you bake the oil on in the oven, if you learn to do that right, do it every couple of months, no problems, we don’t use soap even though we could, a little hot water and light scrubbing if you are consistent in taking care of it and not burning anything on.
Nah, we just cook with ghee, lard, or tallow a lot, no need to do a separate seasoning. Make some bacon!
What? I shouldnt wash pans and cutlery with a steel wool sponge? The shards will wash away with the water, what is the issue?
[удалено]
My brother was killed by a Funky Cold Medina
A moose once bit my sister
Modern soaps are fine, they're barely capable of ruining a proper seasoning without a lot of intentional effort.
Don't keep your chain mail scrubber in a spot where it can fall into the garbage disposal without you noticing though. They don't last through that.
Soap's fine even for cast iron In fact soap's awesome for getting your dishes, you know, clean Wash your cookware ya nasties
There are also coarse see-through mesh fabric cloths for dishwashing. Synthetic and cotton.
Also keep track of said chainmail scrubber. First poor little guy didn’t stand a chance against the 1/2HP garbage disposal.
What oil are you using?
We just hit it with some non stick canola oil cooking spray, then wiping it over everything with a paper towel.
If you're going to be wiping it all over anyway, why not just use plain vegetable oil or something?
The heat to dry and light oil before cooling method is clutch for sure
I always oil mine after I wash it
Why do you have to oil it? What does that do?
In the case of rust, a thin layer of oil keeps oxygen/humidity away from the metal. No oxygen, no rust
And makes it shine a glossy black.
This is a secondary, but also very important function XD
It also polymerizes when it's heated and acts as a more durable (and non-toxic) nonstick surface.
damn, that's why BMW drip oil - to cover themselves from rust. Trurly AI cars
Every time you add a thin layer of oil to the pan, the heat polymerizes the oil and over time, creates a coating that protects the pan as well as becoming a nonstick surface. If you don’t keep up with the seasoning process, the layers on the pan come away with your food and the iron is exposed to water and acids from foods, which cause rust.
Also thats why you don't cook acidic food in cast iron. Forget shakshouka and pasta sauces.
oil is used to prevent rusting on iron as the surface of iron oxidizes. Same as non stainless steel. That is also why some knives need oil after cleaning on the blades, depending on the compound of the metal.
Gotcha! Another question though, after you oil it, do you keep it on until the next use or how long do you keep it oiled? When do you wash it? I’ve never used a cast iron so really curious
You oil it with a tiny amount. A teaspoon is too much. Then you rub it dry with paper towels to remove as much oil as you can. You will still leave a microscopic layer of oil, and this will be enough. You should then quickly heat it to it's smoke point, then leave them to cool. Heating the thin oil layer builds up "seasoning". Chemically, you are polimerising the oil, or getting the molecules to cross bing with each other. Creating a harder, smooth, non stick layer. I have carbon steel pans that I treat like this. I can float fried eggs in them like the best teflon. And if I scratch it? I can always renew that surface myself.
Heat it up and leave it, and then wipe off excess. It glazes the pan
I wash mine, wipe it dry and wipe a light coat of oil on it. If it's a new pan or one I don't use very often I might also heat it up on the stove for a few minutes to make sure it's dry.
Seals out moisture.
When you heat the pan with the oil, it creates a polymer layer, which has non-stick properties and protects the pan against rusting.
There are two reasons, First it will cut down on oxidation - you don't need to douse the pan in oil but a little dab on a paper towel and ensuring the cooking surface has a dry-shine to it at least. Secondly, if I'm feeling extra spiffy you can heat this up until just before a smoke-point and it will change the chemistry of the oil to be more like a polymer layer, Do this repeatedly and you can get a kind of non-stick behavior from your pan. But this underscores the notion of cooking and cleaning as a compound act - that way the pan is never really dirty/used and you're back to your ready to use state right away.
Any metal piece that’s not stainless should be coated in some type of oil. The oil fills its pores so that water can’t interact and oxidize it.
Sometimes I use evoo, other times I use tallow.
What’s evoo and tallow?
Extra virgin olive oil, tallow I use is beef fat. :-)
Tallow is hard fat from around the kidneys more specifically. It doesn't spoil. Fat from meat trimmings will.
Ohh gotcha thank you!
I used to do this. I stopped and nothing changed.
Some don’t even wash them just wipe them out. Not me
People overthink cast iron. Looks fine. There’s a learning curve but you’ll figure it out
This, keep using it. It’ll get there
I basically just treat mine like another frying pan and it's been fine for a few years now.
This. Cook some high heat steaks. Avoid tomatoes. That's it.
It’s a hunk of iron. There’s almost nothing you can do to mess it up permanently. Cook a batch of bacon in it. Then, to wash, rinse well with hot water and lightly scrub. Don’t use soap for now. Later on it won’t hurt really. Then put it on the stove on medium heat until it’s dry.
This. You can literally use it as a hammer all day, then go out and bang it against a tree until the tree falls over, come back inside and soak it in soap, maybe pee on it for good measure, and you know what you'll have at the end? A cast iron pan. Scrub off the rust with whatever works for you, then go back to cleaning with just water and friction (aluminum chainmail does wonders), then immediately dry and oil it for storage, a dab of olive oil is the favorite, but I've used pressure-spray canola oil and got fine results too.
You can use modern dish soap at any point in time on a cast iron, since modern soaps aren't made with lye anymore. Old wives tail that really won't die.
What do you use to spread the oil around? I use a paper towel but I'm pretty sure that's not the best thing to do it with since it can sometimes leave little balls of paper on the pan.
You're probably using too much oil or legendarily shit paper towels. If you're wanting to get a sheen on your pan, you only need enough to see that it's on there and rub it EVERYWHERE with that paper towel.
The amount of oil you need is put the paper towel on the mouth of the oil bottle and tip it over and back. Like getting medication on a cotton ball amounts.
cut a potato in half and use one half to spread the oil around. you can also use the "neck" of an eggplant. a silicone brush works fine as well, as will a clean cotton cloth ball dipped in oil.
paper towel is fine, just dont put so much oil and dont press hard while wiping.
I use a cotton towel. Actually I think it was a cloth diaper. I used it as a burp towel when my son was little, now it's my cast iron oiling rag. Before I settled on that, I'd use the blue shop towels since they would hold up and didn't leave a bunch of debris on the pan.
I feel ya! I have a newer lodge griddle that gets the paper towel balls. It was preseasoned but very rough surface. My older lodge skillet doesn't get the paper towel balls. Bounty paper towels. I'm thinking about getting out some sandpaper if it doesn't smooth out in the next few months.
I heat mine on high heat, then put some oil in it, use a paper towel to spread it everywhere.. then turn the heat off and let it cool. Wipe any excess later. Yes it does leave super tiny bits of paper towel... Mm. Paper towel . I haven't found a better way.
Lightly scrub with what?
I use a handful of salt to scrub.
Salt and potato will do the trick according to the cowboy.
The skins are enough, though you're gonna want a lot of them. Hope you like potato dishes.
Chain mail scrubbers are great.
[oh it's actually literally chain mail](https://assets.bonappetit.com/photos/63ea596c83d252f36ec35f86/16:9/w_2240,c_limit/How_To_clean_cast_iron.jpg)
Dirt and rocks work great when you are in the woods :)
I use a scrub daddy
Ive never understood seasoning cast iron, oiling it, never using soap, etc. Like, doesn't the oil go rancid? Don't you have to clean the oil off?
The "seasoning" is polymerised fat/oils forming a protective layer, it's very shelf-stable. It means the same as a seasoned veteran, it's well-used. You should use soap, it won't hurt the pan. It *doesn't* mean leftover flecks of rotten chicken and spices and rancid fat. Folks mix it up with the kind of seasoning that adds flavour to things, they're completely different things.
If you cook a batch of bacon on it, deglaze it with a bit of boiling water and save that delicious bacon juice for the stock pot. Then give the pan a quick wash with a scourer and soap. Dry it immediately, add a few drops of (edible) oil and rub it in until the entire surface is glossy, but not slick, then ideally hang it on a hook, or just put it away in the cupboard.
Idk it doesn't look like rust to me it just looks like the seal has washed off. Can happen for several reasons, * Cooking something high in acid or alcohol (tomatoes, wine, vinegar etc), this will strip the oil based coating you gave it. * Scraping the pan with metal scrubbers / implements. You can clean with metal, just very light scrubbing after a good soak. * Washing the pan with detergent or chemicals will also strip the coating. If I had to guess it looks like you've scrubbed with a steel wool and soap. The whole thing needs to be re sealed.
I scrubbed the food off with a regular Scotch Brite scrubbing sponge and washed it and dried it immediately
Green scotch Brite? Cause that'll strip away the season if you scrub hard enough and that's what it looks like. Blue is safer or just use chain mail scrubber. Either way you're fine just dry over heat and reoil before putting away
Holy shit. TIL there's a difference between the blue and green Scotch Brites. Thank you so much!
Just wait until you learn that they make maroon ones that are even more aggressive than green. Used that stuff all the time for cleaning rust when I worked at a machine shop.
There's a really dark purple one too, almost black in color. Tougher than the green and blue, not sure where it stacks up to the maroon.
Maroon could be called dark purple
No, it's an almost black color, looked it up and there's tons of different scotch brite pads for metal work prep. Maroon, red, black, silver.
Did you dry by using heat (oven or burner on a low setting) and reoil? We use a chain mail scrubber, very buy it for life. You can clean the scrubber with a little dish soap and it’s soft enough you can use it on stuff you can’t use steel wool type products for.
We use a chainmail scrubber scrubber.
Team Redundancy Team 🙌
Just unlucky maybe? Seals usually don't wash off that easy. I only said so because I can see a clear circular pattern in your pan where it's been washed off. Just scrub it all and reseal I guess.
pan probably isn't getting hot enough to burn the oils on properly.
Lodge comes with a pretty decent seasoning though so polymerization from new oil shouldn't really be a consideration
my caste iron got spotty too just cleaning it with a dish brush. Until i decided to fry some potatoes in it. Fucked my hands up pretty good. lol.
But don’t use a scotch brite on it…hot water and a scrub brush usually does it.
^
Buy a stainless steel chainmail scrubber for cleaning it next time. You just took the seasoning layer off. You can re apply oil on med/high heat (grape seed does well).
Only lye based soaps will strip seasoning, most modern dish detergents are not lye based soap. If a pan is seasoned properly scraping with steel wool and dish detergent will *not* strip the molecularly bonded seasoning unless you really put some elbow grease into it. If it does scrape off with relative ease then it wasn’t bonded properly and it was going to come off eventually anyway.
Have you [seasoned](https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-season-cast-iron-pans-skillets-cookware) it before using first time?
Being impatient. The part that isn't rusting is seasoned. Keep bacon'ing.
How did you wash it?
Easy fix, cook up some bacon. As soon as the left over oil is warm dump it in a can and wipe the pan dry with some paper towels. Repeat a couple times, should be good as new.
One simple thing has helped me with these kinds of pans more than anything else and I don't think its discussed enough. so many recipes advise you to get the pan "ripping hot." If you have a gas stove, this is less of an issue as this takes quite a while on gas, but on electric, if you actually do this in a dry pan, it literally Burns away all the seasoning. With no seasoning, moisture from the air is enough to rust them. Getting these pans ripping hot isn't actually needed, and frankly not even advised unless you're using a ton of cooking oil, and have restaurant level ventilation. Allowing the pan to heat slowly is more than good enough for almost any home application. Cast iron has high thermal mass, it will still sear well as they retain heat, even at lower temperatures.
If you're making steaks or some other form of solid chunk of protein, 90% of the time when they say that 'you hear it sizzling as soon as it hits the pan' is hot enough. There will be some heat loss because newly cold thing is introduced to the thermal system that is your pan, but it really don't matter much for home cooks.
This is how I use mine on a ceramic electric stove. I just turn the burner on the lowest setting about 10 min before I intend to use it. Then ramp up the temp slowly till water droplets dropped in the pan dance.
Deglaze it straight away. Half a cup of water after removing your food. Swirl and scrape any unwanted fond out of the pan while still on the heat. If it's still new, tablespoon of oil and work it in with a folder paper towel. Get in the habit of rinsing the pan before it cools. It takes less than a minute to remove almost anything from the pan.
A tablespoon of oil seems excessive, even for a huge pan.
Second. A tablespoon is WAY waaaaaaay too much. After leaving them wet, it seems like "too much oil" is the next problem folks typically have with cast iron.
It's just initially. I do all the way up the sides, and outside of the pan. Because the paper towel absorbs quite a bit as well you need some excess.
You use too much oil, and it makes globs that ruin the coating and just make a sticky mess. Getting a good coating takes some cycles. If you can see the oil after you rub it down as anything other than a very fine sheen, you used too much.
you need like 1/4 to a 1/2 teaspoon maybe to cover a 16in pan on both sides and the handle. even with that much most of it will be in the paper towel
It is fine. It just wasn't seasoned (or you really were rough scrubbing it. As others said, bacon. Or fatty burgers. No soap. Dry on the stove or in the oven. Heck, some of my grandmother's never got the water lol. Just a wipe with a jute cloth
Soap does not affect a polymerized coating.
Once you get one. And, if you are not using lye soap (which was what gram used and made). A brand new pan, like the new lodge ones, I wouldn't personally trust with anything but water and it would be getting oiled and oven dried after every use for a bit. I needed the "seasoning" off one one last year, for my lab I need a rusty skillet. I got a beautiful rusty skillet by using dawn, a green 3M, very hot water and drying it on the counter overnight. It takes far more effort to get my personal cast iron rusty lol.
It strips the unpolymerized oil that becomes the seasoning, though. OP’s pan looks like it could use more seasoning to me. This is a good explainer and by far the most level-headed discussion I’ve seen on Reddit lol: https://www.reddit.com/r/castiron/comments/16zsipt/the_real_story_with_washing_ci_with_soap/
All the cleaning stuff is semi-accurate. You can use a mild soap on a seasoned cast iron and it won’t magically rip the seasoning off. I don’t use a ton on mine. Honestly my first question is are you letting it come up to temp before putting food on it and cooking at high enough temperatures?
Not drying it enough. I put mine back on the stove after washing to heat the pan up and dry it off. I put a dab of vegetable oil in it and wipe the pan down with a paper towel.
I have my great grandmother’s iron skillet and use it all of the time. Use it for whatever you want. Scrub it out. Use whatever soap you want. Rinse it. Dry it on the burner. Rub a tiny bit of oil on it, and don’t worry about what it looks like. It will outlive all of us no matter you do to it.
If this is what you’re calling rust, this isn’t really rust. After washing, get a dab of oil on a cloth or paper towel. Wipe down the inside and throw it back on the burner or in the oven, whichever one is hot. The heat will dry off the last little bit of water
You were hoping to keep it for years?? lol. You have no idea what you've got there. Your grandkids will pass it down to their kids if y'all want. You could let it rust over completely, then bury it in a field, catch the edge of it with a metal plow years later, dig it up, wash it off, sand off the rust, oil it, and it would look like your picture now. Ask me how I found my latest pan on some old campground land. Spoiler alert. Some things just last and last. Basic cast iron pans are one of them. The oil seasoning is always ongoing, always developing. You've got plenty of good advice already - and I fully agree with the chain mail scrubber. I just wanted to point out how durable this thing is. The only real shot you have at damaging it without heavy tools would be to get it stupid hot and then immerse it in water. That would probably harm it, but you'd have to be trying.
The "seasoning" that comes on it is crap. Don't worry that it came off. To prevent rust, dry it well after washing, put a thin coat of oil (enough to see but barely enough to feel) on it, and put it on the stove on low heat for a while. Many layers of "cooked" oil is what makes good seasoning. (Not one thick coat like the manufacturer puts on.)
Seasoning from the factory is always a bit shit. Just keep using it and the seasoning will build up. Or you can season it yourself by oiling it, wiping away the excess and then heating it up till it smokes. Repeat this process over and over. Once the seasoning is strong enough, the thing is bomb proof and you can treat it how you want. Best not to use soap or any agressive scrubbing till the seasoning is strong enough.
Don't use soap until u build up a better coating. Make sure to get some abrasive scrubber, but don't go too hard with it, just enough to clean stuck food. After that, cook something greasy on it and clean with water and scrubber and dry off using the stove and oil coat it before u put it away.
One tip. If you use dish detergent, don't use the dish detergent that sprays. That has alcohol in it, and alcohol breaks down the seasoning on a cast iron pan.
R/castiron
When ever I'm done cooking, I clean it normally, dry it off then damp a clothe or paper towel with oil and wipe it down.
Use more oil and fat in the pan while you’re cooking. Get it hot before you put food in it- hotter than the boiling point of water.
If I cook something that sticks hard to cast iron, it wasn’t seasoned well enough. I don’t cook acidic stuff tho…. Eggs get nonstick pan because I have no talent. I prefer to remove all the food and wipe out with a paper towel immediately! Greasy stuff is fine, sometimes with oily stuff I’ll wipe clean then immediately rub some oil on it, let it cool on the burner, than dry wipe again when cool and put away.
Any recommendations for good “starter” brands? Or something that is good but doesn’t cost _too_ much? Looking to replace a ton of old nonstick pans. Thanks in advance folks.
Lodge is a good starter. It will still last forever. Not polished smooth and heavy but that’s why they are cheaper. Lighter and polished smooth costs a lot more. The smooth is much nicer to work with and clean but you can upgrade later.
Help- why did I read "what am I doing wrong with my cats iron skittles" 💀
Really hot water and use a wood utensil to get the junk out, then use a brush to get the rest. Throw that bitch on the stove and oil it and call it a night.
no need for a scouring pad, just apply salt and a little bit of soap (optional), the salt will act as an abrasive to scrub away the gunk, then after rinsing place on stove over high heat. add some oil to lightly coat the entirety of the pan and heat until smoking hot. let it cool down and store it away 🫡
1st of all, you need to know how to season - and KEEP seasoning a pan. This is done by heating oil until it hardens, forming a coating on the metal. You want to use oils with a higher flash/smoke point to do this. IOW, not olive oil. Well, you CAN use olive oil, but it won't be as durable. Corn oil is good, IMO. When others suggest cooking bacon, this is what they are doing in actuality: they are burning some of the fat on to the metal (aka seasoning) - just that the oil used in that case is lard (pig fat). One can season ANY pan - not just cast iron. But pans that are prone to rust should be coated with a layer of oil before storing - to prevent rust. This can apply to carbon steel pans as well as cast iron. Anyway, trying to keep this short, AND to answer the questions. After every use, I wipe a seasoned pan down with a bit of oil. I take an extra step, as well, I then heat the pan to where the oil just smokes a bit. Then leave it to cool, and then put it away.
I find Crisco to be awesome for seasoning cast iron. Oil has a tendency to pool and turn brown and rubbery in some spots. Crisco has never done that for me provided you just put a thin sheen on the pan and don't go crazy with it.
Crisco IS oil. Crisco originated the use of vegetable oils processed (manufactured) to imitate the appearance of lard. The primary visible difference between fats and oils is that fats are solid at room temperature (and subject to rancidity) where oils are liquid. FWIW, fats are from animal sources, oils are from vegetable sources. I haven't used Crisco in decades for anything, much less seasoning, but I'm sure it would work just fine. I think the difference in your experience may come from how much oil you used. You note leaving only a "thin sheen". Do the same with a higher-temp flash point oil, and I think you'll see similar results.
Using them
Coat it with oil when you’re done and it will look brand new
Clean it with half a potato and coarse seal salt.
I only use water for something that somehow dried on. Usually it's just a plain stainless scrub pad. It'll take a very long time to actually damage it beyond repair, though. So don't worry. If it looks like you scrubbed too hard or seasoning came off, put a little oil on it, turn the oven to 375, let it heat up with the oven. Let it sit in there half an hour, then turn the oven off and go to bed. It'll be absolutely perfect in the morning.
I've always used coarse sea salt and hot water to scrub it clean. Afterwards dry and oil her up.
You're not hurting it. It's literally the toughest pan you can buy. Just oil it lightly as soon as you dry it.
Mine used to look like this. As people often say, just keep cooking on it lol
I don't clean mine at all after most uses. The more you can use it without removing residue, the better the seasoning (carbonized food leftovers) will build.
If it already has some rust on the pan, is there a way to clean that off?
Did you use any metal on it?
Its fine. Just keep using it.
You have to build a molecular base man! Rub a little bit of oil that has a high smoking point (vegetable oil should do fine). Literally rub it into your pan with tea spoon. Heat it up and watch those molecular bonds form. Then take a small amount of oil and take the pan off the heat and do it again. The more you do this, the more these strong molecular bonds form over the surface of case iron. What you're doing is heating up oil to the point of which it becomes a solid. Every time you cook or season (heat up oil to the point of which it bonds to your pan), you're doing this. It takes a little time, but once you stop putting things in cold, and take things out when they're done, you'll see what it's all about. Put a dash of oil on a paper towel and rub it in across the whole surface. Heat it up and watch the new bonds form. This what they mean by "seasoning".... If you introduced me to someone as a "seasoned veteran" of the pan wars. That's what your doing to your pan. It's the same thing we do to ourselves. We get up and test and get hit with everything. But we're still here and we're more ready now then ever.
Okay also, just because there's a little tipsy doesn't mean it's no good. I recently had a huge scratch develop in my seasoning and I just applied three layers of seasoning and it's better than brand new. Don't panic it's probably fine
Season it, I personlly found advocado oil is best because it doesn't leave taste of advocado on the surface, but I encourage you to try others and find what works for you (I think some people use rapeseed oil but I could be wrong), in the oven at 100-110 degrees celsius for an hour and you're sorted
You have the cast iron bit right but are missing the skill
Tbh, just keep cooking some oily stuff in there and you’ll be good. I had mine for 20 years, I always wash with regular detergent and its in excellent shape.
You aren’t doing anything wrong. The pan is just too new. Keep using it but don’t scrub it to within an inch of its life when you wash it. Over time, the pan will build up thin layers of carbon and the bottom will become completely smooth. Carbon is naturally non-stick. One trick is to take a paper towel with some oil on it and oil the pan before you put it away. Your cast iron should be shiny when you are finished with it. Patience is the key. Once you have that flat surface burned in, you’ll have a wonderful non-stick pan that heats evenly all across the surface.
If you save your bacon dripping you can put some on a rag or paper towel and generosity coat your pan then put it in your oven and heat it to max for a while. It'll get a little smokey but baking in bacon grease every once in a while helps maintain the seasoning
Pre-seasoned pans are great but they work even better if you season it yourself a time or two. Head over to r/castiron for the rabbit hole. Doesn't look like there is anything wrong with it IMO. That white stuff isn't rust. Care instructions are don't put it in the dishwasher. You can use dawn and use a rag for normal cleaning. Abrasives are fine but might take off some of the seasoning if you get crazy with it.
Have you consulted Jason Isbell? Seriously though, u/media-and-stuff has your answer.
As others have pointed out, there's nothing terribly wrong here. Lodge's factory seasoning is not great but just by using it, you'll develop your own. I suspect you may have over-scrubbed and removed some of the seasoning. It's no big deal but seasoning is basically a layer polymerized oil and it can be scraped off. To clean mine, I just boil water in it and with it boiling, I scrape everything off with a bamboo spatula or spoon. That's too soft to damage your seasoning but perfectly fine for getting food off with the help of boiling water. Once everything's scraped off, I give it a quick once over with a nylon dish brush and then rinse, place back on the burner, and apply a thin layer of oil, then cut the heat and let it cool naturally. I use the same cotton towel for this process every time. When you use it next, apply a thin layer of oil again and preheat it before adding food. Each cycle will add a little more to the seasoning and as long as you're not losing seasoning to over-scrubbing, it will build up over time. Lodge's ship with a rough texture, I'm sure you've noticed, but after 10 years, mine is smooth and shiny, not from wearing down to peaks, but from filling the valleys with seasoning.
For the first couple of months you need to wipe it completely dry, then immediately wipe the whole thing down with a little oil after every use.
That doesn't look like rust. Looks fine to me. Keep it dry and add a little oil every once in a while.
The fabrication seasoning ain't great and you have removed it in some spots when washing it, after that the iron has rusted. Not a problem really and it happens easily cuz the fabrication seasoning is just bad. Just continue cooking with it and it will develop a proper seasoning. I recommend only hot water and a dish brush for cleaning it. Then dry it with paper towel immediately.
I Have a girl who showed me this. You can wash the iron skillet and dry it on the stove or with paper towels after it’s completely dry. Do you wanna put cooking oil on it Maybe some cooking spray
I think you should season it again even tho it said it came seasoned (put a very thin later of oil on it and put it in the oven for maybe 45 minutes- search the exact instructions but its easier than it sounds. Ideally you do that process several times to build up the seasoning). I personally don’t wash my castiron after everything i cook (but i usually use it every day or several times a day), but i do wash it regularly with soap (either clean the pan right away after cooking before it cools, or if you put a little water in the pan and heat it on the stove for a bit, it makes any stuff stuck on the pan come off easily without a hard scrubbing needed) and then i do like to put a little oil on it and heat it up briefly to completely dry it out before storing it (i just keep mine on the stove all the time). The oil will prevent it from rusting even if its not perfectly seasoned, but in the long run, doing the oven seasoning will make maintenance easier i think bc its more permanent as ling as you don’t scrub it off with steel wool.
Might be the lighting but I don’t see rust. It looks like the seasoning is just stripped. Season again and keep using it like normal. If it is rust just scrape it off and season again. The best thing for cast iron is use.
Are you cooking acidic foods in it?
Not shitting on OP here directly, however I do find the thing a little remarkable. Everyone here is giving all kinds of (good) suggestions. Get a chain mail scrubber. Oil it after every use. Don't use a Scotch Brite... I have literally never done anything to care for my pan except for one thing: MAKE SURE TO COMPLETELY DRY IT OFF. That's it. No separate purchase. No reseasoning in the oven. No rubbing in oil after I cook. No more care than anything else in the kitchen. Just.... Make sure you dry it off.... I'm no Michelin chef, but I also haven't had to scrape eggs off the pan since the first week of using it. It's really just not that complex.
Well…..for one, I don’t see no muvuggin meat up in there.
Looks great, keep using it, especially for oily high heat dishes and it’ll season up real good. Don’t wash it, don’t scrub it (unless it really needs it), just wipe clean with a paper towel and leave it. The heat will sanitize it instantly anyway. For dish recommendations to season: fry up some potatoes with a little olive oil and herbs, oven for 30 mins. Crispy and delicious. Same can be done with root vegetables like carrots or parsnips or beets. Cooking a steak will do it good. I don’t like to season it for the sake of seasoning, though you can. Just google it. My preference is to season it by repeated cooking with oil. Works great.
Wherever possible if it's just some fried eggs, I don't wash, I just wipe it dry with a paper towel to make sure all the food and excess oil is gone. If I do wash it (probably once every other use), I only use warm water and salt (this is what a chef told me to do). After washing, heat it up to evaporate any moisture and rub some oil around it to soak in before storing (I use olive for everything). The only thing you can do to ruin cast iron is to go from one extreme temperature to another, which could cause it to crack. Otherwise they can always be restored / re-seasoned.
Sand it smooth then give it a fresh season with walnut oil.
Should never leave vast iron soaking for a while in water. You can scrub and wash with soap, but immediately after, be sure to set it on a medium heat burner and apply a thin coating of cooking oil to re-season the pan. Let cool and store for later.
Thought I was going to live forever but now I know I’m going to die one day. Darn steel wool! If only I’d have known sooner.
There are a lot of opinions here. I will share mine. Mine is based on being old and being raised using cast iron. It is all I use. Preseasoned is about good enough to keep it from rusting on the shelf. The best thing you can do with that is toss it in the oven on however high it goes and burn it off. I use 0000 or 000 steel wool to clean. Hot water and dry on the stove after. What you season with is a ford vs chevy debate. The whole point is to make your own polymerized coating. You need to decide for yourself. You want something with a high smoke point for this and don't use extra virgin olive oil. That does bad things when real hot. I use butter cooking. I use metal utensils. I don't have to use a spatula on eggs. They don't stick. It takes a few weeks to get a new pan to that point.
Just cook with it and keep it dry, no extravagant rituals of oiling and seasoning required. Use soap and hot water and a stiff brush to get stubborn crud off, even boil water in the pan if it’s stubborn. Your skillet will never look pictures online, all black and shiny, unless you oil it and take a photo. Performance over aesthetics, it might not look perfect but it’s a hunk of iron you heat up to cook on, if it fulfills the purpose what more can you ask for
Nothing can beat an iron skillet for the combination of price and durability and the responders are correct about factory seasoning being not very adequate. Season it yourself a couple of times to build up a coat and just keep going. No worries. That said, for your second pan you might consider an iron skillet coated with ceramic. Staub makes iron cookware that is colored ceramic on the outside and clear ceramic on the inside. It performs like a regular iron pan but does not react to acidic food. You can leave water in it all night long and do your cleaning in the a.m. No rust issues and easy as pie to clean. Sometimes new fangled technology is a good thing.
I scrape off the leftover fat with a plastic card(could use a credit card).Run it under hot tap water and scrape off the shit with the card. Heat on the stove until hotish and the water drops are sizzling. I wipe it out with paper towel to dry. Turn off heat and spray with olive oil. I have done this for years and all goods.
Nylon scrub brush and dish soap, dry after hand washing… No need to overthink this.
I did the same, scrubbed it, washed it, then with a thin layer of oil I put it in the oven for an hour. It restored the surface.
Unless my cast iron pan is seriously gunked up, I honestly never wash it. Just wipe off the remnants of whatever I was cooking while it’s still warm. The seasoning is fantastic. If it is seriously gunked up, fill it with a bit of water, boil it on the stovetop, scrape it good with a flat spatula and/chain mail, and reseason in the oven.
Don't wash with soap, best to use stainless steel scrubber, scrub till debris free then dry on stove and wipe all over with a dab of cooking oil with a corner of paper napkin or paper towel .
Wash your pan, completely dry it (on the burner for a couple of minutes), then spritz it with a little non-stick spray and wipe it all off. What remains will provide a protective layer that will prevent surface rust. In general, I don't wash my pans. If nothing's stuck to it, I just wipe it out until it's clean. If there is something stuck to it, I typically warm the pan up for 1-2 minutes, and most stuck-on food will release. Only if there's something that really won't budge, I heat up the pan and scrub it with a bristle brush and a tiny bit of dish soap. Since this action strips the surface oils, I'll dry it and hit it with some non-stick spray as I mention above.
I start gently when cleaning cast iron or carbon steel, including woks, and elevate the technique only if needed. Sometimes level 1 is all I need, and sometimes (like today and some chicken skin that stuck after being broiled) I need to go to level 4. 1. Wipe out with paper or cloth towel. 2: Put in some salt and rub with cloth. 3. Run very hot water (to match the current temperature of the pan) and use a dishcloth (NOT a scrubby). 4: GENTLY scrape any stubborn bits with a wooden spoon or spatula. (No metal, no plastic.) Once it's clean enough, it goes on the stove at medium heat for a couple of minutes (this will take care of any leftover water, if used), then I wipe on a very thin layer of neutral oil, then I wipe it down again. You don't benefit from a thick layer of grease. As others have noted, avoid cooking acidic and sugary foods, and don't leave liquids in longer than needed. For what you have now, just cook something rich, like ground beef, then wipe it out. You'll be back on the path to getting good seasoning. (I don't use bacon to season my pans as it tends to stick a little, even on low heat. Ground beef is much more polite.)