Cooking with cast iron...
#1
(03-15-2023, 03:25 PM)Chatwoman Wrote: Just landed some pretty sweet cast iron too...

I may give updates about how that goes, as a new cast iron user...

Apparently it takes like 30 meals to build up the initial seasoning, even with pre-seasoned pieces.

It's a huge process, but the whole idea is that the cookware lasts a lifetime.

I feel like I will intuitively develop my own personal cast iron process, but I could be wrong.

We'll see how it goes. I cook often enough (daily obviously) for the base to form pretty quickly, and once that's done, it should be solid for years to come.

I've done A LOT of research about it and the general consensus is that you should season your cast iron in the oven twice yearly.

But I read something lastnight that made a lot of sense to me...

Basically the guy said that regularly cooking with it IS seasoning it.

If you clean it properly (NO soap and minimal water, in fact it's best to just deglaze the pan while it's still hot as soon as you're done cooking, not to mention you can pour it on the food for extra flavor), then clean stuck on bits with salt if needed, put it back on the burner and heat it up, coat it lightly with oil, and put it back on the burner again til it just barely smokes, dab off excess oil, and then it's ready to store...

Apparently if you follow those basic steps and cook with it regularly (like daily or at least a few times per week) the seasoning straight up takes care of itself. No use of metal utensils is permitted on cast iron, really wood is the only thing you should be using.

I dunno, it all makes sense to me.

First impressions after cooking with cast iron for the first time??

Ummm...

Cast iron don't fuck around.

Cast iron ain't here to PLAY WITH YOU, HOLMES.

There's life before cooking with cast iron, and there's life after cooking with cast iron...

Two very different things.

Where do I even begin to explain this experience???
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#2
Is cast iron non-stick??

Uh, yes it is.

In fact, after what I just witnessed, I believe cast iron in fact INVENTED non-stick.

Is the flavor incomparable to other cookware?

Uh, yes. Entirely.

And I mean ENTIRELY.

Will cooking with cast iron make you grow big hairy balls the first time you use it, YES IT WILL.
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#3
The only thing I wasn't necessarily accurate about with my expectations was deglazing.

I think you absolutely could deglaze and make the clean-up process easier, but I think it's far from necessary.

Literally all you need to clean cast iron is a soft, lint free cloth, and some salt.

In fact, I don't think water has any business whatsoever even touching cast iron.

I've heard people say a super fast way to clean it immediately after cooking is to get the faucet MEGA hot, get a long oven mitt on, and take it under the hot water so it steams away any leftover residue.

I'm sure that works like a charm, but the fact is, drying cast iron immediately and then reheating it to get rid of ALL the water is so incredibly important.

I don't want water even touching mine during the cleaning process, it's just not necessary.

Was cooking and aftercare with cast iron as intuitive as I figured it'd be?

Yeah, surprisingly, it actually was. Especially the cleaning.

There were a few interesting things...

One thing was my habit of grabbing the handle when I need to shuffle food around in the pan was mostly not necessary.

Cast iron is so heavy, it's really not gonna slide around like a typical pot/pan.

An important thing to keep in mind is having the proper mitt to grab the handle with. I sewed a regular square mitt, doubled over, so it'd fit right onto the handle when I needed it, and it worked PERFECTLY.

That's indispensable in my opinion. They sell the silicon kind, but I just used what I had.
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#4
There are a few reasons why using water to clean cast iron is just not necessary...

Number one is the extraordinary non-stick nature of cast iron.

This pan was a pre-seasoned Lodge brand pan (ONLY get made in the USA).

I did do an oven seasoning on it before I ever used it though, and they say you don't HAVE to, but I would recommend it.

Anyway, it's entirely non-stick, and that makes getting any food particles off incredibly easy, even with the softest cloth you have (I used a cut up old t-shirt for cleanup, and a bandana for post cleaning re-season on the stovetop).

The fact that you clean and re-season (re-heat) the pan after using/cleaning it, and then before you use it again, you either pre-heat it in the oven (if you wanna sear meat) or on the stovetop...

That just pretty much guarantees any bacteria that was in it is gonna get killed off.

These are the reasons I believe it is wholly unnecessary to use water to clean the pan.

Take that soft, lint-free cloth, and wipe the pan down. Sprinkle some course salt (kosher or sea) into the pan, take the cloth and target any areas that still have anything stuck on.

Just keep wiping the pan and freeing up and debris, and then begin that post-clean stovetop re-seasoning process, and I am serious, it is good to go.

It's that simple.
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#5
https://www.rachaelrayshow.com/video/cle...-and-water

That's just one source that explains using soap and water is not necessary, there are others.

People are so deeply ingrained in the stainless steel pots/pans world that they think soap and water is just standard.

Which, it totally IS necessary with those specific materials (pretty much).

The heat involved at the end of the cast iron cleaning process (as well as at the beginning of the next use process) is gonna kill off anything dangerous way better than soap and water would anyways.

To get a crudded up, rusty old cast iron pan back down to a beginner base to start the seasoning process, some people put the pan in the oven on self-cleaning mode (not recommended for old or thin pans), or they just chuck it in a fire.

Cast iron is pretty damn incredible man.
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#6
I'm a friggen believer.

For someone who's cooked with stainless steel etc. for their whole life though, it's definitely a whole different world.

I can understand why some people would think the maintenance is too much.

Indeed, if you're strapped for time or you just don't really enjoy cooking in the first place, I don't think cast iron will be for you.
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#7
The whole thing about cast iron is that you heat it only on medium (or med-high) and it takes a long time to heat up...

But once it does, it retains heat so well that it'll blow your friggen mind.
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#8
The flavor is OUT OF THIS WORLD, dude...

I thought food tasted good before...

What The Fuck
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#9
Dang.

nod
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#10
For first time cooking in a new pan, it's highly recommended that you just straight up deepfry something, and I can see why.

Thing is, I ain't much of the deepfrying type. Like, if I'm making fried chicken, then hell yeah, I'm all about it.

But I don't really tend to make fried food all that much. I just don't see it being very healthy.

So I opted for caramelizing onions and peppers for the first time around. I used the smallest pan (8 inch and perfect for one person) and I made sure to get the food all up the sides.

It worked incredibly well.

You could also just deepfry taters, but I didn't have any on hand. Will probably do that soon.
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#11
Getting the oil etc. all up around the sides of the pan is really important for building seasoning though, and this desired evenness in the seasoning is why you ALWAYS put the pan UPSIDE DOWN in the oven whenever you do a full on season.
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#12
Gravity, yo.
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#13
Flipoffnana 
Are you talking Gas or electric?
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#14
Cooking is alchemy in the first place...

But when you start cooking with cast iron?

Whole new level.
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#15
This was done on a flat top electric stove.

In the future I'll be using gas too...

Works like a dream on both gas, electric, flat, spiral burners...

It's hard to go wrong with cast iron, but here's what I think is important...

The BOTTOM of the pan.

Lodge pans are good because their logo on the bottom goes INTO the pan, doesn't stick OUT.

A logo that sticks out on the bottom of the pan will cause uneven heating and that is just plain unwanted.
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#16
NEVER temperature shock cast iron.

Hot water on hot iron. Never cold water. Of course like I said, I ain't about mixing iron and water anyways, but if you do, just remember this.

Heat 'er up slow...

The heating up technique is important if you're camping and cooking on fire, and it's cold out.

This is why a lot of people preheat the cast iron at a low temp in the oven before throwing it on the stove.
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#17
Cast iron aficionados even go so far as to call it "pre-warming" instead of preheating, cuz again, can't temperature shock cast iron.
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#18
Book 
(03-15-2023, 05:52 PM)Chatwoman Wrote: Cast iron aficionados even go so far as to call it "pre-warming" instead of preheating, cuz again, can't temperature shock cast iron.

Well you know how to season a wok cast iron?
It depends what you are cooking.
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#19
I always hand dry and oil a cast iron skillet after each use.

Today's recipe. A pound of 80/20 ground beef, three diced potatoes, half an onion, chopped, a can of green peas, drained, and a packet of pepper gravy mixed with water. Brown the meat, add the veggies and simmer, covered. Add the gravy mix towards the end.
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#20
And it also goes without saying that you don't just straight up boil water in cast iron.

Gotta use stainless steel or anything else for boiling water.

Boiling water in cast iron will eat away at the seasoning, loosen it up and make it come off.

Also advised to avoid cooking anything too acidic in new cast iron.

Tomato sauce etc., no go.

Even on well seasoned cast iron, I'd kinda not really wanna cook that kinda stuff in it.

That said, hardcore cast iron lovers, like intense cowboy, horsewranglin' men are all about cooking whatever the fuck you want in it and abusing the shit out of it.

For the casual cast iron user, or even someone who cooks with it regularly over the course of years, I think the preferred thing is just to avoid cooking anything too acidic.

Apparently tomatoes are bad for my blood type anyways, so I have no interest in cooking with them in the future anyways.

I gotta say though...

I am gonna be making pizza in my cast iron at some point.

In an application like that, where the tomato sauce is gonna be sitting on top of the dough, it's really not all that harmful to the seasoning.

There are plenty of ways to cook a pizza without using any tomato sauce anyways though, what we're talking about here is just basically flatbread (my choice is baking powder in place of yeast) with delicious stuff smeared on it.

I think the key to cooking any good pizza all the way through to an acceptable degree is just to keep toppings minimal.

I'm more of a margherita kinda gal, no reason to go nuts with the toppings, and no reason to be restricted to only tomato sauce.
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