Cast Iron

[gcr0003]

View attachment 127473

Dawn dish soap and scotch brite to take off where you have too much oil. Rinse and heat back up, then apply another coat, wipe down to take away excess. You want* it barely on there. It really is much less than you’d think you’d need. Rebake.

Looks like you still have a bit of bare/unseasoned area to coat. 3 seems about minimal after completely stripping everything down to bare metal. High level goal is to get that fat/oil to polymerize on the whole surface. If the layer is too thick it won’t fully polymerize and it will feel tacky/sticky after a bake. Less is more I found, and it will fully harden. Then you won’t need to season it that many times or again in the near future.

Sounds complicated, and I read about it before doing it, but it took me a couple times to get it right after messing up.

 

[mschultz373]

Thanks for help guys. Will follow and report back!

 

[Nutterbuster]

But why would you even do that? lol

Totally agree. Cast iron is very adequately nonstick. So is carbon steel and stainless. For a handful of relatively uncommon techniques/recipes, there's an edge in a PFAS-coated pan. Really low temp, French-style scrambled eggs come to mind. Some fish preparations. Parmesan crusted cutlets. Cold sear steak. All of those IMO are way easier to do in PFAS pans, and a "seasoned" skillet won't cut the mustard there. For me, at least.

Aside from those niche cases and simmering acidic foods like tomatoes, all of the pans are more-or-less substitutable. Some are more or less heat responsive, but most cooking isn't really sensitive to that, and most home ranges aren't capable of capitalizing on it.

I just think it's helpful to dispel the conception of seasoning as something that you can, through some folk-magic routine, eventually get on the level of a PFAS pan. Most good "seasoning" routines I see are just diligently keeping the pan clean, dry, and lightly oiled. And a lot of bad "seasoning" is just gobs of burnt-on grease, which is definitely not nonstick.

 

[Nutterbuster]

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I think this is a good case of what I mean. This pan is covered in burnt-on grease and won't perform well. Worse performance because somebody tried to season it.

Vs a stripped pan, preheated, with butter (too much butter, IMO...was on the phone today while cooking lunch)

This pan has been used twice on med-low, definitely not enough use or high enough temp to polymerize anything. And the eggs are in the words of Paul Simon, "slip-slidin' away."

 

[Wirrex]

I figured as much. I just wanted to rattle your cage a little.

 

[Maverick1]

I think this is a good case of what I mean. This pan is covered in burnt-on grease and won't perform well. Worse performance because somebody tried to season it.

Vs a stripped pan, preheated, with butter (too much butter, IMO...was on the phone today while cooking lunch)

This pan has been used twice on med-low, definitely not enough use or high enough temp to polymerize anything. And the eggs are in the words of Paul Simon, "slip-slidin' away."

Nice jiggle.

 

[Maverick1]

I think this is a good case of what I mean. This pan is covered in burnt-on grease and won't perform well. Worse performance because somebody tried to season it.

Vs a stripped pan, preheated, with butter (too much butter, IMO...was on the phone today while cooking lunch)

This pan has been used twice on med-low, definitely not enough use or high enough temp to polymerize anything. And the eggs are in the words of Paul Simon, "slip-slidin' away."

So, to make your eggs slide around like that you used a medium low heat cast iron pan, preheated, and only butter?

 

[Maverick1]

I made eggs today too. Vegetable oil for seasoning the pan, Amazon knock off snow clad stainless steel pan (imitation hex clad). Dollop of butter. Medium heat, preheated the pan, eggs did not stick to the pan, but wasn’t able to jostle them around like @Nutterbuster

 

[gcr0003]

I made eggs today too. Vegetable oil for seasoning the pan, Amazon knock off snow clad stainless steel pan (imitation hex clad). Dollop of butter. Medium heat, preheated the pan, eggs did not stick to the pan, but wasn’t able to jostle them around like @Nutterbuster

View attachment 127478

You broke one of your egg yokes.. must’ve been refreshing the best gear website when you were cracking that one

 

[gcr0003]

I think this is a good case of what I mean. This pan is covered in burnt-on grease and won't perform well. Worse performance because somebody tried to season it.

Vs a stripped pan, preheated, with butter (too much butter, IMO...was on the phone today while cooking lunch)

This pan has been used twice on med-low, definitely not enough use or high enough temp to polymerize anything. And the eggs are in the words of Paul Simon, "slip-slidin' away."

You changed your YouTube name again or this is a new channel? We are ready for southern fried gone culinary clean cooking channel chef.

 

[Nutterbuster]

So, to make your eggs slide around like that you used a medium low heat cast iron pan, preheated, and only butter?

Yep. Whatever fat you like. I usually do bacon fat or butter for eggs. Nothing magic about medium high, I just like gently cooked eggs.

If you haven't paid attention to it before, it's worth playing with your stove eyes and different pans to see at what setting and for how long they need to sit to preheat for different purposes. Back when I was getting more serious I sat there with a timer and infrared thermometer. Probably not necessary, but play with it. If you can hit and maintain a temp where the water bubbles out of butter (above 212) but it doesn't burn (under 350), that's a really useful temp for a lot of stuff.

 

[Swamp Fox__On The Run]

some of you boys are looking at this all wrong ...