How gross is cast iron cooking? 

I once found an older, quite heavy cast iron frypan at a yard sale. Lost it in the divorce.

I love owning and cooking on "Black iron" skillets, and had a sweet collection of about 6 at one time. Did a lot of campfire cooking, when I finished I'd take them down to the creek, a small bit of sand, swish that around with a sturdy rag then briefly back to the fire to dry, finish with a wipe of oil. Better than Teflon (I haven't used a Teflon pan in 20 yrs.). A pan with that kind of history would be quiet the Heirloom.

It's not a difficult process. Just a quick water rimse and maybe some dishsoap and wipe with a cloth, a good dry, a bit of oil (say a little bigger than a dime to a quarter depending on the size of the pan) and then a good wipe around with paper towel on the residual heat. It's not any more care than most pans really. You shouldn't leave food to get stuck on on any pan as it's much easier to clean fresh off the heat in the first place.

The main reason it's recommended to add thin layers is for bonding, if you add too much oil it can become sticky and not polymerize fully, leaving a sticky, gunky feeling to parts of the pan. A very thin layer will polymerize more completely in less time and is more likely to bond to the other layers, but because it's thin you need to apply a lot of layers for any substantial effect, and an improperly cured layer can make it difficult to add additional seasoning layers. And when I say thin I mean you should basically not see any oil when applying it, it should look almost dry, it's almost impossible to get all the oil off a pan with some form of towel so there's almost always an extremely thin layer left. When I started seasoning some pans I thought that was too little and applied enough oil that I could still see the shine from it, and the seasoning did not turn out good at all. The thing about pre-seasoning is more for at the beginning or after a heavy restoration, a completely fresh pan will have very little seasoning and can be so sticky it's nearly impossible to cook with, so a lot of people don't want to cook with the pan for 4-5 cooks until it starts getting more non-stick. And if you end up needing to restore a pan, say the seasoning is ruined and it starts rusting, it's important once you remove the rust and seasoning layers to preseason as quick as you can, as the raw cast iron will rust readily and impart unenjoyable iron flavors into your food. If a pan already has enough seasoning that you feel good using it, then by all means use it often and all good to go.

yeah, no need to be precious about it; what helped me get a feel for how to approach this stuff was a couple of those "cowboy cook" videos where the guy would just rub some oil on a pan and stick it in a campfire until it smoked a little and the pans come out a beautiful glossy black hell, one time adam ragusea just got one hot on his stove and (after turning the flame off!!) hit it with some cooking oil spray, whereupon it set instantly like "seasoning spray paint"

there are many methods, another one is simply getting something like grapeseed or rapeseed oil and pouring it out just so the entire bottom is coated and no more. Then leave it on high for a bit and dump it out. It's a great way that'll work every time but it'll waste the oil. But simply cooking on it works too

Also, it really matters what you cook in it. Some things you can mess around, mess up, and your pan will be fine. But if, for example, you cook with tomatoes often then in my experience you need to also pay attention to re-doing the seasoning.

Exact same thing happened to me with a roommate I had a while back except the dishes had been piled up and just sitting in the sink for almost a week before I got tired of it. I was almost done cleaning everything when they came in and the first thing they did was start freaking out that I was washing the cast iron with soap. Only difference was that I was aware that seasoning them was a thing, just didn't know that a light soap scrubbing would completely "ruin" it. I told them "can't it just be re seasoned?" But they obviously didn't want to hear that since they couldn't even wash dishes and worked at home.

The only rule I'd say cast iron has is "don't leave it visibly wet". hit it with a dish towel after you're done washing and it's fine. Other than that you're basically cooking with the toughest thing around.

yep if dish soap ruins it, it's not seasoned. Oil layers that are too thick or not properly heated will wash out... and they should be washed out.

Who tf asks a guest to do their dishes? I mean I kinda get it if you offered to do them, but even then a normal host would insist that they’ll do their own dishes. The only way this could possibly make sense to me is that this didn’t happen in America because almost everyone I know would have just said “fuck off” and left immediately after the hosts asked that.

No steel scrubby, no dishwasher, no soaking... soap and normal abrasive plastic, bamboo, etc) are fine. Just dont go crazy.

they dont, not even close, if modern soaps could strip polymerized fats, think what it would do to your skin.

Yeah, this is the most shocking part of the video.

@quercus3290 if it can strip polymers, I wouldn't know at all what it could do to my skin. I don't know if my skin is at all similar in chemistry to a polymer.

deglazing with wine or tamato juice, t make a pan sauce for yoyur steak, does more damage, than a bit of dish soap an scrubbing could ever do

Technically old soaps shouldn't either. Soap is made with lye, but if the soap is properly made, no lye will be left in the soap. Modern dish soap isn't even soap, it's a detergent, and it will in no way harm your seasoning :)

Even scraping often/hard can be a good thing as it evens out the bumpy texture over time!

@@MichaelFairhurst If you do that though, it's gotta be done really evenly. It's very easy to scratch a pan with a fork or the corner of a metal spatula if you're not careful. Nuance dies on the internet, so it's generally easier to say "don't do it" than to say "sometimes it's fine, but only if you do x, y, and z"

@@cebo494 I use a metal spatula, aggressively, all the time and haven't experienced issues. But I'm sure one day I will because you're right, everything is more nuanced than it appears online. Cheers!!

Keeping it dry is very easy if you just leave the oily residue from the last cook until you use it again. Then just break out a sponge and soap and clean it when you need it. The oil from the last cook keeps water off the pan very well.

The handles are the issue on my wok lately yeah 😅 I prefer a carbon steel frying pan over a full cast iron as well though, mostly for weight reasons. I have a better seasoning on that than the wok though, I guess due to a thinner layer from the factory like you say. Maybe I should try to start again with my wok… either grind it back, or just buy a new one and be a little more careful drying the handles.

As horrible as "older?" Actually, Troi did NOT say "seasoned." She said "more seasoned," which is relatively horrible, not absolutely horrible.

@jimrobinson9979 I think of this quote every time I hear someone describes a person as “seasoned” 😂

Glad I'm not the only one who thought of this, damn we're a bunch of dorks!

@@ross-carlson Old Dorks ... who can cook!

Perpetual 1-day blinding stew

​@anthonyjoshder4395 blinding?

​@@priestesslucy3299 It's a meme, look it up it's quite funny

There was a 1500 year old pottage in france that got interrupted in WWII. I think the oldest pottage is now 300 years old.

I've made a pot of stew then just added vegetables as it got low. I think it lasted about a fortnight maybe a little longer.

Goes hand in hand with the myth that *not* scrubbing them down with soap is unsanitary.

I use “cutting board soap” on my carbon steel, because I assume it’s just soap that is less likely to impart bad soapy flavors.

The only myth is WHY you shouldn't. I don't use soap on my cast iron because it makes the next thing you cook in it taste like soap, and it's completely unnecessary. Soap is only needed to remove grease from pans, which doesn't make sense with cast iron since you're just going to polymerize that oil and create a new top layer for your pan's coating. The people who think they've unlocked some secret by putting soap on their cast iron pans are infuriating.

You're being a princess, Tui

There is no reason to use soap in cast iron. None. I would rather dunk it in vinegar for a couple days or give it an electrolysis bath if I need to deep clean it.

Not exactly, Teflon is special, because it's the least reactive molecule on Earth, making it the most non-stick molecule. The only thing that Teflon sticks to is itself, which is why it usually flakes off the pan, because it wont even stick to the pan. The seasoning on a pan is nowhere near as non-stick, which is a good thing, because it prevents it from flaking off while being applied to metals that would easily rust.

@@SimonWoodburyForget Agreed. Teflon is a special case. An amazing molecule but only good for low and slow cooking with liquid. Or eggs which are notorious. I don't use teflon unless I know I don't want any other flavor to partake and (important and) I know the heat will not get above 350F/170C. The minute you get teflon above 400F/200C, it's breaking down and getting into your food. It's non-toxic so that's cool but your non-stick is becoming less non-stick every time you do that. But this happens to all teflon pans eventually because hot spots occur. Nothing teflon lasts particularly long and there is no way to refurbish it unlike cast iron which isn't as non-stick but does much more than the sum of its parts in the end. TL;DR, Teflon is great for dialing in exact flavor without outside influence. Cast Iron is the opposite, whatever flavor you (without knowing) left in the pan will enhance or compete with the next dish you cook in that pan.

@@miinyoo Teflon is not non-toxic... I cook eggs on a carbon steel pan with a little butter and have literally never had any problems with it. Don't know why people freak out about eggs.

@@miinyoo Teflon is VERY toxic lol

@@miinyoo Where did you hear that teflon wasnt toxic? Like im pretty sure it is, but maybe im wrong.

She better steel herself for the haters to come for her, though.

That was a particularly great video of Adam's as well. I think about that one a lot

He's a tool

@@BuzzingGoober You're a tool

@@BuzzingGoober what'd he do

@@BuzzingGoober Buttmad that he's not a right-wing nutjob like Alton Brown?

Wooden spoons and cooking utensils are fine. You should ideally be giving them a quick wash immediately after use and drying them with a towel as much as possible (as opposed to just letting a soaked spoon air-dry) but you aren't going to get anyone sick unless you don't wash a wooden spoon after using it with raw meat or just letting it sit out unwashed for a long time. For wooden cutting boards, same thing. Every now and then (as in once or twice a year) you may want to sand it down a bit and apply some neutral food safe oil (usually mineral oil - you can also use this one wooden spoons and such but since spoons tend to be so cheap it's not really worth the added effort ot sand and oil them like it is with a good wooden cutting board).

@@dealbreakercoh, good tip. My favourite cutting board is looking a bit scarred-up with dry patches now, and I wondered what could be done with that. It makes sense that treating it like my guitar fretboard (polish, perhaps a lot more vigorously with the cutting board, and oil) is the way to go 😊

I grew up in a home where my mother prepared raw chicken on wooden cutting boards with wooden spoons, washed with ordinary dish soap, and I'm still alive many decades later.

My mom uses plastic cutting boards and she got cancer.. I only use wood because I don't like eating microplastics

Kitchen woods are used because of their anti-bacterial properties. The gouge marks are the same as with plastic, but the plastic isn't trying to combat the bacteria, and putting microplastics into your prepared dish. Wash the wood, run it through the dishwasher to sanitize and you're better off. Yes, the wood is more porous, which gives more hiding spots, but those spots are inhospitable to things like e-coli and salmonella due to the wood resins and oils. As long as you sanitize and dry it out, you're safe.

I cook a lot in my cast iron, and even leave food overnight occasionally. I found that a good modern Lodge pan stood up to this abuse much better than a cheaper, thicker Chefmate that was my first exposure to cast iron. I’ll also say that when I got my second Lodge, I noticed the difference between “brand new” and “well used for the last 3-4 years”. Putting it to use and throwing it in a preheating oven a few times over the first couple months really seemed to help it build seasoning faster. Which is to say, the oven stuff can go way too far, but it’s not useless either, like with a new piece, or restoring an old one.

There are literally zero forums anywhere dedicated to OCD seasoning.

@@NicholasSandar I found the oven is more useful for Carbon steel than cast iron if you have an electric stove top. Often times electric heats up too much because the temperature is harder to control and you end up burning your season instead of polymerizing it properly; whilst the oven has much better and even temperature. It's also good for doing multiple pans at once, you can go ahead and give all your pans a touch up at the same time.

@@nyanuwu4209 Probably means the cast iron or cooking subreddits. I've certainly seen people recommend creative ways to wash a cast iron, the weirdest I've seen being salt and water lmao

@@uponeric36 I know what he means. But there's no OCD there. Salt will certainly work if you've got stuff stuck on (and didn't wash while it was still hot which is basically deglazing with soap and water), being abrasive and all, but it's a waste of salt.

I never use unsalted butter when baking, and I'm a very prolific baker. I only buy salted, cuz that's what I like on my toast. Never had everyone tell me my goodies were anything other than delectable.

Most people consume way too much salt. I never buy salted butter.

​@@drewfromyay882Some people don't consume enough salt. I was making myself sick for years by not getting enough salt, which is an essential nutrient. I was eating about a third of the daily minimum, far less than even 1/4tsp a day. So to clarify, people who eat nothing but processed foods consume too much salt, as processed food is very heavily salted even if it doesn't taste salty. But people who mostly or exclusively eat fresh foods actually need to be pretty heavy handed with salt to come remotely close to their daily required amount to not be chronically malnourished. As fruits, veggies, and fresh meat have close to zero salt.

Yeah.. If your seasoned pan can't handle some scrubbing and soap, then it isn't really seasoned. And I always laugh when I think of home cooks 200 years ago babying their cast/carbon cookware like we baby ours.

Soap used have a lot more lye in it. Lye does actually break down the polmerized layer

@@matthewread9001 yeah like i'm the 60s. I've been cooking for 10 years now... In my life it has not been a problem. And my suggestion stands. The past is of non importance regarding wethether you should clean your pan or how to do so

I'm calling hte police.

@@urielchami4556 I was more responding to Everett who mentioned cooks 200 years ago where it might have actually been an issue at some point

My mum was gonna toss out a small (8"?) cast-Fe pan, until I said, "Screw that... gimme!", and that became my fave for eggs. Was all pale gray and rusty, just nekkid Fe. Sanded down the shiite out of it , smoothed it, seasoned it, and it's one of my faves.

You can cook highly acidic foods like spaghetti sauce, but you'll have to re-season afterwards. I prefer to make stuff like chili and spaghetti sauce in stainless steel.

@@claytonberg721 No you won't. I cook tomato sauce in my dutch oven all the time and there's no special care needed.

@@Meton2526 my skillet is only like 3 years old, maybe you have better seasoning on yours. I'm not saying it wrecks it, it just needs a layer of oil and an hour in the oven afterwards,.. Or you can cook a package of bacon in it the next day or something.

birb

Totally agree. I use soap and a sponge on my cast iron every time I cook with it, and don't bother post-seasoning. I occasionally (about once a year or if some mishap happens that damages the seasoning) do a few rounds of seasoning in the oven. If you've ever had oil baked onto a baking sheet, you'll know how nearly impossible it is to get polymerized oil off a pan with regular soap and water.

I once was a bit too vigorous with a metal spatula, but yeah it’s handled everything else fine 😅

@@meatmanek I thought I had a black baking sheet until I took metal wool to it. It's metal colored. And it wasn't a black oxide coating.

It’s really so simple and people will try to convince you it’s so complex, like many other things on the internet.

@@ek9589 It's easy to misunderstand how to clean, was my biggest problem when starting out with cast iron. Actually I had used them for years before I learned how to properly clean them.

Gimme da pan

they literally take me less time to clean than most people spend cleaning their "non stick" pans the only downside is the first seasoning part

@@WayStedYou You just have to know how to do it, that's all. There's alot of wives tails and stuff like that which persist to this day, which causes much confusion about a simple thing. I'm also thinking back to years ago before you could just research this stuff online. I remember my mom saying they can't ever touch water and all this stuff, without ever explaining how to do anything about cleaning them. That's all that's nonsense, cleaning is very easy.

Yeah sometimes it’s nice to be really sure of cleaning every nook and cranny, and get a good view at the coverage of the “bronze” colour of a thinner seasoning to check on its natural progress of building up.

False. Just like baking a cake doesn’t make the flour or egg in it disappear, soap made with lye will always have lye in it.

Yeah but this title actually hits the target demographic of people who are concerned about cast iron.

Bait is the best strategy for winning RU-vid.

T H E A L G O R I T H M R E Q U I R ES E N G A G E M E N T.

@@mister-zen8491 Wang Chung tonight! 🤘

Bad babilon, BAD!

@@iansteelmatheson Did you notice that a "seasoned pan user" can mean a "user of seasoned pan" or a "seasoned user of pan". And both are true here. Isn't that neat?

unbeatable comment 😲

@@MeriaDuck Meh. I bet you could easily pun-ch my lights out if you tried.

Go straight to jail! Do not get 200 dollars

This is true now since we know the science. Back in the day, this wasn't the case. People used wood ashes for their base, and the lack of consistency in that meant a very high chance of unreacted base left behind.

False. Just like baking a cake doesn’t make the flour or egg in it disappear, soap made with lye will always have lye in it.

​@@thegoodwitchluzuraconcept of what a "thing" is changes a bit when it gets down to molecular level. The chemical process in which soaps are made is called saponification. When making soap, you'd mix lye (typically NaOH sodium hydroxide) and oil (chain of fatty acids). Lye is first carefully measured according to amount of oil being used and dissolved in water - this causes the lye to ionize into sodium and hydroxide (OH-). Hydroxide ion then combines with a hydrogen from the fatty acid to create water (H2O) and sodium ion bonds with the rest of the acid, creating soap. So, what used to be components of lye are something entirely different. The lye, as long as the formula is correctly balanced, is no longer there. If you baked that cake of yours until it burned to ashes, what you have there aren't eggs, it's just soot and a very upset grandma.

yes!! this is such a perfect example for this kind of pan

I don't cook on my grill in a layer of oil.

no its because soap is fine to use

Flaxseed oil is pure poison for cast iron!!!! Cast iron and Flaxseed oil should not be used in the same sentence!!!!!!!!!! Absolutely heed warning!!!!! NEVER use Flaxseed oil on cast iron!!!!! Absolute nightmare!!!!

Hmmm. At the humidity levels required at that point, wouldn't pantry/cupboard food items also be going bad? (Or even, rust would start to be an issue?) I'd hope at that point you've made some cool, dry place to store things, or learned to be extra careful with food residue.

That's a concern over a grill where the food can be exposed to many hundreds of degrees. The cooking surface of cast iron cookware shouldn't exceed 400 degrees F or so. If it does, the smoke will let you know that you've gone way too hot

@@1dgram But we do see the smoke in the video when the person applies oil to season the pan.

Perhaps there is a discussion more about browning food vs burning food (black). And furthermore. If a seasoned pan is non-stick, the polymer should not be sticking to your food. You are eating your cooked food, not the polymer.

​@@babilon6097but it's not much above the smoke point, and when actually cooking you should be below the smoke point

You are not supposed to eat the polymers

Any videos about the science of farming would be awesome

What's not obvious is what is the temperature? Somewhere between "typical cooking temp" and "molten iron", that polymer is going to combust or something.

@@pierrecurie It's 450F for about 30min to an hour. it will get smokey. You can do it on the burner, but it takes more finesse... bring the temp up *very slowly* to the smoke point, white off excess oil as it beads and make sure you have lot's of ventilation. Use the thinnest layer possible with the heat applied as gradually as you can. Then repeat. Each time you can a new layer, the deeper layers carbonize... that's what gives seasoning that dark appearance. When you're done it should feel glassy hard, if it feels tacky then the temp wasn't higher enough or there was too much oil applied.

The pan handle tends to get pretty hot in my experience. But you can also usually stick these in the oven unless they have a wooden handle

Just clean every bit of surface with soap and dry it well afterwards (either with a towel, or by firing it up in the stove). I think the video states clearly enough that soap does not destroy the polymer layer.

Yes but unless you are doing that often it won't be enough to really damage the seasoning if a well seasoned pan and it won't result in a really perceptible taste difference in the food nor a meaningful increase in the amount of iron you consume. So as long as you aren't make sauce or chili every week you don't need to even think about it.

@@dealbreakercOTOH I have been using my wok for such stews a lot (with a high intensity pre-fry of a lot of the veg) and the seasoning is definitely thinning faster than it gets applied. So it’s a useful wee reminder that I should supplement my wok’s seasoning in a way my bacon-and-eggs pan doesn’t need.