The Reason Why Cast Iron is a Game Changer 

how would cast iron be a game changer, its the original game.

This video is a good example of a good cook knowing that something works, but not actually knowing why it works. Michelle knows cast iron is good for cooking and she knows how to use it, but when she explains why... it's about half nonsense. The cast iron she is using is enameled, meaning you don't "season" the pan, and you can clean it with soap and water just fine. Scrubbing with salt and oil doesn't give you "more layers" of seasoning either. Seasoning on a pan is just layers of oil/fat baked on to a smooth layer on the pan. If you had a regular cast iron and not enameled, that's all still good advice. Also, cast iron isn't magically clean because it's iron and we've used it for hundreds of years... it's because most germs/bacteria cannot survive past 130 degrees fahrenheit, which...if you're cleaning your cast iron correctly, it will hit that temperature, which is why it's fine to clean without soap and water on non-enameled pans.

I loved Michelle on top chef!! So glad to see her on this channel

It's worth noting that the whole point of a Dutch oven is that it's effectively an oven on it's own, just surround the oven from the top and bottom with coals and there you go. I have no idea why people have started to refer to things that aren't Dutch ovens as Dutch ovens, but unless you're Xhibit, it makes little sense to put an oven in the oven.

I love my many cast iron peices. I have a 20" cast iron skillet that I use in my 22" Webber kettle. It fits perfectly and can do all kinds of monster cooks with all that room. Yup, love my "heavy metal" cooking. 🍳🍳🍳

I have a problem with her technique with those lamb shanks. Why rub with the spices before searing only to burn them on the bottom of the pan? Instead, sear the meat and remove, caramelize the veggies, return the meat THEN add the spices. Bloom the spices briefly before adding the liquids. Nothing burned, no fond salted away, all the flavor stays in the pot. Otherwise, she’s right about cast iron; I have a kitchen full of it.

I have a cast iron non enameled skillet, and also a 10” pot. I have them seasoned to perfection, nothing sticks. I love cooking with cast iron, and want more pieces.

Chef Michelle Minori, you are amazing! More videos from this chef please! And great instructions and education on cast iron in this video. Thank you!

I am so so confused. She is giving lots of good tips for bare cast iron but she is cooking with two enameled pans. I don't leave my enameled pans with oil on them....?!

If Chef Michelle Minori taught in a culinary school, I would enroll immediately. . . and I don't really like cooking all that much!

Yeah I’ve been missing out just started using the cast iron and that’s the only pan I use from now on 😋

I need to stock up some salt now..

The cast iron will be around when all of the other types of pans are gone. It has and will always stand the test of time. Great video.

This was done well, please do more.

No, no, no, no, no, this is enameled cast iron. You clean it like a regular pan and you do NOT season it. it has Cast iron under the enamel, but it is different from a true cast iron pan.

I mostly use all carbon steel, cast iron and rarely stainless steel. I love to cook 😝

A total game changer, plus scrambled eggs taste better in cast iron.

Always wanted to have one. Its just a bit intimidating to maintain.

She proved to me that you don’t need Le Creuset or Staub to be able to make a great meal!

I use mine at least once a day!

My cast iron does NOT look like that 😂😂

She’s awesome, great content 👍🏻

that background music is everything.

That upspeak, tho

Someone tag the iron so i can buy

She was awesome and very pretty. Super helpful vid

i had a crush on this woman within 2 minutes of listening to her

She def dosent move around the kitchen or handle the tools like she worked in a busy 2 michellin star kitchen hahaha

thats very shiny looking cast iron youre using.... hmmm you sure its not coated?

Black moms been passing down their cast iron pots n pans for generations.

Setting off fire alarms is my go to cast iron technique.

Should have mentioned that this skillet has a enamled coating on it. Its quite different from 100% cast iron.

I have cast iron handed down from me from my great-grandmother thats almost 80years old. The best fried chicken or anything made in it is always great.

FYI -- the pan and dutch oven you are cooking with are both enameled cast iron. Even the inside is enameled with what Le Creuset calls "satin black enamel." This means that there is a layer of enamel between the cast iron and the food. It also means that it you can use soap to clean it because the cast iron can't absorb the soap trough the enamel. You also don't need to "season" it like you would a Lodge, Griswold, Wagner or any other non-enameled cast iron pieces. I have both enameled and non-enameled cast iron skillets and dutch ovens -- they're both great, just different. The real benefit of the enameled ones is that they are easier to take care of and you don't have to worry about messing up the cast iron surface.

You're using enameled cast iron and talking about seasoning. Nope. You can't season enameled cast iron. That's the entire point of having the enamel coating inside. Use a sponge, dish soap, and water to clean enameled cast iron.

4:16 relationship with the pan? Does that mean she’s pansexual?

Michelle saving lives with that cast iron salt cleaning trick.

aren't those le creuset enamel coated cast iron pans? i don't think you need to rub salt or season those, just hot water and paper towel.

she is so precise.. im gonna pull the trigger n buy a skillet

The salt trick is genius. No idea how I never heard of it before.

fuck the positivity in these comments is making me smile

I just lost my job because of the pandemic, so I started a RU-vid cooking channel. Wish me luck!!!

That salt trick for cleaning is really a game changer

I love seeing someone cook on a coil stove. We see it so rarely and some people act like it's impossible to use them. When in fact, they are ubiquitous in homes everywhere. Including mine. :)

It looks like you're going to remove the enamel from the pan by doing that salt scrub... Also, you don't seem to differentiate between cast iron and enameled cast iron, which is confusing. Seems like you think the enameled surface is the game changer...

Find someone who loves you, like she loves her cast iron.

I'm 30, I got my first cast iron about 10 years ago, use it 3-5 times a week since, never had to re-season it. Had to add a 12" with no sides and a 6" a few years back, got a dutch oven last Christmas, I pretty much stopped using all other pans and most pots.

These are expensive ENAMELED cast iron pans. The raw iron has high heat ceramic bonded to it. These can be washed with hot, soapy water. They don't have the traditional "seasoning" that raw metal cast iron pans are known for.

Dumping that oil-soaked salt into your sink? RIP your pipes. Garbage can is the preferred disposal.

Great overview of cooking with cast iron cookware. Even more impressive that she is in her kitchen which is very modestly sized. Not as small as my kitchen but small... and the electric coil range. :)

Does she use a soap dispenser for her olive oil?! That’s awesome!!

Wait, that's not even seasoned cast iron. That's enameled cast iron. You can basically wash that dutch oven with soap and water just fine, and it doesn't need any seasoning. The salt rub is supposed to be for cleaning a seasoned surface without potentially washing off the seasoning. It's entirely unnecessary for enamel, and arguably also unnecessary for seasoned cast iron as well.

Please have her on again! Would love to see Michelle’s top 10 salt tricks

Go to any fire station and you will see cast iron pans in every size from 4” to 14”. I would have 3 going at the same time making blackened rockfish for 9-12 people. Giant commercial hood sucking all of the smoke outside scared the neighbors. They thought we had an active kitchen fire 🔥. Pans have been at my station since the 1950’s. 🤙🏼

Also she reminds of Bubba, Forrest Gump`s best friend. She talks about cast iron like he talks about Shrimps.

Can you please provide a link to both pans, love them both!!?!☮️✌🏻

This is not cast iron, this is enamled cast iron, and this creates a significant difference. I use both, and this video is innacurate and may confuse people. For one, enamled cast iron does not get seasoned in the way cast iron does. I know these pots, they have black enamled interiors, not bare iron.

Dope! I just got a skillet for christmas!

This video has no down panning it’s a horrible video you don’t even explain how to slowly heat the cast-iron and you don’t even explain the process sufficiently to warrant this being a good video I want even begin to comment about your kitchen

When I say "CAST", you say "IRON"!!!

Literally just cooked lamb stew and rice in cast iron pots. Love them

Why would you throw away those burned bits? I think your heat was too high and you didn't deglaze fast enough.

The pan is a Le Creuset Enameled Cast Iron pan. Does the salt damage the enamel?

Hey Michelle wanted to ask you what if your cast iron looks like brown all around like if it’s rustic which I clean up with a little soap and water then I dry it then I add my oil and with a paper towel I clean it with the oil and a lot of Residue still comes off everytime is that normal

I got a 10" square one for Christmas to compliment my standard 12" skillet. I wanted it for dips! I'm beyond excited to use it. I want my first recipe in it to be a Cajun crab dip.

Just for folks that may not know, using duck or goose fat in your cast iron gives everything you cook in it afterwards incredible flavor! Especially if you collect the fat from making a duck or goose stock in that same pot/dutch oven!

I used to hate cooking in cast iron but after watching this video I took out my cast iron pan rubbed it down in coarse salt and oil and then I asked the pan to forgive me for ignoring it for so many years!

This is pretty bad. It's enameled, for Pete's sake.

If you are in the market for a cast iron pan, Lodge (~$20) is a very good starting point and after a little seasoning will do most things you want. If you wanna a better version of a Lodge, it sounds weird, but go buy an old Griswold or other older pan off eBay ($75-$100). The finishes on old pans were much smoother and polished than the newer ones now and thus will be easier to season and make "non-stick". If you want to really ball out and get you an heirloom quality and one that will last forever, then go with the one she has here (Le Creuset Signature Pan $180) or a Smithey (~$160). All of these are solid choices and really just depend on your desire/ability to put in the time to make them good pans.

Lol. Salt doesn't "season" cast iron. And those enamel pots and pans have black enamel on the inside anyway! You can't season that! I couldn't even stand 4 minutes of this video! 🤣🤣

I can't watch this. Why would you season an enamel cast iron pan? And using oil with a smoking point so low that it starts to smoke when you've only just started to warm up the pan? So much nonsense.

Love my cast iron, both new and old!! Thank you for the salt cleaning tip, terrific tip👍

Please have Michelle on more regularly! I'd love to see more content from her and gain some knowledge and confidence to using cast iron.

Another very important selling point is that cast iron is non-toxic unlike many other cookware on the market. It also adds iron to the food you cook, and can be handed down for generations due to it's durability.

Jesus Michelle, that oven door hasn't seen soap in a while...

All I cook with is cast iron. Once you try cast iron cooking you can immediately tell the difference in both taste and flavor of food.

I've been using cast iron for close to a decade and pretty well read on it, she does a great job of explaining a lot of the nuance that only an experienced pro would know. I learned a lot, Very helpful!

More of her please, great host and great chef, very informative!!!

In 50 years: “why underwear is a game changer”

This is great because I don’t like washing pots and pans.

To much compression on this video

I called that burned meat and veggies, brown is the color you are looking for not black. I am almost sorry for them calling themselves chef.

People has been cooking with cast iron for ages Munchies: Cooking with cast iron is a game changer.

Easily one of the chillest human beings on the planet

Deep sear? You mean burnt to shit?

Hi, I live in San Francisco. Welcome to my kitchen that’s just a little bit bitter than my body. Only $5,000 a month everybody!

I would have to disagree if you put salt and scrub that pan every time you use it you're going to eventually wear off the emerald coating. just put it in the sink and use some soap and you don't have to oil it afterwards that's the whole point of emerald coating you're treating it like raw cast iron.

She loves her cast iron like uncle Roger loves his wok!

Kosher salt for cleaning cast iron is bomb 💣

Dont complicate things. Just add some water to a hot cast iron pan, let it boil and scrape away debris, rinse, place back on heat so it dries. Add some oil and your done.

The Sous Vide and Cast iron are my dynamic duo for cooking. Sous for the perfect doneness and the cast iron for finishing as it makes the best crust.

3:02 she conflates two different uses of the word "seasoning". there's seasoning with salt, which she does here. but that's not what is meant by the practice of seasoning cast iron. seasoning cast iron is the process by which oil is polymerized onto the pan.

So simple and so educational. Everything looked so delicious. Especially that egg 😻

Anyone know where I can get those weights she used on the fish? Reminds me of the ones Kenji has

Love my cast iron ❤. Most of mine are older than me 62 .I don't use the Dutch oven like I used to because of the smell of the metal. I use a coated cuisine for braising. But I love my skillets. My mom lost her home to the fire in paradise. I was able to pick through the rubble and rescued a cast iron skillet way older than me.

Thankfully, the pan is enamelled. If you go rubbing salt into traditional cast iron pan it isn't going to last long as anyone who has seen the damage that sea water does to metal can attest.

i pretty much only use cast iron. it's just so good!

Cast iron is ok. But you have to have other pans when you have young kids.

I thought i am the only person who put radish in a pan (it takes the colour a bit) 😮

Very important. Always dry cast iron with paper towel, or it will rust quickly. And, don’t use soap. It can last for generations.