Cast iron pan problem

[Wilfrid]

I bought a huge cast iron skillet, with a lid, a couple of months back.  I thought I seasoned it correctly.  I boiled water in it, scrubbed it out, and lined it with oil.

Prior to cooking with it, all appears to be as it should be.  After cooking, however, when I wipe the pan down, I get  black grime from the cooking service.  the more I wipe, the more grime I get.  The food isn't coloured or tainted, but of course it might well be poisoning me.

I would appreciate any advice, and if I am about to be struck by toxic shock, please tell me gently.

[Jason Perlow]

Thats normal. Its just the way cast iron is.

Basically every time you finish cooking in the pan, you want to wash it in the sink in hot water, clean the grime out with a sponge, and then put that cast iron pan on your range,  heat all the way up, and let the smaller particles evaporate away. Let that sucker get hot for about a half an hour or so, fires of #### hot, and that will carbonize the remainder of the small particles.

[Wilfrid]

Very useful indeed.  I was ignorant of the need to heat it up every time after cleaning it.  This is not going to go down well with my significant other, who already thinks a pan which is too heavy to lift, too big to store anywhere, and can't go in the dishwasher, was an unwise purchase.

I am going to sear a double size, two-month-aged French venison chop on it tonight, and I'll apply your solution.  Thanks again.

[Fat Guy]

>lined it with oil

What did you do exactly? What kind of oil? In what way did you apply heat, if at all? It sounds to me as though you may not have properly seasoned your pot.

>all appears to be as it should be

How did you reach that conclusion? I'm trying to figure out whether you have enough cast-iron experience to make that judgment.

>when I wipe the pan down

What with? And what did you cook in it?

>I get  black grime from the cooking service.  the more I wipe, the more grime I get

Do you believe this to be residue from what you cooked, residue from the seasoning oil, or actual metal? The latter is unlikely, but possible in an unseasoned pan.

>it might well be poisoning me.

Doubtful. Small quantities of iron released into food by a pot are healthful, not harmful. You'd have to eat a whole lot of it to be hurt.

There are many schools of thought regarding how best to season and maintain a cast-iron pot. The extremes are, on the one hand, allowing carbonized surface matter to accumulate over time thus forming a second organic skin over the metal, and, on the other hand, trying to keep as little carbonization as possible from occurring and using the organic material merely as a way to smooth out the surface irregularities. I and most restaurants opt for the latter, whereas many home cooks opt for the former. I find that a cast-iron pot with too much buildup transmits some of that flavor to the food, which I find undesirable.

Because you may have an improperly seasoned pot, the first thing I suggest you do is strip it back down to its metal surface so you can start over. You will need to acquire a box of kosher salt and a pack of heavy duty scourers, like these. Steel wool is neither effective nor desirable for this application. Heat the pan for five minutes over high heat, pour in the salt, and using a pot holder or protective glove rub the salt aggressively into the surface with the scourer. Rinse and repeat at least twice more. Don't worry about putting water in the hot pot. I've heard they can break, but I've never seen it happen.

Next, for seasoning, I suggest you repeat the following procedure approximately five times: Heat the pot for five minutes over high heat, pour in a tablespoon of oil, and rub it in with a wad of paper towels. Allow to cool. Rub out excess with paper towels. Repeat. You may want to invert the pot over the burner and do this once or twice to the exterior as well.

To clean, use water only, no soap, and the aforementioned scourer (it works best under running warm water). Wipe out with paper towels, and heat for a couple of minutes just to evaporate any remaining moisture. At this time you might wish to dab a bit of oil on a piece of paper towel (while the pot is hot) and rub it into the surface.

Generic vegetable oil or Crisco is best for this. Don't use olive oil or any other fruit oil.

That's all.

[tommy]

i agree the crisco or vegetable oil works well.  i agree also that the pan probably wasn't seasoned correctly.  i don't agree with the repetative nature of the suggested seasoning though.

i've had good success with the following:

well, i was going to type it, but this website has the directions recommended by cast iron cookware maker Lodge.

also, after use, i just wash with warm soapy water and a stiff brush, dry well, and oil lightly.  the website above suggests the same.

and, iron is good for you.  eat the black stuff.

[Fat Guy]

The Lodge directions for seasoning and care are targeted at consumers. They are designed with safety and sanitation, not effectiveness, in mind.

The seasoning method I advocate is, more or less, the one used by professionals on their cast iron and "French steel" cookware. It is quicker, and it creates better protection right off the bat. The oven method does not create an immediately useful utensil in my experience. You have to cook with it six or seven times before it works the way a well-seasoned cast-iron utensil should. Whereas, what I'm saying to do gives you a pan within about 45 minutes that cooks the same as one the you've had for a decade.

I very much discourage the use of soapy water on cast iron, at least for the first few dozen uses. Once you have the surface very well seasoned by repetitive cooking, scouring and reseasoning, it will be relatively impervious to soap. But not at first. Residue is too likely early on. Conversely, with the heating-after-cleaning procedure, you don't really need to do it once the pan is well worn. At that point, it won't rust from a little residual moisture, just so long as you towel it out pretty well. But with a relatively new utensil, you want it totally dry and heat is the best way to accomplish that.

[Fat Guy]

One other thing, which I forgot because it's been a couple of years since I've added a piece of cast-iron to my collection: I break in a new cast-iron pot by cooking something very fatty in it. Bacon is ideal. The bacon will not be affected by a less-than-perfectly-seasoned pot, and the bacon grease will complete the seasoning if it was in any way incomplete before.

[Jason Perlow]

Yeah bacon is a great thing to cook in a cast iron for a new pan. As are hamburgers. Or chorizo.

[mamster]

Or make southern-style cornbread several nights in a row.  With plenty of bacon grease, y'know, for the good of the pan.

[Wilfrid]

Oof, many thanks again, and I certainly have my work cut out for the holiday.

I score my self one point for using Crisco.  I managed that.  I swear I can't remember if I use the stove top or oven method when seasoning; I'm clearly not obsessed enough.  Unfortunately, life not being perfect, the Significant Other was caught introducing soapy water to the pan within minutes of it appearing in the apartment.  She was trying to be helpful.  Naturally, I swept her abruptly aside with a foul curse, reclaimed my purchase, and got into a silly argument.  But some damage might have been done at that stage.

I tried Jason's #### hot method last night, as it was easy for me and only created risk to other people in the apartment.  When I went to bed, the pan was still too hot to examine the results very carefully.  I will print out the other instructions here, and peruse them carefully.

At least I know I am building myself up through the extra iron intake.  I can cut back on the Guinness.

Thanks!

[A Balic]

Quote: from Wilfrid on 5:37 pm on Nov. 20, 2001

Unfortunately, life not being perfect, the Significant Other was caught introducing soapy water to the pan within minutes of it appearing in the apartment.  She was trying to be helpful.  Naturally, I swept her abruptly aside with a foul curse, reclaimed my purchase, and got into a silly argument.  But some damage might have been done at that stage

Weird  Wilfred, I had the same experience with my cast iron skillet and wife. I wonder how many marriages breakdowns Le Creuset is resonsible for? Next you will have to go through the "well if you want it to be scrubbed with salt, then you clean it" stage. As friendly advise, buy a non-stick skillet for the spouse.

Oh yes, scrubbing with salt etc as suggested works a treat.

[tommy]

Quote: from Fat Guy on 6:08 pm on Nov. 19, 2001

The Lodge directions for seasoning and care are targeted at consumers. They are designed with safety and sanitation, not effectiveness, in mind.

The seasoning method I advocate is, more or less, the one used by professionals on their cast iron and "French steel" cookware.

damnit Shaw, can't you be not right just for a second?!?!?  one tiny moment!?!??!  jeesh. ;)

[Fat Guy]

If you follow the UK boards, you'll see how I sometimes get bludgeoned. That's my special place. :)

[franklanguage]

Quote: from Wilfrid on 9:37 am on Nov. 20, 2001

I score my self one point for using Crisco.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always heard that the best thing to use for seasoning a cast-iron pan is peanut oil. Do we have an "either-or" situation here?

[Fat Guy]

Peanut oil and vegetable oils are fine, though they do leave a bit of a sticky residue that solid shortening doesn't. But certainly the Chinese have been seasoning their woks with peanut oil for awhile, and it seems to work. You'll be fine with any of the above. Just steer clear of fruit oils such as olive (though, again, it is the default oil in some cultures -- but it's not the most effective choice). Once you've created the initial seasoning coat, you can reinforce it with pretty much any fat. But it's best to build on a layer of shortening.

[Bux]

Here's my two cents on all this, alhough I don't use our cast iron skillet all that much, or for that matter our old trusty French steel saute pan or crepe pan, but they've been around for years and still get used from time to time. I see nothing wrong with soap and water when you bring it home. I don't know what sort of industrial grease coated it at the factory to keep it from rusting in the store.

I heat the pan up well with a layer of oil or shortening. Usually it's vegetable, corn, peanut or canola. I try not to burn the oil and thus tend to heat it up several times for a short period so I don't have to watch it. Afterwards, I'll scrub it with coarse (kosher) salt and a paper towel when still warm. I rarely get it wet after using it and prefer to scrub it with cooking oil and salt again after use. I like to do this when the pan is warm, but not hot. After it's well seasoned, it often cleans up with just a wipe with paper towels, but every now and then I scrub it with salt and hot oil. My aluminum omelet pan gets the same treatment, but I'm not at all sure any aluminum in my diet is as healthy as the iron. (Commercial baking powders probably add more aluminum toomy diet than my omelet pan.) Both pans will leave a grey residue on the paper towel as will the cast iron griddle on my stove, which I rarely use and then only in the winter.

[Nancy Berry]

I know I'm coming in late in this discussion, but I do have a good way to strip improper seasoning (or dirt from an improperly seasoned pan or from a pan you got at a garage sale, etc.) from any cast iron pan easily. It requires, however, that you have a self-cleaning oven. Just put the pan in the oven, set it to self-clean and run the self-clean cycle. The pan should come out totally unseasoned with a bit of dusty residue in it. Then you can start over (we use vegetable shortening for a non-sticky surface) and reseason the pan.

My husband and I teach outdoor cooking techniques and do a lot of cast iron dutch oven and skillet cooking, and this method has worked well for us.

[Fat Guy]

How does a self-cleaning oven work? I've never owned one.

[tommy]

Quote: from Fat Guy on 10:58 am on Nov. 26, 2001

How does a self-cleaning oven work? I've never owned one.

extremely high temps for a long period of time.  4 hours or so generally.  pretty much burns up everything in the oven.

[Fat Guy]

So that would only work with electric, probably?

[tommy]

Quote: from Fat Guy on 12:49 pm on Nov. 26, 2001

So that would only work with electric, probably?

no, fire gets pretty hot too. ;)

[Jim Dixon]

I own about a dozen vintage Griswold cast iron skillets and use them (well, not all of them, but at least one or two) every day. From my experience, it’s not really necessary to be too particular about how you season cast iron. All of the suggestions so far will work fine, with the essential elements being heat (it opens the pores of the metal) and oil (I use olive oil, but anything will work....stronger flavored oils will leave stronger flavors on the pan).

My pans lose their seasoning on a regular basis. I have teen-aged boys who scramble eggs and then leave the skillet in a sink full of soapy water, and sometimes I’ll cook something acidic that strips away the layer of oil in the pores. I just heat up the pan on a burner and rub a little oil over the surface.

For cleaning a really funky pan (like one you get at a garage sale that’s encrusted with old grease), the best bet is oven cleaner. Spray it on, put the pan in a plastic bag for awhile, then scrub it off. Season and use the pan to cook oily foods for awhile. Always make it’s dry before putting it away, bit if you get a little rust, just wipe it off and oil it up again.

For regular cleaning, a little detergent doesn’t hurt, but don’t scrub too hard. It’s usually not necessary, since one of the beauties of well-seasoned cast iron is its no-stick quality.

Jim

[Fat Guy]

Jim, these Griswolds, they were already old and well-used when you got them, no? In that case, yes, I agree: After a period of time, cast-iron becomes very forgiving. But with new pans, you have to be more careful. It takes many uses to build the first seasoning layer (for lack of a better term), and if you don't build it properly you don't have the foundation for a great pan. This is simply my experience, though, and not scientific fact. I don't truly understand this seasoning business at the molecular level.

[B Edulis]

My new gas stove self-cleans. I've wondered whether I could use the extra-high temps to do things like cook proper pizza or low-fire china paints. But, to keep us nit-witted consumers safe, the door locks, and won't unlock til the oven's cooled down.

[Wilfrid]

Have you thought of taking the door off and replacing it with some temporary insulating material - maybe some asbestos sheeting or something? :cheesy: