This is an egg test on a brand new skillet. The only thing I have done to it was wash and dry it. Nothing else and we will be doing the proverbial egg test.
i love cast iron like you...i have the Griswold, Wagner, Field, Lodge and a Vollrath... and you know what.... there is no fundamental difference... it's all preference... they are all iron .... they do the job... and like you, i like them all.
great review tnx. My first iron was a 3pack from kmart, Martha Stewart Essencials. I think I messed up on seasoning and they sat in a cupboard for like 10yrs untill I got back into it. This time I started with pre seasoned CI, a Lodge.
On the other hand, I went out and bought 1 today, just to see if this obsession with the big expensive name brands really does a better job. Testing starts tomorrow.
Lodge is great for the price and quality. They are hard to beat and the simplicity behind their products makes them so appealing. Field Company is on a different tier with special design and aesthetics to provide a slightly different approach to cooking with cast iron.
Nothings gonna stick when its in a LAKE of butter/oil. Should try this test with regular amount of butter or oil next time. I'm curious how these Walmart skillets would perform under normal circumstances.
@@hardkombucha If it was seasoned it would do just fine.If you dont like the rough texture just grind it down smooth and refinish then season no biggie and fun to do.
wipe your pans with very thing coating of oil or shortening then place in oven upside down at 400 for a couple hours, do this a couple times to build up a seasoning. keep a thin coating of oil or shortening on your pan after each time you clean it.
Glad you found out about the butter method. Bacon grease works just as good and adds flavor. I do butter with no olive oil just butter and low heat. Only difference between smooth and rough is the nice feeling of sliding a spatula over a Griswold vs Lodge. Smooth is slightly more non stick but not by huge margin. Nice vid.
Thanks I appreciate your input and your time. I am doing the butter method for eggs, potatoes, omelettes and scrambles. It has changed my cooking skills on cast iron. I had been told that you can cook an egg on a bare cast iron skillet and I didn’t believe it. Now with this review I did, I feel like it is possible.
I know "made in China" has a bad rep. I bought an Ozark Trail cast iron skillet, myself. It says China on it. However, cast iron was invented in China. So, I can't complain. It's a rough skillet, but i just have to sand it down and re-season it.
Yes you are right Cast Iron was developed by the Chinese and I agree. There’s nothing wrong with Ozark or any Chinese cast iron cookware. My only issue with it is the roughness and another would be the lack of quality control. Other than those two things I have no problem. Although I will say I am proud to showcase American companies that make quality products right here. Not to say I am very patriotic but I do my best to help out in any way possible. Especially smaller businesses because they are the backbone of our country.
I like you haven’t really used cast iron. But recently purchased a Stargazer #8 skillet Still trying to season it correctly. I tried Avocado oil, but did not seem to season well. I tried using my weber grill to do the long season (one hour at 500+ ) heat. But after didn’t seem to work well. I was suprised as is is such a smooth surface and I bought it pre seasoned by the company My wife doesn’t cook at all, and complains about the smell when I tried to season. the pan in my oven & stove top. Anyway, I switched to the Crisbee puck, and it seemed that the seasoning worked slightly better. Really only cooked mushrooms in butter and once tried frying up chicken breasts. Do you also get a smell when using CI rather than a coated (teflon) type pan? Any suggestions how to get my stargazer to that black smooth finish? As I have a few black spots on my pan from yesterday’s cook, and didn't wash it with water when finished. Just used a piece of paper toweling to wipe out the excess oil (AV). Seems like I am a long way from seasoned. Also it seems more like a hobby then a kitchen tool so far. Thanks again for your great videos. You have a great collection of pans, etc....
Best thing to do with the Stargazer skillet is to cook with slightly more oil, butter or fats than you normally would. Use it for a good week at least once daily and you will start developing a good round of seasoning. If there is too much smoke or smell you might be seasoning with too much oil. I do have a video with an in-depth tutorial on good seasoning. Now I don’t quite understand what you mean by smell? You should only cook your food with medium heat or you might be over heating you skillet and may cause a smell. The only time you should go with a high heat is when you are searing a steak. But I would pre heat an oven prior to searing. Best thing to do is cooking more food like I mentioned. After a while you should be able to get a great seasoning.
@@luisj.castironcooking Hi Luis, thanks for your advice, and I will check out the video you mentioned about. My wife has a sensitive nose, so she can smell me cooking (anything) a mile away. I agree, keep using the skillet. I look forward to the day when it is fully seasoned. Love your videos and please keep them coming.
Due to cast iron often not being washed with soap, the old fat does produce a certain smell. If it gets rancid and the skillet starts to stink, that's when you really should use soap to get rid of the rancid fat. But there's another possible explanation for a 'smelly' skillet. You may have used too much oil when seasoning the skillet. If you use more than just the thinnest possible layer, the oil will not polymerize completely. Most of it will only polymerize partially, forming some sort of rubbery gunk. That stuff starts to smoke when the skillet gets hot, resulting in a bad smell. So check your seasoning for rubbery stuff and get rid of it. You also may wash your skillet with mild dish soap on a regular basis to reduce smell from old fat. As the soap removes all fat / oil from the skillet, you have to dry it thoroughly (simply heat it up on the stove to evaporate all moisture) and then reapply a thin (!) layer of oil to protect it from rust.
Now that your exsperiece do you still feel the same way as far as cast iron being rough to the ones being smooth...And my next question is what your favorite skillet you have in your collection, as far as cooking in..
Actually Stargazer Cast Iron gives you the preference of pre-seasoned or bare. Which is actually awesome because not many companies offer bare options .
Sand it down, clean it out, season it with flax seed oil, bake your season in, do this like 3-4 times.... Also was season before and after each use...after you season it the first 3-4 times then you can season after with Cisco or olive oil... Never use soap, use hot water and salt if needed to clean, or heat it up, never use metal on it, after cleaning it, heat it up to dry the water off, then reseason to store, never close a lid on them always leave the lid off of with a piece of newspaper between the pan and lid...
With a half cup of oil and butter you can cook on a brick. Ozark and Lodge are complete garbage. A skillet with the texture of stucco. Anyone in the 70's would laugh their butt off.
Thank you for your honesty, time, and pointers. I am new to cooking with cast iron.
Wow, you can see actually how raw and unseasoned those skillets are. Very surprised at the results. Good demo. Nicely Done. Thanks for sharing. 😎.
Thanks I appreciate your time and supporting my channel. I was equally surprised and impressed!! Can’t judge a cast iron by its seasoning
i love cast iron like you...i have the Griswold, Wagner, Field, Lodge and a Vollrath... and you know what.... there is no fundamental difference... it's all preference... they are all iron .... they do the job... and like you, i like them all.
great review tnx. My first iron was a 3pack from kmart, Martha Stewart Essencials. I think I messed up on seasoning and they sat in a cupboard for like 10yrs untill I got back into it. This time I started with pre seasoned CI, a Lodge.
On the other hand, I went out and bought 1 today, just to see if this obsession with the big expensive name brands really does a better job. Testing starts tomorrow.
howd it go
I took a sanded to mine and lightly sanded it so it wasn't so rough but still has a little bit so seasoning can still grip onto it
Lodge is great for the price and quality. They are hard to beat and the simplicity behind their products makes them so appealing. Field Company is on a different tier with special design and aesthetics to provide a slightly different approach to cooking with cast iron.
Nothings gonna stick when its in a LAKE of butter/oil. Should try this test with regular amount of butter or oil next time. I'm curious how these Walmart skillets would perform under normal circumstances.
I didn’t think I used that much butter but I don’t think it would do well with very minimal oil/fat. I am curious myself now
@@luisj.castironcooking I would watch that video!
@@hardkombucha If it was seasoned it would do just fine.If you dont like the rough texture just grind it down smooth and refinish then season no biggie and fun to do.
Fun video. Glad I found your channel!
Thanks it is greatly appreciated!
wipe your pans with very thing coating of oil or shortening then place in oven upside down at 400 for a couple hours, do this a couple times to build up a seasoning. keep a thin coating of oil or shortening on your pan after each time you clean it.
Glad you found out about the butter method. Bacon grease works just as good and adds flavor. I do butter with no olive oil just butter and low heat. Only difference between smooth and rough is the nice feeling of sliding a spatula over a Griswold vs Lodge. Smooth is slightly more non stick but not by huge margin. Nice vid.
Thanks I appreciate your input and your time. I am doing the butter method for eggs, potatoes, omelettes and scrambles. It has changed my cooking skills on cast iron. I had been told that you can cook an egg on a bare cast iron skillet and I didn’t believe it. Now with this review I did, I feel like it is possible.
I know "made in China" has a bad rep. I bought an Ozark Trail cast iron skillet, myself. It says China on it. However, cast iron was invented in China. So, I can't complain. It's a rough skillet, but i just have to sand it down and re-season it.
Yes you are right Cast Iron was developed by the Chinese and I agree. There’s nothing wrong with Ozark or any Chinese cast iron cookware. My only issue with it is the roughness and another would be the lack of quality control. Other than those two things I have no problem. Although I will say I am proud to showcase American companies that make quality products right here. Not to say I am very patriotic but I do my best to help out in any way possible. Especially smaller businesses because they are the backbone of our country.
Thanks for this video, very helpful!
Thanks
get a splatter cover... you'll love it.
I like you haven’t really used cast iron. But recently purchased a Stargazer #8 skillet Still trying to season it correctly. I tried Avocado oil, but did not seem to season well. I tried using my weber grill to do the long season (one hour at 500+ ) heat. But after didn’t seem to work well. I was suprised as is is such a smooth surface and I bought it pre seasoned by the company My wife doesn’t cook at all, and complains about the smell when I tried to season. the pan in my oven & stove top. Anyway, I switched to the Crisbee puck, and it seemed that the seasoning worked slightly better. Really only cooked mushrooms in butter and once tried frying up chicken breasts. Do you also get a smell when using CI rather than a coated (teflon) type pan? Any suggestions how to get my stargazer to that black smooth finish? As I have a few black spots on my pan from yesterday’s cook, and didn't wash it with water when finished. Just used a piece of paper toweling to wipe out the excess oil (AV). Seems like I am a long way from seasoned. Also it seems more like a hobby then a kitchen tool so far. Thanks again for your great videos. You have a great collection of pans, etc....
Best thing to do with the Stargazer skillet is to cook with slightly more oil, butter or fats than you normally would. Use it for a good week at least once daily and you will start developing a good round of seasoning. If there is too much smoke or smell you might be seasoning with too much oil. I do have a video with an in-depth tutorial on good seasoning. Now I don’t quite understand what you mean by smell? You should only cook your food with medium heat or you might be over heating you skillet and may cause a smell. The only time you should go with a high heat is when you are searing a steak. But I would pre heat an oven prior to searing. Best thing to do is cooking more food like I mentioned. After a while you should be able to get a great seasoning.
@@luisj.castironcooking Hi Luis, thanks for your advice, and I will check out the video you mentioned about. My wife has a sensitive nose, so she can smell me cooking (anything) a mile away. I agree, keep using the skillet. I look forward to the day when it is fully seasoned. Love your videos and please keep them coming.
Due to cast iron often not being washed with soap, the old fat does produce a certain smell. If it gets rancid and the skillet starts to stink, that's when you really should use soap to get rid of the rancid fat.
But there's another possible explanation for a 'smelly' skillet. You may have used too much oil when seasoning the skillet. If you use more than just the thinnest possible layer, the oil will not polymerize completely. Most of it will only polymerize partially, forming some sort of rubbery gunk. That stuff starts to smoke when the skillet gets hot, resulting in a bad smell.
So check your seasoning for rubbery stuff and get rid of it. You also may wash your skillet with mild dish soap on a regular basis to reduce smell from old fat. As the soap removes all fat / oil from the skillet, you have to dry it thoroughly (simply heat it up on the stove to evaporate all moisture) and then reapply a thin (!) layer of oil to protect it from rust.
I just unboxed mine today. I did an egg test with avocado oil, and my eggs stuck terribly.
It’s about heat control and fat/oil you use. I recommend low heat and butter. Also let your skillet warm up prior to cooking
@@luisj.castironcooking Yeah, I probably had the heat up too high.
Those pans weren't unusable
Now that your exsperiece do you still feel the same way as far as cast iron being rough to the ones being smooth...And my next question is what your favorite skillet you have in your collection, as far as cooking in..
Smooth and rough is solely a aesthetic but I do like the smooth for the clean up. No real favorites, I love using all my skillets
@@luisj.castironcooking ..do you have a favorite dutch oven and favorite size ..
@@The-Homecook-0000 Lodge 14” shallow camping oven.
How are those pans performing now?
Good actually, no issue. They have also seasoned up really nicely
All u needed was butter. You're just frying an egg. N all u needed is a quarter of what you used
Just a little"unbiased ".O:-)
All cast iron is pre-seasoned.
Actually Stargazer Cast Iron gives you the preference of pre-seasoned or bare. Which is actually awesome because not many companies offer bare options .
Sand it down, clean it out, season it with flax seed oil, bake your season in, do this like 3-4 times.... Also was season before and after each use...after you season it the first 3-4 times then you can season after with Cisco or olive oil... Never use soap, use hot water and salt if needed to clean, or heat it up, never use metal on it, after cleaning it, heat it up to dry the water off, then reseason to store, never close a lid on them always leave the lid off of with a piece of newspaper between the pan and lid...
Please tell us you don t work in any publicity field ,haha.
Buy Lodge. Just buy Lodge.
With a half cup of oil and butter you can cook on a brick. Ozark and Lodge are complete garbage. A skillet with the texture of stucco. Anyone in the 70's would laugh their butt off.