I use a 'deglazing' method to clean my cast iron pans. If I have stuck on bits of food after I finish cooking I use the same method I use to make a pan gravy. I remove my food, put the burner back on, add a half cup of liquid to my hot pan and scrape the bits off the bottom with my spatula. Works like a charm with even the toughest stuck on crud.
Thank you so much for making this video. I just recently return to cast iron skillets after leaving it for non-stick. My grandmother cooked with cast iron, so it was the pan I learned how to cook with. I seemed to have forgotten everything about caring for a cast-iron skillet so this was super helpful for me. I was able to get a scrapper from my local cookware store and it works great!
FYI it’s much easier and saves so much time to use very hot water and clean your pan directly after cooking while the pan is still hot. But watch out for the steam that will come up. With the pan being hot and the water being very hot this saves time on all that cooling and reheating and it also makes sure that the pan won’t crack or warp because there is no change in temperature. Since the pan will still be hot and steamy there is no need to use that little tool from Lodge because you’ll burn your hands. All you need is a plastic spatula, which is basically that very tool you’re using but with a long handle on it. When finished with the hot water and spatula, wipe out and dry the skillet and place it back on the burner. Make sure it gets hot enough to evaporate any of that water that got into the pores. Then turn off the burner, oil it and let it cool naturally.
Exactly. If you let your pan cool down, put it back on the burner and get it hot. Run your water until it's very hot and out your pan under the running water. As said, watch out for the steam. Wipe with a warm sponge and if it's seasoned correctly, it'll all just wipe out. Put the pan back on the burner and let it get hot to the touch. All water should be gone. Put your choice of oil in and wipe down. Easy peasy.
Tbh I prefer this video's method because it takes a long time for my water to turn hot, so I can take a breather from cooking to let the pan cool down, I'm not wasting water waiting for it to get hot, and I'm not risking thermal shock.
Awesome video. Thanks guy. I've allowed some of my cast iron cookware to rust up through laziness. Wasn't sure how to attact that problem. Do now. I live alone, with my dog. I use an electrical induction burner for my cast iron cooking utensils. The burner's about $70 from Amazon. Very efficient & very fast. 1800 watts of power that only heats the pan. It's amazing! Retired B.S.E.E.
Where I come from the proper way to clean a cast iron skillet is to rinse it first with mountain goat urine and water from a hot spring and let it sit for a whole night under a full moon, then let it season by letting it stay for a week in the ass of a grizzly bear and then scrub it with a pine cone...but only from a bristlecone pine!
@@MrBastilleDay I like your method, but finding pinecones is too much trouble. Instead, I just melt mine down, then recast the molten iron. I do reseason the new pan with mountain goat urine and have to admit that since leaving the pan in a grizzlys bunghole, no cornbread has ever stuck...amazing results. And the flavor, well, it’s hard to describe...let’s just say anything I cook is “unique”.
For anyone trying to save a buck, a used gift card or old credit card works wonders as a cast iron skillet scraper. I use amazon gift cards quite frequently and always save the cards for this reason.
+MaZEEZaM who washes their when they are that hot that they will melt plastic??? If the pan is so hot you can't hold it with your bare hand then it's not ready to be cleaned yet. I've never melted one and they last about 3 months until they start to wear.
Just got our very first cast iron pan!!!! I’m using your videos to learn!!!!! My mother had a whole set of cast iron pans that we were taught to wash with soap and they were never seasoned. I was a whole adult when I learned about the care they actually require. So thank you for your channel!!!!!!
A whole adult😂😂😂😂 You mean you was a half adult? Things I see and read😂😂. I’m going to have to figure that one out😂😂😂😂 and I’m 60 yrs old I thought I was always a whole women😂😂😂 have a blessed day.
I heat my my iron up and use hot water. The steam release everything . The I scrap if I need. My grandmother done it that way and we have iron over 60 years old.
That was really helpful. I just got 1 a couple of months ago and I did the first seasoning. But I didn't know it was going to look dirty after I cooked and then rinsed and scrubbed it. So I was alarmed and thought I did something wrong. So to watch this video it was very helpful. Right before you seasoned it, the stuck on seasonings look dirty. But you said that was natural. So mine looked exactly like that. Thank you so much.
Thank you.I often talked to my 90+year old mother in law. One night I was talking to her about how much I loved cast iron and cast iron cooking. I told her how important it was to clean it as you did, put oil in it as it cooled, wipe any excess out with a paper towel, etc. She listened very patiently and when I was finished she said, "I never did anything like that with mine."Now, Everytime I reseason my cast iron, I think of what she said and cannot but laugh.
Great video! This is pretty much how I treat my cast iron. I have a few thoughts, though. First, the Lodge seasoning is just canola oil, which is readily available and much cheaper at any grocery store in North America. I've used everything from corn oil to bacon grease and they all work. Second, he's absolutely right about the Lodge scrapers, but DO NOT use them on a hot pan. They're great, but they'll melt. Voice of experience. Third, don't use crumpled-up aluminum foil to scour your pans. Use a copper scouring pad instead. Copper isn't poisonous; aluminum is.
I got a stainless steel spatula with wood handle off Amazon for maybe $10, the corners have a little rounding to them so they don't scratch/score a surface, but are great for not only scraping food off, but also wear down those imperfections on new cast iron over time and make it smoother. no need to worry about the heat damaging it, you can also lay it on the pan with the metal on the food if you need to.
I've got a cast iron pan from late 18 hundreds I clean it with salt and warm water scrub lightly rinse, dry,warm it up on stove not hot,use cooking oil on paper towel wipe it down and boom done, been a great pan no problems.
I've been cooking with cast iron for twenty years and this is the first I've heard of cast iron seasoning oil. Just found it on Amazon and put it in my cart for the next order. Thanks for the tip.
You don't really need it, from the looks of it, it's just a more convenient consistency. But, a microfiber cloth and a reasonable amount of oil and you'd get the sane result.
I love my cast iron and this is this is the only way to clean them. I wish everyone knew the joys of cooking with cast iron. Whether your cooking breakfast at home or around a camp fire cast iron is the only way to go!
We've been using cast iron skillets and pans for 3 generations. And the very same ones. When were done cooking we empty our pan, wipe off the greez and gritt, put it back on the stove and fill it with hot water and lett it simmer for a while. Then we wash it out. We use our skillets and pans most every day. We don't have any major problems or have any trix or fixes. Best is to use them regularly
soap is usually fine nowadays. hard scrapers is really what will remove the seasoning. mostly treat it like a normal pan except that you need to oil it to prevent rust
I use water some and its never been an issue but typically i pour a generous amount of oil in the bottom, and then cover the bottom with a bunch if kosher salt and then use a scrub pad. Salt acts like a great abrasive for tough stuck on food. Then when u rinse it all out its still nice and oiled
Hot hot water, very warm pan. Add a little water like you’re deglazing for a gravy. Use wooden scraper for getting off any slightly stuck on bits. Linseed oil is great to reseasoning. I learned from Cowboy Kent Rollins, he knows his “irons”.
Being Southern, I remember watching my great grandma using hers. She would coat it with grease and bake it in the oven to allow the pans metal to expand, allowing the grease to cook in. THE BEST cornbread was made in that skillet!
Technically the grease or oil polymerizes in the high heat, forming a hard slick surface as opposed to sticky (if not hot enough). ☺ I keep mine in the oven even when baking in another vessel, along with my pizza stone, especially when baking bread or pizza in very high heat. Just like with a pizza stone, if you keep it on the bottom rack (if you have room depending on what you're baking), it will help retain heat in the oven while baking which reduces rapid temp fluctuations, produces a better baked/roasted food, helps save energy by keeping the gas/heating element from cycling on as often, AND only helps to improve the cast iron seasoning. Win-win-win-win! 😀 If you have many cast iron pieces--I only have one essential skillet but I'll eventually get more--you can rotate them over time. If you haven't used one in a while and it got sticky, keep it in the oven throughout a couple baking sessions and all should be good!
A lot of old timers used lard or fat. But they used those skillets 3 times a day. If you let it sit for a week or two, that fat will turn rancid. Best to use a high smoke point oil like grapeseed for seasoning if you don't use it on a daily basis.
Also of assistance the lodge brush is very nice and I like to use one of those blue 3m Teflon safe scotch scrubbies as they won't affect the seasoning either...Oh yeah and I like to throw down a silicone hot pad to protect my white enamel sink as a barrier against scratching. Iron~on brother!
Sparkle 1914 : I was worried that I was off base with that idea, My father used salt and bacon grease to rub out the pan after cooking (if it needed it), then rinsed it with water to get rid of the salt, then regreased the pan. You are the only person that I have seen do this. Thanks
I appreciate your video. Cleaning the cast iron was always my husband or father-in-law’s job. Since I’ve lost them both and there’s rust in my 2 skillets, I go to UA-cam.
I just used a metal scouring pad on a dry skillet until I got all the rust off. Rinsed in warm water and dry. Rub a thin coat of oil all over and then wipe out. Bake at 350° for an hour and leave in oven till cool
Warm skillet, hot water. It creates a lot of steam that will remove any food,grease particles. Use a wooden spoon if you need to scrape. Works great on my 150 yr old Wagner skillet.
And don't use anything other than a high temp oil such as flaxseed or olive oil. Remember you're ingesting anything you use to season the iron. No chemicals.
This is what I've done for almost 40 years - after making a lot of mistakes along the way. You *can* use soap if you've been programmed to think nothing will get truly clean without it, but you'll get far better results following this method. The only thing I would suggest is wiping off as much of the oil as possible - or not adding any - when heating the pan after cleaning. It just takes a micro-thin layer of oil to maintain the seasoning, and there's usually enough left over after cooking and cleaning to do that. Nice demo.
@@emmanuelarredondo5365 It plugs up the pipes!! You know grease--solid when cold, liquid when hot. It doesn't stay hot in the pipe. It cools and makes a glob that other waste sticks to. NEVER put grease down a drain!
Just sold me on the oil. I bought the scraper, wire brush and cast iron seasoning paste. I used to just use olive oil and let it bake until it smoked (which does work, just not perfect) but this seems much more smooth and nonstick.
That's a perfect alternative. But if that's happening frequently, you may need to re season. Your seasoning may be getting thin allowing food to stick to your pan.
My grandmother has cooked on cast iron for 80 years and she always used a brillo pad, hot water and dishwashing liquid to was out her cast iron skillet. Afterwards, she places on the stove on high heat and allows the skillet to dry and then turns it off and places the oil she uses to cook with in the pan and takes a paper towel and wipes it on the inside and outside (except for the bottom of course, lol) It's never rusted on her because of the use of hot water. I clean my cast iron the same way she taught me as well and have not had any issues with mine either. This is a method I've seen before but something about not using any kind of soap kind of bugs me. But it's interesting nevertheless and maybe one day I will try this method. Thanks for sharing. :)
Bacon is the first thing I cook in a cast pan after it comes out of the fire and gets a light coat of oil (unless it is my egg pan) . I don't know why bacon grease seems to work better than veggie oil but in my pans that seems to be the case .
Just wash your pan dry it and oil it back up before putting it away. All this extra stuff isn't necessary. I think that's why people are intimidated by cast iron. Heck sometimes all I have to do is wipe the pan out with a towel. It's just that easy to care for and it will last forever.
BusyBeePlanner yeah he is right. You don’t have to do all of that extra shit. Hell I just rinse mines out with hot water, and I put it back on the hot stove burner to dry it off. That’s it
Narekaci Shahbazyan that’s right. I make sure I scrape off any gunk that’s left on it and THEN rinse it off and wipe around it with a wet cloth. That’s it. I seen people do the must complicated things with these pans. My wife wanted one for herself because she likes how durable the pan is, but she got put off by watching these kinds of videos
This reminds me of the videos explaining how to use French press coffee makers. They over complicate the process and intimidate people when in reality it's probably one of the simplest ways to make coffee.
Nice video, looks great, thank you. In the recent past, I have used 400 grit Wet-or-Dry paper to clean the skillet, then cooked up some potatoes in bacon grease,,, the pan came out super smooth, and very non-stick. I don't recommend that anyone try it unless they are willing to go the whole nine yards (just in case it doesn't work). but I didn't have to go through the whole process, I just cooked in it.
Before you cook, always add oil to your cast iron pan first. Then turn up the heat until it smokes a little. This way your pan will become nonstick. High heat and oil will create a layer of seasoning on the surface right before you add your other ingredients.
Interesting how techniques vary from discipline to discipline. When cooking with a wok the method is to get the wok hot first - known as "longyau", then add the oil, let the oil heat up to smoking, then add the first ingredient of the dish and take it from there.
@@WYO_Cowboy_Joe you're doing something way out of the norm. Most people don't eat charred meat. They may call it blackened with a crust on, but it's not charred. The best way to cook for most cases in a cast iron skillet is on about a medium. If you're going to do something out of the norm that's fine. But then you should tell people you like your meat chard. It's only common sense.....
@waynethebarber1095 thanks! I was reading it and said this will inevitably burn the food due to the heat retention remaining at high heat even if you turn down the Flames 😂
I really gunked up my 666 this morning to the degree that your skillet was in the vid. I followed your instructions and the Griswold turned out wonderfully smooth. I had to use the plastic scraper on the back of my scrub brush but it worked fine. I am curious about the chain mail scrubbers so I just ordered one from Amazon, as well as a couple of the Lodge scrapers. Thanks!
Good deal! I haven't used the chain mail scrubbers yet. If I get something that is really stuck on I just let it soak with water for a few minutes (not hours or over night!) and that usually helps a lot =DThanks!
thanks for mentioning the sterilization part that's what freaks me out about it not being clean, no one can ever tell me how I guess it was that simple
I still use a little bit of soap on mine and my seasoning continues to build without a problem. Heat will sterilize the pans, but, whatever might have died with the heat is still there, just dead. I wouldn't eat dead roaches just because they are sterile. Just my thought process, great video...
Seasoning your pan has nothing to do with building flavor. The seasoning on caste iron is a polymerized layer of oil that creates a nonstick surface. It shouldn't impart flavor to your food. I think the way 'seasoned' is used in this instance is a pan that has been through many cooking cycles just as a seasoned person has been through many cycles of life.
Seasoning a pan has everything to do with flavor. Nothing at all to do with amount of use 🙄 my grandmother taught me how to cook, she would've whipped my ass if I put water on her skillets
@@bustedknuckles7710 seasoning is layering polymerized oil on a metal pan. It has everything to do with how many times a thin layer oil has been brought to the smoke point on a pan. It has nothing to do with making your pan smell or taste like anything. Also, water is the main ingredient in most food. Meat, vegetables, stock, broth, all contain water. I'm sure your grandma made gravy? You can't make gravy without some kind of liquid that contains water.
you have a very soothing voice. you should consider learning how to hypnotize people. nice video, btw. told me what I needed to know. Now i gotta google those "lodge scrapers'.
He hypnotized me, I fell asleep when listening to the video and I woke up at 6, the cleaning crew at work came by and woke me up... not that he was boring, it just his voice is soothing :)
You can use whatever you want. Technically nothing really special about the oil I use here. Its a blend of high temp oils that create a nice coating from my experience and shouldn't go rancid such as animal based oils. A lot of people swear by Crisco as a seasoning oil. I would avoid vegetable oil though.
Patrick H I had a bad experience using it. However, could have been because it was when I first got my pans and they had a lot of carbon build up on them and/or I could have been using too much vegetable oil. You can see how much build up was on them in this video: Restoring 80 Yr Old Cast Iron With Electrolysis and Seasoning
I originally thought it might have to do with the heat that the oil polymerizes at. But I looked up your seasoning oil and found that it contains both high and low temperature oils. (Ingredients are Organic Palm Oil, Organic Coconut Oil, Organic Sunflower Seed Oil, Vitamin E, Citric Acid) I think a small amount of citric acid is what is helping with the seasoning. It breaks down substances called "non-hydratable phosphatides" that become gummy. According to lipidlibrary.aocs.org fruit oils like olive oil do not undergo degumming processes, so maybe that is why your previous pans became gunked up. According to Wikipedia, lodge uses a soybean oil blend. According to cookingforengineers.com/article/50/Smoke-Points-of-Various-Fats that would make it a high temperature oil.
Patrick H Sounds good to me. Could be why so many people also like crisco. I have been using the cast iron conditioner for a little over a year now and I like it; I just have to massage the tube sometimes to make sure its all mixed together well. Thanks for the info!
Thank you for that info. Can u show us the paper tower after wiping around on the surface of the cleaned cast iron pan with white dry paper towel.. pls. Mine is always blackish (not like very dirty black, but it always blackish on white paper towel ) on paper towel no matter a million time i clean it (using warm water with non soapy sponge (even with coarse salt) and wipe on a thin layer of cooking oil) and wipe it.
I remember my Mom cooking in her cast iron skillets. When food would stick in the bottom, she would put some hot water in it, them turn the burner on and let it boil until food was loosened.
Funny how our moms, grandma's etc. had no YT to guide us, did everything "wrong" and yet it still worked...lol. My Dad's CI pans never saw a sink. Rarely did anything stick but if it did he'd scrape with a sharp wooden spatula. A thin coat of oil and away it would go until next time.
This! Is such a huge pet peeve of mine. My parents always poured ground beef/other grease down the drain and swore it was fine if you run hot water and soap down the drain with it. Omfg. I'm so glad I have learned better, mostly thanks to the PSAs my city has done for the last several years regarding the horrible state of our sewer system due to (besides the fact that it's over a century old) "FOG"--Fat/Oil/Grease--and non-biodegradable hygiene products. My fiance had always done this too but I've scolded him enough that he finally mostly stopped. He thinks he's helping when he adds water to a greasy pan I haven't cleaned yet. Wipe with paper towels first! Then soak if need be. If he touches my cast iron though I will plead "justifiable homicide." JK of course! 😛
@@shelleyb162 I always keep a grease can in the freezer, usually a crushed tomato can. When it's full and cooled I just throw it in a plastic bag and throw it in the pail the morning of garbage collection.
@Universal Kombat I treated my tenants the same way they likely treated their significant other. The first time was educational, consecutive was ignorance.
I know that they say NOT to ever wash it with soap or detergent. But I can tell you for a fact that it was never a problem for my aunt. She never even intentionally seasoned it after use. After so many years of daily use for frying eggs, the pan formed a beautiful seasoning that we did not have to use any oil for frying eggs. And she washed it with detergent and let it air dry along with her other dishes. Maybe it helped that she lived in a very dry part of the country. Nonetheless, she never did any maintenance to it and it was a beautiful skillet that never rusted and formed a natural non-stick surface.
So im new to CI but ive been wiping it down with a paper towel after each use and ignore the real burnt off stuff as dont have time. I have just followed this guide and got it cleaned properly and seasoned. Would i be ok to just wash and season once or twice a week and in the meantime, wipe it down after each use every other time. I use it twice a day mostly. Am i on the right track to get it seasoned properly?
My wife actually said the other day that I look after my cast iron pans more than I look after her! Well, I took care of her.... cast iron pans make quite the murder weapon!
Just show the same care to your wife as with your pan which you explained you take care by wiping the bottom and oil after use and never leave wet or let it get rusty.
@@mhaas281 I really have no idea, except that I just watched Martha Stewart's video on this very subject and she absolutely recommended using shortening. Uh-oh! Is Martha Stewart doing me wrong??! LOL
newbee to cast iron here, I’ve seasoned it twice and have use couple of times for cooking. So yesterday I cleaned mine with fine salt, scrub gently, put bit of soap, rinse and put on stove to dry, forgot to oil it. this morning I saw there's kinda brown shadow, and the seasoning seemed to peel? should I just re-season? any idea why with the browning? cos I did make sure it was dry completely
Wow. The one thing I never thought about over all these years using my cast-iron was not to pour hot water on it because it will expand the metal and the water will get in the pores. It makes sense when you heat it up to do that exact thing with oil or fat but I never thought about it for water.
My Mom used to boil baked-on food & gunk from her cast iron pans to clean them. Then she’d Season it with Crisco again . Is that recommended today? It did seem to get the burnt-on food after boiling. Thanks
I know this is from 2014, but for people who are watching this now... you *can* use soap on your cast-iron pan. The "no soap" rule came about back when all soap was made with lye in the early 20th century. Most soaps are no longer made with lye, and dawn and other dish soaps, even the "super strong"/"extra strength" ones, are actually quite gentle. You can easily and proudly use today's soap on cast-irons worry-free. What's bad is letting your cast-iron pan soak in water. You can rinse it and even use soap, but don't ever let it soak in the water. Always and only use running water in your cast-iron, and make sure you dry it thoroughly on the stove quickly. Don't believe me? Just ask J. Kenji Lopez-Alt: www.seriouseats.com/2014/11/the-truth-about-cast-iron.html (See myth #4) Remember... these are cast-iron pans. They're made the be strong as hell, not coddled like fragile pieces of chinaware. They can stand up to quite a bit of abuse. (Also... do NOT use flaxseed oil. It is indeed great for a short amount of time, but something about flaxseed [although I'm not sure what] keeps it from properly polymerizing onto the pan, which means it flakes *very* easily. The reason flaxseed came recommended for a while is because it gave cast-iron pans that shine you see in Instagram photos. But that shine is not normal... it's done on purpose to make the pan look good in photos. It is *not* something you should be striving for. How matte or shiny the pan is does not determine how non-stick it is. Some links: www.reddit.com/r/castiron/comments/5owtnm/why_i_dont_recommend_flax_seed_oil/ www.chowhound.com/post/testing-debunking-flaxseed-method-seasoning-cast-iron-807107 www.castironcollector.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1548&highlight=flax )
@@aaronwood3540 I'm sorry but that hasn't been true for *years*. Lye destroys the seasoning. As the vast majority of dish soaps today are made without lye, they are safe for cast-iron pans. I suggest you read Kenji's article; the one I linked in my original comment. He's part of a fast-expanding list of chefs and other cast-iron experts who are more than happy to wash their pans with soap.
@@jimmyrrpage well tell ya what. If you like your food to taste like soap, you just keep washing them. Me I prefer my food not to taste like soap and my cast iron to have seasoning on them. So let's agree to disagree!
@@aaronwood3540 You aren't disagreeing with me. You're disagreeing with experts. You're disagreeing with chefs who collect cast-iron pans and have for years. You're disagreeing with people who have made cast-iron pans their livelihood. I've been using soap on my pans for years and not only is the seasoning amazing, but none of my food tastes like soap. I'll go with the experts, thanks, because they're tips work wonders for me and they're... you know... right.
Tks for sharing your vid. I was wondering, about how hot you reckon that skillet is when you are hottin it to season? Around 100°F or 150°F ,or 200°F even? Wonderin because you said you received blisters before, when hottin up to season. Can you tell us please? Thank you much for very helpful instructions.
My Mum and grandmother's cooked in cast iron daily all their lives. After cooking, my Mum would run hot water over a cooled pan and use a kind of bristle brush (for cast iron and molcajete's) to clean off any food particles. She'd then put the pan back on the stove over flame until the water evaporated. Her pans were well seasoned and smooth inside.
I grew up with cast iron. I'm telling you. My parents never put oil on there cast iron after washing them. They put oil in them when they used them. After a few years, the oil would build upon the skillets. Then they would burn it off. This is to much trouble I'd think, lol.
Thomas Tommy; its not much trouble really in actual practice, after the pan is heated it takes not even 30s to put the oil...you just need to put it on the inside mostly...a tiny bit he's just explained it thoroughly, is why it might feel that way.
Yes God bless her Bob. My Mom is gone too now, and she was also born and raised in the south. I actually had a short dream last night about her cooking Dad and I cornbread in one of her old cast iron skillets. How weird after logging in and reading your post today.
I bought cast iron skillet few days ago from Loblaws but the instructions say not to use it on bbq and over 350f? It’s a plain cast iron skillet, no enamel or coating so I am confused now?
Does anyone use salt??My grandmother, my mother and ofcourse now i use salt to clean my pans. Is that harming them? Boy the bottom of your pan and your handles are super clean!!
I’ve used coarse salt and oil to scrub cast iron many times with no problems at all. If your seasoning isn’t that great, it is better than using soap and water.
I hate to blow the illusion, but I must say my cast iron skillets are just as good with one-tenth the effort. I have 2 rules: 1) use heat; and 2) use oil. Attentive cooks will have pretty good success as they gain experience. Cast iron is like a loyal pet; it's very forgiving of occasional roughness and it will always love you. In fact I use SOS & Scotchbrite pads, brushes and dish soap for scrubbing off the most extreme cooking disasters, and plain old heat & corn oil for seasoning ... and my eggs still skate.
I don't even use soap to clean mine. I scrape stuff loose with my metal spatula while its still on the stove, then warm water and scotchbrite knocks off the rest. Back on the fire, wipe the water off with a rag, then wipe the pan down with spray coconut oil. If I feel froggy, I put a glob of shortening in it, melt it and wipe it over the entire pan, then heat it up till I start to see smoke, and wipe off excess.
You are correct. I over explained so that hopefully it would be clear to most all people. Everyone develops their own technique and care style after a while of use. Cheers!
@Danny Bishop You must be right. I am about to start using Cast Iron Skillets and in process of learning about them through internet. Thing is that just about everyone has different method and seems like they are all working for them !!! 😁
If your cast iron cracks when shocked under cold water then it is a bad pan. I've been cleaning my pan that way for the last 5 years and nothing has ever happened. Also I don't know where you're getting the information that hot water causes the metal to absorb moisture. If that were the case then you either have terrible seasoning, or you could never cook anything with moisture in a cast iron pan ever, which is simply not true.
+Ezekiel Morris The reason I said this was because I didn't want a person new to cast iron use to take a hot pan and start rising it with cold water. If you have experience using CI then you probably already have your methods for cleaning down.
If you have experience using CI, then you will never need to clean the pan. Just wipe it down with a paper towel and some oil when done.. It literally becomes nonstick after a few years of use. Or even sooner if one spend some time on getting the seasoning. :)
I clean my cast iron right after I'm done cooking while pan is still hot. Get the water running very hot and run the hot water over the pan. It will literally steam the pan clean. While doing this using hot water soaked sponge rub it around pan and it's spotless. Water needs slight wipe with paper towel then a thin wipe of olive oil. It almost seems doing this way the pan gets a simulated seasoning after every use. Been doing my cast like this for years. Works great. No build up or scraping necessary. Everyone has there own way though. "This way does create some steam" May be to messy for some people.
I use a 'deglazing' method to clean my cast iron pans. If I have stuck on bits of food after I finish cooking I use the same method I use to make a pan gravy. I remove my food, put the burner back on, add a half cup of liquid to my hot pan and scrape the bits off the bottom with my spatula. Works like a charm with even the toughest stuck on crud.
That’s how I clean them too, easy
Same
what kind of towel you use to seasoning the pan ?
damn i have been using bacon grease for 20 years in my pan to season mine, it works great and you talk about making some tasty ass cornbread!
Your calm soft-spoken voice is soothing on a late night random video watching session.
Nice.
This is one of the better videos on seasoning cast iron....Thxs
Thank you!
I like how you kept it simple, I've been stressing about the pan and that's why I've never gotten one before.
Thank you so much for making this video. I just recently return to cast iron skillets after leaving it for non-stick. My grandmother cooked with cast iron, so it was the pan I learned how to cook with. I seemed to have forgotten everything about caring for a cast-iron skillet so this was super helpful for me. I was able to get a scrapper from my local cookware store and it works great!
That's awesome! Glad you have decided to return some good family heirlooms. Keep on working with cast iron, thanks for the comment!
FYI it’s much easier and saves so much time to use very hot water and clean your pan directly after cooking while the pan is still hot. But watch out for the steam that will come up.
With the pan being hot and the water being very hot this saves time on all that cooling and reheating and it also makes sure that the pan won’t crack or warp because there is no change in temperature.
Since the pan will still be hot and steamy there is no need to use that little tool from Lodge because you’ll burn your hands. All you need is a plastic spatula, which is basically that very tool you’re using but with a long handle on it.
When finished with the hot water and spatula, wipe out and dry the skillet and place it back on the burner. Make sure it gets hot enough to evaporate any of that water that got into the pores. Then turn off the burner, oil it and let it cool naturally.
Exactly.
If you let your pan cool down, put it back on the burner and get it hot.
Run your water until it's very hot and out your pan under the running water.
As said, watch out for the steam.
Wipe with a warm sponge and if it's seasoned correctly, it'll all just wipe out.
Put the pan back on the burner and let it get hot to the touch. All water should be gone.
Put your choice of oil in and wipe down. Easy peasy.
To each their own. I'm not gonna risk the thermal shock.
Tbh I prefer this video's method because it takes a long time for my water to turn hot, so I can take a breather from cooking to let the pan cool down, I'm not wasting water waiting for it to get hot, and I'm not risking thermal shock.
Hobie's Garage BBQ this is the way I clean it.
@@gezzly72 what is the best oil to use?
Awesome video. Thanks guy. I've allowed some of my cast iron cookware to rust up through laziness. Wasn't sure how to attact that problem. Do now. I live alone, with my dog. I use an electrical induction burner for my cast iron cooking utensils. The burner's about $70 from Amazon. Very efficient & very fast. 1800 watts of power that only heats the pan. It's amazing! Retired B.S.E.E.
Everyone who gives cast iron advice says something totally different
Where I come from the proper way to clean a cast iron skillet is to rinse it first with mountain goat urine and water from a hot spring and let it sit for a whole night under a full moon, then let it season by letting it stay for a week in the ass of a grizzly bear and then scrub it with a pine cone...but only from a bristlecone pine!
@@MrBastilleDay Male or female grizzly? And in what general mood?
In my book it must be a rather pissed off sow in heat. Cheers!
@@MrBastilleDay Lmfao!!
@@MrBastilleDay I like your method, but finding pinecones is too much trouble. Instead, I just melt mine down, then recast the molten iron. I do reseason the new pan with mountain goat urine and have to admit that since leaving the pan in a grizzlys bunghole, no cornbread has ever stuck...amazing results. And the flavor, well, it’s hard to describe...let’s just say anything I cook is “unique”.
Iam 81 use to have a cast iron pan but stuff stuck but iam going back to cast iron so glad I came across you I love the way yo< narrate ❤
For anyone trying to save a buck, a used gift card or old credit card works wonders as a cast iron skillet scraper. I use amazon gift cards quite frequently and always save the cards for this reason.
Argh, they are plastic and would melt over time if the pan is fairly hot.
Except he says right in the video don't wash it if it's hot...
+MaZEEZaM who washes their when they are that hot that they will melt plastic??? If the pan is so hot you can't hold it with your bare hand then it's not ready to be cleaned yet. I've never melted one and they last about 3 months until they start to wear.
well I find they clean very easily while very hot, wooden handle this one.
Use hot water though.
You don't need a dedicated scraper. Just use a wooden spatula. You can use it for other things too.
Why is this so relaxing?? I swear I could fall asleep any minute listening to it
Thanks for getting to the point! Dislike when people talk about their personal issues when making these videos. This was helpful thanks!
+Christie Perez hahaha yeah good deal, thanks for watching!
Why the hell am i watching this??? damn I go to extreme lengths to distract myself from studying....
😂
I am supposed to be taking an online quiz right now hahah
Fiorella Marisol ikr...
hahahahhahahahahah
LOLOL
Just got our very first cast iron pan!!!! I’m using your videos to learn!!!!! My mother had a whole set of cast iron pans that we were taught to wash with soap and they were never seasoned. I was a whole adult when I learned about the care they actually require. So thank you for your channel!!!!!!
A whole adult😂😂😂😂
You mean you was a half adult?
Things I see and read😂😂. I’m going to have to figure that one out😂😂😂😂 and I’m 60 yrs old I thought I was always a whole women😂😂😂 have a blessed day.
I heat my my iron up and use hot water. The steam release everything . The I scrap if I need. My grandmother done it that way and we have iron over 60 years old.
Me too - for 70 years now. This isn't good info.
Yup same way I was taught by my father
@@show_me_your_kitties
Absolutely
That was really helpful. I just got 1 a couple of months ago and I did the first seasoning. But I didn't know it was going to look dirty after I cooked and then rinsed and scrubbed it. So I was alarmed and thought I did something wrong. So to watch this video it was very helpful. Right before you seasoned it, the stuck on seasonings look dirty. But you said that was natural. So mine looked exactly like that. Thank you so much.
I love cast iron. Great video! I want to say your voice is one of the best on UA-cam. You should be on radio.
Thank you.I often talked to my 90+year old mother in law. One night I was talking to her about how much I loved cast iron and cast iron cooking. I told her how important it was to clean it as you did, put oil in it as it cooled, wipe any excess out with a paper towel, etc. She listened very patiently and when I was finished she said, "I never did anything like that with mine."Now, Everytime I reseason my cast iron, I think of what she said and cannot but laugh.
+Howard Johnson haha, some people have different ways to do things.
just bought a cast iron skillet and been watching videos of how to season it, clean and cook on it. hopefully mine will last for generations.
Great video!
This is pretty much how I treat my cast iron. I have a few thoughts, though. First, the Lodge seasoning is just canola oil, which is readily available and much cheaper at any grocery store in North America. I've used everything from corn oil to bacon grease and they all work. Second, he's absolutely right about the Lodge scrapers, but DO NOT use them on a hot pan. They're great, but they'll melt. Voice of experience. Third, don't use crumpled-up aluminum foil to scour your pans. Use a copper scouring pad instead. Copper isn't poisonous; aluminum is.
I got a stainless steel spatula with wood handle off Amazon for maybe $10, the corners have a little rounding to them so they don't scratch/score a surface, but are great for not only scraping food off, but also wear down those imperfections on new cast iron over time and make it smoother. no need to worry about the heat damaging it, you can also lay it on the pan with the metal on the food if you need to.
His voice is so gentle and his fingers are beautiful
Thanks for this. I just got two cast iron pans for Christmas (8" and 12"). I've never used them before... so this is really helpful to tis "newbie."
Glad it helped! Cheers
I've got a cast iron pan from late 18 hundreds I clean it with salt and warm water scrub lightly rinse, dry,warm it up on stove not hot,use cooking oil on paper towel wipe it down and boom done, been a great pan no problems.
I really like using course salt. Easy cleaning method.
I do the same thing. My mother always used cast iron and she never babied it. Just a good swipe of crisco.
I've been cooking with cast iron for twenty years and this is the first I've heard of cast iron seasoning oil.
Just found it on Amazon and put it in my cart for the next order. Thanks for the tip.
You don't really need it, from the looks of it, it's just a more convenient consistency. But, a microfiber cloth and a reasonable amount of oil and you'd get the sane result.
@@SmallSpoonBrigade Thanks. I normally use common cooking vegetable oil.
I love my cast iron and this is this is the only way to clean them. I wish everyone knew the joys of cooking with cast iron. Whether your cooking breakfast at home or around a camp fire cast iron is the only way to go!
Amen to that!
I cook 90% of my meals in my CI skillet. I love the flavor it yields
Your voice is really relaxing too, so thanks for the extra bonus. 😊
=P
Dam girl
stillme4you clima
His hands are nice too. :)
I love your videos. I have been watching for months. I especially like your calm demeanor and delivery. Keep posting!
This is a great and helpful video about all the steps in cleaning and seasoning. Thanks for sharing!
+EcoEarthwares Thanks!
We've been using cast iron skillets and pans for 3 generations. And the very same ones. When were done cooking we empty our pan, wipe off the greez and gritt, put it back on the stove and fill it with hot water and lett it simmer for a while. Then we wash it out. We use our skillets and pans most every day.
We don't have any major problems or have any trix or fixes. Best is to use them regularly
Yikes, I'm lucky Cast Iron Protective Services never took my pans away, based on the way I was unknowingly abusing them...
Lmaoff 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Andre P, the dreaded CIPS. No one wants to tangle with them folks.
soap is usually fine nowadays. hard scrapers is really what will remove the seasoning. mostly treat it like a normal pan except that you need to oil it to prevent rust
Haha. Ahh the dreaded CIPS agency...
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Bought my first cast iron skillet today. Glad I found this channel
Awesome!
the Bob Ross of cleaning cast iron
So clean to the touch hes using his hands
Accuracy 😂😂😂
Look at those happy little cast iron pans.
I almost fell asleep B Ross style
More like the anal retentive chef. If you don’t know who that is check out old Saturday night live skit
I use water some and its never been an issue but typically i pour a generous amount of oil in the bottom, and then cover the bottom with a bunch if kosher salt and then use a scrub pad. Salt acts like a great abrasive for tough stuck on food. Then when u rinse it all out its still nice and oiled
Thank you for this detailed video!!!! I've been doing things soooo wrong!! Thumbs up!
+Raven Sanchez Thanks and you are welcome =)
I got one of those chainmail scrubbers with a silicon center & it works great! Doesn't hurt the seasoning at all.
Hello boss, I'll be 3 hours late, I'm cleaning my cast iron frying pan!
Whahaha. I do this for a living ! This is pathetic!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Hot hot water, very warm pan. Add a little water like you’re deglazing for a gravy. Use wooden scraper for getting off any slightly stuck on bits. Linseed oil is great to reseasoning. I learned from Cowboy Kent Rollins, he knows his “irons”.
Being Southern, I remember watching my great grandma using hers. She would coat it with grease and bake it in the oven to allow the pans metal to expand, allowing the grease to cook in. THE BEST cornbread was made in that skillet!
Nice!
should try off of a open fire while cooking in the pan I swear I would live off of it if I had to lol
Technically the grease or oil polymerizes in the high heat, forming a hard slick surface as opposed to sticky (if not hot enough). ☺
I keep mine in the oven even when baking in another vessel, along with my pizza stone, especially when baking bread or pizza in very high heat. Just like with a pizza stone, if you keep it on the bottom rack (if you have room depending on what you're baking), it will help retain heat in the oven while baking which reduces rapid temp fluctuations, produces a better baked/roasted food, helps save energy by keeping the gas/heating element from cycling on as often, AND only helps to improve the cast iron seasoning. Win-win-win-win! 😀
If you have many cast iron pieces--I only have one essential skillet but I'll eventually get more--you can rotate them over time. If you haven't used one in a while and it got sticky, keep it in the oven throughout a couple baking sessions and all should be good!
coat with oil bake at 350 for one hour, leave it in the oven turn off the heat and let it cool
A lot of old timers used lard or fat. But they used those skillets 3 times a day. If you let it sit for a week or two, that fat will turn rancid. Best to use a high smoke point oil like grapeseed for seasoning if you don't use it on a daily basis.
Also of assistance the lodge brush is very nice and I like to use one of those blue 3m Teflon safe scotch scrubbies as they won't affect the seasoning either...Oh yeah and I like to throw down a silicone hot pad to protect my white enamel sink as a barrier against scratching. Iron~on brother!
Thank you.
You can also clean it with Kosher salt
+Màrthà Johnson Sure thing! I have heard of people using the kosher salt method also when you need a little more scrubbing grit =)
:-)
Sparkle 1914 : I was worried that I was off base with that idea, My father used salt and bacon grease to rub out the pan after cooking (if it needed it), then rinsed it with water to get rid of the salt, then regreased the pan. You are the only person that I have seen do this. Thanks
I appreciate your video. Cleaning the cast iron was always my husband or father-in-law’s job. Since I’ve lost them both and there’s rust in my 2 skillets, I go to UA-cam.
I just used a metal scouring pad on a dry skillet until I got all the rust off. Rinsed in warm water and dry. Rub a thin coat of oil all over and then wipe out. Bake at 350° for an hour and leave in oven till cool
Warm skillet, hot water. It creates a lot of steam that will remove any food,grease particles. Use a wooden spoon if you need to scrape. Works great on my 150 yr old Wagner skillet.
Jane Doe that’s how I clean mine as well...
And don't use anything other than a high temp oil such as flaxseed or olive oil. Remember you're ingesting anything you use to season the iron. No chemicals.
@@richj011
Olive oil is not high temp. It smokes and burns at a very low temp. Don't post misinformation.
@@richj011 olive oil can go rancid, and doesn't have a neutral flavor. Vegetable Oil will work great.
@Jabroney Canola works?
This is what I've done for almost 40 years - after making a lot of mistakes along the way. You *can* use soap if you've been programmed to think nothing will get truly clean without it, but you'll get far better results following this method. The only thing I would suggest is wiping off as much of the oil as possible - or not adding any - when heating the pan after cleaning. It just takes a micro-thin layer of oil to maintain the seasoning, and there's usually enough left over after cooking and cleaning to do that. Nice demo.
+Citizen Kate Thanks for the input and suggestions!
I also wipe out the pan and store it without adding more oil as I have so many pans that they go rancid if I add more oil, lol.
Before washing grease down the drain, take a paper towel and get out as much grease and crud as you can.
Pita M I’m new. Why is grease in the Drain not good?
@@emmanuelarredondo5365 It plugs up the pipes!! You know grease--solid when cold, liquid when hot. It doesn't stay hot in the pipe. It cools and makes a glob that other waste sticks to.
NEVER put grease down a drain!
Pita M life and pipe cleaner! Thank you
Just sold me on the oil. I bought the scraper, wire brush and cast iron seasoning paste. I used to just use olive oil and let it bake until it smoked (which does work, just not perfect) but this seems much more smooth and nonstick.
I use coarse sea salt to scrape off any food remnants... Is that an okay alternative, or will it damage my pan in the long run?
That's a perfect alternative. But if that's happening frequently, you may need to re season. Your seasoning may be getting thin allowing food to stick to your pan.
My grandmother has cooked on cast iron for 80 years and she always used a brillo pad, hot water and dishwashing liquid to was out her cast iron skillet. Afterwards, she places on the stove on high heat and allows the skillet to dry and then turns it off and places the oil she uses to cook with in the pan and takes a paper towel and wipes it on the inside and outside (except for the bottom of course, lol) It's never rusted on her because of the use of hot water. I clean my cast iron the same way she taught me as well and have not had any issues with mine either. This is a method I've seen before but something about not using any kind of soap kind of bugs me. But it's interesting nevertheless and maybe one day I will try this method. Thanks for sharing. :)
Lynda Clark Thanks for sharing
I use either veggy oil or bacon grease to re season my pan and dutch ovens and they never get sour from the oils.
wbuttry1 Good to know
Bacon is the first thing I cook in a cast pan after it comes out of the fire and gets a light coat of oil (unless it is my egg pan) . I don't know why bacon grease seems to work better than veggie oil but in my pans that seems to be the case .
Bacon is good for everything. When in doubt, have bacon lol.
this is nice and simple. others were so complicated and used the oven so many times i lost count.
lol thanks! Glad it helped!
Just wash your pan dry it and oil it back up before putting it away. All this extra stuff isn't necessary. I think that's why people are intimidated by cast iron. Heck sometimes all I have to do is wipe the pan out with a towel. It's just that easy to care for and it will last forever.
Robin Corprew thanks for this comment, I was just thinking Nope I’m not getting a skillet, too much work😂
BusyBeePlanner yeah he is right. You don’t have to do all of that extra shit. Hell I just rinse mines out with hot water, and I put it back on the hot stove burner to dry it off. That’s it
@@miguelrobb5719 yup, that's all you really need. Make sure its clean and dry... Everything else is just extra.
Narekaci Shahbazyan that’s right. I make sure I scrape off any gunk that’s left on it and THEN rinse it off and wipe around it with a wet cloth. That’s it. I seen people do the must complicated things with these pans. My wife wanted one for herself because she likes how durable the pan is, but she got put off by watching these kinds of videos
This reminds me of the videos explaining how to use French press coffee makers. They over complicate the process and intimidate people when in reality it's probably one of the simplest ways to make coffee.
Nice video, looks great, thank you. In the recent past, I have used 400 grit Wet-or-Dry paper to clean the skillet, then cooked up some potatoes in bacon grease,,, the pan came out super smooth, and very non-stick. I don't recommend that anyone try it unless they are willing to go the whole nine yards (just in case it doesn't work). but I didn't have to go through the whole process, I just cooked in it.
Before you cook, always add oil to your cast iron pan first. Then turn up the heat until it smokes a little. This way your pan will become nonstick. High heat and oil will create a layer of seasoning on the surface right before you add your other ingredients.
Interesting how techniques vary from discipline to discipline. When cooking with a wok the method is to get the wok hot first - known as "longyau", then add the oil, let the oil heat up to smoking, then add the first ingredient of the dish and take it from there.
If you did that, it will burn your food...
@@WYO_Cowboy_Joe you're doing something way out of the norm. Most people don't eat charred meat. They may call it blackened with a crust on, but it's not charred. The best way to cook for most cases in a cast iron skillet is on about a medium. If you're going to do something out of the norm that's fine. But then you should tell people you like your meat chard. It's only common sense.....
@waynethebarber1095 thanks! I was reading it and said this will inevitably burn the food due to the heat retention remaining at high heat even if you turn down the Flames 😂
just like wok, always try with egg, if egg dont stick, most stuffs dont stick anymore.
I really gunked up my 666 this morning to the degree that your skillet was in the vid. I followed your instructions and the Griswold turned out wonderfully smooth. I had to use the plastic scraper on the back of my scrub brush but it worked fine. I am curious about the chain mail scrubbers so I just ordered one from Amazon, as well as a couple of the Lodge scrapers. Thanks!
Good deal! I haven't used the chain mail scrubbers yet. If I get something that is really stuck on I just let it soak with water for a few minutes (not hours or over night!) and that usually helps a lot =DThanks!
thanks for mentioning the sterilization part that's what freaks me out about it not being clean, no one can ever tell me how I guess it was that simple
I still use a little bit of soap on mine and my seasoning continues to build without a problem. Heat will sterilize the pans, but, whatever might have died with the heat is still there, just dead. I wouldn't eat dead roaches just because they are sterile. Just my thought process, great video...
I really enjoyed the involuntary ASMR vibe of this video ! 😄
Seasoning your pan has nothing to do with building flavor. The seasoning on caste iron is a polymerized layer of oil that creates a nonstick surface. It shouldn't impart flavor to your food. I think the way 'seasoned' is used in this instance is a pan that has been through many cooking cycles just as a seasoned person has been through many cycles of life.
Jennifer thank you for that explanation. I’ve always wondered about it being “seasoned”.
Yeah ur totally right. The guy in the video is speaking blasphemy! Burn him in the pan! Lol
In other languages we call it "curing"
Seasoning a pan has everything to do with flavor. Nothing at all to do with amount of use 🙄 my grandmother taught me how to cook, she would've whipped my ass if I put water on her skillets
@@bustedknuckles7710 seasoning is layering polymerized oil on a metal pan. It has everything to do with how many times a thin layer oil has been brought to the smoke point on a pan. It has nothing to do with making your pan smell or taste like anything. Also, water is the main ingredient in most food. Meat, vegetables, stock, broth, all contain water. I'm sure your grandma made gravy? You can't make gravy without some kind of liquid that contains water.
Thank for you posting. I'm a total newbie to the cast iron world so this is helpful.
Glad it helped you out!
I new at this too
you have a very soothing voice. you should consider learning how to hypnotize people. nice video, btw. told me what I needed to know. Now i gotta google those "lodge scrapers'.
lol Thanks! You can get the scrapers on amazon amzn.to/2a6b5ct
I saw the same scrapers at Walmart last week for about the same price.
Cooking With Cast Iron What type of oil is in the oil you used? I've been using canola oil with what appear to be good results.
He hypnotized me, I fell asleep when listening to the video and I woke up at 6, the cleaning crew at work came by and woke me up... not that he was boring, it just his voice is soothing :)
I also found scrappers at a local kitchen store here in town.
I could listen to this guy talk all day! 😊
I surely couldn't. I bet you could poke him with a pin and he wouldn't say ouch. Does he have a pulse?
Can you use other types of oil? Is there anything special about the seasoning oil?
You can use whatever you want. Technically nothing really special about the oil I use here. Its a blend of high temp oils that create a nice coating from my experience and shouldn't go rancid such as animal based oils. A lot of people swear by Crisco as a seasoning oil. I would avoid vegetable oil though.
I've seen vegetable oil recommended. Why do you advise against it?
Patrick H I had a bad experience using it. However, could have been because it was when I first got my pans and they had a lot of carbon build up on them and/or I could have been using too much vegetable oil. You can see how much build up was on them in this video: Restoring 80 Yr Old Cast Iron With Electrolysis and Seasoning
I originally thought it might have to do with the heat that the oil polymerizes at. But I looked up your seasoning oil and found that it contains both high and low temperature oils. (Ingredients are Organic Palm Oil, Organic Coconut Oil, Organic Sunflower Seed Oil, Vitamin E, Citric Acid)
I think a small amount of citric acid is what is helping with the seasoning. It breaks down substances called "non-hydratable phosphatides" that become gummy. According to lipidlibrary.aocs.org fruit oils like olive oil do not undergo degumming processes, so maybe that is why your previous pans became gunked up.
According to Wikipedia, lodge uses a soybean oil blend. According to cookingforengineers.com/article/50/Smoke-Points-of-Various-Fats that would make it a high temperature oil.
Patrick H Sounds good to me. Could be why so many people also like crisco. I have been using the cast iron conditioner for a little over a year now and I like it; I just have to massage the tube sometimes to make sure its all mixed together well. Thanks for the info!
Thank you for that info. Can u show us the paper tower after wiping around on the surface of the cleaned cast iron pan with white dry paper towel.. pls. Mine is always blackish (not like very dirty black, but it always blackish on white paper towel ) on paper towel no matter a million time i clean it (using warm water with non soapy sponge (even with coarse salt) and wipe on a thin layer of cooking oil) and wipe it.
I remember my Mom cooking in her cast iron skillets. When food would stick in the bottom, she would put some hot water in it, them turn the burner on and let it boil until food was loosened.
Exactly, seasoned is different from oiled, your moms way kept it seasoned I'm sure.
Funny how our moms, grandma's etc. had no YT to guide us, did everything "wrong" and yet it still worked...lol. My Dad's CI pans never saw a sink. Rarely did anything stick but if it did he'd scrape with a sharp wooden spatula. A thin coat of oil and away it would go until next time.
Ok and what do you use if you don’t have a scraper
Uh. Wipe the grease out first with paper towel b/c pipes do not like grease.
This! Is such a huge pet peeve of mine. My parents always poured ground beef/other grease down the drain and swore it was fine if you run hot water and soap down the drain with it. Omfg.
I'm so glad I have learned better, mostly thanks to the PSAs my city has done for the last several years regarding the horrible state of our sewer system due to (besides the fact that it's over a century old) "FOG"--Fat/Oil/Grease--and non-biodegradable hygiene products.
My fiance had always done this too but I've scolded him enough that he finally mostly stopped. He thinks he's helping when he adds water to a greasy pan I haven't cleaned yet. Wipe with paper towels first! Then soak if need be. If he touches my cast iron though I will plead "justifiable homicide." JK of course! 😛
@@shelleyb162 I always keep a grease can in the freezer, usually a crushed tomato can. When it's full and cooled I just throw it in a plastic bag and throw it in the pail the morning of garbage collection.
Its all fun and games till you have to power snake all through your pipes.
@Universal Kombat Have fun with your plumber bill bud.
@Universal Kombat I treated my tenants the same way they likely treated their significant other. The first time was educational, consecutive was ignorance.
Awesome cheers for that .. I’ve just had mine ..cooked frost time on it .. wow was fantastic.. all cleaned & seasoned now .. cheers Chris & Sam
I know that they say NOT to ever wash it with soap or detergent. But I can tell you for a fact that it was never a problem for my aunt. She never even intentionally seasoned it after use. After so many years of daily use for frying eggs, the pan formed a beautiful seasoning that we did not have to use any oil for frying eggs. And she washed it with detergent and let it air dry along with her other dishes. Maybe it helped that she lived in a very dry part of the country. Nonetheless, she never did any maintenance to it and it was a beautiful skillet that never rusted and formed a natural non-stick surface.
***** Interesting!
@@WYO_Cowboy_Joe So true. Glad someone saw my comment after so many years.
So im new to CI but ive been wiping it down with a paper towel after each use and ignore the real burnt off stuff as dont have time. I have just followed this guide and got it cleaned properly and seasoned. Would i be ok to just wash and season once or twice a week and in the meantime, wipe it down after each use every other time. I use it twice a day mostly. Am i on the right track to get it seasoned properly?
My wife actually said the other day that I look after my cast iron pans more than I look after her! Well, I took care of her.... cast iron pans make quite the murder weapon!
That was disturbing
LOL
Just show the same care to your wife as with your pan which you explained you take care by wiping the bottom and oil after use and never leave wet or let it get rusty.
what kind of cloth do you use to apply the oil on the hot pan? Paper towls indeed leave fiber because they burn.
Wait, seasoning oil? Just use vegetable shortening and a paper towel...
That's poison. Better to use Olive or avocado oils
@@mhaas281 I really have no idea, except that I just watched Martha Stewart's video on this very subject and she absolutely recommended using shortening. Uh-oh! Is Martha Stewart doing me wrong??! LOL
A dedicated rag? Paper towel and evoo.
@@dandmpugmartha not exactly into healthy cooking.
by far my favorite clean & re-season video i have seen yet
Thanks, hope it helps people!
Thank you for this! I am restoring a rusty one right now and this helped.
PaintedRavensong I could come over and help if you’d like...😉
@@unclefester1840 bruh
What would you recommend for someone who doesn't have a Lodge scraper? There's no such products in my country.
Some very helpful tips friend , thanks so much!
Calvin Patterson Thanks!
newbee to cast iron here, I’ve seasoned it twice and have use couple of times for cooking. So yesterday I cleaned mine with fine salt, scrub gently, put bit of soap, rinse and put on stove to dry, forgot to oil it. this morning I saw there's kinda brown shadow, and the seasoning seemed to peel? should I just re-season? any idea why with the browning? cos I did make sure it was dry completely
Wow. The one thing I never thought about over all these years using my cast-iron was not to pour hot water on it because it will expand the metal and the water will get in the pores. It makes sense when you heat it up to do that exact thing with oil or fat but I never thought about it for water.
I just saw a video of a guy heating up the cast iron then putting it in hot water to clean it.
but how do you keep and dispose properly the oil rag you use everyday? oil soaked rags can spontaneously combust / cause fires?
This is more complicated than it needs to be.
I scrape out crumbs while hot and reason with grease I just cooked with after draining of the excess 🤗
I just bought one of these and has no idea how to use it. Thank you.
Your voice is so soothing ... read me a lullaby
Really
Renee DaSinger Yes, please!!! 😊
My Mom used to boil baked-on food & gunk from her cast iron pans to clean them. Then she’d Season it with Crisco again
. Is that recommended today? It did seem to get the burnt-on food after boiling. Thanks
I know this is from 2014, but for people who are watching this now... you *can* use soap on your cast-iron pan. The "no soap" rule came about back when all soap was made with lye in the early 20th century. Most soaps are no longer made with lye, and dawn and other dish soaps, even the "super strong"/"extra strength" ones, are actually quite gentle. You can easily and proudly use today's soap on cast-irons worry-free.
What's bad is letting your cast-iron pan soak in water. You can rinse it and even use soap, but don't ever let it soak in the water. Always and only use running water in your cast-iron, and make sure you dry it thoroughly on the stove quickly.
Don't believe me? Just ask J. Kenji Lopez-Alt:
www.seriouseats.com/2014/11/the-truth-about-cast-iron.html (See myth #4)
Remember... these are cast-iron pans. They're made the be strong as hell, not coddled like fragile pieces of chinaware. They can stand up to quite a bit of abuse.
(Also... do NOT use flaxseed oil. It is indeed great for a short amount of time, but something about flaxseed [although I'm not sure what] keeps it from properly polymerizing onto the pan, which means it flakes *very* easily. The reason flaxseed came recommended for a while is because it gave cast-iron pans that shine you see in Instagram photos. But that shine is not normal... it's done on purpose to make the pan look good in photos. It is *not* something you should be striving for. How matte or shiny the pan is does not determine how non-stick it is.
Some links:
www.reddit.com/r/castiron/comments/5owtnm/why_i_dont_recommend_flax_seed_oil/
www.chowhound.com/post/testing-debunking-flaxseed-method-seasoning-cast-iron-807107
www.castironcollector.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1548&highlight=flax )
Wrong!!
Soap destroys the seasoning.
@@aaronwood3540 I'm sorry but that hasn't been true for *years*. Lye destroys the seasoning. As the vast majority of dish soaps today are made without lye, they are safe for cast-iron pans.
I suggest you read Kenji's article; the one I linked in my original comment. He's part of a fast-expanding list of chefs and other cast-iron experts who are more than happy to wash their pans with soap.
@@jimmyrrpage well tell ya what. If you like your food to taste like soap, you just keep washing them. Me I prefer my food not to taste like soap and my cast iron to have seasoning on them. So let's agree to disagree!
@@aaronwood3540 You aren't disagreeing with me. You're disagreeing with experts. You're disagreeing with chefs who collect cast-iron pans and have for years. You're disagreeing with people who have made cast-iron pans their livelihood.
I've been using soap on my pans for years and not only is the seasoning amazing, but none of my food tastes like soap.
I'll go with the experts, thanks, because they're tips work wonders for me and they're... you know... right.
Does a bit of carbon build up matter? Or is it like a wok in the sense it adds to flavour? What can I use as a substitute for buying seasoning oil?
3 minutes watching someone wash a pan. I must be desperate
🤣🤣🤣
Tks for sharing your vid.
I was wondering, about how hot you reckon that skillet is when you are hottin it to season? Around 100°F or 150°F ,or 200°F even? Wonderin because you said you received blisters before, when hottin up to season. Can you tell us please?
Thank you much for very helpful instructions.
Just run hot water on the hot skillet and scrub it and then put it on burner to dry and season it.
My Mum and grandmother's cooked in cast iron daily all their lives. After cooking, my Mum would run hot water over a cooled pan and use a kind of bristle brush (for cast iron and molcajete's) to clean off any food particles. She'd then put the pan back on the stove over flame until the water evaporated. Her pans were well seasoned and smooth inside.
+Emily P Good to know, I have been using a bristle brush now too. Thanks for the comment!
I grew up with cast iron. I'm telling you. My parents never put oil on there cast iron after washing them. They put oil in them when they used them. After a few years, the oil would build upon the skillets. Then they would burn it off. This is to much trouble I'd think, lol.
How they become non-stick ?
Yeah...I would think it would collect dust.
Thomas Tommy; its not much trouble really in actual practice, after the pan is heated it takes not even 30s to put the oil...you just need to put it on the inside mostly...a tiny bit
he's just explained it thoroughly, is why it might feel that way.
@@rainstormr7650 yes, as long as you're not needing to season from scratch, it isn't much effort.
Very helpful. Plan to buy a new 12" skillet soon and want to take good care of it. Thanks a lot.
+Barb Carson Awesome! Hope that you enjoy using cast iron! Thanks for the comment.
My mother made some of the best Corn Bread in a cast iron pan.
+bob jones It's the best! I made some in this video: ua-cam.com/video/J3jWCSzUTSg/v-deo.html&ab_channel=CookingWithCastIron
+bob jones I'll bet your Mama is from the South!
Yes she was. She's gone now but her corn bread lives on:-)
+bob jones bless her soul
Yes God bless her Bob. My Mom is gone too now, and she was also born and raised in the south. I actually had a short dream last night about her cooking Dad and I cornbread in one of her old cast iron skillets. How weird after logging in and reading your post today.
I bought cast iron skillet few days ago from Loblaws but the instructions say not to use it on bbq and over 350f? It’s a plain cast iron skillet, no enamel or coating so I am confused now?
Does anyone use salt??My grandmother, my mother and ofcourse now i use salt to clean my pans. Is that harming them?
Boy the bottom of your pan and your handles are super clean!!
You certainly can use salt. Doesn't harm them at all. But like most cast iron users, you'll find that hot water and a plastic pot scraper works best.
I have only used salt a few times and something was really stuck on the bottom, but most of the time water and a scraper work well.
I’ve used coarse salt and oil to scrub cast iron many times with no problems at all. If your seasoning isn’t that great, it is better than using soap and water.
I've always simply used semi-coarse salt, olive oil and a paper towel. usually don't use water
You are on taget Benjamin!!!
Lodge themselves said you can in fact use a little soap on them but I don't want to. I like that million meals flavor in the seasoning.
I hate to blow the illusion, but I must say my cast iron skillets are just as good with one-tenth the effort. I have 2 rules: 1) use heat; and 2) use oil. Attentive cooks will have pretty good success as they gain experience. Cast iron is like a loyal pet; it's very forgiving of occasional roughness and it will always love you. In fact I use SOS & Scotchbrite pads, brushes and dish soap for scrubbing off the most extreme cooking disasters, and plain old heat & corn oil for seasoning ... and my eggs still skate.
I don't even use soap to clean mine. I scrape stuff loose with my metal spatula while its still on the stove, then warm water and scotchbrite knocks off the rest. Back on the fire, wipe the water off with a rag, then wipe the pan down with spray coconut oil.
If I feel froggy, I put a glob of shortening in it, melt it and wipe it over the entire pan, then heat it up till I start to see smoke, and wipe off excess.
You are correct. I over explained so that hopefully it would be clear to most all people. Everyone develops their own technique and care style after a while of use. Cheers!
@Danny Bishop You must be right. I am about to start using Cast Iron Skillets and in process of learning about them through internet. Thing is that just about everyone has different method and seems like they are all working for them !!! 😁
Thank you for this demonstration I placed my order for the oil and scrapers
If your cast iron cracks when shocked under cold water then it is a bad pan. I've been cleaning my pan that way for the last 5 years and nothing has ever happened. Also I don't know where you're getting the information that hot water causes the metal to absorb moisture. If that were the case then you either have terrible seasoning, or you could never cook anything with moisture in a cast iron pan ever, which is simply not true.
+Ezekiel Morris I think he does not really understand what seasoning is.
He gets the idea, but not the effects of the long term build up.
+Ezekiel Morris 'If your cast iron cracks when shocked under cold water then it is a bad pan' -you led with your weakest argument.
lol i was wondering where he is getting all his bogus facts from too
+Ezekiel Morris The reason I said this was because I didn't want a person new to cast iron use to take a hot pan and start rising it with cold water. If you have experience using CI then you probably already have your methods for cleaning down.
If you have experience using CI, then you will never need to clean the pan. Just wipe it down with a paper towel and some oil when done..
It literally becomes nonstick after a few years of use. Or even sooner if one spend some time on getting the seasoning. :)
I clean my cast iron right after I'm done cooking while pan is still hot. Get the water running very hot and run the hot water over the pan. It will literally steam the pan clean. While doing this using hot water soaked sponge rub it around pan and it's spotless. Water needs slight wipe with paper towel then a thin wipe of olive oil. It almost seems doing this way the pan gets a simulated seasoning after every use. Been doing my cast like this for years. Works great. No build up or scraping necessary. Everyone has there own way though. "This way does create some steam" May be to messy for some people.