this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2024
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[–] MargotRobbie@lemmy.world 7 points 6 hours ago

The obsession with cast iron like it is some kind of magic ritual is honestly really weird. After you cook with it, wash it with water and dry it with some paper towels, that's it, no need to make it more complicated than it really is.

If things are sticking to your pan, use more oil in your pan; with enough oil, you can cook on a rock and make it nonstick.

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 5 points 15 hours ago

You son of a-

[–] houstoneulers@lemmy.world 10 points 18 hours ago

Lol I like cast iron cookware, but you do whatever with what's yours as long as you leave mine alone.

[–] bluewing@lemm.ee 53 points 1 day ago (3 children)

The reverence and fear of cast iron cooking pots and pans is stupid on both sides. People have been using cast iron under every condition from the big fire place in a castle's kitchen to a fire pit in a peasant's hovel to open fires outdoors to Michelin Star restaurants in Paris and London. And they cooked EVERYTHING in it because it's what they had and all they had. There is no mystery to seasoning and care of cast iron. Just like there is little to fear from cooking with it.

Those that do worship in the church of cast iron-- just cook in it. There is nothing sacrosanct about it. If your Great Grandmother didn't worry about it, why should you? Any damage you can do it can be repaired quickly and easily. So get over yourselves.

And those that fear cast iron cookery, get over it.......They are often the same ones that are fearful of micro plastics getting ingested and yet have no care or concern while cooking with plastic cutting boards and utensils in plastic coated cookware.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 9 points 19 hours ago

So much gatekeeping in anything creative. Music, cooking, art…. If you change one little thing it’s no longer the Thing, it’s something else, and it’s not what chef/band/artist/or grandma made, even though it’s a popular variant of the same Thing called the same thing somewhere else. Cast iron falls into the same trap. Such harsh judgement on use and care. It’s a f’n pan, not the last remaining example of a vintage Ferrari. Get over it.

[–] Kanda@reddthat.com 18 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The mystery is that iron will rust if wet. The care instructions are "don't leave it wet for a long time".

[–] strawberrysocial@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Even if it does rust accidentally, can't you just scrape or buff out the rust and then reseal/reseason it again and it's fine?

[–] Kanda@reddthat.com 1 points 3 hours ago

Yeah, but it's a lot faster to dry it after use/cleaning.

[–] Red_October@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Okay but this one time I did exactly that thing I'm not supposed to and exactly what was expected happened so obviously cast iron bad?

[–] Kanda@reddthat.com 1 points 3 hours ago

Once my colleague's dad threw gasoline on a fire and got 3rd degree burns, so oxygen is bad.

[–] FuzzyDog@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I have no fear of cooking with it, I just want my cookware to be minimally fussy and not require special treatment. If the $10 Walmart skillet can be thrown in the dishwasher and the $100 cast iron one requires me to baby it or it'll rust, I'll go with the cheap skillet every day.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 15 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

Teflon also should not go in the dishwasher. Anything with exposed aluminum should not go in the dishwasher. Even stainless steel cookware recommends against dishwasher

[–] ms_lane@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Only because some Stainless cookware uses Aluminium rivets for attaching the handle.

[–] FuzzyDog@lemmy.world 6 points 20 hours ago

I put pretty much all of my stainless steel stuff in the dishwasher and it's fine

[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 6 points 22 hours ago

You have those prices reversed though. My cast iron collection, as noted further down, cost less in total than my one really good stainless steel pan, and guess where some of that cast iron was purchased? For $10 at Walmart, LOL. And at thrift stores and Target.

[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 4 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Tbf the cast iron i'm cooking out of was found as scrap in the woods. I wash with soap regularly, and use normal oil/butter qty's. I just don't dishwasher it, not that i have a dish!asher XD. I've seasoned it one single time which is right after i found it. It's been a year.

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 5 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

You might want to check that for lead. People who cast their own bullets have been known to melt lead in cast iron.

[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago

Ehhh... I've taken the 100LL avgas shower. At this point, a year of cooking later, the damage is done ig. Ill grab a test kit tho.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago (5 children)

First, everyone (not you because you don't like it) should buy their cast iron at the hardware store, should be ~ $30. It'll last pretty much forever so that $30 over a lifetime is not much.

If you don't cook a starch or aromatic in it, just wipe it out and let it get super hot.

If you do cook starch in it, hand wash it with soap, just let it get over 212 degrees on the stove to dry it.

If you want to throw it in the dishwasher, just pull it out at the end of the cycle and throw it on the stove > 212 degrees to dry. A well seasoned pan is generally so easy to clean, this would be a waste of your time, but it won't kill anyone.

If you want to subscribe to the no soap, scrub off the cooked starches with water and a non scratch scouring pad, re-coat in a fine layer of oil and let it smoke off under high heat. I really don't bother and just use whatever it takes to get it clean easily.

If the seasoning polymer you get from burning off oil gets cruddy after 6-8 months, re-season.

If you accidentally get a little rust on it, soak it in vinegar until the rust dissapears, scrub the spot with a 3m pad until the spot is clean and re-season.

You can get a rusty ass pan from a yard sale, soak it in vinegar for a day, scrub it down and re-season it. It'll come out like new.

If over the years, the seasoned surface starts to look super cruddy, soak it in sodium hydroxide until the polymer disolves, then reseason.

Yeah, they're harder than throwing it in the dishwasher, But they're wasteless, cheap, pleasant to cook on and give great results.

I keep a teflon pan and a couple different cast iron around. Even found a glass top lid that fits.

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[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 9 points 21 hours ago

You baby your cookware and debate the differences of each type.

I don't even know what type of cookware I have.

We are not the same.

[–] PumpkinSkink@lemmy.world 14 points 1 day ago (2 children)

As long as you don't leave it sitting in water you'll be fine.

[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 6 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

I wash with soap and add a little oil every cook. Works great.

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[–] zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 1 points 16 hours ago

I leave mine sitting in water all the time. It still works.

[–] victorz@lemmy.world 30 points 1 day ago (11 children)

You... hate cast iron? Of all things people could hate, cast iron is the choice here. Mmaight.

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[–] coherent_domain@infosec.pub 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Seasoning is a polymer, which is known for its strong resistance. It is unlikely to breakdown just with one dishwasher wash.

The seasoned surface is hydrophobic and highly attractive to oils and fats used for cooking (oleophilic).

The protective layer itself is not very susceptible to soaps, and many users do briefly use detergents and soaps.[28]

Unless you are dish washing it everyday and refuse to dry/reseason it, you will be fine.

However, cast iron is very prone to rust, and the protective layer may have pinholes, so soaking for long periods is contraindicated as the layer may start to flake off.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasoning_(cookware)

[–] MrTolkinghoen@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago

This aligns with how I care for mine. Scrub it with a chainmail scrubber, Wash it with soap / watwr, then rinse dry over flame and then drizzle a but of oil and rub with a paper towel.

I have no reverence for my cast iron besides avoiding letting it sit wet for a long time.

[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 12 points 1 day ago (5 children)

The whole cast iron thing is such a cult. Always makes me laugh when someone tries to preach it to me, how it's great, then there's all this stuff you need to do that you normally wouldn't, oh right you can't do this and you need to do this and yes it's heavy as all hell but that's actually a good thing

lol

[–] blackbelt352@lemmy.world 2 points 17 hours ago

People make this shole "cast iron cult" thing out to be a much bigger thing than it actually is. Cast iron is a durable material and has been used as a tool for cooking in the harshest of conditions for centuries, but to be able to use it in those harsh conditions it needs to be properly taken care of just like any tool.

The reason people seem so neurotic over taking care of cast iron is that cast iron cookware is an investment. Year after year a cast iron pan (and this applies to carbon steel pans too) becomes better and better the more the thin layers of oil polymerization into the seasoning. A fresh off the line Lodge dutch oven doesn't have the years of layer after layer after layer of polymerized oil on it as the same mode Lodge dutch oven my grandmother used when back she was half my age.

Cast iron is easy to take care of, there's nothing special about how to take care of it, but the ways to take care of it are specific because of the nature of the metal used. Hell I spend less time cleaning my cast iron pans and carbon steel wok than I do cleaning any other pan type.

[–] BugleFingers@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I'm not a fan boy, I actually resisted getting one for nearly a year before one was gifted to me. There are a couple perks and draw backs I've learned. Pros: heating is pretty even, cleaning is actually way easier (IMO), and I can use metal on it. Cons: needs to be seasoned, takes longer to heat, some people get the ick from seeing rust.

TBH it's pretty much the only pan I use now (cause I find cleaning easier and I'm lazy AF), but people should use whatever suits them.

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[–] Sir_Premiumhengst@lemmy.world 55 points 1 day ago (4 children)

¯\(ツ)/¯ wouldn't kill it. Just scrub any flakes off and re-season. The abuse they can take is almost unreasonable.

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[–] TheImpressiveX@lemm.ee 92 points 1 day ago (3 children)
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