I'm assuming the soap cuts out the non stick surface that builds up. But if you never use soap how do you get rid of bacteria? Is there some type of product for that?
Any other tips for a cast iron cookware novice? I picked up some Lodge cast iron. I hope it's decent.
i almost always use soap (very sparingly)
on all my pans, iron included. it doesn't
wash the "seasoning" off. then after a
rinse they go back on the heat to drive
any moisture out. after the handle is too
hot to hold barehanded i consider that
hot enough and the pan gets a light coat
of grease and is set aside to cool. after
it's cooled i rewipe it with clean paper
towels and is put away. now if i'm out
in the sticks i'll just wipe them clean
most of the time because of limited
potable water and set them back on the
fire for a bit. here at the house if i've
cooked something that will easily wipe
clean they don't get as thorough of
a cleaning, maybe a rinse and reheat
and greasing and wiping.
a lot of folks won't wash their iron cookware
and that's ok too, but i prefer to wash
all my vessels that have held food.
I imagine the heat kills bacteria. Personally I use soap and scrub them clean then dry and put a little oil in there and wipe it around coating the whole inside with a paper towel then set it on the turned off still hot stove eye before putting it away after it cools down. With years and years of the seasoning built up it stays there when I wash them.
Cooking styles have changed quite a bit with refrigeration and folks working jobs away from home. Years ago a pot of beans could literally be 20 years old. The cooking method was just add ingredients as they went away and keep constant low heat going. Maybe by early morning the fire would go out but it was restarted as soon as you got up, even in the dead of summer. Potatoes were the same. Today if we use oil it's usually around 350 degrees or more to keep as much oil out of the food as possible. Back then they pretty well simmered everything in lard. Low heat and cooking all the time unless the fire went out when you were asleep. Potatoes and lard added as needed. Today the oil goes bad from high heat or even turns rancid from food in it with no heat to kill the creepy crawlies in it. Or little burnt bits of food from running the oil hot to keep the fat out of it so we have to wash the pans to get rid of the off flavors.
Hot water wash and rinse,dry,add oil and heat it up.Never got sic in my almost 60 years of using this stuff. Worked ok back in the old days.We seem to lose a lot of the everyday living wisdom from the old days.If out in the field,sand can scour the stuck on stuff ,then just treat as before. Cast iron is the best vessel to cook in
LOL! Bacteria dies at fairly low heat. Cast iron is the only way to cook or bake. Be more concerned about WHAT your cookin than what your cookin it in. We all know about under cooked chicken, and pork, but under cooked beef is where many get such things as tape worms and worse.
We use a light soap to clean, then a paper towel wit a little olive oil.
i didn't think to write that if you're starting
with a brand new cast iron piece, you may
want to do what i've done to some i've had,
and that's to polish the inside. i've used
3m surface conditioning discs intended for
smoothing metal bodywork, machined
surfaces, etc. and i've used sandpaper.
you're wanting to get it as glass smooth
inside as possible, like those old skillets
granny used and smoothed by 50-60 years
of using spoons and egg turners etc.
except you're turning the clock forward.
i polished this last lodge i bought, but it's
still not as smooth as the 100+ year
old wagner i like to use.
just cooked a pan of cornbread in one
to go with the stew from earlier
what you need'n is a handfull'a possum fat ana touch of hawg jowl for perfect season'n
you modern whiper-snappers ain't gotta like'n for such ol'school culinary art.
even ifin you got one them armadillo's....(re-capped possum) that will do
just fine for season'n 1st round. gotta have swine jowl for finish touch....yeah !!
+1 on the old cast iron cookware, I have a couple newish Lodge dutch ovens, but my favorite is an old Wagner chicken fryer I bought at a second hand store, looked abused when I bought it for $3, but after cleaning it up and seasoning it, it works perfect like it did decades ago, just a shiny black finish that cooks great and cleans easy.
It's funny how people don't read directions...
Go to the Lodge website, they will tell you just to wipe it clean and put it up, as mentioned
germs will be killed when heated....
btw...Cast iron also works well on the grill...
This was my Mom's, she is 89, I've cooked with it for about 30 years, never sees water...
What are directions? I either inherited mine from my grand parents or have bought some old & rusty ones from the second hand store ( or as my mother says.....the specialty shop)and taken a wire brush to them.
Directions are those things either included with the product for the original purchaser or what you find when you look up the company on the internet...
Of course you do need to have a computer and know how to use it........
I never use soap with cast iron. Most of the time I just wipe with paper towels but if something does get stuck it's warm water only and a nylon brush.
If you cook with it a long time and it gets a thick crusty coat on the outside from only scrubbing or wiping the inside you can build a charcoal fire and put in it and fill it with charcoal or get it red hot with a propane torch. Look like new after, grey all over. Re season and continue. Makes no difference. ear
I use a safer method and works well. I fill up a large plastic container with hot water and add one tablespoon of Arm and Hammer Laundry Soda per gallon. I take two 1/8" mild steel plates (should be at least 12 inch square or larger) and position them on both sides of the container, connect a copper wire between the two plates with mild steel fasteners (strip some insulation from the wire in the middle), then I take some bare copper wire and connect it to the fry pan (clean an ares on the handle for a good connection), wrap the copper wire around a 2x2 piece of wood (non-conductive) and lower the pan into the solution between the steel plates making sure the pan doesn't touch the steel plates, use the wood 2x2 to suspend the pan in the solution. I then take my MANUAL (non-automatic, non-computer) battery charger and connect the red clip onto the steel plates connecting wire and the black clip onto the copper wire twisted around the pans handle. Plug in the charger and in a few minutes you will see bubbles forming, in about 4 hours UNPLUG the charger (water and electricity don't mix) and check the pan, you may need to scrub it with a brillo pad and reconnect and let the pan "cook" a while longer. This method will also remove rust. Use the method for CAST IRON ONLY, NO Stainless Steel, chrome or nickle because of chemical reaction. Should be outside, produces hydrogen gas. You could search YouTube for "electrolysis restoring cast iron". The solution is non-toxic and can be disposed in your septic or simply poured out.
If you cook with it a long time and it gets a thick crusty coat on the outside from only scrubbing or wiping the inside you can build a charcoal fire and put in it and fill it with charcoal or get it red hot with a propane torch. Look like new after, grey all over. Re season and continue. Makes no difference. ear
AND, every once in a while, when heated that hot, the cast iron cracks. There's NO WAY I'd EVER heat any of my CI like that!
To clean any of my CI, I put a little water in it, and bring it to a boil on the stove. After a few mins, what ever is stuck and you can easily clean it out with a wash cloth. Rinse with hot water and heat over a flame to drive the moisture out.
If you cook with it a long time and it gets a thick crusty coat on the outside from only scrubbing or wiping the inside you can build a charcoal fire and put in it and fill it with charcoal or get it red hot with a propane torch. Look like new after, grey all over. Re season and continue. Makes no difference. ear
AND, every once in a while, when heated that hot, the cast iron cracks. There's NO WAY I'd EVER heat any of my CI like that!
To clean any of my CI, I put a little water in it, and bring it to a boil on the stove. After a few mins, what ever is stuck and you can easily clean it out with a wash cloth. Rinse with hot water and heat over a flame to drive the moisture out.
some friends had given me several old
skillets that had a really bad buildup.
i tried spray oven cleaner which has
worked for me in the past, but it
wouldn't cut it. i just put them in
the fire on the grill and all that stuff
crumbled and came off real easy
with a wire brush. i just greased them
and stuck 'em back on the fire. worked
really well.
if a pan is going to crack on me, i'd rather
it was from being on a fire while trying to
clean it than on the stove in the kitchen
full of grease. my buddy uses the torch
method on his, and we've yet to crack
one new or old between us.
I don't think so. Tape worms are intestinal parasites and do not come from the muscle tissue of beef. Unless of course you are eating tripe tartar. As to the "and worse", if you are referring to Ecoli or something along those lines, heating the surface (outside) of the meat to 160 degrees kills that bacteria.
if a pan is going to crack on me, i'd rather it was from being on a fire while trying to clean it than on the stove in the kitchen
full of grease. my buddy uses the torch method on his, and we've yet to crack one new or old between us.
You can't get a CI pan hot enough on a stove to crack it... Perhaps you don't mind treating your CI that way, but I have many pans that were handed down and I plan to do the same thing with them when "I'm" done with them...
AND, yes you can crack one getting it too hot on coals...I've already seen one that cracked just that way.
DM
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Graybeard Outdoors
2.7M posts
63.7K members
Since 1987
A forum community dedicated to the great outdoors and hunting enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about hunting, fishing, survival, archery gunsmithing, optics, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!