Thread: Cast iron?

Originally Posted by PaulKidd

Thanks for that! Sounds like a real breakfast bomb.

It's a great breakfast. I've been eating that same breakfast menu just about every morning for well over 50 years. Pass the Lipitor please.

Originally Posted by PaulKidd

I just acquired two new (unused) "Camp Chef" CI pieces from a friend. The inside
surfaces are anything but smooth: they purport to be "pre-seasoned," but the
surface is very grainy.

Is it necessary to grind the surfaces smooth before seasoning them, or do the
various methods of seasoning mentioned here fill in the gaps, so to speak?

You can just use them...

If you are impatient and your cast iron pan is not enameled you can speed up the normal
wear and smooth the grainy surface.

Power tools.. Orbital sander what can I say that will do the job.

By hand use what you might have. I have one of the round ax hone stones that
I paid about $5 for. After cooking I worried the surface of the pan with soap water
and the round hone. At first I saw tiny bits of shining cast iron then more and more.

Lacking a small abrasive mostly flat rock you can use one of the foam sanding blocks.
You can just clean the pan with a green Scotch-Brite Heavy Duty Scour Pad and
allow the scouring to remove bits of seasoning and expose the tall bits of rough
cast iron.

With some effort the pinpoint bits of shining cast iron flatten and widen and a spatula
stops catching and you are done. Eventually this mountain top removal process will get a
pan as flat and smooth as my Mom's. She was not bashful about cleaning the heck
out of the pan. We had stainless scrubbers, steel spatulas even brillo pads. She also
had a can of bacon drippings to fry eggs in. The lack of steel spatulas may be one reason
it helps to get after a pan and help it break in.

After sanding wash and apply a thin layer of food safe oil or fat and heat the
pan to the smoke point turn off the heat and let it cool. If it should rust wipe it clean
before using and add some cooking oil or fat as needed.

The best oil in my kitchen for seasoning is the sesame oil I use for chinese cooking.
My cooking oils have a high smoke point and the oil I season a pan with is a low
smoke point oil. Flax seed oil is a nice choice and some take flax oil supplements.
I have pricked some of those capsules and dripped the oil on the pan... one pill
is about the correct amount... It works well but any cooking oil or fat will do the job.

Some folk are religious about it.
Pan are meant to cook in ... just use them.

The first thing to cook is a grilled cheese sandwich... Cooking eggs is more
a matter of temperature control and good fat than it is seasoning.

Aloha!

I thought you gents would find this interesting.

I have been an avid Motorcycle CAMPER since 1995 when I bought a brand new Triumph Trophy with hard luggage sides and rear. Pic below. I've been coast to coast - border to border many times on that bike. I made the decision, even though packing weight is everything on a motorcycle, that I just HAD to travel with cast iron. Cast Iron beans or Chili cooking on the fire, or better yet, some peach cobbler, is just too good to pass up for me. And of course, there is eggs and bacon for breadfast with some fresh bisquick rolls in the dutch oven.

So I got these little Lodge 8" Frying pan and mini 8" dutch oven both with matching lids just for moto camping. They are small, but for ONE person motorcycle camping? They work!

Also opted for the Lodge Scraper, Brush and Silicone Handle Holders for the mini pan and dutch oven. Plus the seasoning I always use to keep the cast iron cook ready and protected.

In the foreground is my Moka Pot for coffee. I absolutely have to have that when Moto-camping. Cast Iron cooking and good coffee are the two most important things.




-Zip

Well, thanks for all that good advice!

I'm going to go with an electric drill and a stripping disk, followed by
a palm sander. Might as well get it as smooth as possible while I'm at it.

For seasoning, I'm going to try coconut oil, which has a very high fat
content...and is the principle ingredient in some commercial seasoning
oils for cast iron.

OK. I'll skip the fried egg test and go with the grilled cheese!

I'll have another go at this on Saturday.

Thanks again.

Originally Posted by niftyshaving

You can just use them...

If you are impatient and your cast iron pan is not enameled you can speed up the normal
wear and smooth the grainy surface.

Power tools.. Orbital sander what can I say that will do the job.

By hand use what you might have. I have one of the round ax hone stones that
I paid about $5 for. After cooking I worried the surface of the pan with soap water
and the round hone. At first I saw tiny bits of shining cast iron then more and more.

Lacking a small abrasive mostly flat rock you can use one of the foam sanding blocks.
You can just clean the pan with a green Scotch-Brite Heavy Duty Scour Pad and
allow the scouring to remove bits of seasoning and expose the tall bits of rough
cast iron.

With some effort the pinpoint bits of shining cast iron flatten and widen and a spatula
stops catching and you are done. Eventually this mountain top removal process will get a
pan as flat and smooth as my Mom's. She was not bashful about cleaning the heck
out of the pan. We had stainless scrubbers, steel spatulas even brillo pads. She also
had a can of bacon drippings to fry eggs in. The lack of steel spatulas may be one reason
it helps to get after a pan and help it break in.

After sanding wash and apply a thin layer of food safe oil or fat and heat the
pan to the smoke point turn off the heat and let it cool. If it should rust wipe it clean
before using and add some cooking oil or fat as needed.

The best oil in my kitchen for seasoning is the sesame oil I use for chinese cooking.
My cooking oils have a high smoke point and the oil I season a pan with is a low
smoke point oil. Flax seed oil is a nice choice and some take flax oil supplements.
I have pricked some of those capsules and dripped the oil on the pan... one pill
is about the correct amount... It works well but any cooking oil or fat will do the job.

Some folk are religious about it.
Pan are meant to cook in ... just use them.

The first thing to cook is a grilled cheese sandwich... Cooking eggs is more
a matter of temperature control and good fat than it is seasoning.

Paul just a quick question

The seasoning process,, did you repeat it ???

Some of my new Lodge worked after 1-2 sessions a few took 3-4 but every one worked
Even the small Chinese "Cookie Pan" Shan bought me for a gag gift finally worked and it was the roughest pan I have ever held..
I just wanted to see if I could get it to slide an egg hehehe

Our BBQ is out of commission for a while so I have to do me grilling indoors.
Revisiting lots of the old lodge cookware this month.
Last nights burgers seen below.

And tonight's flank steaks were done under the broiler, again in two lodge skillets.

Forgot how much I liked cooking in these.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Paul just a quick question

The seasoning process,, did you repeat it ???

Some of my new Lodge worked after 1-2 sessions a few took 3-4 but every one worked
Even the small Chinese "Cookie Pan" Shan bought me for a gag gift finally worked and it was the roughest pan I have ever held..
I just wanted to see if I could get it to slide an egg hehehe

I repeated the temperature progression 3 times, as per your recipe.
Do you think I should run the whole three progressions again?

I won't be grinding on it until Saturday, so I have time to repeat
the whole seasoning process again.

Originally Posted by PaulKidd

I repeated the temperature progression 3 times, as per your recipe.
Do you think I should run the whole three progressions again?

I won't be grinding on it until Saturday, so I have time to repeat
the whole seasoning process again.

You should have seen a pretty good coating after the 3,

Quite a few of us SRP guys are on a Huge (275K) FaceBook CI page..

Recipes for seasoning are discussed there much like recipes for honing are here
One of few things everyone agrees on is the older and smoother the pan the easier it is to season.
Oil smoke point is also talked about, but it isn't just about the high temp it is also about the actual fat content and how much the completed seasoning flakes after being laid down.

Most of the people there much like on here with razors love the vintage pans and the new Custom High dollar stuff..
It is humorous to me to read sometimes as the corollaries are pretty close to SRP and razors

Everyone agrees that the new stuff will work it just takes more work to get it there

I REALLY hope you do pics, I am very interested to hear your impressions

I use a Shapton Glass progression on mine to smooth them and finish them with either an Escher or Coticule.

Pure lard has always worked well on my Griswold collection.

When I get a vintage pan I take it to a shop that soda blasts the crud off. Then I re-season as per Glen's technique. Only one pan gave me fits after re-seasoning and that was a Wagner I intended to use only for breakfast meat. The problem was me. I was trying to fry maple cured bacon in it too soon after the seasoning process. The sugar in the bacon was carmelizing and everything stuck to the pan like glue. I gave the pan a good scrubbing and re-seasoning Glen's way then I used that pan to fry hash browns for a week and took it back to the bacon. Problem solved. No more sticking meat and it will slip eggs perfect.