Thread: cast iron pans

Here is something I found a bit odd. It seems when I cook bacon in my cast iron, I tend not to get as much grease in the pan. I made up 2 strips of bacon in a non stick yesterday, and it basically poured grease into the pan. Does the cast iron just not yield as much fat out of the meat?

the greese is seasoning the pan. maybe

I love cooking with the set of All-Clad pots & pans I bought a couple of years ago but for some things, nothing beats cast iron, IMO. My Lodge griddle sees duty pretty much every Sunday morning for an old fashioned bacon and egg breakfast or maybe pancakes. I've got a couple of other fry pans, to boot.

Thought i would try and get some help with this problem. I picked up this nice griswold #9 off ebay. It wasnt seasoned, so I seasoned it with Lard rather than Crisco putting the over at 300 degrees for one hour and letting it sit in there till it cooled down. It never really dripped, and the coating was very light, but this is what I ended up with. The lard was definitely put on evenly, but as you can see, it didnt set evenly. Any suggestions on where I go from here?

put the grease on to heavy.

When I put it in the oven, you couldnt even really feel the grease on the pan with my fingers. I made sure that it wasnt thick so that it wouldnt drip. And also the sheeting action of the lard ..What should I do now?

I agree with much of what was posted here. Cleaning in the clean cycle of your oven then scrub, Never leaving water in etc.
I always treat mine with olive oil and Kosher salt, and set in an oven that is cooling down.
If you get charred bits; heat it up, add light olive oil, and kosher salt, and scrub with paper towel, or flat bladed wooden spatula (using the salt as the grit)

Interesting thing: I was told buy a woman who sold parrots that an overheated Teflon pan will kill a bird in the house. After that I nver used teflon again. Nothing beats a well treated cast iron pan.
I have no Griswolds or Wagners, but I do have an old La Crueset, and some other no names.

One thing I do that is against the rules is wash my La crueset with soap after I have cooked fish in it. Because Cast Iron is porous, every thing cooked in it would taste like fish. So that is the one pan I will wash, but I also season it well afterwards. My other pans never see soap.

I just got my first one recently, a lodge.

I have a 10.5 and a 12 lodge. I bought them after reading about their non-stick properties here. I have some stainless expensive that I bought wanting to get rid of the Teflon poison.

The lodge work great! Much better than the stainless tri-clad. I have lids for both will be here tomorrow. Now I'm thinking about getting the 15", but there is no lid for it available...

The wife squawked at first about the cleaning methods, and not using soap. But she is coming around...

Stainless, used properly, can be non-stick. It's just like shaving, proper technique, handling etc. I can show you how to cook an egg white omelette in a stainless pan, that to me is the ultimate test.
For Cast Iron I highly recommend La Creuset, or older cast iron pans. I don't care for the new Lodge, too pebbly for my tastes, but that's my personal preference.