Seasoning a cast iron skillet

I do apologize blog fans that I did not take pictures throughout this process, I'll try better next time...

That out of the way, I have successfully seasoned a cast iron skillet.  "Big deal" many may say, and they are probably right, but it was fun, and its even more fun cooking in the thing, because, after every meal, I get this little sense of accomplishment... a little thrill that I was able to cook whatever because I successfully seasoned this skillet.

The first thing you need to know is that you CAN screw it up.  I did...

As you can find all sorts of instructions on how to do it on YouTube, I'll not go into all the nitty gritty details, but hit the highlights.

The first thing they will tell you is if you have a brand new piece of cast iron cookware, you will need to strip it, and you can find ALL sorts of ways to do that from homemade electrolysis devices to spray oven cleaner.  I didn't bother with any of those, I just used soap and hot water.  Its the only time you will ever use soap on your CI cookware, so enjoy it.  Now, I'm not a smart man, but I know what rust is, so I dried the skillet in the oven, but I let it cool to room temperature afterwards, and that was a mistake. When you start applying oil to the pan, it should be warm enough that you need to use a towel or oven mittens to handle it, but not so hot that you can't apply the oil.  There is something about the iron being hot (or the oil being hot) that makes it stick better to the skillet.

The first thing I tried was to follow the instruction for seasoning on the packaging...that's all wrong.  The best I did there was to get a layer of goop on the pan that burned and turned my food black.  Then I found a site that said to put like a half inch of oil in the pan and bake at like 350.  That just made more goo... I was re-inventing the sticky part of the sticky-notes.  That was a little hard to clean off, so I thought I would cook it off... it was essentially cooking oil, after all...  After cooking some chicken breasts in it, it developed a fine soot like dust.  Back to the soap and hot water with it...

After that, I learned that the best way to season a cast iron skillet is to apply very fine layers of oil to a hot pan, then bake it (upside down) at 400 for about an hour.  To get a very fine layer, you oil the pan lightly, then you get a cotton rag and dry the oil off.  You will not be able to dry off ALL the oil, there will remain a light film of oil... that's what will polymerize and make a non-stick surface.  Four layers was all I needed.  The next step is to cook in it as much as you can, so I baked some biscuits and scrambled some eggs, and will soon grill a steak in it.  The biscuits fell right out and the cooked on egg cleaned right up.  I think I'm going to have fun cooking in this thing, and if I ever get an induction stove top, it's the only cookware I have that will work on it.

The perfect cookware

Over the past few years, I've had sort of an obsession to find the perfect cookware for me.  Of course I thought that the perfect cookware for me was the perfect cookware for anyone.  I'll say right now that that is wrong.

In years past, I've had a variety of inexpensive cookware, and I've caught some of it on fire... yes caught it on fire.

I forget the brand names of most of the cheap stuff I've had, however, I do remember having some TFal nonstick pots and pans that, at the time, I seemed to like, but eventually, the inside coating started to flake off.  My last TFal pot caught fire because I turned on the wrong burner. The exterior coating caught fire and was quite alarming.

After the Pot on fire incident (it wasn't the only one.. just the last dangerous one), I decided to get some no coated, or at least more durable cookware.

I bought a full set of Cuisinart Stainless Steel cookware.  I figured I 'd have a lot of trouble catching steel on fire... I was right about that.  It is extremely difficult to catch steel on fire.  I liked this cookware; it was durable, although I had to use nonmetallic utensils with it, and I could put it in the dishwasher, which is a selling point in my book.  However, something in me was unsatisfied... I eventually learned that this was not dissatisfaction, but an addiction or drive I have to buying cookware.  The main problem I had with the Cuisinart stainless steel was that it was not "nonstick."  Yes, I have since learned that you can 'season' stainless steel, but 1) I have trouble believing that stainless steel is porous enough for seasoning to get a good 'grip' on the pans, and 2) I got this set cause it said it was dishwasher safe, and putting it in the dishwasher would remove any seasoning I put on it.  Another slight issue with stainless steel is that it discolors in hard water.  The water in my apartment needs to be cut with a diamond saw its so hard.  Because of this, my Cuisinart cookware has rainbow discolorations that would make Cy Twombly envious, but that is merely an cosmetic problem and does not effect the quality of the cookware.  Another problem with putting stainless steel in the dishwasher is that any particles from other dishes can scratch the finish... so I usually wash this stuff by hand now, or I make sure that its the only think in the dishwasher... oh, and its recommended that you do not use dish-washing detergent that contains citrus... the acids in citrus will damage the finish.

The pots in the Cuisinart set are great, and I use them regularly, but I was still looking for the perfect non-stick frying pans so I could the perfect eggs... Next, I tried Calphalon Contemporary Nonstick.  This has a coating of some material from area 51 and, although you can burn stuff onto them, it will usually rinse right off.  I sometimes need to use a sponge on my Calphalon, but cooked on foods wipe right off.  Again, use silicon or nylon utensils with it and do not put it in the dishwasher... but you never need to, this stuff cleans up in seconds.  I also like my Calphalon skillets because they are oven safe up to 400 degrees, so I can toss them in the oven to put a finishing touch on omelets and steaks.

One day I was in Bed Bath and Beyond and there was a deal to get two Aeternum Enamel coated aluminum skillets for $50.  That weakness kicked in and I got them... Talk about non-stick... nothing sticks to this stuff... the first time I was ever able to flip a fried egg by just flipping the pot was with an Aeternum enamel coated aluminum skillet... that was fun... this stuff is so non-stick that sometimes you can't even get a spatula under the thing you are trying to flip cause you push it instead of slipping under it.  I really enjoy cooking eggs in these skillets... unfortunately, one night I wanted to make some tea, and turned on the burner beneath my empty Aeternum skillet instead of my tea kettle... and you guessed it... I damaged the pan.  It didn't catch fire, but It came close.  The coating on the bottom is marred.  the enamel actually melted onto my electric burner, and the cooking surface cracked slightly.  It's still usable, but where the cooking surface got damaged, it is not 100% non-stick...

After reading several blogs on cooking with cast iron, I went and bought an Emerilware cast iron skillet.  I wanted to get a Lodge and recommend them because they are made in America, but I couldn't find any, and when I get the buying bug, the Internet just won't do.

The first thing that I'll say about cast iron is that cooking with it is a hobby.  You are going to spend a lot of time caring for cast iron than any other cookware.  Oh yes, they make seasoning cast iron look easy on YouTube, but truth is, it is rather time consuming, especially when you compare it to the other cookware in this post.  The cost of brand new cast iron cookware is about the same as the others listed in this post also.  When someone says that cast iron is a lot cheaper than other pans, they are usually referring to the fact that you can sometimes... SOMETIMES... find old, used, neglected cast iron cookware in garage sales for a handful of dollars.  Turning that rusted, neglected piece of junk into a beautiful cooking utensil that will last generations is a fairly major project... that you can get wrong the first couple times.  Keeping cast iron viable is also sort of a chore.  I am in the process of re-seasoning a cast iron skillet, and will no doubt blog about it.  Although there are no lack of YouTube and blog posts concerning how to season cast iron, none of them mention what happens when you do it wrong... I now know what happens when you do it wrong.

Summary: As some website I saw said... The best cookware is the cookware you love to use every day... My favorite of all the ones listed above, in all honesty is the Calphalon Contemporary Non-stick.