As a newly minted Ordinary Gentleman, I am required to introduce myself, although I’d like to believe that I’ve spent the last six months doing so in the both the guest posts that have been generously published here and in the comments section. More is required of me though; Erik and Tod both said so. Here is a brief overview:
Do I Have Any Education?
I do. I have graduated from high school and college and college again and college one more time in case the first two times weren’t sufficient. I am not entirely certain that I’ve ever effectively used my degrees, but my wife (who most certainly has effectively used hers) insists that we hang them on the wall. She did not appreciate my proposal to hang my framed degrees in our half-bathroom.
Do I Have Any Wives/Kids/Pets?
I have one wife. I have two kids. I have no pets, but there have been a succession of stray-cats who have come by our house and ended up staying, mostly because we immediately feel bad enough to leave food out for them (although we never feel bad enough to formally adopt them, because they’re cats, and cats are awful).
Do I Have Any Passions?
I have a passion for figuring out how to do things in ways that I am comfortable with. Â I’m largely self-taught and largely dismissive of formal instruction. This may explain why I have always been a poor student.
How Do I Re-Season A Cast Iron Skillet?
Simple: sand all possible rust off of the skillet, run it through an oven’s self-cleaning cycle, cook a package of the fattiest bacon imaginable in the pan, remove the bacon from the pan and rub the resultant liquid fat all over the pan (top, bottom, sides, and handle), bake the pan at 350 for an hour, rub down with a touch of olive oil after it cools. If you do this successfully, you can have a piece of non-stick cookware that will last you for the rest of your life at a total cost of whatever you paid for the used skillet plus a few bucks for supplies and electricity. I don’t understand why more people don’t use more cast-iron.
Do I Have Any Skill At Writing Personal Introductions?
No.
> Do I Have Any Skill At Writing Personal Introductions?
> No
Clearly false. You included a cast iron skillet re-seasoning recipe.Report
But he neglected to say what we should
do with the pan after the oven cleaning
cycle. Wash w/ soap and water, I believe?Report
No soap, ever. After the self-cleaning cycle, you should remove anything that’s burned off (like rust, but obviously only after it has cooled), then start the baconing.Report
Welcome Sam.Report
Welcome Sam! Sam, if I am vegetarian and don’t have any pork, what do you suggest are good alternatives?Report
Use a monounsaturated vegetable oil with a relatively high smoke point.
Monounsaturated because polyunsaturated fats are more prone to rancidity.
I am not a vegetarian but don’t like to use lard for seasoning because the pan will start to smell without constant use.
Canola oil is good because it is cheap and relatively tasteless.
I tried peanut oil once but everything cooked in the pan had a distinct peanuty taste.
You need to apply the oil in a thin layer and repeat the heating process four or five times.
Here is link for info: Cast IronReport
By the way, let me just say that this is my opinion.
You will find that seasoning cast iron is a highly contentious subject.Report
Agreed. It gets ridiculous, frankly. If somebody’s figured out something that works, they ought to stick with that. The obsession that exists with figuring out The One Correct Way baffles me.Report
You only think your way works. Mine really does. If you’d get over your irrational attachment to you flawed method and try mine, you’d see how much better it is.
(Cut and paste to use in all arguments, of any type.)Report
This is largely my entire problem with the world.Report
You left out the part about the other ways of doing it are unprincipled.Report
Worse, immoral.Report
I would recommend you use whatever oil you most often cook with. We cook most with olive oil, so that’s what I use. Apply before the baking process, and again afterward, and you should be reasonably ready to go.
Worth noting: clean only with water. No soap.Report
Agree with no soap in cleaning.
I use coarse salt and a stiff bamboo brush to remove any leftover food debris – then rinse, dry and oil for storage.Report
You’re cleaner than I am. I use a thin metal spatula to scrape off the bits, rinse, and oil. If something remains, it usually liquefies when heat is applied. (Oh, and incidentally, yet another reason to like cast-iron is that you can use metal cooking implements without irreversible damage to the pan.)
CF – where are you on brands? People around here genuinely seem to care about branding (Griswold, mostly). It drives me crazy.Report
Brands? I am in the south so most of what I have is Lodge. All bought at flea markets with copious amounts of surface rust for about $2 – $5 a piece.
I think I did pay $15 for a giant camp dutch oven.
I have one Griswold skillet and I really can’t see any difference.
I believe Griswold has more cache because of its value as a collectible.
Someone gave me a cast iron griddle made by All-Clad. Damn thing cracked the second time it was used.
The funny thing is that the best cast iron, the most valuable cast iron, the most antique cast iron – will have no branding at all.Report
I’m baffled by the loyalty to Griswold. I’ve had some – gifted to me by family members who insist that I’m getting the best of the best – and I’ve always soon passed it on to the next person. It strikes me as thin and flimsy and not what I’m looking for, which is heavy and porous.Report
I am utterly delighted you’re Officially Here.Report
Awesome. Welcome!Report
Welcome aboard Sam!Report
Good choice for a new OG. I’ve enjoyed your guest posts.Report
“…and cats are awful”
Clearly, I can get behind this. Welcome.Report
Welcome!Report
It’s nice to meet you, Sam. I think your introduction is lovely.Report
Welcome aboard!Report
Finally, the League can put behind it the querulous slur that we refuse to take on the divisive issue of skillet seasoning.
Welcome Sam!Report
This is a vastly more important issue than whether there is an objective difference between good and bad art. We shall be friends. However, please note that this makes you my wife’s mortal enemy.Report
What is her objection? The way in which it sort of seems to stay “dirty” or something else?Report
Pretty much that, I think. I’ve never been able to fully understand it. But she refuses to use our iron skillet and insists on always using our non-stick pans. I use the skillet whenever I can.Report
If you do this successfully, you can have a piece of non-stick cookware that will last you for the rest of your life at a total cost of whatever you paid for the used skillet plus a few bucks for supplies and electricity.
Was the bacon free, or can we infer something about the awful stray cats?Report
This is a good point, although the bacon counts as supplies. In this one specific case you don’t necessarily want to eat this bacon, because you want to cook all of the fat right out of it. I’m not talking about burning the bacon into the pan necessarily, but as close as you’re willing to come. It isn’t very appetizing afterward although you can plainly tell from the early part of this sentence that I’ve certainly tried what’s been left behind.Report
It’d be overboard to say this individually, so let me simply say thank you for being so welcoming and enthusiastic.Report
The *really* hard part is finding a good (by which I mean what most people think is bad) spatula. What is necessary is a flimsy-ish, but not too flimsy metal spatula with a flat edge. Rounded edges can’t scrape efficiently. Older spatulas were more likely to be like this. I have one good old wood-handled one, and one newer plastic handled one. Plastic sucks. If you leave it leaning against the pan it will melt. What a mess.
People don’t buy these anymore because they cook in teflon or whatever. ick. Then they wonder why they are iron-deficient. So all we get are flimsy plastic spatulas that can’t scrape or melt.
If you know where I can find a good old spatula, I’ll be in your debt.Report