Big Iron: Cast Iron & Carbon Steel Pans

Just like the cast iron. It takes my little gas stove all it has for the carbon steel. With them seasoning from the center out. The cast iron has a, 'heavier' looking seasoning in the center also. The darker brown area, that's from butter.

I've been buffing the inside after it's used. Had to use a little salt on some black carbon, last night. Fried, breaded pork chops. With potatoes before that. I have a couple plastic pot scrapers I use. But a missed a spot that didn't come out until the pan was heated again.

I'm not trying to make this pan to where it'll turn black, overnight. Tonight is big test of this pan, roasting rice for Mexican Rice.


 
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Bought some stainless. Not in the shape of a frying pan but in a 3qt sauce pot.

All-Clad. Ridiculous price. I've been using a 2qt Emeril branded stainless pot (I didn't buy this pot, I found it.) Mainly for cooking rice. I need more room so the incredibly expensive, but not the most expensive, All-Clad 3 ply.

Tonight's menu is lemon pepper chicken. With a sauce. In the sauce there's some lemon slices that get fried, there's broth involved. Lemon zest. So the sauce is getting made in a stainless sauce pot. Not the carbon steel.

I'm sure it wouldn't hurt the carbon steel but I'm not of the mood to be scrubbing sauce off carbon steel. Only the chicken breast is going in the carbon pan.
 
Grasshopperglock said:
Bought some stainless. Not in the shape of a frying pan but in a 3qt sauce pot.

All-Clad. Ridiculous price. I've been using a 2qt Emeril branded stainless pot (I didn't buy this pot, I found it.) Mainly for cooking rice. I need more room so the incredibly expensive, but not the most expensive, All-Clad 3 ply.

Tonight's menu is lemon pepper chicken. With a sauce. In the sauce there's some lemon slices that get fried, there's broth involved. Lemon zest. So the sauce is getting made in a stainless sauce pot. Not the carbon steel.

I'm sure it wouldn't hurt the carbon steel but I'm not of the mood to be scrubbing sauce off carbon steel. Only the chicken breast is going in the carbon pan.
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I'm sure you know this already, but cooking something acidic like that in cast iron or carbon steel would be a good way of removing that seasoning you've built up. Perfect job for stainless.
 
chalby said:
I'm sure you know this already, but cooking something acidic like that in cast iron or carbon steel would be a good way of removing that seasoning you've built up. Perfect job for stainless.
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I've cooked spaghetti sauce in cast iron a few times. But the seasoning is over 6 years old. It's never seen soap. Dish brush and plain water. And didn't have an issue with the acid dissolving the seasoning. Causing the food to taste like burnt on seasoning.

At this stag of the carbon. No lemon juice or tomato sauce. But frying a little bit of diced tomatoes and lemon slices is supposed to be doable. But I'm not risking it. I cook eggs everyday in the carbon and the seasoning needs to stay nice and smooth. Frying only, no sauces.
 
Grasshopperglock said:
I've cooked spaghetti sauce in cast iron a few times. But the seasoning is over 6 years old. It's never seen soap. Dish brush and plain water. And didn't have an issue with the acid dissolving the seasoning. Causing the food to taste like burnt on seasoning.

At this stag of the carbon. No lemon juice or tomato sauce. But frying a little bit of diced tomatoes and lemon slices is supposed to be doable. But I'm not risking it. I cook eggs everyday in the carbon and the seasoning needs to stay nice and smooth. Frying only, no sauces.
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It's definitely doable if you are just doing it every now and then, especially on a well seasoned cast iron. One of the advantages of most of the rougher cast iron finishes is that it tends to create a more robust seasoning. With smooth cast iron and carbon steel, the seasoning tends to be more fragile for things like acidic sauces. Obviously simmering something for an hour will be more likely to damage the seasoning than frying some tomatoes for a few minutes.

The advantage to the smoother surface is that you can get a really slick surface for sliding eggs and other stuff around. The rough surface of most cast iron gives the surface more friction and makes it harder to flip etc.
 
chalby said:
It's definitely doable if you are just doing it every now and then, especially on a well seasoned cast iron. One of the advantages of most of the rougher cast iron finishes is that it tends to create a more robust seasoning. With smooth cast iron and carbon steel, the seasoning tends to be more fragile for things like acidic sauces. Obviously simmering something for an hour will be more likely to damage the seasoning than frying some tomatoes for a few minutes.

The advantage to the smoother surface is that you can get a really slick surface for sliding eggs and other stuff around. The rough surface of most cast iron gives the surface more friction and makes it harder to flip etc.
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Yep.

This particular cast iron was a gift from daughter to mother. It's an off brand China special. But it was a mother gift, so the rules state. You gotta use the POS. However, It's worked and has cooked everything I stuck in it.

It's an as cast, cast iron. The cooking surface has never been smooth. Even after years of baby-ing it for a good seasoning.
 
I bought an 8-inch Lodge skillet at a house demolition sale a couple of months back. $2. Had some minor rust, which I'm sure is why it was cheap and still available.
Took a 5-inch (or so) flexible sanding disk, loaded with 80 grit paper. Smoothed that sucker right out. Not as good as an old Griswold or Wagner, but you can't beat it for the price.
 
Aardvark said:
I bought an 8-inch Lodge skillet at a house demolition sale a couple of months back. $2. Had some minor rust, which I'm sure is why it was cheap and still available.
Took a 5-inch (or so) flexible sanding disk, loaded with 80 grit paper. Smoothed that sucker right out. Not as good as an old Griswold or Wagner, but you can't beat it for the price.
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The sanding disk was chucked into a corded hand drill, btw.
Doing it by hand would have been, umm, tedious.
 
The most well seasoned pan I have ever seen. Was at a pawnshop. They had an 8" skillet that appeared to be...guessing. At least over 20 years. There was a crust along the bottom the pan. The cooking surface was completely covered in the same depth. With a black, carbon mixed with hardened grease coating. That would make a non-stick pan look silly.

Stranger item but I'm also guessing there's a cook among the staff.

Didn't get the pan maker name.
 
I had a Matfor, but gave it to a friend. It was almost as heavy as my Lodge cast iron, so I didn't see any real advantage. I did snag a small carbon steel skillet from AUS-ION. It works well, nice and light, but it's almost too smooth, the season comes and goes.

I pretty much stick with Lodge and smooth the finish with an angle grinder and 60 or 80 grit flap wheel. It leaves enough roughness for the seasoning to take hold, at least that's what it looks like to me.

If they weren't so expensive, I'd like to try this new "quenched" seasoning. Anybody ever heard of this? It's new to me.

 
Never heard of a quenched pan. It's basically the same process for blackened steel. It just uses a different oil.

I recently got a stainless saute pan. One of the All-Clad 5 ply in 3 quart. Which is pretty much the same thing as a frying pan but with straight sides and a lid. Now I can make pan sauces. The ability to fry chicken and then adding a smidge of water, placing a lid on it.

I'm not a wine drinker but I bought some white wine just for cooking. Needing stainless to do it right.
 
sodak said:
I had a Matfor, but gave it to a friend. It was almost as heavy as my Lodge cast iron, so I didn't see any real advantage. I did snag a small carbon steel skillet from AUS-ION. It works well, nice and light, but it's almost too smooth, the season comes and goes.

I pretty much stick with Lodge and smooth the finish with an angle grinder and 60 or 80 grit flap wheel. It leaves enough roughness for the seasoning to take hold, at least that's what it looks like to me.

If they weren't so expensive, I'd like to try this new "quenched" seasoning. Anybody ever heard of this? It's new to me.

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That's a new one for me. I think seasoning in general is something that needs maintenance either way, so I'm guessing that while their quench method may be more robust, it'll still need looking after.

I love the philosophy behind the Solidteknics pans, but they are a bit expensive for me. They do the non-nickel stainless line and the wrought iron to cover all the cooking needs for most people. I haven't been able to justify buying them so far though.
 
I own 12, 10.5, 8 and 5 inch Lodge skillets. The little one is actually a square griddle for sandwiches. After approximately 4 months use, the seasoning has finally reached a point where each skillet is 85% non-stick. What little sticking I get is easy to deal with, and they clean up easily. As some have mentioned above, I sanded down each using coarse sand paper and a sanding block. Yes, tedious. But it had to be done given how rough the skillet bottoms are straight from the factory. I left enough rough surface to help with retaining the layers of seasoning. I almost always clean up after cooking, then apply a thin sheen of oil to the skillet and place it over a high flame until the oil smokes for approximately 1 to 1.5 minutes. I enjoy cooking with these skillets, but it takes some extra work compared to non-stick.
 
Wanna see some sticking?

Do the boiling bacon thing. Bacon in a cold pan. Enough water to cover. Simmering it down until the water is gone. With the bacon finally frying in grease.

The bacon doesn't stick but the fond sure does.
 
Grasshopperglock said:
Wanna see some sticking?

Do the boiling bacon thing. Bacon in a cold pan. Enough water to cover. Simmering it down until the water is gone. With the bacon finally frying in grease.

The bacon doesn't stick but the fond sure does.
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Just curious, but what does the water do? I normally just fry bacon in a dry pan.
 
chalby said:
Just curious, but what does the water do? I normally just fry bacon in a dry pan.
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It gives the bacon a more moist, fluffy, crisp like texture. The water renders the fat coming out the bacon. Leaving the fat behind after the water evaporates. Once that happens. The bacon browns like it was never boiled.

The smell when it's simmering is a wonderful bacon smelling steam. The flavor seems deeper. And if it's hickory bacon. You'll get deeper hints of hickory and brown sugar.

The only problem. The fond really sticks to the pan. Labor of love because you'll be scrubbing the pan.
 
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I like my cast irons and black steels. The black steel will heat up faster and also be a little more delicate with food if needed. So I’ll do eggs in the black steel but if I need a TON of heat into something I’ll use the cast iron.

These two black steels are Matfer-Bourgeat.

They work out well and have been in steady use for 6 years now. They transition really well from stove to oven if you do that kind of cooking too
 
I was looking for the knives+cast iron thread and found this thread so I had to come in and post a pic. I have been buying cast iron for 8+ years and it is now my #1 cookware. Finally got the wife onboard as well. It is quite a bit harder to find those diamonds in the rough these days as cast iron is starting to become a lot more popular. Still hunting for the vintage iron is a hobby of mine and I look for extra pieces to have on hand in case someone I know is looking for a skillet. You can't go out to walmart and get a skillet as light or smooth as a vintage piece. So I buy them when I find them. My favorite users are the 1940's BSR pans because they have no identifying marks, which makes them less attractive to novice buyers but they are still machined smooth and not overly heavy.

Pictured left is a Wagner deep skillet (chicken fryer) and a #8 skillet in the back that I forget it's maker. It's an old picture.
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