My first experience with cast iron.

[Hickory n steel]

I decided I was tired of cheap Teflon coated skillets, if it's not the coating which itself can be potentially harmful it's loose handles...ect.
I did some research learning the basics of using cast iron and I started liking the idea of it more and more.

when I was asked what I wanted for Christmas a LODGE #10 was it.

I finished the 3 seasoning cycles and cooked myself a quick grilled ham and cheese sandwich because It was time for lunch, I can honestly say it was the best grilled ham and cheese sandwich I've ever made which is saying something because I eat one for lunch at least once a week. The outside of the bread was so crispy, and now I just can't wait to do some hash browns and bacon in this bad boy.

the cheese is normally leaking out on me but it didn't happen this time, so I don't yet know if the rough finish will be an issue for me.
If it is I know I can smooth it out with a flap wheel in my drill.

Anyone else got a first experience with cast iron story, and was it a positive or negative experience ?
( im speaking to those raised in the Teflon era here )

 

[3fifty7]

I have 6 pieces, 3 are older than I am. Nothing cooks a cornbread like a #10 cast iron skillet!

Let them preheat properly, clean them the right way, and you will reap the benefits.

 

[Horsewright]

All we use, all we've ever used. Even camping, biscuits and gravy?

Doing the sausage for gravy:

How about chili and cornbread?

 

[Hickory n steel]

I have 6 pieces, 3 are older than I am. Nothing cooks a cornbread like a #10 cast iron skillet!

Let them preheat properly, clean them the right way, and you will reap the benefits.

Any experience with rough textured modern cast i

All we use, all we've ever used. Even camping, biscuits and gravy?

Doing the sausage for gravy:

How about chili and cornbread?

Awesome
So is any of your LODGE cast iron recent ?
if so what has your experience been with the rough surface they have ?
Did you feel like it should be smoother ?

I'm told they're rough so a one step seasoning will stick, a seasoning that's only there so they can legally call it seasoned for the lazy.
How hard can it be ?
Rinse, warm , then oil and bake a few times . 5min of work , and a few hours of waiting on the oven.

 

[SVTFreak]

We use them a lot in south Louisiana. Only way to get good even heat to make a perfect roux or jamabalaya.

I always (when I get a new one) use my flapper wheel on my grinder to smooth the casting. It will smooth in time but I don’t like waiting and hate it tearing up my wooden spoons for that duration. Not to mention harder to clean. After I clean up the casting, a good seasoning with crisco on my bbq pit. Let it catch fire a bit doesn’t even hurt and make sure to roll it around to get those sides. After that, clean it up some and the I fry some bacon down, making sure to get that bacon grease all up the sides. Try a piece of it. If there is no metal taste, it’s good. After that, I smother some chicken thighs or leg quarters down for a meal and that seems to really get that deep black seasoning going well.

 

[leghog]

One of my grandmother's skillets (my grandparents were born in the 1890s). Got it from Mom's kitchen after my folks died. You can see how smooth the interior of the skillet is.

 

[3fifty7]

I've smoothed out a couple and while it dies work to a certain extent there enough good old cast iron out there to be had I don't plan on buying new again. I've cleaned up some really gnarly stuff in a simple electrolysis tank.

I'll usually season mine by frying several batches of bacon end trimmings then baking at 400 for an hour then turning the oven off and letting the pot cool in the oven.

 

[Uncle Timbo]

Born in southern WV and raised on brown beans and corn bread. Mom had a skillet seasoned for corn bread and nothing but corn bread. That was all she used that particular skillet for.
She'd wipe it out when done and stick it back in the oven to cool down with the oven.
Using them is a great way to get iron in your diet. As you said Hickory, who has a Teflon deficiency?

 

[Horsewright]

Our newest piece isn't Lodge. Its marked Old Mountain Tack Shop and has a cool horse head on the bottom. It was preseasoned and had what I would call a semi rough finish. We just went to using it. Its been great since the get go. Interestingly, we did buy it at a tack shop but that wasn't the name of it. We got it at The Wharf in Ventura CA.

I banged around the kitchen this morning to count. 15 pieces total. 3 griddles, 3 Dutch ovens and the rest various shapes and sizes of skillets and pans.

 

[Hickory n steel]

Alright, so it still seems like smoothing them out is a matter of preference.
I'll use it a while as is and let my experience with it determine whether or not I smooth it out inside.

 

[Puleio]

We've got a 12" & 10" skillet, a 3 quart dutch oven combo (which is a deep pan with a 10" skillet as a lid), and a griddle.
I've cooked everything from fried apples to eggs to pan roasted steaks to killer fried chicken to fajitas to tortillas to perfect onions and mushrooms to chili in them, and have been very happy.

Do i wish the Lodge pans were a bit smoother when I got them? Yep.
Am I willing to strip the seasoning to grind them down now that they are in really good shape to start over with a smooth surface? Nope
If my wife or kids or I do something to strip the seasoning on a pan (which is pretty hard to do), will I grind it down before re-seasoning? Probably

I wish you many years of happy cooking.
Enjoy

 

[T. Erdelyi]

A 12" CI Skillet, 10" CI chicken fryer and a CI dutch oven would be the only thing other than a medium stainless sauce pan and an enameled 5 Qt. spackleware Soup pot to round it out would be/is my perfect cook set. Buy old cast iron it's the best and unless it's pitted from rust really bad you can still revive them.

Here's my 12" baby, my favorite, never leaves the stove or oven. I cook, bake, grill, I can do anything with my CI and I do. I bought that one for $5 at a yard sale covered in grease, and old food, the green enamel was almost worn off in spots. I cleaned it up, did a base seasoning and never stopped usin' it. It's about 65-75 y/o. The bottom is smooth as glass, get it up to the right temp and nothin' sticks I wipe it down with a little bacon fat before cookin' and I could fry an egg and it would slide across the bottom of the pan like it was Teflon coated.

BTW, Teflon flakes will not make you ill, you'll pass the just like any other undigestable solids, on the other hand overheating a Teflon pan or pot can produce vapors that can cause a temporary condition called Teflon Flu, a fever of 100-104 with flu like symptons are possible with birds and hypersensitive people bein' affected most adversely.

Don't spread the myth that flakes will make you sick because that's just not true. That bein' said, I personally would always rather use a stainless, enabled or cast iron pan to cook in but have no problem usin' a Teflon non stick pan when it suits my needs. What about all the copper/ceramic fused pans out today? Natural occurring materials with engineered surface textures creating a non stick cooking platform, how long before someone says that'll give you cancer and kill you?

 

[gdwtvb]

I've got too many pieces of cast iron to list. My favorite is from my grandmother's estate, perfectly smooth Griswold. Sunny side up eggs don't even need a spatula. With new pieces (primarily Lodge brand) I usually hand sand them down with wet/dry sandpaper. I don't go for perfectly smooth, just smoother than they come new. (400 grit I think) Season with sesame oil, and clean only with hot water and stainless steel wool if needed. (rarely)

Like others pointed out, the trick is to preheat the pans before starting to cook anything.

A word of warning, acidic foods, like tomato sauce, will eat away the seasoning especially if not cleaned up right away. I rarely re-season, just wipe down with a thin coat of sesame oil after cleaning if the cast iron seems too dry or chalky looking. (when preheating next time this kinda re-seasons the pan)

Finally if you have pieces with lids, use a rolled up paper towel or something to keep the lid from fully sealing when storing to avoid condensation and rust.

As far as favorite recipe, Pineapple upside down cake. cook pineapple in butter and brown sugar on the stovetop, add cake batter and finish in the oven.

Grizz

 

[Hickory n steel]

Thanks for the info guy's

I already knew about acidic foods which I don't cook a lot of due to my acid reflux.

Now as far as eggs goes I actually don't like them so I won't have to worry about how they may stick.

 

[22-rimfire]

We have two fairly large cast iron skillets, one Lodge and one another brand. I was missing one and asked my wife if she "loaned" it out to her daughter.... nope. It appeared the next day. Don't know where it was. I choose cast iron FIRST. Getting your first cast iron skillet is part of growing up or becoming an adult. The funny thing is that my wife's daughter only uses stainless or teflon coated.... I have those too, but I personally seldom use them. She'll learn. There's more to life than teflon.

Sticking versus non-sticking relative to cast iron skillets and eggs or fried potatoes is mostly a temperature thing as to when you put them in to cook.

Do yourself a favor and get a lid that fits. Handy to have available.

 

[Hickory n steel]

We have two fairly large cast iron skillets, one Lodge and one another brand. I was missing one and asked my wife if she "loaned" it out to her daughter.... nope. It appeared the next day. Don't know where it was. I choose cast iron FIRST. Getting your first cast iron skillet is part of growing up or becoming an adult. The funny thing is that my wife's daughter only uses stainless or teflon coated.... I have those too, but I personally seldom use them. She'll learn. There's more to life than teflon.

Sticking versus non-sticking relative to cast iron skillets and eggs or fried potatoes is mostly a temperature thing as to when you put them in to cook.

Do yourself a favor and get a lid that fits. Handy to have available.

Will definitely see if I've got a lid, may even see if my mom has an old no longer needed lid laying around assuming it's ok to use a standard glass lid from a stainless or Teflon pan.

 

[22-rimfire]

You can do as you please, but the places that sell Lodge cast iron skillets also sell cast iron lids. I've never been there, but the Lodge factory is in SE TN and they have an outlet store there. Believe there is an outlet store over near the big knife store in Sevierville TN also. I've been there.... just not positive it is Lodge exclusively.

 

[kamagong]

I didn't grow up with cast iron. But we received a skillet as a wedding present. Not even a Lodge, it was a cheaply made Chinese import. It's very rough and heavy. Last time I get celebrity-endorsed anything. However, it did pique my interest enough to try out a Lodge.

I eventually picked up few Lodges -- a 10sk, an 8sk, a double-sided rectangular griddle. Much better than the Asian stuff, these were my users for several years. I carelessly left the 10sk behind in a rented cabin this summer, but I still keep the 8sk and the griddle with the camping gear.

I picked up my first piece of vintage cast iron earlier this year.

It immediately relegated my Lodges to outdoor use. Lighter and smoother, it is much easier to use and clean. I liked it so much that I picked up several more.

I now have a nice user set with the sizes 5, 7, 8, 9. I'd like to pick up a #10 round griddle though. Also have 3, 6, 8 pans set aside for when my daughter goes off to college.

All of these pieces were stripped and subsequently reseasoned. I'd recommend that over polishing a Lodge. Vintage cast iron is inexpensive and plentiful enough that I don't see the sense in taking a flap wheel to a modern pan. It's more work and the end result won't be as good.

 

[jstewart16701]

I have several old Griswold's and Wagner's, they are great. But I also have a new Lodge 12" that has become my main pan. Yes the vintage ones are smoother, but in all honesty I haven't noticed a difference in performance. The Lodge has performed just as well as the old ones. After a couple years of use, it has smoothed out some. The biggest difference to me really is the weight. The Lodge is thick and heavy, much more so than the vintage pans.

 

[kamagong]

The biggest difference to me really is the weight. The Lodge is thick and heavy, much more so than the vintage pans.

Right. In addition to its non-stick quality, the main advantage to cast iron is its ability to retain heat. I think there is a sweet spot when it comes to a pan's weight. Too thin and it doesn't retain heat as well, though it will heat up faster. Too thick and the instrument becomes needlessly heavy and unwieldy. Lodge definitely leans toward the porky end of the scale.

If I need to sear a steak, I'll reach for my Lodge. That is definitely an application where a heavy pan with high thermal mass shines. But for everything else, I'll take the lighter and smoother vintage pieces. They're just easier to use.