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Cook with it.

Exactly. No reason at all for all of these crazy rituals involving 42 different kinds of oil (2 or 3 of which are made of Unobtanium anyway), ovens, salt, baking soda, owl urine, black cats, graveyard dirt, the Necronomicon, or whatever other weird shit people are throwing out there. Just cook with the darn thing. I don't know why people feel the need to overcomplicate this.

> Also buy a metal spatula.

Without sharp corners. You will cut the polymerization layer otherwise, if not careful.

> Don't cook on cold cast iron.

You literally can't cook on cold metal. :)

Dancing water is too hot for some things, IMHO, like eggs. Once it is that hot I'm past the point of good eggs.

I put the oil in and bring it up slowly until the oil runs faster than cold oil, but way, way, way before the smoke point. I like my eggs to have zero brown crisp, so I use low temps and a good olive oil. Also have to use fresh eggs so that the white doesn't spread more the 4-5". On a good day with good eggs if I'm paying attention, I get a perfecty-set white with no brown crisp, and a slow-run yolk with no cooked bits, and after one quick flip to the top to sear the yolk. Perfection.

> If it boils into nothing immediately, you are too hot. If it just sits there and does nothing, you aren't hot enough yet.

That is actually slightly misleading due to the Leidenfrost effect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leidenfrost_effect

It could be, but in practice I've found that you can tell the difference between "too hot" and "still cold" very easily.

A drop of water affected by the Leidenfrost effect looks different from one in a too cold pan.

If I'm doing something that requires a ripping hot pan, one that's actually hot enough for the Leidenfrost effect is where I am for. This usually requires that I use a high smoke point oil, like refined peanut oil.

This is what I think too. I bought my cast iron pan for $15. I use the heck out of it, and I don't think about seasoning one second. If I need to cook something that will stick, I put oil or butter on it, and I wash the pan afterwards. Even my stainless steel pans, I use them as I like without worrying about anything. I use oil/butter when I need to, and then wash. What I love most about both is that I scrub it with SOS pad if something gets caked on. I don't know why people are so concerned about "seasoning" the pan. My All-clad frying pan was $100, I've had it for a few years now, lots of scratch and dents but who cares? I'll probably use it for a long time and not think about replacing them. They are indestructible and even if I had to replace them, it wasn't an arm and a leg.

> Setting 4 / 10 (slightly below medium) is the default heat setting, and you have to really have something specific in mind to ever go above 5

Do you do any chinese cooking with a carbon steel wok?

For stir frying you generally want things as hot as you can get them. I only have a Teflon wok, and my biggest problem with it is that it just doesn't get hot enough. The other problem is that Teflon really doesn't like very high temperatures, so I'm lucky if a wok lasts a year before bits are peeling off. I've always been put off a carbon steel wok though, because of all the faffing about with seasoning, but reading some of the comments here it might be simpler just to wash and oil it after every use.

Heating Teflon to high temperatures and preparing food on it is a good way to get Teflon into your bloodstream.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymer_fume_fever

You have to get to really high temperatures though. Like over 300 Celsius.

A stovetop cranked high should be able to achieve that though shouldn't it? Not something you can discount entirely.

300C is pretty damn high... that's like 500F. I generally cook on my grill to get to really high heat, and that is definitely at the high end of what I'd even do with the heat.

At that's the low-point for the effect. I'm not sure that commercial products necessarily all experience that reaction at that temperature.

That's above the smoke point of any oil I could imagine cooking with. While I'm sure you can't discount it entirely, I would not consider it something you would need to worry about unless you were throwing caution to the wind with your cooking process, or perhaps left your stove unattended.

We have a Lodge cast iron wok [0].

That said, I don't know that I'd recommend it to anyone as we rarely use it.

I read somewhere that unless you have a commercial-grade gas range, you are unlikely to hit the temperatures needed to really properly cook with a thinner metal wok. Cast iron is supposed to be a bit of a compromise because it can hold the heat better, but you can't toss it around the way you would with a normal wok.

As to carbon steel, I'd say go for it. I think you'll find it a lot less fussy than you have been told.

Also, I'd say stir fry definitely qualifies under the "something specific" where you would want to use the high heat settings on the stove.

[0] https://www.lodgecastiron.com/product/cast-iron-wok?sku=P14W...

We have that Lodge cast iron wok too, but don't use it for stir-frying... very clumsy. Instead we use it for deep frying - a task for which it's better suited than any-other our other vessels.

We do our stir-frying on a regular 14 in carbon steel wok, nothing fancy. It does take a bit more oomph than most American gas stoves provide, but we've had good results by ponying up for a Bluestar range [0] which outputs 25K BTU/h ... well short of what you see in Chinese restaurants, but on par with Western commercial stoves.

Actual Asian households don't generally cook on fancy restaurant stoves, and yet somehow manage to stir-fry satisfactorily. The trick is they use propane, which has about twice the energy density of natural gas. So it's a lot more effective (and cost-effective) to use a turkey fryer/crab boil burner to do your stir-frying, if you can swing it.

[0] https://www.bluestarcooking.com/cooking/rangetops/36-platinu...

Even with a gas range, you really need a wok burner for example I have an older Viking range and the wok is pretty much useless without this burner: https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/produc...

but you summation is pretty much correct, a wok is useless for most home ranges. The heat has to be directed up the walls of the wok for it to cook correctly.

I recently bought my first carbon steel wok and just today I put in the time to properly season it. Naturally, this evening I did my first stir fry with it and it was a blast! Cleaning was pretty simple. After I had finished eating I put some water into it, got it boiling, and used the spatula to scrape of the crusty bits. Then I cleaned and rinsed it under running hot water with some support of a brush. After a bit of drying off back onto the stove set to high to dry - and to polymerise the remaining traces of cooking oil to reinforce the seasoning. Cool off a bit and then apply a very thin layer of oil for protection.

That might sound a lot, but it really only takes a few minutes!

I'll do this every time after using the wok. I expect it to be good for a very long time. There might be easier ways to achieve this, but that's what extensive research has taught me to do.

We had a non-stick wok that showed up one day somehow (now there's a dichotomy and abomination rolled into one) and it's starting to flake. I'm really strongly considering carbon steel as a replacement, I've hardly used cast iron either and think it's time to take the plunge and convert.

One tip to add that the cast iron griddle maker gave me in the manual was to avoid putting lots of cold water on it while it's hot. You can wash soon after cooking, but use hot water. Otherwise it can warp.

Right, I've read the same thing about avoiding that!

Talking about additional gotchas: Acidic foods will apparently eat into the seasoning, so one should be careful with those.

Yes I read about the acidic foods, I did see a test saying it's not a huge problem but you will need to re-season more often. It can also leech iron which is actually a good thing for most of us.

Anyway I took the plunge, carbon steel wok and cast iron pan are on their way. At least if I ruin them I can get a do-over unlike non-stick!

Agreed.

The advantage of cast iron is that you just cook on it and over time (if it isn't already seasoned) it seasons itself. That's all there has to be to it... fussing over how you season it and then throwing whatever food in there seems a little silly.

I cook a great deal and once in a while it's time to scrape down (often because I made a big mess in the pan) the cast iron pan and 'start over'.

My starting over just means ... I clean it thoroughly, oil it a bit when I cook on it the next time. That's it. Pretty quickly it will be plenty seasoned.

If folks want to take a deep dive into seasoning their cast iron pan in a complicated fashion, awesome, but it's really not necessarily.

My cast iron set is 20 years old now and used almost every day. One thing cast iron isn't good for is when you have to change temps mid cooking. If doing something that needs mid heat then going to low heat cast iron will fail you as it won't go to the lower heat easily.

When oiling the pans take the time to try to wipe out all the oil you applied. This leaves just a tiny layer of oil and your pans won't get sticky. I clean with diluted Dawn and a sponge - dry on burner - then oil / wipe out each use.

Carbon steel gang here, I just cook with it, if the coat flakes then I just keep cooking with it. Run under hot water when I'm done, scraping with a dish brush.

I don't see the point to the perfect coating; occasionally using it in the oven already gets you to the perfect slick season.

My dish brush gets really yucky with this method (not using dish soap). Greasy and soot:y. Do you just not care about this issue or do you spend some time cleaning it afterwards?

I usually scrap my cast iron with a plastic scraper before I start with the dish brush. Soap and warm water help too, while you're doing the initial scrape.

i chuck it in the dishwasher, comes out brand new! try it. It'd even "reanneal" the plastic if that's the right term lol. The bent brushes will return to it's virgin position, try it!

My mom top me to just toss it in after she saw my year-old crusty brush. It was seriously like brand new!

I find that my skillet comes out really nice when I make a batch of cornbread. You grease it real good and get it hot before pouring in the batter, and during cooking the right amount is absorbed by the cornbread. This leaves behind a hard slick surface.

Using high heat on Teflon pans can also end badly, particularly if you have birds. http://www.animalplanet.com/pets/other-pets/teflon-bird-guid....

That my view - a quick dip in warm water with a bit of soap and lightly whip of any bits and let it dry.

Ill try the water test next time

Completely agree. My "pre-seasoned" cast iron from Target was the best purchase I ever made.

Dollar stores are still carrying metal spatulas

It takes months of continuous use to develop a great seasoning by just cooking. Or you can accomplish the same in an afternoon.

The youtube algorithm decided it needed to recommend a whole hose of cast iron videos to me over Christmas and they kept repeating this.

So I went and washed my skillet down to a matte surface, rubbed oil into it, and cooked an egg. Worked perfectly fine.

You won't ever get the "slippery" coating like with a teflon pan, but I also find cooking on that type of surface to be absolutely maddening since any time you try to chop or scoop in such a pan, the food just slides out from under you and you have to chase it about.

I want my food to "not stick" in the same way that a book doesn't stick to a table. I don't want an ice rink.

You might be confused as to what the seasoning is. You can't just wash it away. It takes something like oven cleaner to strip it.

Many, if not most, pans today come preseason-ed. And they do it exactly like in the article: a very hot oven and oil with a high smoke point.

Well, my cast iron was a wedding present that my grandparents got in the 40s, so it didn't come "preseasoned", but it's also had 70-odd years of continuous use.

It's probably got "seasoning" on it, but it also is not at all "seasoned" in the sense that for example this article or the person I was replying to is meaning.

So it has 70 years of seasoning! I bet it works great. The whole point of the article is to take a newer pan and make it perform like yours, without needing 70 years of use.

Agreed, would add just don’t scrub off your seasoning with soap/scouring pad.

Meanwhile, I have a chain cloth that I use when cleaning to make sure no food is left behind. Remarkably hard to actually get the seasoning off.

Granted, if you still use soap that warrants the use of heavy plastic gloves, probably a bit easier.

Soap is fine anytime, scouring pad is never fine unless you're deliberately trying to scrub off the seasoning for some reason.