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Comment by sokoloff | Hacker News Reader

I bought an old Griswold cast iron skillet. It’s not my go-to pan for eggs, but for most everything else it is.

Excellent to sear meat from the sous-vide and surprisingly easy to clean compared to what I expected.

I did do a full strip with lye then intense heat and season essentially from scratch, but in retrospect I probably didn’t have to. (I was operating under the misconception that I had to in order to get a good low-stick surface.)

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Safety reminder to test used cast iron cookware for lead contamination, because using them for melting lead is a thing that people do.

Griswolds are fantastic - I heard that they were made using a different process to the modern sand-casting and the surface is much smoother.

I believe the difference is that the inner surface has been milled flat using a milling machine.

One thing I wonder is if it's possible to get similar results by buying a cheap Lodge skillet and flattening the surface with a milling machine or a random-orbit sander.

It does appear that it was a post-casting milling step (the inside is smoother than the outside and handle), so you probably could replicate it. However, cast iron dust is abrasive (so it’s a pain for machine operators) and legacy cast iron is still fairly plentiful so it’s probably not worth the time and expense unless you were doing it for curiosity rather than to end up with a finished pan.

Agreed - I have a 10" Griswold griddle that's got milling circle marks on the smooth surface.

I have about six pieces of cast iron. I milled one of them flat. I didn't do the others because the performance increase wasn't enough to be worth it. But my diet is full of fat and oil so ymmv.

I cook eggs in a cast iron pan, and rarely have sticking.

- Heat the pan to cooking temperature (about 265 F for eggs) before adding butter. Don't overheat, eggs are not hamburgers. You don't need to sear them.

- You can basically just wipe the pan to clean it. Use hot water/bristle brush for any stuck-on remains.

- I have one pan that I use only for eggs.

I also cook eggs and omelettes in cast iron and they basically never stick, even when I use little oil. The most important thing is learning to regulate heat. A cold or scorching hot pan can easily lead to avoidable disasters.

Yeah, I've cooked eggs in cast iron for several years and I think a lot of the advice I see is wrong. You really have to get the pan fairly hot IMO, if they don't bubble as soon as you pour them in then I get a lot more sticking. But like you said, definitely not sear!

On my electric stove I let the pan warm up on medium heat for 5 minutes or so until the edges of the pan are good and hot, then add butter, let it almost brown for 30 seconds or so (if it burns the butter, too hot), then toss in the scrambled eggs which should immediately bubble and start cooking. Some quick stirring and you're done cooking in about 1-2 minutes for 2-6 eggs.

You can find other people in this thread swearing that the problem is using too much heat, and they cook their over-easy eggs on cast iron perfectly every time using low heat for longer, etc. Cast iron care and use opinions are a special class of amazing. You can find almost everything argued almost every which way.

Yeah, this is crazy to me. There is no difference between carbon steel, stainless steel clad, or cast iron in this respect. You preheat the pan until it reaches Leidenfrost and add fat or oil. Every single one, it’s the same.

This has been known scientifically for almost 50 years at this point. More people should get off the Internet and read Harold McGee

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