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Comment by christophilus | Hacker News Reader

I love my lodge pans. If you properly clean and oil them, they are as easy to use as non-stick alternatives. For a long while, I didn't believe this, but then I used my parent's pan one weekend, and it was a revelation. Turned out I'd never properly seasoned / kept my pans seasoned.

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I wonder about that seasoning which is basically burned oil.

Can you point to good a guide on how to use cast iron effeciently. I have been trying to use cast iron more regularly but end up getting frustrated. I feel like I am not taking the right steps to keep it seasoned. Whenever I cook food gets charred. For context, I do most of my cooking in non-stick cookware.

After a lake vacation in western NC, I stumbled across my first Griswold Cast Iron pan. The bug hit me and I've collected a couple of others since then. My favorite so far is the Colonial Skillet Griswold 666 (aka Satan's Helper). Makes an amazing mix of eggs, potatoes and bacon. I started looking up the best way to season these pans and found [0] and [1] very insightful.

[0] https://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-t...

[1] https://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/02/black-rust-and-ca...

I wash my cast iron pan after each use, sometimes just with very hot water and sometimes with a little soap if I need it, but I always thoroughly dry the pan and do a quick re-seasoning afterwards. This is just a quick wipe down with a paper towel with a dab of oil on it, and I leave it on my stove top with the (electric) burner on low for about 30 minutes.

A good tip I read is to wipe down the pan with such a thin layer of oil that it's as if you made a mistake and want to remove the oil with just the paper towel instead. It should really be as thin as possible, and you'll see it sort of glaze over as it drys on the stove top. After about 6 months of this, using the pan about once a week, it has been truly non-stick for a while.

Basically following this guide: https://www.cuisinel.com/care-use

Humour is generally discouraged on hacker news, but this is too spot-on to resist:

https://xkcd.com/1905/

The non-stick properties of seasoned cast iron are a bit overstated. Yes, its a lot better than stainless steel, or unseasoned, but any number of foods (eggs) will stick regardless of how much oil you add ahead of time. And unlike some of the nonstick coated pans, you always need at least some fat/oil in them during cooking.

So some of it is what you expect, cast iron is basically non stick for lots of things (AKA I would never use anything other than cast iron for pancakes/etc), but I keep a couple Henckels Capri Notte Granitium pans we picked up at cosco handy for the morning eggs. Those seem to be the survivors at this point of a long series of trial and error with non-teflon coatings, most of which seem to work fine for a month or two and then are non stick at the same level as one might expect from cast iron. I have no idea how much I've spent buying pans a few times a year at $20-50 a pop to replace worn out nonstick over the past 10 years.

Eggs stick much less if you use butter instead of oil on your pan.

I use butter with eggs already, even on the nonstick, because it tastes better.

I exclusively use my cast iron for cooking eggs & bread. There is zero sticking. I also use grape-seed oil.

I make french toast, omelettes, over easy eggs, and toast. I have never had sticking that you are talking about...

It’s often helpful to sand & polish cast iron skillets before seasoning them. You just have to take precautions so you don’t inhale the metal shavings. Here’s a good reference: https://youtu.be/2wHZ7hKpPUs

Also, the type of oil you use to season your cast iron cookware is important. You should use flaxseed, grapeseed or avocado oil. Do not use olive oil, because it has an extremely low smoke point. Canola and vegetable/soybean oils are unhealthy.

There are million anecdotal methods on how to care for cast iron, but this TL;DR works for me: Use some kind of oil when you're cooking. Hand wash them and never put them in the dishwasher. And coat with a thin spray of olive oil (the "oil only" sprays are great) after use and buff with a paper towel. Never leave anything on the iron surface except a light coating of oil. Don't let them air dry. That works for me! :-)

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