What's this I hear about not washing cast iron skillets with soap and water after using them for cooking but just wiping them out with vegetable oil? I tried the vegetable oil thing for awhile. Seems kind of unsanitary, but I was willing to give it a try. Is wiping them with vegetable oil a good thing, bad thing, or whatever?

If anyone has the "straight dope" on this, I would appreciate knowing what it is!

Thank you! :)

Chemically it makes sense.

Soap contains sufucatants which are part hydrophobic (water hating) with a hydrophillic head (water loving) so it can pick up grease and get it into water. It usually forms a little cirlce around the grease with the hydrophobic tails all pointing inward and the grease trapped in the middle. There's a picture on this page Surfactant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfactant)

Vegetable oil is all hydrophobic so it will act as a solvent for the grease directly. It will dissolve the dirt directly. It will also have the added benefit of not oxidising the iron like water would, but forming a protective layer. I suppose this is why it is recommended.

Random Fact- he acient greeks used to wash themselves in olive oil - very good for the skin. Removes dirt just as well as soap and is moisturising!

I have no real life experience on the matter to know whether the above thoery is why people use vegetable oil, but it was the explanation that stood out to me when reading the question. Apparently Lard is better anyway How to Clean and season cast iron cook ware | eHow.com (http://www.ehow.com/how_2000427_clean-season-cast-iron-cook-ware.html)

Hope this helps

Thank you for your answer!

It might seem unsanitary but remember the heat you put into the pan before you use it anything bad gets burnt right away.
If you keep washing the pan it will just go rusty and be no good at all ask ben what he did to my lovely cast iron pan ;) he was lucky I didn't hit him with it.
Everything Temp has said is correct this is the one time id say don't folllow your instints one thing I will say though is once you have used the pan leave it on the heat turn it right up and let any excess food burn away leave to cool wipe out and treat.

Well, you do have to season the pan once and a while. I don't have any problem using soap. The mechanism is wash pan. Dry with paper towel. Heat empty pan on stove to remove moisture so it won't rust. Let cool on stove. Look at pan. If it isn't shiny, add a drop or so of oil. Wipe oil around pan with paper towel. Been doing it this way for years.

Well, you do have to season the pan once and a while. I don't have any problem using soap. The mechanism is wash pan. Dry with paper towel. Heat empty pan on stove to remove moisture so it won't rust. Let cool on stove. Look at pan. If it isn't shiny, add a drop or so of oil. Wipe oil around pan with paper towel. Been doing it this way for years.

Thank you for your answer also! I am learning things here!

If you keep washing the pan it will just go rusty and be no good at all ask ben what he did to my lovely cast iron pan ;) he was lucky i didnt hit him with it.


I think that you should have hit him with it regardless! :D

Thanks for your answer, though! You have been very helpful! I am learning a lot here!

I have been cooking with cast Iron just about my whole life, and have my grandmother Cast Irons, and she's turning 100 in about 2 weeks. The way she told me to do the seasoning is always to use lard (even though I cringe at the thought and feel of it), but it works best, doesn't leavy a sticky feel to the pots. But when your skillets are new you coat the pans with lard, generously, and lace in the oven set at about 300 degrees, keep in there for about 15 minutes. Pour out any excess oil and then place back in over for at least another hour or two. This creates the seasoning bond. Every time you cook in the beginning you should try and use food with high fat content, like bacon or foods cooked with fat cause this will also strengthen the process in the beginning.
If rust appears it has not been seasoned properly or needs reseasoning, or it has wore off from foods sticking to it and need to be reseasoned. When this happens wash thoroughly with hot water and a soft scrubbing pad (the plastic kind), dry quickly with a paper towel and reseason. (Cleaning while the pan is still hot makes cleanup so easy, but don't use a scouring pad, like brillo or a hard detergent, cause this is what causes breakdown in seasoning) She told me not to use detergent in general, but I use a minute amount of a light detergent, one that doesn't contain bleach or hard core antibacterials solutions, something like Ivory. I love them and wouldn't cook on anything else, you get real use to them, quickly.

I do the same basic thing as KISS. I wash it in the sink with soap and water, rinse and dry on a low setting on the stove. Once it is cool, I spray it with PAM and wipe it dry with a paper towel.

Didn't the chuck wagon "cookie" always wipe out the inside of his cast iron frying pan with sand and then a towel? The grit acted like SOS and the towel got rid of the sand. Setting it on the hot fire for a few minutes before putting anything into it sterilized it. Maybe you need a pan of sand at the kitchen sink... although your cat might find it useful too...

Do you own a cast iron Dutch oven? One old camper was heard saying, "With my Dutch oven, I can cook potatoes and eggs in the morning, bake bread or cook a roast in the afternoon, and then bake a pineapple upside down cake for dessert. All in the same oven! What other piece of cookware ... can do that."

Didn't the chuck wagon "cookie" always wipe out the inside of his cast iron frying pan with sand and then a towel? The grit acted like SOS and the towel got rid of the sand. Setting it on the hot fire for a few minutes before putting anything into it sterilized it. Maybe you need a pan of sand at the kitchen sink...although your cat might find it useful too....

Do you own a cast iron Dutch oven? One old camper was heard saying, "With my Dutch oven, I can cook potatoes and eggs in the morning, bake bread or cook a roast in the afternoon, and then bake a pineapple upside down cake for dessert. All in the same oven! What other piece of cookware ... can do that."

Your mentioning "cookie" reminds me of the "Old Dan Tucker" song. One of the verses is the following:

"Old Daniel Tucker wuz a mighty man,
He washed his face in a fryin' pan;
Combed his head wid a wagon wheel
And he died wid de toofache in his heel."

From, Old Dan Tucker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Dan_Tucker)

No, I don't own a Dutch oven.

I have been cooking with cast Iron just about my whole life, and have my grandmother Cast Irons, and she's turning 100 in about 2 weeks. The way she told me to do the seasoning is always to use lard (even though I cringe at the thought and feel of it), but it works best, doesn't leavy a sticky feel to the pots. But when your skillets are new you coat the pans with lard, generously, and lace in the oven set at about 300 degrees, keep in there for about 15 minutes. Pour out any excess oil and then place back in over for at least another hour or two. This creates the seasoning bond. Every time you cook in the beginning you should try and use food with high fat content, like bacon or foods cooked with fat cause this will also strengthen the process in the beginning.
If rust appears it has not been seasoned properly or needs reseasoning, or it has wore off from foods sticking to it and need to be reseasoned. When this happens wash thoroughly with hot water and a soft scrubbing pad (the plastic kind), dry quickly with a paper towel and reseason. (Cleaning while the pan is still hot makes cleanup so easy, but don't use a scouring pad, like brillo or a hard detergent, cause this is what causes breakdown in seasoning) She told me not to use detergent in general, but I use a minute amount of a light detergent, one that doesn't contain bleach or hard core antibacterials solutions, something like Ivory. I love them and wouldn't cook on anything else, you get real use to them, quickly.

That's very interesting about using lard.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by the following:
Every time you cook in the beginning you should try and use food with high fat content, like bacon or foods cooked with fat cause this will also strengthen the process in the beginning.

Most of my cast iron skillets are very old. Some of them have a build-up of something on the outside of them that looks kind of like iron itself that might have broken down in some way. I don't really know, it's just that it looks like that. This build-up is patchy and uneven. Could this build-up be due to seasoning. It's not that I'm suggesting that seasoning may be bad in some way, I just don't really know what the build-up stuff is. Thank you!

No, the outside buildup is not seasoning. The inside should be smooth and shiny. Is it?

No, the outside buildup is not seasoning. The inside should be smooth and shiny. Is it?

The insides of them are smooth. But, they aren't shiny.

Well, shiny not like aluminum steel-like shiny but have a patina.

Well, shiny not like aluminum steel-like shiny but have a patina.

I understand what you are saying. They aren't shiny at all. They are definitely dull on the inside,

Do you suppose by any chance, that they are dead? :confused: :) I mean after all, the "light" appears to have gone out in their "eyes"!

Sounds like it's time for the lard and for seasoning the inside of the pan.

(Are you OK, Clough? Feeling a little spacey perhaps?)

Sounds like it's time for the lard and for seasoning the inside of the pan.

(Are you ok, Clough? Feeling a little spacey perhaps?)

Why... do... you... ask?


(lunga pausa)



Do you know something that I don't? :eek:

*whistling softly through my teeth*

So how are you going to restore the patina to the inside of your cast iron frying pan?

Pour Maple syrup in them? :confused:

But when your skillets are new you coat the pans with lard, generously, and lace in the oven set at about 300 degrees, keep in there for about 15 minutes. Pour out any excess oil and then place back in over for at least another hour or two. This creates the seasoning bond.

Sort of like that.

Or fry up some bacon. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

I don't really understand this "hour or two" thing. Is the oven working like some sort of kiln?

Yes.

Wow! I didn't know hardly any of this stuff about the usage of and maintenace of cast iron skillets!

I rarely use soap and water. Most often the lard coating as loveless says is enough to have the same effect as teflon where the dirt simply wipes out with a paper towel and as others have said the heat cooks out any germs, etc...

What's this I hear about not washing cast iron skillets with soap and water after using them for cooking but just wiping them out with vegetable oil? I tried the vegetable oil thing for awhile. Seems kind of unsanitary, but I was willing to give it a try. Is wiping them with vegetable oil a good thing, bad thing, or whatever?

If anyone has the "straight dope" on this, I would appreciate knowing what it is!

Thank you! :)
I'm a business owner who uses many cast iron waffle irons. Cast iron needs to be seasoned in order to use it well. Seasoning cast iron is done by putting some oil (not too much!) on the surface and cook it at a high temp (about 450-500 °F or 200-250 °C). The oil changes and will form a sort of non-stick coating on the cast iron. You will not find commercial pans, waffle irons or whatever that have Teflon (copyright Dupont) on them, as once this has been scratched, you would need to remove the whole coating and have it re-done. Too $$$ and too much work. So commercial equipment is at many times made from cast iron (also because of its great heating distribution specifications), and before usage, seasoned. That is what we do with our equipment.

Soap will adversely affect the seasoning coating, and will indeed undo the unstickiness that typically comes from the seasoning. You can however very well wash it with soap, and then apply a new coat of oil on it. Very doable. You may end up creating a too thick seasoning layer after many, many usages, but I wouldn't worry about that.

Something totally different that most people don't know. First, bacterial growth only occurs in a range of temps, humidity, acidity and such that is necessary for this. In an oily environment, bacteries don't grow that well. On the contrary. So to wipe a pan with oil, and let it sit will not create a bacterial superstore. Secondly, when you heat up that pan, every single bacterie will be"killed" due to the heat - obviously. Third, people in the US are obsessed with bacteries. Ever think about that cheese only exist because of bacterial growth, same for all yeast based products (yeast are bacteria),. The worst thing in my opinion for people at home is to use Lysol and such for everything such as door knobs,. Life does NOT require Lysol as their ads suggest. I can keep going on and on about this subject but this is not the time nor place for that. In a business, that is different as for instance in my own business, I don't know if people have a good immune system or not (mine is super because I never worry about bacteries at home) and it is not my place to educate people on that right there. So we do sanitize everything, make sure all is clean and so forth.

My advise to you would be to do either way I suggested. Leave the pan with the grease. It won't hurt you. Would you want to wash it, then re-season it, perhaps even only from time to time. There are only a few bacteries one should be really careful about, such as e-colli, bottulism, salmonella, etc. Raw eggs (especially duck eggs, and other wild game), raw fish that is not from a reputable purveyor or shop (I love good sushi, but it has to come from people who know how to handle raw fish), or not-so-fresh fish,. are your typical things to avoid.

Good cooking!

Peter

What's this I hear about not washing cast iron skillets with soap and water after using them for cooking but just wiping them out with vegetable oil? I tried the vegetable oil thing for awhile. Seems kind of unsanitary, but I was willing to give it a try. Is wiping them with vegetable oil a good thing, bad thing, or whatever?

If anyone has the "straight dope" on this, I would appreciate knowing what it is!

Thank you! :)
I'm a business owner who used many cast iron waffle irons. Cast iron needs to be seasoned in order to use it well. Seasoning cast iron is done by putting some oil (not too much!) on the surface and cook it at a high temp (about 450-500 °F or 200-250 °C). The oil changes and will form a sort of non-stick coating on the cast iron. You will not find commercial pans, waffle irons or whatever that have Teflon (copyright Dupont) on them, as once this has been scratched, you would need to remove the whole coating and have it re-done. Too $$$ and too much work. So commercial equipment is at many times made from cast iron (also because of its great heating distribution specifications), and before usage, seasoned. That is what we do with our equipment.

Soap will adversely affect the seasoning coating, and will indeed undo the unstickiness that typically comes from the seasoning. You can however very well wash it with soap, and then apply a new coat of oil on it. Very doable. You may end up creating a too thick seasoning layer after many, many usages, but I wouldn't worry about that.

Something totally different that most people don't know. First, bacterial growth only occurs in a range of temps, humidity, acidity and such that is necessary for this. In an oily environment, bacteries don't grow that well. On the contrary. So to wipe a pan with oil, and let it sit will not create a bacterial superstore. Secondly, when you heat up that pan, every single bacterie will be"killed" due to the heat - obviously. Third, people in the US are obsessed with bacteries. Ever think about that cheese only exist because of bacterial growth, some for all yeast based products,. The worst thing in my opinion for people at home is to use Lysol and such for everything such as door knobs,. Life does NOT require Lysol as their ads suggest. I can keep going on and on about this subject but this is not the time nor place for that. In a business, that is different as for instance in my own business, I don't know if people have a good immune system or not (mine is super because I never worry about bacteries at home) and it is not my place to educate people on that right there. So we do sanitize everything, make sure all is clean and so forth.

My advise to you would be to do either way I suggested. Leave the pan with the grease. It won't hurt you. Would you want to wash it, then re-season it, perhaps even only from time to time. There are only a few bacteries one should be really careful about, such as e-colli, bottulism, salmonella, etc. Raw eggs (especially duck eggs, and other wild game), raw fish or not-so-fresh fish,. are your typical things to avoid.

Good cooking!

Peter

The following in quoted from the above post.


Originally Posted by PeterCreyf

The oil changes and will form a sort of non-stick coating on the cast iron. You will not find commercial pans, waffle irons or whatever that have Teflon (copyright Dupont) on them, as once this has been scratched, you would need to remove the whole coating and have it re-done. Too $$$ and too much work. So commercial equipment is at many times made from cast iron (also because of its great heating distribution specifications), and before usage, seasoned. That is what we do with our equipment.

So, the oil helps to make the surface non-stick. I didn't know that. Thank you!

It looks like that even cast iron skillets that one uses to make quick breads like waffles and pancakes should also be seasoned.

Are you also saying that the cast iron that one buys is pre-seasoned by a manufacturer before people purchase them?

So, is cast iron preferable to use over aluminum or steel in the making of quick breads such as waffles or pancakes?

Does cast iron distribute the heat better than aluminum or steel?

To answer your questions and reply...

Yes, oil makes it non stick. When you heat oil, it changes. It first becomes thinner (more liquid) but when you keep heating it, it becomes thicker and it even will create a sort of layer onto where it is (in this case the cast iron). If the layer is too thick, it won't work as this layer should be thin. When too thick, it will come off the cast iron very easily, such as when you rub over it (when it is cold obviously or you will burn your hands). To season a pan, or whatever, lightly brush it on there, making sure there is only a thin layer on there. You can actually repeat this step 2-3 times if necessary.

Then there is also something many people don't know. If you do not season a pan, you can work with it too, but it takes more knowledge and skill. First the cast iron needs to be very hot, and the meat will have to almost be black on the part where it touches the metal. The meat will come off then, but it will still stick more than if seasoned. I suggest seasoning anyway.

Some cast iron is pre-seasoned, most actually as this is a sort of painstakingly process and one that can easily be done wrong. The problem is that if the seasoning is gone or damaged, you have to removed the old seasoning (use commercial grease removers such as barbon-off, or even any oven cleaner will do). Then you end up with just bare metal. Make sure that if you do use a chemical remover, that you rinse the pan very well. You will then also very likely have to re-season at least twice.

A cast iron pan (most skillet pans) are much better than anything else. I love cast iron. It cooks - especially meat - so much better. Your meat actually does come out different and tastier than with a teflon coated pan.

Last but not least, if you mess up your seasoning, no worries... you can always undo this by removing this layer. See above. And then re-season.

Good luck, and bon appétit !

Peter

Yes its all true as wondergirl said, regarding cast iron frying pan. I have done that camping too ! I don't wash my cast iron frying pan, I just rinse out under very very hot water and wipe clean. Of course I scour it if it there is anything sticking to the surface. Season with cooking oil from time to time.

I find a cast iron best for browning meat. Good all around cooking surface.