5 ms·

On your second note, it's truly wild to have watched the (popular) use of cast-iron pans and cookware grow over the years thanks to the proliferation of their b

On your second note, it's truly wild to have watched the (popular) use of cast-iron pans and cookware grow over the years thanks to the proliferation of their benefits and the early 'niche' character of them online. But it's also hilarious to watch the most online thing ever happen with them: people nerd out over minutiae and get into pointless optimization debates or "best practices" when it's just a big piece of cast iron. It's hard to fuck it up. And yet you see people babying them like crazy online with hyper elaborate seasoning and maintenance routines. 99% of them are overkill, but people are inundated with them and come away with a false idea of their requirement. All you need to know for long term maintenance is don't let the pan rust. Cooking in the pan will season the pan. (People will act like that's impossible without ultra-refined avocado oil or meticulous reseasoning protocols - they're wrong.) If you wash the pan, dry it on the stovetop; running a little water over the pan won't "ruin" the seasoning. That's it. Otherwise you can beat the ever living shit out of the pan and it will still be perfectly fine.

dfxm12 2y ago
On the other hand, there is also a lot of poor information in very popular blogs telling people to do things like season your pan with flaxseed oil (which has a very low smoke point). It's hard to sort the good info from the misinfo, so I get why people overdo it after being burned.
- sleepybrett 2y ago
  In my opinion, after using several different oils (lard, crisco, flaxseed) that flaxseed works fine, i've heard it might be a little more brittle in the long run, but it certainly works. You need to polymerize the oil, my understanding is that to do that you need to exceed the smoke point of the oil during the seasoning process. I know kenji has advised against it but I've got a small little pan I use for eggs most mornings that I initially seasoned with flaxseed several years ago and it's held up just fine and is slick as shit. I've seen some methods that use beeswax as well, both alone and in combination with an oil. All this to say it's not 'poor information', it might not be the absolute best oil to use, but it does certainly work. If for some reason the only oil you have in the house is flaxseed, it will season your pan.
  - dfxm12 2y ago
    A pan doesn't need to be well-seasoned prior to cooking eggs in it. People cook eggs in stainless pans, for example. Likely, that flaxseed oil flaked down the drain when you washed your pan or onto your eggs the first time you cooked with it and you've been able to give your pan proper seasoning with the fat you normally cook with over the past several years.
    - sleepybrett 2y ago
      That flaxseed oil certainly did not go 'down the drain', I'm not an idiot. This was not my frist seasoned pan and it wasn't my last I just decided to try flaxseed oil as I had some in the house. Certainly oils and fats from subsequent uses help reinforce the initial seasoning. However, I challenge you to strip a cast iron pan and try to cook eggs in it and tell me how you got them not to stick. It may be that I treat my cast iron gently when washing that kept this initial season on, I'm not sure, but if you are scrubbing your cast iron with large amount or strong soaps it's going to have a bad effect on ANY seasoning. On the beeswax tip, a little searching found me this: https://crisbee.org/ https://crisbee.org/ which is apparently basically crisco mixed with some bees wax.
      - dfxm12 2y ago
        However, I challenge you to strip a cast iron pan and try to cook eggs in it and tell me how you got them not to stick. The same way you cook on stainless. If you heat the pan and oil properly, you can let the Leidenfrost effect take it from there. I'm not sure, but if you are scrubbing your cast iron with large amount or strong soaps it's going to have a bad effect on ANY seasoning. No. If it flakes off, it is not seasoning. At that point, it is just burnt oil. But that's OK, because you can build up seasoning the next time you cook. Crisco alone is a lot cheaper than some highly marketed brand of crisco + beeswax and will do just as good a job at seasoning your pan. Plus, you'll have crisco left over for other stuff. There's no need to buy these "boutique" products just for your pan.
        sleepybrett 2y ago

dfxm12 2y ago

On the other hand, there is also a lot of poor information in very popular blogs telling people to do things like season your pan with flaxseed oil (which has a very low smoke point). It's hard to sort the good info from the misinfo, so I get why people overdo it after being burned.

sleepybrett 2y ago
In my opinion, after using several different oils (lard, crisco, flaxseed) that flaxseed works fine, i've heard it might be a little more brittle in the long run, but it certainly works. You need to polymerize the oil, my understanding is that to do that you need to exceed the smoke point of the oil during the seasoning process. I know kenji has advised against it but I've got a small little pan I use for eggs most mornings that I initially seasoned with flaxseed several years ago and it's held up just fine and is slick as shit. I've seen some methods that use beeswax as well, both alone and in combination with an oil. All this to say it's not 'poor information', it might not be the absolute best oil to use, but it does certainly work. If for some reason the only oil you have in the house is flaxseed, it will season your pan.
- dfxm12 2y ago
  A pan doesn't need to be well-seasoned prior to cooking eggs in it. People cook eggs in stainless pans, for example. Likely, that flaxseed oil flaked down the drain when you washed your pan or onto your eggs the first time you cooked with it and you've been able to give your pan proper seasoning with the fat you normally cook with over the past several years.
  - sleepybrett 2y ago
    That flaxseed oil certainly did not go 'down the drain', I'm not an idiot. This was not my frist seasoned pan and it wasn't my last I just decided to try flaxseed oil as I had some in the house. Certainly oils and fats from subsequent uses help reinforce the initial seasoning. However, I challenge you to strip a cast iron pan and try to cook eggs in it and tell me how you got them not to stick. It may be that I treat my cast iron gently when washing that kept this initial season on, I'm not sure, but if you are scrubbing your cast iron with large amount or strong soaps it's going to have a bad effect on ANY seasoning. On the beeswax tip, a little searching found me this: https://crisbee.org/ https://crisbee.org/ which is apparently basically crisco mixed with some bees wax.
    - dfxm12 2y ago
      However, I challenge you to strip a cast iron pan and try to cook eggs in it and tell me how you got them not to stick. The same way you cook on stainless. If you heat the pan and oil properly, you can let the Leidenfrost effect take it from there. I'm not sure, but if you are scrubbing your cast iron with large amount or strong soaps it's going to have a bad effect on ANY seasoning. No. If it flakes off, it is not seasoning. At that point, it is just burnt oil. But that's OK, because you can build up seasoning the next time you cook. Crisco alone is a lot cheaper than some highly marketed brand of crisco + beeswax and will do just as good a job at seasoning your pan. Plus, you'll have crisco left over for other stuff. There's no need to buy these "boutique" products just for your pan.
      - sleepybrett 2y ago