11 ms·

Chemistry of Cast Iron Seasoning (2010)

218 points by mzehrer 12y ago

jcr 12y ago
The story has a link to "Cooking For Engineers: Smoke Points of Various Fats" [1] that looks real useful, but it does not provide any reference as to where the values come from, and the stated smoke point temperatures listed vary a lot from those listed on Wikipedial [2]. I'll begrudgingly refrain from making jokes about believing what you read on the Internet, but I figured pointing out the discrepancies might be useful to some. [1] http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/50/Smoke-Points-of-Various-Fats http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/50/Smoke-Points-o... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point
- TheCowboy 12y ago
  Smoke point temperatures found in literature and on the Internet seem to be something of a religion itself. The same could probably be said of cast iron seasoning. I've seen people argue that extra virgin olive oil has one of the highest smoke points. If two sources ever agree on smoke points, I wouldn't bet on it being sourced from independently replicated experiments. Even when a reference is provided, the reference itself isn't reliable. Cooking seems to be slowly emerging from the dark ages, but there is still a lot of pseudo-science that most people unfortunately don't even realize is exactly that.
Nux 12y ago
That's great, thanks for sharing! I'm fascinated by cast iron cookware, the durable nature of it seems to contrast with so much of the rest of our lives. Take good care of it and it will last generations!
- fsloth 12y ago
  It's not only the durability. As cookware my cast iron pans outfry every other pan I have. Their only downside is that they are not very large and since they are kinda needy when it comes to care I'm not sure I would like to have bigger ones anyhow. My cast iron pans are awesome. They cook the best steak and they have been in the family for generations. I remember eating some good steaks as a kid that were made in those pans and now I use them myself.
  - baldeagle 12y ago
    I once found a cast iron skillet on the back of a hillside and cleaned it up. Honestly the hardest part was getting the rust off. After that, it's worked like a champ. BTW, the article links to a prior entry about rust removal that was way easier than what I did.
    - fsloth 12y ago
      Yeah, those cast iron wonders are like some legendary swords in various works of fiction. Just give them a good rub and they're as good as new :)
- ensignavenger 12y ago
  My wife's grandmother recently gave her a cast iron skillet that was allegedly owned by her grandmother! Awesome cookware :)
- stinos 12y ago
  This. The older I get, the more I care about purchasing or preferrably re-using proper durable tools of all kinds. Cast iron cookware is one of those. Another thing I love: the scythe. Belonged to my grandmother's father and because of genes I happen to have his posture making the scythe a pretty good fit for me. This handmade tool, now being close to hundred years old but with a new blade outperforms any motorized tool I've tried for mowing our grass. Cuts faster, less tiring, non-polluting, doesn't throw grass or rocks in your face and so on.
- giardini 12y ago
  The reason it lasts generations is that the previous generations didn't use it! They put it up in the attic and used an aluminum or stainless, porcelain or copper cookware instead.
  - inyourtenement 12y ago
    You're a riot.
- VLM 12y ago
  I've been cooking for a long time and over the decades I've noticed non-stick has become better "value engineered" over time such that no matter how much you pay or how much you baby the pan, you'll be buying a new one every couple months. When I was a kid my mom's non-stick lasted for years, until the handle breaks off or something, but they've done a lot of coating engineering work to increase repeat sales for non-stick. So maybe a decade ago I switched to cast iron in a rage at my latest pan only lasting a couple months. I was shocked at the cost, I was trying to buy upscale to get non-stick pans that don't suck, and instead of paying $100+ for a six month lifetime non-stick I was paying like $15 for a lifetime grade CI pan. I do understand how non-stick pan mfgrs stay in business, because they're guaranteed about two sales per year due to amazingly low product durability. I have no idea how Lodge and the others stay in the CI business because the pans last forever. Its a mysterious business model. One more point to add is I have CI grates on my charcoal BBQ and a similar seasoning mindset applies to CI grill as to frying pans. Dump the coals, scrape/scrub the grates, apply some oil/crisco while it'll still smoke a little but not too much, you're good. Another non-stick alternative I cook with a lot is stainless steel. If you're generous with the oil and keep the temps very high but not too high and start with a surgically clean pan, you can fry in stainless. "Barkeepers friend" is the best thing I can find for cleaning stainless. Stainless is also basically eternal. Unlike CI, if you're used to spending $50 at Target for a non-stick pot or pan, a CI equivalent will be like $15 but a large stainless pot could be maybe $100 to $150 for all-clad? I'm in the "all-clad or nothing" tribe of stainless users, there are cheaper alternatives. I like a steak in a nice near red hot stainless pan. You'll need the "barkeepers friend" cleaning powder after that. I could imagine that powder would strip a CI pan pretty well, given how well it strips baked on stuff off stainless pans.
kinofcain 12y ago
J. Kenji Lopez-Alt has a good companion article to this one regarding care and usage of your now properly seasoned cast iron pan: http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/11/the-truth-about-cast-iron.html http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/11/the-truth-about-cast-iron...
- Zancarius 12y ago
  I knew this name looked familiar. He's written tons of great articles! One of my personal favorites is on making the perfect french fries: http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/05/the-burger-lab-how-to-make-perfect-mcdonalds-style-french-fries.html http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/05/the-burger-lab-h...
  - huhtenberg 12y ago
    His greatest contribution to the world of modern cuisine is this recipe - http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/01/foolproof-pan-pizza-recipe.html http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/01/foolproof-pan-piz... Its bang for a buck of effort is absolutely off the charts :)
    - Zancarius 12y ago
      Your timing is unsettling, huhtenberg. I'm going to be making pizza tomorrow. You're not psychic, are you? :)
    - karlshea 12y ago
      I made this a couple of weeks ago, it was better than a lot of pizzaria pizzas I've had. If you have some time, it's even better if you can age the uncooked dough in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. You get bigger bubbles and better texture.
      - Zancarius 12y ago
        Aged dough. That stuff is good. I use a recipe for making loaves of plain old white bread that requires making a biga ahead of time (Cuisine at Home, Feb. 2003 p32-35). It's impossible to eat store-bought bread after that. If anyone's curious about this specific recipe, I could either email you a scan or post it here.
sterwill 12y ago
A very timely write-up! Just last night I ordered a large (19"x16"), flat cast iron griddle[1] for oven baking after another disappointing result cooking pizza on my stone. I used to own a pizza stone that seemed to transfer a lot of heat to my bread, even though it was relatively thin and didn't feel very dense. Bread and pizza would brown nicely on it, even though it was too small for baguettes. One day it cracked and I bought a different kind (Ceramic Chef brand). It's a little thicker and feels more porous, and I just can't get crisp bread on it even after pre-heating it in a 500F oven for 30 minutes. The new one is definitely a different type of stone. Maybe it's engineered for people who want to cook on rocks but don't like crust? I'm excited about baking on a large slab of cast iron. I've had a 12" cast iron skillet for ~15 years and use it all the time. [1] http://www.katom.com/067-1016905.html http://www.katom.com/067-1016905.html (store link; the manufacturer only describes it in detail in a PDF)
- steven2012 12y ago
  I also just bought a cast iron frying pan and it should be delivered today. I'm mainly curious about how good it can cook without having the nonstick layer, which feels dubious considering I am terrible at ensuring I don't use too much heat which would melt the Teflon and presumably poison me. Cast iron with oil/butter may be a bit greasier but hopefully more forgiving given my blunt culinary abilities.
  - hvs 12y ago
    If you season it appropriately (see the original article) you should be able to slide an egg on it.
    - evilduck 12y ago
      That will just never happen on new cast iron. Old stuff was machined smooth from the factory, new stuff has a texture on par with sandpaper. Unless you intend to take a dremel tool or whatever to your new cast iron before you begin using it, you're just not going to get a surface comparable to a Teflon pan without years of use to build up a layer of seasoning that smooths out the castings peaks and valleys. I've got a newish, rough Lodge and a vintage smooth Wagner that I both stripped and reseasoned (with just Canola oil. This flaxseed method is overkill IMO). The Wagner can cook eggs like teflon; the Lodge, even after two years of heavy use is still pretty rough for eggs, its nonstick enough for most other foods. Cast iron is nice and I prefer it for its properties besides the nonstick abiluty, but for the casual home cook making eggs, Teflon is pretty foolproof.
peatmoss 12y ago
I've seen this before and have tried seasoning with flaxseed oil. In short, it does work much better than other methods. It also smells a bit unpleasant compared to some other oils when seasoning the pan. Once you get that base coat really solidly on, you shouldn't ever have to hit your skillet with anything harsher than water and a rubber spatula. I also leave my skillet in the oven as a thermal mass, but that's another story.
- slm_HN 12y ago
  >Once you get that base coat really solidly on, you shouldn't ever have to hit your skillet with anything harsher than water and a rubber spatula. Rubber spatulas aren't recommended for cast iron. You're much better off with a metal spatula as long as it has a straight edge.
  - peatmoss 12y ago
    Wow, really? What's the reasoning? (Also, technically I guess I use a silicone spatula.)
    - maxerickson 12y ago
      One of the things I like about cast iron is that you can use metal utensils that you can be sure aren't melting (which I realize would also not be a problem with silicone). Not necessarily a sound rational basis for it, but it's at least less gross in my head, which is enough reason.
    - JASchilz 12y ago
      With a metal spatula, you're machining the pan smooth over the course of decades, and also constantly scraping off any good bits that are getting stuck.
- mrcsparker 12y ago
  I use soap all of the time on mine. I also scrub it off. Just throw some oil on after. Been using it for years. Cast iron is a lot less maintenance than people think. I cook food too hot for Teflon, scrape the crap out if other pans, and like to throw things in the oven. I also use a metal spatula for everything. I pretty much do all of the things that these sites say not to, and never have problems.
fsloth 12y ago
Thanks! I had completely missed the point that when oils start releasing smoke they are not really usable any more due to the free radicals. My family will actually eat healthier food after I read this article since "Dad's panfried stuff" will no longer be so carcinogenic :)
- claar 12y ago
  I keep seeing people saying this here and there, including the comments of this article. But I can't find any real substantiation of this carcinogenic claim in Googling. Anyone have something resembling real research?
covercash 12y ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/castiron https://www.reddit.com/r/castiron is a good resource for anyone interested in cast iron.
foobarian 12y ago
I recently got a pan like this: http://www.kohls.com/product/prd-1305988/country-cabin-10-in-cast-iron-skillet.jsp http://www.kohls.com/product/prd-1305988/country-cabin-10-in... which turned out to be super-coarse. I ended up polishing it with an angle grinder and fine sandpaper, then seasoning the resulting smooth surface. I haven't seen more high end antique pans first hand, but my understanding is that they were factory-polished, and that this step is somewhat costly.
- bos 12y ago
  Modern pans are cast in sand because it's cheap. The manufacturing method changed about 60 years ago from a more precise mould (that happened to cost more, but gave a smoother finish).
- mikepurvis 12y ago
  I've wondered about the angle grinder thing. It surprises me that isn't given more often as a solution to the sand casted pan issue.
eel 12y ago
The article is good, but I was bothered by the post title. In this case, "science-based" seems to mean that the author merely presented her claims with a logical argument. An example from the article: But it’s not a good idea to use a spray oil, no matter what oil it’s made with, because of its additives. You’re doing chemistry here. If you want good results, use pure ingredients. It's a compelling argument, but it's not science-based. Where is the evidence that additives affect the seasoning or polymerization? It could very well be that additives have no effect, or more likely that it depends on the type of additive. If this was the only example, that would be fine, but the blog post is full of examples like this. There is no citation of any scientific source anywhere in the article! If you are writing articles than claim to be science-based, you really should link or cite actual scientific literature. (Or run your own experiments!)
- JohnTHaller 12y ago
  Introducing unknown variables (additives) when you don't need to doesn't make sense if you're treating this as lab experiment. Why complicate the process for no reason?
  - taeric 12y ago
    Isn't that the point, though. It isn't "complicating for no reason," it is "running an experiment to see if it matters." Ruling out some experiments to try is often necessary, because time. However, it is far preferable to use prior evidence to rule them out, not speculation. No matter how logical it may be.
    - JohnTHaller 12y ago
      It's still complicating it for no reason. It's trivially easy to buy the proper oil and not use a spray oil with random stuff added to it to keep it spray-able. It's like not washing your test tubes out before conducting an experiment. It introduces additional variables and complexity for no good reason. Do you really expect the author to test for every single random additive from every single random spray oil producer and see if it affects the process? It's a waste of time when the proper process is easy... just use real unadulterated oil.
SippinLean 12y ago
I've followed the instructions here. They work, but they're kind of a pain to complete. Just buy enameled cast iron and be done with it.
droob 12y ago
Simple! Just heat, oil, reheat, and cool your pan six times in a row. For eighteen hours. And don't mess up or you'll have to start over.
- CoffeeDregs 12y ago
  Yeah, sounds like a pain. But I don't do anything like that and my pan is perfectly functional (and great at browning). The only thing I really do is to: use it, immediately clean it, put it on the stove to heat and dry, then wipe on a layer of whatever fat I have at hand. Really, the last step is the only difference from how I treat most pans (yes, I dry them with the heat from the stove). I have done the real seasoning thing, but found it both a pain and not noticeably more effective...
rquantz 12y ago
I followed the instructions in this post several years ago, and I can confirm that it produces an excellent finish. One of our pans has taken a bit of abuse recently, however, and has started to rust. I can't say I'm excited about having to do this again... Still, you can't beat cast iron for durability and ease of cleaning.
davidgrenier 12y ago
Buy an organic flaxseed oil. You don’t want to burn toxic chemicals into your cookware to leach out forever more. That sounds deeply unscientific.
- jamroom 12y ago
  Why is that unscientific? It's well known that cast iron gets "seasoned" by what you put in it, so if you put crap in it it's going to get seasoned with crap.
  - sk5t 12y ago
    I'd say it's unscientific because it includes an unfounded / somewhat superstitious implication that non-organic flaxseed oils contain toxic chemicals. Less notable, the author casually misuses "leach."
  - trubador4life 12y ago
    Sure, but she seems to be assuming that flaxseed oil pressed from organic seeds must necessarily be more pure than oil pressed from non-organic seeds. I'm not sure what the reasoning is... organic seeds wouldn't necessarily have been treated with any less pesticide, for example. The "organic" label often just means that the soil was fertilized with nitrogen from sources like manure, rather than nitrogen fixed from the air... but it's still just nitrogen.
- VLM 12y ago
  One aspect not discussed is you'll be breathing the smoke while you're seasoning... Its definitely an "all windows open" operation. Stuff that won't boil off beyond smoke point isn't going to be very reactive below smoke point. I'm not disagreeing with the author but agreeing with her for a different reason... at seasoning temps you'll breath pretty much every pesticide / herbicide molecule in the oil, and it'll be gone from the finish stuck to the pan. Another thing I agree with her WRT respiration you'll breathe less smoke over your lifetime if you use the best finish possible. After cleanup, I make an art form of heating up the cleaned and oiled pan right up to smoke point but not too far beyond. I've never even heard of the authors self cleaning stories about fires and warping. I guess its possible...
giardini 12y ago
This time of year, articles about cast iron cookware pop up all over the Internet. It's Holiday Season, time to get your sister-in-law a cast iron skillet that she will attempt to use a handful of times to her great dismay and frustration and then put up into the attic so that her grandkids can reproduce the experiment twenty years later. "Cast iron seasoning" is a scam. There, I've said it. I've got a full set of cast-iron cookware and have made repeated furtive and unsuccessful attempts to use it it over a period of 30 years. It just doesn't work. You _will_ inadvertently put tomatoes or lemon juice into your skillet, it _will_ lose it's "seasoning", and you _will_ attempt to "re-season" it with only 25% success rate but a guaranteed 100% stinky and smoked-out household (complete with 9 smoke-alarms beeping) rate. Instead of giving someone cast iron cookware (akin to giving someone herpes, but slightly less intimate and curable), give them a teflon skillet - it will work immediately and unfailingly. It will lose it's charm slowly and gracefully (instead of the first time it is cleaned, as with a cast iron skillet). They will know when to replace it. Let the posts from the alleged hundreds of blissfully contented cast-iron skillet users now commence.
- aristus 12y ago
  I'll refrain from gushing about grandma's pan coated with 70 years of lard & love, etc. :D It's not for everyone. But I will say you should skip the teflon and buy an enameled pan instead. They can be quite cheap and are much tougher than teflon.
  - riffraff 12y ago
    for pancakes, IMO, a teflon pan is probably going to last decades anyway.
  - encoderer 12y ago
    But as good as it is, it will never be as truly non-stick as a good teflon pan. Don't get me wrong, I use and love both my cast iron and a few old All Clad stainless with copper cores. Teflon will never sear as well, never give you the ultimate maillard you're looking for. But you can crack an egg into a teflon pan without oil and slide it out without leaving a trace.
yojo 12y ago
Additional tips from someone who failed: 1) Buy a used cast-iron off ebay. The old cast irons were machined smoother. Anything you buy new from lodge today is going to have a texture like low grit sand paper. Any old Wagner or Griswold is going to have a much smoother base surface. 2) Make sure you get everything off your pan. If you did buy a new pan, they often have weird artificial seasoning on them. If you have an old pan, anything loose can provide a failure mode for your new nice coat of seasoning. 3) Don't get 100% of the oil off between coats as the article suggests. You won't build any seasoning. 4) Consider using Canola oil. The flaxseed oil that you buy seems to have some particulate matter that is noticeable in the finished seasoning. That or I didn't shake mine enough. 5) Consider doing this at a time when you can open all the doors/windows. Even if you stick to the really thin layer, your house will still get a smelly smoke. 6) Don't leave anything nice on the top of your stove. My oven vents out over the burners, and a Le Cruset pot resting there got covered in a sticky residue that was a pain to clean off. More background: I tried this with a beat up hand-me-down wagner about a year ago. I did six coats of flaxseed while following the instructions to "get all the oil off" with a towel after each application. The result was a pan with basically no seasoning that everything stuck to. I went back and repeated while leaving a thicker layer (still not oil pooled or anything, but noticeably wet/shiny). This worked much better, and left a decent coat on the pan that things don't stick to. Sadly I did not strip the pan back down after the first misadventure, and some of my nice seasoning is now peeling around the corners.
- _greim_ 12y ago
  > The flaxseed oil that you buy seems to have some particulate matter that is noticeable in the finished seasoning Running it through a simple coffee filter might fix this.
- jules 12y ago
  7) Do it outside on a campfire, not inside your house in the oven. It's much faster and less messy.
  - tomkinstinch 12y ago
    A gas barbecue grill (on low) works quite well to.
inspector-g 12y ago
I followed these instructions a couple years ago for some of my cast iron cookware, and it worked out pretty well. That being said, I only resorted to these instructions after failing to find a service to re-season my cookware for me. I looked online for just about anywhere in Northern California and made phone calls to various kitchen stores and iron workers up to a radius of about 25 miles and found absolutely nothing. I would much rather have just paid someone who knows what they're doing to re-season my cookware than half-ass it myself. So does anyone else know of a service for this?
- analog31 12y ago
  A start-up is born. ;-)
JASchilz 12y ago
When I first got into cast iron, I spent a lot of time on oven-seasoning. It turns out that your daily practice is much more important than that oven seasoning, and the two important steps are: 1. Get the oil hot before you add any foods. 2. Use a sheet-metal spatula/flipper Humanity has known for a long time that when you get your cooking oil hot, it repels food instead of binding it to the cooking surface; but the amateur cook has forgotten because of a reliance on non-stick surfaces. The sheet-metal spatula/flipper lets you clean the cast iron with each pass of the tool. A rubber/wooden tool will leave small, burnt on bits of food, which accumulate more bits of food; a sheet-metal tool with scrape those off before they become a problem. Also, a sheet-metal spatula will scrape the roughness of the cast-iron from the bottom of your pan over the course of decades, moving you towards that inky-black mirror of grandma's old pans. I can cook anything on my cast iron, just by following those steps, even fried eggs: the surface is totally non-stick. And cleaning is simple too: sometimes I'll make a few passes with the spatula to scrape off any food that has dried on, but that's all I ever do.
- vosper 12y ago
  Do you consider oven-seasoning to still be important?
  - JASchilz 12y ago
    It's nice in that it might let you get away with less oil day-to-day. My best answer is that you can get away with skipping oven-seasoning if you follow the daily practice, but not vice-versa.
- encoderer 12y ago
  My understanding about the "grandmas old pans" comment is that new pans are cast, i believe using sand?, in a way that leaves the "pebbled" texture. It's unfortunate, the smooth cast is certainly better, but I believe it doesn't have as much effect as you might think.
  - JASchilz 12y ago
    Yeah, they've definitely started out closer to smooth than ours. As you say, I don't know if mirror smoothness is terribly important, but it might let you get away with a bit less oil.
msandford 12y ago
Who, do you think, copied who? http://www.houseofpaine.org/CastIron/ http://www.houseofpaine.org/CastIron/ Scroll down to "The Recipe for Perfect Cast Iron Seasoning" and compare with her "The Recipe for Perfect Cast Iron Seasoning" I remember reading that other webpage some years ago, while her post is brand new. This kind of un-credited copying might well be called "plagarism"
- gareim 12y ago
  Well, it looks like they're only months apart from each other. The House of Paine one refers to 1999 in the html file, and this post was published February 2000. Is it possible they're the same person? Either way, it's kind of interesting. Nice find. EDIT: ignore what I said about 1999. Clearly wrong now that I looked more at that page. They even reference 2000 in the House of Paine page.
  - msandford 12y ago
    I can tell you that her blog post states that it's from 2010, not 2000. So that's a big gap.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- nkurz 12y ago
  Since you ask, I think that House of Paine copied much of the article from Sheryl Canter without offering her credit. Sheryl's article was clearly published in January 2010. But although http://www.houseofpaine.org http://www.houseofpaine.org has been archived by http://archive.org http://archive.org since 2005, the CastIron page does not appear until 2013: http://web.archive.org/web/20130517140647/http://www.houseofpaine.org/CastIron/ http://web.archive.org/web/20130517140647/http://www.houseof... Other than your recollection, I can find no evidence that Sheryl plagiarized this article from HouseOfPaine.org. Additionally, the archived version of the first blog post from House of Paine confirms that they intend to republish copyrighted material of others without authorization: This website contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. houseofpaine.org is making this material available in our efforts to advance the understanding of economic policy, educational, environmental, political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe that this constitutes a “fair use” of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. http://web.archive.org/web/20090825155249/http://www.houseofpaine.org/blog/?p=1 http://web.archive.org/web/20090825155249/http://www.houseof... While this statement doesn't offer any confirmation, it seems fair to say that their beliefs regarding fair use are not in line with the usual interpretation of the courts, and indicate at least a willingness to commit acts that others would typically refer to as plagiarism.
fulafel 12y ago
The impossible to remove gunk in deep-fryers is also commonly attributed to polymerization. What are really the properties of polymerized cooking fats?
bjt 12y ago
I saw this post a few years ago. Having read her other two posts on seasoning cast iron, I came to the conclusion that she was just making the science up as she went along. In "Perfect Popovers" [1] she advises Avocado Oil for its high smoke point, out of fear that letting the oil smoke will release carcinogenic free radicals into your food. Then in this "Science-Based How-To" (three weeks later) she switches to flaxseed oil and suddenly isn't concerned about the free radicals anymore. There is no hypothesis testing, and there are no measurements of free radicals or polymerization. It's all conjecture. Her third post [2] calls out "black rust"/magnetite as a key component of seasoning cast iron, because "someone sent me some links". The links are not provided. I have no problem with her blogging about her experiences seasoning cast iron, but what she's doing is not science, and it is misleading to call it "science based". If the author were a chemist, biologist, or nutritionist, I could defer to her education and wouldn't be writing this comment. But her bio [3] doesn't indicate any such training. [1] http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/perfect-popovers-and-how-to-clean-reseason-cast-iron/ http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/perfect-popovers-a... [2] http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/02/black-rust-and-cast-iron-seasoning/ http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/02/black-rust-and-cas... [3] http://sherylcanter.com/background.php http://sherylcanter.com/background.php
- wodenokoto 12y ago
  Well, she does mention in this post why she was wrong about the avocado oil, so there's that at least.
Nitramp 12y ago
Interesting. In German speaking media, the universal recipe I found is to use any high-heat oil (canola, sunflower, etc), fill the pan with a lot of it (3 mm of oil in the pan), then add potato peels and a lot of salt. Fry the peels (and flip them in the process) until the peels are completely charred, done. I haven't tried either.
- qwertz123 12y ago
  I tried the potato method and am not pleased with the results at all. I'm going to try one of the oil based approaches instead, they sound far less messy.
abakker 12y ago
For those of you who have the pebbly-textured pans from Lodge, this worked really well for me: 1. clean the inside of the pan of any oil, run it through the dishwasher, and then clean it with acetone. (you are doing this so the oil doesn't build up in the sandpaper, and keep it from cutting) 2. get several grits of sanding discs for a random orbital sander. 50, 80, 120, 220. Also get a fine particulate mask. Iron ground with 220 grit paper makes some very fine dust. 3. start sanding the inside of the pan. for a 10 inch pan, this took a while, but it will successfully grind away quite a bit of metal. 4. once you are done with the 220, it should be much smoother, then you can clean it with soap/water again, and then begin the seasoning process. I seasoned my pans outside on a grill.
- tcpekin 12y ago
  Couldn't you wet sand it to minimize dust?
  - abakker 12y ago
    yes, if you were to use sandpaper that was designed for wet sanding. The problem with most random orbital sandpaper, and most random orbital sanders, is that they are designed for woodworking. Woodworking paper tends to be AlO2 and is typically bonded with a non-waterproof adhesive. Non-waterproof sandpaper works better on soft materials like wood because it tends to "load" less, so it lasts longer. If you hand sand, you could use Silicon Carbide paper (the black stuff labelled "waterproof"). This would minimize dust, but cast iron is very very hard, and would probably be difficult to sand evenly by hand.
webnrrd2k 12y ago
She may be right that flax oil is better, but I don't think she gives the right reason. I don't think she knows what she's talking about as far as the science goes -- I'm far from an expert, but I believe most cooking oils will polymerize through exposure to oxygen and heat -- it doesn't require special drying oils. There's a traditional black smith's finish to make an almost indestructible coating by rubbing some beeswax on steel heated to the smoke point... I imagine it's the same process when seasoning a cast iron pan with cooking oil. BTW, There seem to be a lot of people looking for cast iron pans... Keep a lookout at garage sales and swap meets. You can usually find pans without too much trouble, and for around $5--$10 or so. As far as seasoning goes, I just wipe some olive oil on and heat it 'till it smokes, let it sit, and repeat three or so times. As far as I can tell the oil forms a tough plastic-like coating. The only thing that'll damage it in normal use is cutting into it with a sharp knife or the edge of a spatula, or burning the coating off by getting the pan too hot. Flax oil max stick less, or be slightly better in some other way, but I doubt there is much of a difference.
schmmd 12y ago
When I read "flaxseed oil is the only drying oil that’s edible", Tung Oil came to mind as a candidate for seasoning cast iron. It's easy to buy 100% tung oil that's reasonably priced and FDA approved for food contact (see http://www.realmilkpaint.com/oil.html http://www.realmilkpaint.com/oil.html).

218 points by mzehrer 12y ago

jcr 12y ago

The story has a link to "Cooking For Engineers: Smoke Points of Various Fats" [1] that looks real useful, but it does not provide any reference as to where the values come from, and the stated smoke point temperatures listed vary a lot from those listed on Wikipedial [2]. I'll begrudgingly refrain from making jokes about believing what you read on the Internet, but I figured pointing out the discrepancies might be useful to some. [1] http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/50/Smoke-Points-of-Various-Fats http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/50/Smoke-Points-o... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_point

TheCowboy 12y ago
Smoke point temperatures found in literature and on the Internet seem to be something of a religion itself. The same could probably be said of cast iron seasoning. I've seen people argue that extra virgin olive oil has one of the highest smoke points. If two sources ever agree on smoke points, I wouldn't bet on it being sourced from independently replicated experiments. Even when a reference is provided, the reference itself isn't reliable. Cooking seems to be slowly emerging from the dark ages, but there is still a lot of pseudo-science that most people unfortunately don't even realize is exactly that.

Nux 12y ago

That's great, thanks for sharing! I'm fascinated by cast iron cookware, the durable nature of it seems to contrast with so much of the rest of our lives. Take good care of it and it will last generations!

fsloth 12y ago
It's not only the durability. As cookware my cast iron pans outfry every other pan I have. Their only downside is that they are not very large and since they are kinda needy when it comes to care I'm not sure I would like to have bigger ones anyhow. My cast iron pans are awesome. They cook the best steak and they have been in the family for generations. I remember eating some good steaks as a kid that were made in those pans and now I use them myself.
- baldeagle 12y ago
  I once found a cast iron skillet on the back of a hillside and cleaned it up. Honestly the hardest part was getting the rust off. After that, it's worked like a champ. BTW, the article links to a prior entry about rust removal that was way easier than what I did.
  - fsloth 12y ago
    Yeah, those cast iron wonders are like some legendary swords in various works of fiction. Just give them a good rub and they're as good as new :)
ensignavenger 12y ago
My wife's grandmother recently gave her a cast iron skillet that was allegedly owned by her grandmother! Awesome cookware :)
stinos 12y ago
This. The older I get, the more I care about purchasing or preferrably re-using proper durable tools of all kinds. Cast iron cookware is one of those. Another thing I love: the scythe. Belonged to my grandmother's father and because of genes I happen to have his posture making the scythe a pretty good fit for me. This handmade tool, now being close to hundred years old but with a new blade outperforms any motorized tool I've tried for mowing our grass. Cuts faster, less tiring, non-polluting, doesn't throw grass or rocks in your face and so on.
giardini 12y ago
The reason it lasts generations is that the previous generations didn't use it! They put it up in the attic and used an aluminum or stainless, porcelain or copper cookware instead.
- inyourtenement 12y ago
  You're a riot.
VLM 12y ago
I've been cooking for a long time and over the decades I've noticed non-stick has become better "value engineered" over time such that no matter how much you pay or how much you baby the pan, you'll be buying a new one every couple months. When I was a kid my mom's non-stick lasted for years, until the handle breaks off or something, but they've done a lot of coating engineering work to increase repeat sales for non-stick. So maybe a decade ago I switched to cast iron in a rage at my latest pan only lasting a couple months. I was shocked at the cost, I was trying to buy upscale to get non-stick pans that don't suck, and instead of paying $100+ for a six month lifetime non-stick I was paying like $15 for a lifetime grade CI pan. I do understand how non-stick pan mfgrs stay in business, because they're guaranteed about two sales per year due to amazingly low product durability. I have no idea how Lodge and the others stay in the CI business because the pans last forever. Its a mysterious business model. One more point to add is I have CI grates on my charcoal BBQ and a similar seasoning mindset applies to CI grill as to frying pans. Dump the coals, scrape/scrub the grates, apply some oil/crisco while it'll still smoke a little but not too much, you're good. Another non-stick alternative I cook with a lot is stainless steel. If you're generous with the oil and keep the temps very high but not too high and start with a surgically clean pan, you can fry in stainless. "Barkeepers friend" is the best thing I can find for cleaning stainless. Stainless is also basically eternal. Unlike CI, if you're used to spending $50 at Target for a non-stick pot or pan, a CI equivalent will be like $15 but a large stainless pot could be maybe $100 to $150 for all-clad? I'm in the "all-clad or nothing" tribe of stainless users, there are cheaper alternatives. I like a steak in a nice near red hot stainless pan. You'll need the "barkeepers friend" cleaning powder after that. I could imagine that powder would strip a CI pan pretty well, given how well it strips baked on stuff off stainless pans.

kinofcain 12y ago

J. Kenji Lopez-Alt has a good companion article to this one regarding care and usage of your now properly seasoned cast iron pan: http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/11/the-truth-about-cast-iron.html http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/11/the-truth-about-cast-iron...

Zancarius 12y ago
I knew this name looked familiar. He's written tons of great articles! One of my personal favorites is on making the perfect french fries: http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/05/the-burger-lab-how-to-make-perfect-mcdonalds-style-french-fries.html http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/05/the-burger-lab-h...
- huhtenberg 12y ago
  His greatest contribution to the world of modern cuisine is this recipe - http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/01/foolproof-pan-pizza-recipe.html http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/01/foolproof-pan-piz... Its bang for a buck of effort is absolutely off the charts :)
  - Zancarius 12y ago
    Your timing is unsettling, huhtenberg. I'm going to be making pizza tomorrow. You're not psychic, are you? :)
  - karlshea 12y ago
    I made this a couple of weeks ago, it was better than a lot of pizzaria pizzas I've had. If you have some time, it's even better if you can age the uncooked dough in the refrigerator for 3-4 days. You get bigger bubbles and better texture.
    - Zancarius 12y ago
      Aged dough. That stuff is good. I use a recipe for making loaves of plain old white bread that requires making a biga ahead of time (Cuisine at Home, Feb. 2003 p32-35). It's impossible to eat store-bought bread after that. If anyone's curious about this specific recipe, I could either email you a scan or post it here.

sterwill 12y ago

A very timely write-up! Just last night I ordered a large (19"x16"), flat cast iron griddle[1] for oven baking after another disappointing result cooking pizza on my stone. I used to own a pizza stone that seemed to transfer a lot of heat to my bread, even though it was relatively thin and didn't feel very dense. Bread and pizza would brown nicely on it, even though it was too small for baguettes. One day it cracked and I bought a different kind (Ceramic Chef brand). It's a little thicker and feels more porous, and I just can't get crisp bread on it even after pre-heating it in a 500F oven for 30 minutes. The new one is definitely a different type of stone. Maybe it's engineered for people who want to cook on rocks but don't like crust? I'm excited about baking on a large slab of cast iron. I've had a 12" cast iron skillet for ~15 years and use it all the time. [1] http://www.katom.com/067-1016905.html http://www.katom.com/067-1016905.html (store link; the manufacturer only describes it in detail in a PDF)

steven2012 12y ago
I also just bought a cast iron frying pan and it should be delivered today. I'm mainly curious about how good it can cook without having the nonstick layer, which feels dubious considering I am terrible at ensuring I don't use too much heat which would melt the Teflon and presumably poison me. Cast iron with oil/butter may be a bit greasier but hopefully more forgiving given my blunt culinary abilities.
- hvs 12y ago
  If you season it appropriately (see the original article) you should be able to slide an egg on it.
  - evilduck 12y ago
    That will just never happen on new cast iron. Old stuff was machined smooth from the factory, new stuff has a texture on par with sandpaper. Unless you intend to take a dremel tool or whatever to your new cast iron before you begin using it, you're just not going to get a surface comparable to a Teflon pan without years of use to build up a layer of seasoning that smooths out the castings peaks and valleys. I've got a newish, rough Lodge and a vintage smooth Wagner that I both stripped and reseasoned (with just Canola oil. This flaxseed method is overkill IMO). The Wagner can cook eggs like teflon; the Lodge, even after two years of heavy use is still pretty rough for eggs, its nonstick enough for most other foods. Cast iron is nice and I prefer it for its properties besides the nonstick abiluty, but for the casual home cook making eggs, Teflon is pretty foolproof.

peatmoss 12y ago

I've seen this before and have tried seasoning with flaxseed oil. In short, it does work much better than other methods. It also smells a bit unpleasant compared to some other oils when seasoning the pan. Once you get that base coat really solidly on, you shouldn't ever have to hit your skillet with anything harsher than water and a rubber spatula. I also leave my skillet in the oven as a thermal mass, but that's another story.

slm_HN 12y ago
>Once you get that base coat really solidly on, you shouldn't ever have to hit your skillet with anything harsher than water and a rubber spatula. Rubber spatulas aren't recommended for cast iron. You're much better off with a metal spatula as long as it has a straight edge.
- peatmoss 12y ago
  Wow, really? What's the reasoning? (Also, technically I guess I use a silicone spatula.)
  - maxerickson 12y ago
    One of the things I like about cast iron is that you can use metal utensils that you can be sure aren't melting (which I realize would also not be a problem with silicone). Not necessarily a sound rational basis for it, but it's at least less gross in my head, which is enough reason.
  - JASchilz 12y ago
    With a metal spatula, you're machining the pan smooth over the course of decades, and also constantly scraping off any good bits that are getting stuck.
mrcsparker 12y ago
I use soap all of the time on mine. I also scrub it off. Just throw some oil on after. Been using it for years. Cast iron is a lot less maintenance than people think. I cook food too hot for Teflon, scrape the crap out if other pans, and like to throw things in the oven. I also use a metal spatula for everything. I pretty much do all of the things that these sites say not to, and never have problems.

fsloth 12y ago

Thanks! I had completely missed the point that when oils start releasing smoke they are not really usable any more due to the free radicals. My family will actually eat healthier food after I read this article since "Dad's panfried stuff" will no longer be so carcinogenic :)

claar 12y ago
I keep seeing people saying this here and there, including the comments of this article. But I can't find any real substantiation of this carcinogenic claim in Googling. Anyone have something resembling real research?

covercash 12y ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/castiron https://www.reddit.com/r/castiron is a good resource for anyone interested in cast iron.

foobarian 12y ago

I recently got a pan like this: http://www.kohls.com/product/prd-1305988/country-cabin-10-in-cast-iron-skillet.jsp http://www.kohls.com/product/prd-1305988/country-cabin-10-in... which turned out to be super-coarse. I ended up polishing it with an angle grinder and fine sandpaper, then seasoning the resulting smooth surface. I haven't seen more high end antique pans first hand, but my understanding is that they were factory-polished, and that this step is somewhat costly.

bos 12y ago
Modern pans are cast in sand because it's cheap. The manufacturing method changed about 60 years ago from a more precise mould (that happened to cost more, but gave a smoother finish).
mikepurvis 12y ago
I've wondered about the angle grinder thing. It surprises me that isn't given more often as a solution to the sand casted pan issue.

eel 12y ago

The article is good, but I was bothered by the post title. In this case, "science-based" seems to mean that the author merely presented her claims with a logical argument. An example from the article: But it’s not a good idea to use a spray oil, no matter what oil it’s made with, because of its additives. You’re doing chemistry here. If you want good results, use pure ingredients. It's a compelling argument, but it's not science-based. Where is the evidence that additives affect the seasoning or polymerization? It could very well be that additives have no effect, or more likely that it depends on the type of additive. If this was the only example, that would be fine, but the blog post is full of examples like this. There is no citation of any scientific source anywhere in the article! If you are writing articles than claim to be science-based, you really should link or cite actual scientific literature. (Or run your own experiments!)

JohnTHaller 12y ago
Introducing unknown variables (additives) when you don't need to doesn't make sense if you're treating this as lab experiment. Why complicate the process for no reason?
- taeric 12y ago
  Isn't that the point, though. It isn't "complicating for no reason," it is "running an experiment to see if it matters." Ruling out some experiments to try is often necessary, because time. However, it is far preferable to use prior evidence to rule them out, not speculation. No matter how logical it may be.
  - JohnTHaller 12y ago
    It's still complicating it for no reason. It's trivially easy to buy the proper oil and not use a spray oil with random stuff added to it to keep it spray-able. It's like not washing your test tubes out before conducting an experiment. It introduces additional variables and complexity for no good reason. Do you really expect the author to test for every single random additive from every single random spray oil producer and see if it affects the process? It's a waste of time when the proper process is easy... just use real unadulterated oil.

SippinLean 12y ago

I've followed the instructions here. They work, but they're kind of a pain to complete. Just buy enameled cast iron and be done with it.

droob 12y ago

Simple! Just heat, oil, reheat, and cool your pan six times in a row. For eighteen hours. And don't mess up or you'll have to start over.

CoffeeDregs 12y ago
Yeah, sounds like a pain. But I don't do anything like that and my pan is perfectly functional (and great at browning). The only thing I really do is to: use it, immediately clean it, put it on the stove to heat and dry, then wipe on a layer of whatever fat I have at hand. Really, the last step is the only difference from how I treat most pans (yes, I dry them with the heat from the stove). I have done the real seasoning thing, but found it both a pain and not noticeably more effective...

rquantz 12y ago

I followed the instructions in this post several years ago, and I can confirm that it produces an excellent finish. One of our pans has taken a bit of abuse recently, however, and has started to rust. I can't say I'm excited about having to do this again... Still, you can't beat cast iron for durability and ease of cleaning.

davidgrenier 12y ago

Buy an organic flaxseed oil. You don’t want to burn toxic chemicals into your cookware to leach out forever more. That sounds deeply unscientific.

jamroom 12y ago
Why is that unscientific? It's well known that cast iron gets "seasoned" by what you put in it, so if you put crap in it it's going to get seasoned with crap.
- sk5t 12y ago
  I'd say it's unscientific because it includes an unfounded / somewhat superstitious implication that non-organic flaxseed oils contain toxic chemicals. Less notable, the author casually misuses "leach."
- trubador4life 12y ago
  Sure, but she seems to be assuming that flaxseed oil pressed from organic seeds must necessarily be more pure than oil pressed from non-organic seeds. I'm not sure what the reasoning is... organic seeds wouldn't necessarily have been treated with any less pesticide, for example. The "organic" label often just means that the soil was fertilized with nitrogen from sources like manure, rather than nitrogen fixed from the air... but it's still just nitrogen.
VLM 12y ago
One aspect not discussed is you'll be breathing the smoke while you're seasoning... Its definitely an "all windows open" operation. Stuff that won't boil off beyond smoke point isn't going to be very reactive below smoke point. I'm not disagreeing with the author but agreeing with her for a different reason... at seasoning temps you'll breath pretty much every pesticide / herbicide molecule in the oil, and it'll be gone from the finish stuck to the pan. Another thing I agree with her WRT respiration you'll breathe less smoke over your lifetime if you use the best finish possible. After cleanup, I make an art form of heating up the cleaned and oiled pan right up to smoke point but not too far beyond. I've never even heard of the authors self cleaning stories about fires and warping. I guess its possible...

giardini 12y ago

This time of year, articles about cast iron cookware pop up all over the Internet. It's Holiday Season, time to get your sister-in-law a cast iron skillet that she will attempt to use a handful of times to her great dismay and frustration and then put up into the attic so that her grandkids can reproduce the experiment twenty years later. "Cast iron seasoning" is a scam. There, I've said it. I've got a full set of cast-iron cookware and have made repeated furtive and unsuccessful attempts to use it it over a period of 30 years. It just doesn't work. You _will_ inadvertently put tomatoes or lemon juice into your skillet, it _will_ lose it's "seasoning", and you _will_ attempt to "re-season" it with only 25% success rate but a guaranteed 100% stinky and smoked-out household (complete with 9 smoke-alarms beeping) rate. Instead of giving someone cast iron cookware (akin to giving someone herpes, but slightly less intimate and curable), give them a teflon skillet - it will work immediately and unfailingly. It will lose it's charm slowly and gracefully (instead of the first time it is cleaned, as with a cast iron skillet). They will know when to replace it. Let the posts from the alleged hundreds of blissfully contented cast-iron skillet users now commence.

aristus 12y ago
I'll refrain from gushing about grandma's pan coated with 70 years of lard & love, etc. :D It's not for everyone. But I will say you should skip the teflon and buy an enameled pan instead. They can be quite cheap and are much tougher than teflon.
- riffraff 12y ago
  for pancakes, IMO, a teflon pan is probably going to last decades anyway.
- encoderer 12y ago
  But as good as it is, it will never be as truly non-stick as a good teflon pan. Don't get me wrong, I use and love both my cast iron and a few old All Clad stainless with copper cores. Teflon will never sear as well, never give you the ultimate maillard you're looking for. But you can crack an egg into a teflon pan without oil and slide it out without leaving a trace.

yojo 12y ago

Additional tips from someone who failed: 1) Buy a used cast-iron off ebay. The old cast irons were machined smoother. Anything you buy new from lodge today is going to have a texture like low grit sand paper. Any old Wagner or Griswold is going to have a much smoother base surface. 2) Make sure you get everything off your pan. If you did buy a new pan, they often have weird artificial seasoning on them. If you have an old pan, anything loose can provide a failure mode for your new nice coat of seasoning. 3) Don't get 100% of the oil off between coats as the article suggests. You won't build any seasoning. 4) Consider using Canola oil. The flaxseed oil that you buy seems to have some particulate matter that is noticeable in the finished seasoning. That or I didn't shake mine enough. 5) Consider doing this at a time when you can open all the doors/windows. Even if you stick to the really thin layer, your house will still get a smelly smoke. 6) Don't leave anything nice on the top of your stove. My oven vents out over the burners, and a Le Cruset pot resting there got covered in a sticky residue that was a pain to clean off. More background: I tried this with a beat up hand-me-down wagner about a year ago. I did six coats of flaxseed while following the instructions to "get all the oil off" with a towel after each application. The result was a pan with basically no seasoning that everything stuck to. I went back and repeated while leaving a thicker layer (still not oil pooled or anything, but noticeably wet/shiny). This worked much better, and left a decent coat on the pan that things don't stick to. Sadly I did not strip the pan back down after the first misadventure, and some of my nice seasoning is now peeling around the corners.

_greim_ 12y ago
> The flaxseed oil that you buy seems to have some particulate matter that is noticeable in the finished seasoning Running it through a simple coffee filter might fix this.
jules 12y ago
7) Do it outside on a campfire, not inside your house in the oven. It's much faster and less messy.
- tomkinstinch 12y ago
  A gas barbecue grill (on low) works quite well to.

inspector-g 12y ago

I followed these instructions a couple years ago for some of my cast iron cookware, and it worked out pretty well. That being said, I only resorted to these instructions after failing to find a service to re-season my cookware for me. I looked online for just about anywhere in Northern California and made phone calls to various kitchen stores and iron workers up to a radius of about 25 miles and found absolutely nothing. I would much rather have just paid someone who knows what they're doing to re-season my cookware than half-ass it myself. So does anyone else know of a service for this?

analog31 12y ago
A start-up is born. ;-)

JASchilz 12y ago

When I first got into cast iron, I spent a lot of time on oven-seasoning. It turns out that your daily practice is much more important than that oven seasoning, and the two important steps are: 1. Get the oil hot before you add any foods. 2. Use a sheet-metal spatula/flipper Humanity has known for a long time that when you get your cooking oil hot, it repels food instead of binding it to the cooking surface; but the amateur cook has forgotten because of a reliance on non-stick surfaces. The sheet-metal spatula/flipper lets you clean the cast iron with each pass of the tool. A rubber/wooden tool will leave small, burnt on bits of food, which accumulate more bits of food; a sheet-metal tool with scrape those off before they become a problem. Also, a sheet-metal spatula will scrape the roughness of the cast-iron from the bottom of your pan over the course of decades, moving you towards that inky-black mirror of grandma's old pans. I can cook anything on my cast iron, just by following those steps, even fried eggs: the surface is totally non-stick. And cleaning is simple too: sometimes I'll make a few passes with the spatula to scrape off any food that has dried on, but that's all I ever do.

vosper 12y ago
Do you consider oven-seasoning to still be important?
- JASchilz 12y ago
  It's nice in that it might let you get away with less oil day-to-day. My best answer is that you can get away with skipping oven-seasoning if you follow the daily practice, but not vice-versa.
encoderer 12y ago
My understanding about the "grandmas old pans" comment is that new pans are cast, i believe using sand?, in a way that leaves the "pebbled" texture. It's unfortunate, the smooth cast is certainly better, but I believe it doesn't have as much effect as you might think.
- JASchilz 12y ago
  Yeah, they've definitely started out closer to smooth than ours. As you say, I don't know if mirror smoothness is terribly important, but it might let you get away with a bit less oil.

msandford 12y ago

Who, do you think, copied who? http://www.houseofpaine.org/CastIron/ http://www.houseofpaine.org/CastIron/ Scroll down to "The Recipe for Perfect Cast Iron Seasoning" and compare with her "The Recipe for Perfect Cast Iron Seasoning" I remember reading that other webpage some years ago, while her post is brand new. This kind of un-credited copying might well be called "plagarism"

gareim 12y ago
Well, it looks like they're only months apart from each other. The House of Paine one refers to 1999 in the html file, and this post was published February 2000. Is it possible they're the same person? Either way, it's kind of interesting. Nice find. EDIT: ignore what I said about 1999. Clearly wrong now that I looked more at that page. They even reference 2000 in the House of Paine page.
- msandford 12y ago
  I can tell you that her blog post states that it's from 2010, not 2000. So that's a big gap.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
nkurz 12y ago
Since you ask, I think that House of Paine copied much of the article from Sheryl Canter without offering her credit. Sheryl's article was clearly published in January 2010. But although http://www.houseofpaine.org http://www.houseofpaine.org has been archived by http://archive.org http://archive.org since 2005, the CastIron page does not appear until 2013: http://web.archive.org/web/20130517140647/http://www.houseofpaine.org/CastIron/ http://web.archive.org/web/20130517140647/http://www.houseof... Other than your recollection, I can find no evidence that Sheryl plagiarized this article from HouseOfPaine.org. Additionally, the archived version of the first blog post from House of Paine confirms that they intend to republish copyrighted material of others without authorization: This website contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. houseofpaine.org is making this material available in our efforts to advance the understanding of economic policy, educational, environmental, political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe that this constitutes a “fair use” of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. http://web.archive.org/web/20090825155249/http://www.houseofpaine.org/blog/?p=1 http://web.archive.org/web/20090825155249/http://www.houseof... While this statement doesn't offer any confirmation, it seems fair to say that their beliefs regarding fair use are not in line with the usual interpretation of the courts, and indicate at least a willingness to commit acts that others would typically refer to as plagiarism.

fulafel 12y ago

The impossible to remove gunk in deep-fryers is also commonly attributed to polymerization. What are really the properties of polymerized cooking fats?

bjt 12y ago

I saw this post a few years ago. Having read her other two posts on seasoning cast iron, I came to the conclusion that she was just making the science up as she went along. In "Perfect Popovers" [1] she advises Avocado Oil for its high smoke point, out of fear that letting the oil smoke will release carcinogenic free radicals into your food. Then in this "Science-Based How-To" (three weeks later) she switches to flaxseed oil and suddenly isn't concerned about the free radicals anymore. There is no hypothesis testing, and there are no measurements of free radicals or polymerization. It's all conjecture. Her third post [2] calls out "black rust"/magnetite as a key component of seasoning cast iron, because "someone sent me some links". The links are not provided. I have no problem with her blogging about her experiences seasoning cast iron, but what she's doing is not science, and it is misleading to call it "science based". If the author were a chemist, biologist, or nutritionist, I could defer to her education and wouldn't be writing this comment. But her bio [3] doesn't indicate any such training. [1] http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/perfect-popovers-and-how-to-clean-reseason-cast-iron/ http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/perfect-popovers-a... [2] http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/02/black-rust-and-cast-iron-seasoning/ http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/02/black-rust-and-cas... [3] http://sherylcanter.com/background.php http://sherylcanter.com/background.php

wodenokoto 12y ago
Well, she does mention in this post why she was wrong about the avocado oil, so there's that at least.

Nitramp 12y ago

Interesting. In German speaking media, the universal recipe I found is to use any high-heat oil (canola, sunflower, etc), fill the pan with a lot of it (3 mm of oil in the pan), then add potato peels and a lot of salt. Fry the peels (and flip them in the process) until the peels are completely charred, done. I haven't tried either.

qwertz123 12y ago
I tried the potato method and am not pleased with the results at all. I'm going to try one of the oil based approaches instead, they sound far less messy.

abakker 12y ago

For those of you who have the pebbly-textured pans from Lodge, this worked really well for me: 1. clean the inside of the pan of any oil, run it through the dishwasher, and then clean it with acetone. (you are doing this so the oil doesn't build up in the sandpaper, and keep it from cutting) 2. get several grits of sanding discs for a random orbital sander. 50, 80, 120, 220. Also get a fine particulate mask. Iron ground with 220 grit paper makes some very fine dust. 3. start sanding the inside of the pan. for a 10 inch pan, this took a while, but it will successfully grind away quite a bit of metal. 4. once you are done with the 220, it should be much smoother, then you can clean it with soap/water again, and then begin the seasoning process. I seasoned my pans outside on a grill.

tcpekin 12y ago
Couldn't you wet sand it to minimize dust?
- abakker 12y ago
  yes, if you were to use sandpaper that was designed for wet sanding. The problem with most random orbital sandpaper, and most random orbital sanders, is that they are designed for woodworking. Woodworking paper tends to be AlO2 and is typically bonded with a non-waterproof adhesive. Non-waterproof sandpaper works better on soft materials like wood because it tends to "load" less, so it lasts longer. If you hand sand, you could use Silicon Carbide paper (the black stuff labelled "waterproof"). This would minimize dust, but cast iron is very very hard, and would probably be difficult to sand evenly by hand.

webnrrd2k 12y ago

She may be right that flax oil is better, but I don't think she gives the right reason. I don't think she knows what she's talking about as far as the science goes -- I'm far from an expert, but I believe most cooking oils will polymerize through exposure to oxygen and heat -- it doesn't require special drying oils. There's a traditional black smith's finish to make an almost indestructible coating by rubbing some beeswax on steel heated to the smoke point... I imagine it's the same process when seasoning a cast iron pan with cooking oil. BTW, There seem to be a lot of people looking for cast iron pans... Keep a lookout at garage sales and swap meets. You can usually find pans without too much trouble, and for around $5--$10 or so. As far as seasoning goes, I just wipe some olive oil on and heat it 'till it smokes, let it sit, and repeat three or so times. As far as I can tell the oil forms a tough plastic-like coating. The only thing that'll damage it in normal use is cutting into it with a sharp knife or the edge of a spatula, or burning the coating off by getting the pan too hot. Flax oil max stick less, or be slightly better in some other way, but I doubt there is much of a difference.

schmmd 12y ago

When I read "flaxseed oil is the only drying oil that’s edible", Tung Oil came to mind as a candidate for seasoning cast iron. It's easy to buy 100% tung oil that's reasonably priced and FDA approved for food contact (see http://www.realmilkpaint.com/oil.html http://www.realmilkpaint.com/oil.html).