CI newbie story and questions(long)

JeffreyL

Member
So here is the path that led me here, and where I'm currently at in my CI experience. A few years back my uncle made some delicious venison steaks in cast iron at hunting camp, I instantly wanted CI pans. My mother in law bought me a 3 pan Basic Essentials set, made in China(she meant well). Being my first set of cast iron this is all I knew, they came preseasoned, I researched online and seasoned again without stripping factory seasoning. I then proceeded to cook a little bit in them. However I slowly stopped using them and I think it was due to frustration, stuff seemed to stick, I was always scraping, and the surfaces seemed sticky. My mother bought me a new Lodge flat pancake skillet that I use for pancakes. then my mother gave me a #8 Wagner no name made in the USA 10 1/2", I never knew a CI Pan could be so smooth, I've been frying fish in it ever since. 2 weeks ago my great uncle passed away, I got their Wagner Ware -O- #8. Unfortunately it is a spinner however other than that excellent shape. So I used 50/50 vinegar water and soaked the Chinese basic essentials and the Wagner ware -O-, scrubbed them with SS brushes, and then seasoned per the instructions on this site. Everything went well. I have since made cornbread in the Wagner ware -O-, fried 2 eggs in the medium basic essentials pan and they didn't stick at all, and fried bacon in the large basic essentials, which did stick. Had to scrape some gunk off the bottom. I use a Dexter SB25 1/2 spatula on a recommendation from an article I read, stating the curved edges work good in the radius corners of the pans, and the SS spatula would help knock off the bumps in rough pans. Sorry so long winded but I wanted to give the scope of where I'm at and why. Now for the questions I have, as I am very OCD and growing increasingly frustrated with researching and reading one thing only for it to be contradicted in the next article.

1. The mother in law meant well, and I don't want to run the risk of hurt feelings, so I can't ditch the pans, should I use em and tough through the roughness? Grind em smooth? Or keep em for campfires?

2. I know the spinner has no collector value and that's ok, it has great sentimental value, but is it basically worthless for anything but cornbread?

3. When I finish using the pans, I usually use my spatula and scrape off anything stuck, not pushing hard just basically sliding along the surface popping stuff off, should I not do this? It doesn't seem to scratch or hurt the seasoning, although my seasoning is not thick yet.

4. When I do scrape the spatula in the Chinese pans, you can see where it makes the tops of the roughness shiny, is it working the rough edges down, or should I not do this?

I know I have more questions, and will have more, but that's enough for now. Thank you in advance for any help.
 
1. Rough surfaced pans can still be useful. Not everything in CI cooking is about eggs sliding around like glass.

2. Spinners still work in the oven, and often just fine on gas burners.

3. If it appears to you that you're not doing damage, and you're being careful not to, you should be OK. Bringing a half inch of water to a simmer for a minute usually makes most stuck-on stuff soften and release.

4. I doubt you'll do any meaningful alteration of the roughness of the iron with just your utensils. Maybe pick up some cheap wood utensils for use in the Chinese pans. That way, you'll more likely build up a seasoning that will smooth out the roughness. Will probably never be perfect, but not terrible.
 
Jeffery, I'll leave it to the cooking experts around here to give better advice than my amateur advic... but, I wonder if you need to experiment with your cooking temperature? Many recipes will call for "med-high" settings on the stove. I've found a medium setting is plenty hot enough for my cast iron.

And, I agree with Doug on "rough" cast iron surfaces. They work fine. They might not be as pretty, but they work. In fact, although I prefer my 100 year old #3 for frying eggs, they slide around just fine in my brand new Lodge #5 too.

Another "tip" (and again the experts probably need to weigh in here) I wait until the pan has cooled off before I wash it. Warping, as I understand it, can be caused by thermal shock. In other words, don't run cold water over a hot pan. When I'm done frying bacon, etc, I pour the grease in a jar (I reuse it) and Lea ve the pan on the stove with the remaining grease sitting in it. When it has cooled off, I wipe out the grease with a paper towel (I don't want to put an excessive amount of grease down the drain - that would lead to a grease buildup in the pipes). Then I rinse it out with a sponge and the hottest water I can stand. If there is some stuck on bacon fat, I will use a plastic scrubber thing I have (it's like a Chore Boy, only plastic). After cleaning and drying the pan, I put a drop of canola oil in it and use a paper towel to spread it around. Then I wipe it again with a cotton towel. Not sure that does anything to a "cold" pan, but it makes it look pretty. Ha!
 
on the mention of experimenting with heat, im always afraid of getting to hot and warping so i tend to go on the low side. after doing some reading the other night it made me more nervous about heat, and that night i fried fish again like i always have in the unmarked wagner, and first the first time my fish stuck, but i think maybe my heat was to low maybe? never had that issue before. i usually fry fish around med to a little above med. this time i had done it a little below medium.

dont know why my bacon stuck in the large chinese pan, from what i read maybe my heat was to high? i had it a hair above medium, seems the consensus is lower heat for bacon? it ended up with sticky gummy stuff in the bottom of the pan i had to scrape off.

with my new lodge pancake griddle, it has only ever done pancakes, the surface is nice, the backside is a little sticky, i think it has to much seasoning on the backside, can i just warm this in the oven like i do during seasoning and then wipe it down without adding anymore crisco to get rid of some of that stickiness? also this griddle has never been hot and is not warped, however the surface of it seems to have a a slight high center, was like that from new i believe. it makes really nice pancakes, but after each pancake the oil is pooled around the outer edge and i have to lift the pan and swirl the oil to coat the entire surface before adding more batter, is this normal?

and on the issue of water, i have always thought water was a no no. now i see people do it a lot, just no soap. i always do as SpurgeonH said, dump my grase and save it, then scrape anything with sptula and wipe with paper towels and done. anything like the pancakes or eggs that dont stick or leaving anything behind, i just wipe with paper towels. this is the type of stuff im trying to figure out, what to do and how to do it as it seems every time i turn around one thing contradicts the next :icon_scratchchin:

and i dont know why but i cant seem to get over the fact of thinking the chinese pans arent good enough, i have had no experience, other than the rough surface to tell me otherwise, they cook food. maybe its all the reading about smooth surfaces and american made(which i am an american made type of guy) that has me thinking that way
 
Cold water and a hot pan will more likely result in a crack. Heat to your desired temp slowly, and let cool on its own, and you'll be fine.

Starting bacon in an unheated pan should help that particular sticking problem.

More oil or Crisco won't fix sticky seasoning. Just bake it at the smoke point temp of the oil used on it until it's no longer tacky.

Some pieces will be less than level, and you have to adjust for it.

Water won't hurt, but you need to dry it completely. See: http://www.castironcollector.com/maintenance.php#wash
 
i read about starting cold bacon in a cold pan, but what happens on the second or third pan full, cold bacon in a hot pan full of grease?

on the griddle i will heat it up to smoking and wipe it down and see if i can clear some of it, that makes me wonder though, all the instructions for seasoning talk about bringing the oil or crisco to smoking point, so if we cook almost exclusively with CI at med or less, the oil is not reaching smoking point so how is it adding seasoning? (excuse my ignorance im a real newbie)

last night i was running the oven for other purposes so i figured i would throw the chinese pans and wagner ware -O- in and give them another seasoning per this website. however as stated on this site, after i seasoned them the first time and they cooled i gave em a spritz of PAM spray and wiped em down, when i tried to add crisco to them last night during the second seasoning, they did not take the crisco as they did the first time, it seemed to bead up and run off like water on oil. it didnt dawn on me until today that it was probably something in the PAM that made them do that, will this eventually burn off with use? or should i strip and reseason?
 
In manual seasoning, you want to come up to just under the smoke point. In this scenario, you're trying to maximize polymerization and create some carbon residue to give it a good start. Cooking, whether you reach smoke point or not, will result in more layers and further polymerization. It's extremely gradual, but it happens.

The people who season with PAM use it exclusively, not mixing with oil or shortening. It does have dimethyl silicone in it as a defoaming agent. The advice here about an oil wipe or PAM spritz is when you're done manually seasoning, and are ready to start using the pan. I don't think stripping is necessary, maybe just a little wash with Dawn and dry it well. For any next rounds just use more Crisco or a plain oil like canola or grapeseed.
 
wont the Dawn soap cut my new, and probably thin seasoning layer? if i can continue to use them from this point forward i will just do that, only reason i tried another manual seasoning was because the oven was already running. if it wont hurt anything the way it is i will just start using them
 
It won't cut that which is actually polymerized. The thought was just to first try something simple to undo the effect the PAM seemed to have caused.
 
As long as the PAM won't prevent further layers of seasoning from being added over time I will just let it go and start using them. Used the Wagner ware -O- #8 tonight to make cornbread, absolutely perfect!
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Welcome to the site! I'm sure it makes your uncle happy to look down and see you using his old Wagner the way it was intended!

Happy cooking with these skillets - there's some definite technique to it, but don't get "analysis paralysis."

Steve
 
Looks great and that's a nice looking pan. Don't be discouraged about it being a spinner; one of my favorite pieces is a well seasoned Wagner dutch oven that spins on glass.
 
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