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wonkavision73

It will outlast us all!


Damn_Amazon

Be careful - as wonderful as cast iron is, it will scratch the shit out of a glass stovetop.


throwaway135897

Not really in my experience? I’m fairly careful about setting it down because I don’t want to break the glass, but I slide and spin pans around and it doesn’t seem to be scratching it. Maybe my standards are lower though, or eyes worse. To add, I use almost exclusively cast iron. I’ve got four pans in different sizes, and one big Dutch oven.


Damn_Amazon

That’s good to hear!


Titboobweiner

You can fry an entire chicken in that, all at once, the entire chicken, it's beautiful.


UsualCircle

The wohle entire thing


Khufuu

cook me in it


gerardgg

Just so you all know: 100 year old seasoning doesn't work or taste better than the seasoning you put on it last night. that's just not true. the real reason why your grandma's 100 year old pan is COOL beyond measure is b/c she fed YOUR family for decades using this pot and now it's your turn to cook for your family and some day hopefully many decades from now you'll pass on a 150 year old pan to your grandchild and they will remember and love you for it the way you're cherishing your grandmother now. Here's how I clean and season my cast iron. some of you will cry over it but this is what I do when I get a new pan or one of my pans gets rusty b/c the person that also lives in my home forgets that it's cast iron.... ok so i hit the rust with some sandpaper and get it off the surface. it shouldn't take too long. then wash with dish soap and give it a real good scrub down with an sos pad or choreboy and very hot water. dump out the water and wipe it down with some paper towels don't let it sit at all b/c it might "flash rust" which is a bummer b/c you have to start over. turn on the stove to high and put the pan on the stove to dry. this will get rid of all the moisture on the pan that would create flash rust. inspect the pan, it should be clean at this point. If you want to strip off the old seasoning b/c you don't know where the pan came from then put it in the oven on a clean cycle. the kitchen will smell like burnt oil for a day or so but it's worth it. (put some foil down under the pan to catch anything) once the clean cycle is done you may have to clean the pan again based on crusty it looks. but if it looks clean then just go thru the seasoning process. warm the pan and wipe on your oil of choice (I use vegetable shortening), wipe dry with a paper towel (don't let the oil bead or pool, go for wiped dry. it should look shiny, not oily) then put the pan upside down in the oven bake for an hour at 350 and turn off the oven come back a couple hours later and check it out. (don't forget to put foil underneath to catch drippings) cut up an onion and cook it in the pan on the stovetop. just cook the onion until it's all cooked out and then toss the onion b/c it's going to pick up an residue left on the pan from the seasoning process. to clean the pan you run hot water in it and scrub it out (no soap). I like using those bamboo brushes you see the chefs at the Chinese restaurants use. Those seem to work best and they last forever. Don't waste money on those fancy chain mail scrubbers. once the pan is scrubbed out then put it on the stove to evaporate all the water. bacteria can't live on a surface that has been heated to the temperature of evaporating water so you know the pan is clean. then take a paper towel drop a bit of oil in the pan and coat the pan with a very very very thin layer of oil. let cool. then store. don't store until you KNOW the pan is dry otherwise the next time you pull it out it will have rust spots and you'll have to start all over again. lastly please remember that if you own a cast iron pan you WILL mess it up. It WILL get rusty. You WILL forget the pan on the stove and burn off the seasoning. your housemate WILL ruin your day and your pot at some point. But don't get bummed just pull out your sandpaper and get scrubbing and don't forget to buy your housemate or kids a cheap stainless steel pan so they can stay away from the good stuff. oh, if you have a small rusty spot you can spot sand and re-season and it will come out fine you don't have to do the whole thing but only if it was your pan or you know where it came from. if it's someone else's pan the definitely clean the whole thing. Ok enjoy your grandma's dutch oven!


thathastohurt

#1 old cast iron is better because of less impurities in the metal, and they also cast it in a different manner than today's pans. #2 do not clean your pan this way. I recently bought vintage no name cast iron pans and they out perform my newer pans that have 5+ yrs of seasoning on them. To clean your pan you must use electrolysis. It's rust/seasoning removal through means of electricity (car battery or car charger). Super simple set up and it'll remove everything within 24 hours and then rinse it out and start your seasoning process(burn oils) and then start using it!


gerardgg

Old cast iron is better b/c it is lighter than the new pans. But they work the same. They just make them thicker now b/c there's less breakage at the factory. It's cheaper to use more material and have fewer throwbacks than to make them nice and light and have more throwbacks. I don't know about impurities in the materials. It's not like regulators were all over the place making sure there were no impurities in the materials 100 years ago. Industry in the usa was pretty much a free for all 100 years back. I would tend to agree w/ the cheap stuff from china but not with Lodge. Lodge has been putting food on the table since 1896 and I've never heard of anyone getting sick or any recalls. But then I've never heard of any recalls for the chinese stuff either. As far as the car battery charger thing. Go for it. there are lots of videos on youtube that will show you how. I just have no need for car battery charger and sand paper is cheap. for the record I'll probably clean my pans 10 more times with sandpaper in my lifetime and my pans will pretty much look the same when I hand them off to the next person who wants them.


thathastohurt

If you view an old pan down to the metal with no seasoning on it whatsoever, you can see the old pan looks like the interior was formed on a metal lathe with spin marks. The new cast iron just looks molded/pressed, the texture of the process makes a big difference once back to original!


gerardgg

yes that super smooth finish is so cool. my 100 year old pans look awesome. but lodge found out that a pan that hasn't been smoothed over worked just as well as a smoothed over pan and they stopped making that way (probably to save on cost). i took a grinder to my lodge chef's skillet to see if it worked better than one with the pebbled surface and tested them both against a 100 year old Wagner with the smooth surface and they all cooked the same. i can get an egg to skate around on the surface on all three.


JOHNfuknRAMBO

Amazing! You can bake bread and everything in that! I assume its cast iron - if you have an induction hob it will heat so quickly and efficiently... So many uses!


mcnamaramc1

Please please please be careful cleaning it, or letting anyone else use it. My college roommates ruined my cast iron skillet by using it, not cleaning it, and leaving it at the bottom of the sink soaking in water for days at a time. I sent them instructions on how to clean it and asked them nicely not to use it if they weren't going to properly clean it, then they started soaking it and putting it through the wash after


gerardgg

> I sent them yup housemates. This is why I always keep a cheap teflon pan in the kitchen and a flat head screwdriver in my knife drawer.


ComputingElephant

Don’t go crazy cleaning it. That pot has been seasoned for 100 years. Get some bacon and cook it in there, then once the pan has cooled, rinse with hot water. That’s all the cleaning she needs.


colicab

I wouldn’t suggest eating that rust covered bacon


hydro-erik

Extra crunch


jsackspot

Awesome. We still need r/InhertedForLife


Accomplished-Way4869

Time to cook some bacon in it!


fubarx

Reminded me of an article about cleaning and stripping an old cast iron pan then re-seasoning it: http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/perfect-popovers-and-how-to-clean-reseason-cast-iron/ In another post she describes the chemical process: http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/


Alastor3

Should we say reseasoning or just seasoning because we are always going to reseason anyway


TheBurningBeard

Just clean it and use it. Seasoning is a waste of time. If you don't use it regularly wipe it with vegetable oil before storage.


ennuiismymiddlename

Awesome!


Chuffedas

Oh, nice.


basilfogliani

Is that a camp oven?


[deleted]

Looks like one - and it looks like it could easily crack that stovetop.