You should be able to see your reflection in it!

This guy is misinformed.

That's his ex-wife.

I also choose this guy's ex-wife
- ew a reddit meme 🤢

"the food was always sliding around the pan! Now it stays right where you put it!" Lol

"I now know what rust tastes like"

The cast iron subreddit drama is one of the few things I miss from reddit. Even got me to buy a few more and cook more often with them!

I was super precious about all my cast iron for a long time. Then I had a thought watching this "cowboy" YouTuber wash his cast iron with some specialty thing.
"This fucking guy is like pretending to be out on the pasture or whatever. In the actual 1800s, this shit was probably just wiped out, or they used lye soap or something ridiculous! Why the fuck am I being so fucking careful?!?"
Now I do not care, like I've had my shit get rusty, crusty, "overheated", the reality is that it's a big ass chunk of metal! Short of deformation or intentional or extreme neglect (leaving it in the rain uncovered for 40 years) you will not destroy it.
If it gets too "sticky", you oil it up and heat it, and bingo, it's fine again.
- Ok. But should you never put citrus in your garbage disposal because it summons the pipe demon, or are you supposed to put citrus in your garbage disposal because it repels the pipe demon?
- I used to hike to a mountain lake in New Hampshire for trout fishing. On the wall of the Adirondack shelter next to the lake was a large cast iron skillet. Random people used it for decades to cook fish over a wood campfire. The only cleaning it got was being scraped with a flat rock, rinsed in the lake, and picked at by woodland critters. It always worked just fine, and the fish tasted great.
- Isn't that the whole point of cast iron pans?
  they can be treated like shit and still work?
- To paraphrase NetShaq, some people like to take something known for being bullet proof and then treat babying it like it's their entire personality
- Rust you can grind off, but if it was used to melt lead down, that will kill one of these cast iron pans.
- All the fancy shit is just too save from having to season it again, and seasoning is a bit of a pita. Getting the whole pan kinda hot, adding a bit of a short chain oil, baking it at like 450 for a couple hours, and letting it cool back off.
  I'll just be kinda careful with mine and avoid having to do all that.
- The sentiment is good, but you can easily avoid the rust and stickiness by using enough oil while cooking and if the surface is damaged wash it with soap and then if there is any bare metal heat it with a tiny amount of oil to remove the moisture and wipe out excess before putting it away. If no metal is showing and water is beading up, just dry with a towel!
- Doesn't make a very good anvil. Breaks too easily.
I've graduated from cast iron to ceramic coated cast iron.
All of the benefits of cast iron with the added appeal of never having to reseason it.
- I have a LeCruset enameled cast iron pan and love it. So easy to clean, doesn’t need seasoning.
- I’ve always wondered if that is taking the durability advantage of cast iron and coating it with enamel that can chip or scratch. Taking the nice non-stick surface of perfectly season cast iron and covering it with something that will never be as slick
  Looks might impressive though
Sometimes the simplest of things appear as the scariest.

At least, the pan as such is not ruined. You'll just have to season it back into the proper condition.

And this is how I discovered pan seasoning.
Given the recent horrible things about non-stick pans, I wonder if I should just buy seasoned cast iron pans.
- I don't think I'd trust a pan that says it's "pre-seasoned." Get a cast iron pan and learn how to season it yourself. It's kind of an ongoing process anyway; every time you fry something in it with butter or oil you're maintaining the coating.
- I can only tell you about my experience, I've made the switch half a year ago.
  Cast iron is heavy, REALLY HEAVY and comparably more expensive than cheap non-stick pans. It's a hassle to work with because it's so heavy, no easy flipping stuff by throwing the pan around (inertia is a bitch), you shouldn't clean it with soap, just hot water and some elbow-grease and you should always keep is slightly oiled. Oh and there is no "the handle doesn't get hot", it always does and you should wrap a cloth around it.
  But Oh My Goodness!
  I've needed some tries to get the seasoning right, needed some time to adjust my cooking as to not leave acidic food in the pan or pot over night, but now that my pan and pot are very well seasoned and I know how to handle them... nothing sticks, at least not for long. I can make a fried egg or some bacon and after sticking for the first few seconds it just... lift's off the surface and moves freely in the pan. No non-stick pan has ever given me a non-stick experience like this and making steak has become one of my most fun experiences, because the pan keeps its heat when I throw the cold slap of meat into it and evenly browns the beef without any sticking.
  Absolute game changer. just don't heat an empty pan too much, because you can burn the seasoning off again.
- You can buy pre seasoned cast iron.
  My advice, as someone who has owned a cast iron pan for a while, is to take care of the pan. When you use it, wait for it to cool after use, then immediately clean it. Once cleaned, use heat to dry it (just put it back on the stove and heat it up to boil off any water), let it cool again, then add oil to protect the pans surface.
  Don't use just any oil for it, there's a specific set of oils used to condition/season cast iron. I use grapeseed oil, but there's plenty of others. A quick Google search should yield some options for you.
  The main focus is on keeping the pan protected from water, as it will rust the iron. Using water while cooking/cleaning is fine, but having water standing on the surface of the pan, even microscopic amounts, will cause rust to form. The moisture in the air can also cause the pan to rust, hence the oil coating after cleaning to protect the surface of the pan.
  I got rust on my cast iron once after I left the pan for too long after cooking with mushrooms, which are very high in moisture. I had to scrub away the rust, which left a shiny spot on my pan (where the seasoning/conditioning was lost), and I had to re-season the pan.
  IMO, cast iron cookware is a pain in the butt to take care of, but well worth it. Easily one of my favorite pieces of cookware. It holds heat really well and it cooks pretty much everything very well. Something that's always bothered me about regular cookware is the thermal cycling, you throw room temperature ingredients into a hot pan and suddenly, the pan isn't hot anymore... It takes a while to get back up to temperature. Not nearly as bad of a problem with cast iron.
- How recent? I thought the more recent non stick are considered safe.
- I just bought a stainless steel pan.
  Easy to take care of, that thing is indestructible. And to avoid sticking just heat it really high. Inmediatly after using and it's still really hot stick it under cold water. It cleans itself while making a cool noise.
  For some meals like eggs or omelette you can have a non-stick only used for those. But steel is good as a daily pan.

RIP Santa Clarita Diet
I'm still mad
- Just needed one more season. Or cut the last episode 5 minutes sooner.

My ex is obsessive about cleanliness and genuinely enjoyed doing the dishes. She was also a terrible cook. So we had an arrangement where I'd cook and she'd do the dishes.

We quickly had to ammend the rules so that I also cleaned the cast iron because she'd obsessively scrub the pan for an hour and ruin it.

I trained (for lack of a better word) my husband to wash the cast iron without wrecking the finish. He used to leave it soaking, I didn't freak out but told him that was bad for them and he could just toss them into the oven dirty if needed and I'd deal with them (like you, I am the cook not the clean) but then he'd want to make eggs or something and the pan would be dirty so he asked how to. I got a chainmail scrubber and he loves doing it now because he loves the chainmail scrubber. Like - I will sometimes use soap on mine because I can judge the finish but he will not put soap now, will only scrape and has begun to love the pans too, after so many years he realizes because they never wear out just get better.
I did have to reset a couple of mine once, burn off the seasoning and sand them and restore and yes they looked like this picture. It was terrifying but they got great again. Such durable goods they are!
- I can usually boil water in them to soften stuff.
  It helps that I've got an inductive stove that will boil water in like 30 seconds, so there really isn't any reason to soak them.

Skillet issue.

That was not cast iron, was it?

That is what cast iron looks like if you strip it down to the bare metal. It's not actually ruined, but it will be unusable until someone goes through the process of re-seasoning it
- Not me thinking that "seasoning" meant to let stuff stick to it for the flavor. 💀
- Which is a bit time consuming and takes a little practice, but is a pretty great feature for getting a pan back into working condition in situations where a steel or aluminum pan might be ruined.
  I had a few imperfections on a lodge that were catching the spatula, but too big to just knock off with said dpatula. After a light 5 minute sanding with an orbital sander, a wash, and a couple hours for the new seasoning to bake on it was back in business.
  Now it is my favorite cast iron pan!
  (I cook most things on ceramic non-stick though)
- Wouldn't even call it unusable as is.
  I am pretty sure you could cook bacon or similarly fatty stuff in there right away.
  Then again there are people that see cooking bacon as a legitimate form of seasoning a pan.
- Can't we just get a Tefal so we can clean them like normal people?
Dude started with 80 grit and went from there.
yea, you can see Lodge on the handle, he grabbed his camera quickly before the rust kicked in
If you put enough time and effort into it, you can grind down and polish a cast iron pan until it has a mirror like finish. Some people prefer this so that after seasoning the pan is very smooth and glossy black, like a well-cared-for carbon steel pan.

I recently used my cast iron pan to roast peanuts. 20 minutes roasting on low flame, preceded by two hours of flame torture to burn off dust and re-glassify the 60-year-old layer of burned grease.

60 years of good meals. That pan could end up being some important artifact of our time period in the far future.

Are we reposting fucking pots now?

That's a pan.
- Also, it's non-fucking.

I always appreciate hard work

Ya Boi is accidentally pretty smart. One of the biggest issues I have with Lodge cast iron is the poor bottom finish - such rough tool marks. I have sanded the bottoms smooth on several of the pieces I've gotten over the years. A quality smooth finish, (like you find on good vintage cast iron pieces), makes for easier curing and a slicker surface.
So do what Lodge didn't do and sand those insides shmoove.
phrasing
- We're not doing phrasing anymore.
It works if you don't get it too smooth. One of my daily drivers is a 18 buck walmart ozark trail I sanded down a bit. I left it rough enough that the seasoning sticks. Did four layers of seasoning. It does a great job and cleans up quick.
- I sanded down a bit.
  That's the key. I sufferred for 20 years with a cast iron pan that barely worked. I always assumed it needed one more coat.
  Eventually I gave up, sanded it with 220 grit, cleaned it with acid to remove any rust, then immediately coated with oil and started seasoning process . It's like the teflon that everyone said cast iron could be and I thought they were exaggerating.

I started doing something like this with a Teflon pot when I was seven years old. My mother stopped me before I finished my 'cleaning', but the pot was ruined. She wasn't happy.

You should to that once in a while. After you do reseason.

Once every 50 years or so
- That's way to long. The build up will break the smooth surface overtime which can lead to uneven cooking or sticking. Best to sand if off once in a blue moon. I would say every 3-5 years

On the topic of cast iron pans, any recommendations on a quality pan? All the cheap ones seem to have a rough surface are very porous.

Believe it or not, lodge is the best bang for the buck. Pores don't really matter once you've got a decent layer of "season" built up. If anything, it makes the polymerized oils hold on a tiny bit better.
But, if you don't mind starting the seasoning process over, you can hand sand the cooking surface and get it as smooth as you prefer. Well, you can machine sand it instead, but that's less forgiving if you aren't used to doing that kind of thing.
Just get a lodge and use it a lot. It will get good fast. Alternatively go check Craigslist or ebay or shopgoodwill for something cheap that looks good to you.
The difference between cast irons is pretty small at the end of the day is pretty tiny and you shouldn't spend too much money or brain power on getting one. You don't need to be too selective because the biggest determing factors are how heavily seasoned it is and how practiced you are using it so you are better off just getting something and using it rather than looking for the perfect pan. I don't even know who made my main pan, it just says "Taiwan" lol
Go to an antique mall and look for a Wagner or Griswold. Vintage cast irons were machined smooth like the pans pictured in the OP.
You're overthinking it. As long as a cast-iron pan isn't nearly rusted through or cracked in half, it's fine. Get a cheap Lodge, get an expensive one, get an old one at a yard sale -- doesn't matter. If the surface is rusty or something, just put it through an oven self-cleaning cycle, sand it down to the state shown in the meme, and re-season.
- I've got a couple of dutch ovens but I can't get all the rust off, plus they rust over before I can get them oiled.
  Any idea what I should do?
Stargazer. Among the companies that smooth out the surface of their pans (a think any company could trivially do but don't) , they cost the least. My info is a few years out do date though.
Good ones that have been cut smooth will cost you double or more than a lodge.
You can sand and grind a lodge down to be a lot smoother and then season it up and you can get there. Or even just season a lodge a whole bunch of times amd you can make it smooth.
Otherwise, there's a lot of cast irons that are smooth right out of the box, such as BackCountry Iron and Finex.
Just be careful of a lot of cheaper brands advertising "lighter weight" as a feature. It isn't. Them being heavy as hell is a large part of what makes cast iron skillets cook so nicely. The iron doesn't cool off when you put the food in. Lighter weight means it's easier for them to make, uses less raw materials they have to buy, and costs less to ship.
Go carbon steel instead.
If you're up for shopping a little, go to thrift stores. Cast iron pans are durable and you can find them really cheap in perfectly fine condition in thrift stores. There's essentially no need to buy new since they last so damn long. You also really don't need a smoothed surface.

My co-workers wife did this once.

My co-workers exwife did this once.
- Cringe

Hey we found the murder weapon

It'll be such a nice suprise when she gets home!

My 40 year old Swiss steel pan still going. Lighter than iron.

I wipe it off with paper towel, no washing.

Untoasted sesame oil is great for starting a new seasoning, then whatever one prefers to cook with. I like avocado oil and ghee right now.

I'm doubtful "seasoning" cast iron changes flavours of food at all.

It's not really for the food, it's for the pan. Seasoning is basically self-healing teflon.
I can taste metal in an acidic dish when it isn't treated, but seasoning mainly makes the pan easy to clean.
Seasoning in regards to cast iron has nothing to do with taste. It's a polymerized layer of oils that acts as a nonstick coating. The process of seasoning cast iron is to lightly coat it in oil and heat that oil to smoke point and repeat that process several times.
- Thanks. I'm around 30 and I learned something new today
It's not that kind of seasoning my dude
Try summer

Damnit, you ruined it! Cast iron skillets aren’t meant to be clean like that after many uses.

Are you simple?

We allow JD Vance posts?

JD Vance puts his skillet in the dishwasher.
JD Vance thinks you poors deserve to use cast iron for cooking while elites like him can eat all the teflon they want ….. not understanding that cast iron would be better for most of us and for the environment

I hate cast iron. It's too heavy. I feel like it's only worth using if you're a gymbro.

Try carbon steel! Same seasoning/cooking style, but light enough for anyone to handle. My carbon steel and stainless steel are my go-to skillets.
It's heavy and shitty at cooking almost anything that isn't meat. I've used well-maintained 20 year old cast irons. Eggs stick. Tofu sticks. It cooks vegetables no better than a nonstick or a stainless. Completely overrated.
- I don't know what cast iron you've been using but I can cook eggs and pretty much anything else just fine in cast iron without it sticking. I basically just leave it in my oven with a light coat of oil on the inside after cleaning it so it gets seasoned whenever I bake something.
- If you are finding things are sticking like eggs, turn the temperature down & wait for the pan to heat up completely before cooking.
- Just take a little bit of fat or oil and don't take too high heat? I truly abuse my cast iron skillet, and yet my eggs never stick.