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Post by missasip on Jun 4, 2012 13:16:47 GMT -7
Though I do have SS pots and pans, as they do have their place, cast iron is my go to cooking utensils. I have two Dutch Ovens. One like your new one and one that is made for cooking in campfire coals. It has the concave lid that holds coals on top. One thing I did long ago for my dutch ovens was mate the lids and pots. I use valve grinding compound on the mating surfaces to make a perfect seal. Especially the concave lid. I can bake anything in that dutch oven that can be cooked in a regular oven. Biscuits, pies, cakes, casiroles... I have two 12" fry pans, one deep fryer w/lid and two flat griddles, one round, one rectangular. The round one is my grilled cheese badboy! ;D I also have an eight qt pot with a heavy wire handle. I fry fish mainly in it. You will be hooked. Jimmy That's a great idea but it sounds like a lot of work. How long did that take? I may have to give that a try! Thanks for the tip! Only maybe 30 minutes. Old school trick. Use the coarse compound. Coat the mating faces and set the lid down and work it back and forth just like grinding valves. Remember you are grinding two CI faces, not CI and steel. You end up with a tight fitting lid that holds mositure in and ash out. Very simple, cheap and effective. Jimmy |
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Post by wtrfwlr on Jun 4, 2012 13:27:59 GMT -7
Ah, you're right! I didn't think about it only being cast. Of course I have it stuck in my mind of seating in valves to valve seats both of which are VERY hard.
Another little trick with valve grinding compound is, if you have a Phillips head screw that is about rounded out you can put a little compound on the tip of the screwdriver and it will provide enough 'grip' to back out the screw!
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Post by ColcordMama on Jun 4, 2012 14:16:51 GMT -7
Well, I'm one who DOES wash my cast iron skillets with soap and water. I use mine for so many things, from frying eggs to making spaghetti sauce, that I don't want flavors to carry over, so I sit my skillet in the sink, drop in a couple drops Dawn, then fill it with hot water and let it sit for a few minutes. Then I scrub it out quickly with a nylon scrubber (I crochet my own), rinse it off and leave it upside down on top of my stove to dry. I still have an excellent seasoning on my irons and in fact the water usually beads up on the surface after I've rinsed. This is how I've always done it and it absolutely works for me, but then I'm usually the salmon swimming downstream anyway.
Side note: five years ago when my sister and I moved back home to take care of Mom during her last weeks, I washed out her iron skillets this way. My sister -bless her black little heart - had a different technique, as I found out one day when I came back from grocery shopping. I walked into the kitchen and found one of the skillets sitting empty on a burner, the burner turned FULL ON, and nobody in the kitchen. Mom was confined to her bed due to her illness, and sleeping. My sister was nowhere to be found. She came waltzing in the door fifteen minutes later, after the nice long hike she had taken into the woods with her dog. I gently chided her for accidentally leaving the skillet on the burner unattended, especially dangerous with Mom asleep there in the house. She blew me off and said that's how she always cleaned her own cast iron skillet, so what's the big deal? Mom's house is an old mobile home, upgraded nicely and added onto but with the original wiring. Big deal? Well DUH! My jaw hit the floor as my sister waltzed back out of the room. Yeah. Okay, rant over. Funny how ranting doesn't seem to help.
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Post by cajunlady87 on Jun 4, 2012 15:28:08 GMT -7
Well, I'm one who DOES wash my cast iron skillets with soap and water. I use mine for so many things, from frying eggs to making spaghetti sauce, that I don't want flavors to carry over, so I sit my skillet in the sink, drop in a couple drops Dawn, then fill it with hot water and let it sit for a few minutes. Then I scrub it out quickly with a nylon scrubber (I crochet my own), rinse it off and leave it upside down on top of my stove to dry. I still have an excellent seasoning on my irons and in fact the water usually beads up on the surface after I've rinsed. This is how I've always done it and it absolutely works for me, but then I'm usually the salmon swimming downstream anyway. Side note: five years ago when my sister and I moved back home to take care of Mom during her last weeks, I washed out her iron skillets this way. My sister -bless her black little heart - had a different technique, as I found out one day when I came back from grocery shopping. I walked into the kitchen and found one of the skillets sitting empty on a burner, the burner turned FULL ON, and nobody in the kitchen. Mom was confined to her bed due to her illness, and sleeping. My sister was nowhere to be found. She came waltzing in the door fifteen minutes later, after the nice long hike she had taken into the woods with her dog. I gently chided her for accidentally leaving the skillet on the burner unattended, especially dangerous with Mom asleep there in the house. She blew me off and said that's how she always cleaned her own cast iron skillet, so what's the big deal? Mom's house is an old mobile home, upgraded nicely and added onto but with the original wiring. Big deal? Well DUH! My jaw hit the floor as my sister waltzed back out of the room. Yeah. Okay, rant over. Funny how ranting doesn't seem to help. Well now that makes two of us who wash our CI with water and soap to get rid of the nasties left after cooking. ;D Your sister is strange, glad you walked in to turn those burners off, I'm sure the smell was overpowering too.  |
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Post by geron on Jun 4, 2012 17:42:41 GMT -7
Quite sure sitting on a burner wide open for 15 minutes empty will burn the seasoning off most any CI.
That's the way I burn off the old seasoning and re-season mine. But . . . I do it outdoors in the Grill. On high till it quits smoking and then cool and re-season.
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Post by geron on Jun 4, 2012 17:57:40 GMT -7
Stopped at S. Pittsburg Lodge outlet store on the way back from Tracy City today. Most of their stock appears to be retail prices except they have a section of seconds/blems discounted. Found a griddle (that's what we stopped for anyway) and the only blemish I could find was the pre-seasoning had bubbled up on one side about the size of a dime . . . no problem, I'll re-season it "my way" anyway.
I checked several of the frying pan blems and could find nothing at all wrong with them except maybe a little more pitting in the casting than normal.
Oh, the retail price for the griddle was $57 the blem was $35.
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