[omnicognate]

Cast iron skillets just take a bit of getting used and are then zero maintenance and last for ever. The problems people have with them are usually due to trying to season them and doing it so badly (due to abundant online misinformation) they'd have been better off not doing it at all.

[basisword]

How would you suggest seasoning and maintaining cast iron?

[omnicognate]

The typical cooking uses to which a skillet is put season it automatically, because it spends its life being oily. The polymer coating known as "seasoning" forms naturally from long contact with oil (even without heat). So the idea of seasoning being something you have to put on the pan and then maintain is wrong. You can explicitly "season the pan" as a sort of bootstrapping to get that layer started off quicker and protect it from rust in the early days, but it's optional and doesn't need maintaining afterwards. An alternative to protect it from rust (and encourage the formation of the polymer) when it's new is to brush it with oil before putting it away. Once it's broken in (you'll know) it doesn't require special care. You can scrub it, use washing up liquid, whatever.

If you do season the pan, the most important thing is to wipe off all the oil after applying it. You brush the oil on and then wipe it completely dry. It should be dry to the touch and matt, not shiny. You should not be able to see ANY oil. The microscopic invisible bit of oil left is all you want. Only then do you heat it. The temperature doesn't matter much. 180 C or so in an oven is what I've used. The kind of oil used also doesn't matter. For best results do the whole thing 3 or more times. If you bake a visible layer of oil onto your pan you're not seasoning it, you're just covering it in burnt crap.

And it's optional!

Note that the above is for skillets, which self-season because they're used for frying. (Hence "seasoning" - i.e. using them for a while.) The story is very different for some other things. For example, we have a dutch oven used for baking bread, which is not an oily process. For that you really do have to season. Ours came pre-seasoned but it rusted after an unfortunate baking mishap and I had to electrolyse it and then give it 5 rounds of oven seasoning (as described above), after which it has been a zero-maintenance workhorse.

Griddles are absolute fucking bastards and will ruin your life.

If you ever do electrolyse any cast iron (it's great fun and will restore anything), A) pay a few quid for graphite electrodes (overgrown pencil leads, available on Amazon), rather than using an old stainless steel knife and producing hexavalent chromium (Erin Brockovich's favourite chemical) and B) use a bench power supply because nobody sells the kind of car battery charger all the online tutorials tell you to use any more (they're all pulsed ones now, completely useless for electrolysis).

[JadoJodo]

I have several now in various sizes that are in a great place now, seasoning-wise. After each use, I rinse the pan with warm water and a small amount of soap. I use a Lodge scrubbing tool if there are things stuck on.

I then dry it with a towel, heat up the pan with Avocado or Bacon grease until it almost starts smoking. I then use a paper towel to wipe out the pan and it stays on the stove until the next use.

Of the pans I have now (bought over the past 2 years), 3 are seasoned well enough that they’re effectively non-stick.

[krisroadruck]

Literally just cook with it. The main thing with everything except for teflon pans is you need to bring them up to temp before cooking, and you need to use some fat of some kind (olive oil, butter, whatever). The oil itself will provide the "non stick" until it's seasoned, and it'll also do the seasoning. You can waste a bunch of time doing seasoning as a separate step (light coating of oil, bring up to smoke point, let cool, repeat) but this is mostly just a giant waste of time. Just cook on the dang thing, and don't be afraid to toss in a chunk of butter or some oil. It won't kill ya :-)

[JPws_Prntr_Fngr]

> Literally just cook with it.

Lmao. Hapless beginner follows your advice, decides to scramble some eggs on day 1 with his badly-factory-seasoned Lodge pan. Egg glue now encrusts his shiny new pan. What do? Wash with soap? BAD NOOB - that's bad for the seasoning. Scrape it off with steel wool? BAD NOOB - that's even worse for the seasoning.

(If you do this, fellow noob, I think oil + a scrubber sponge got me out of the predicament)

[krisroadruck]

Sigh... I don't know how the internet has convinced people this shit requires some magic incantation to cook eggs. I promise you I can cook eggs in any brand new lodge pan you hand me without issue. In fact if you sand blast the factory seasoning off it first and give it to me shiny I can still do it. And so can you. It requires the exact same skills as cooking with stainless steel which won't take a season no matter how hard you try. Step 1: Bring it up to temp (confirm by tossing some flecks of water in it, if they bead, it's up to temp). Step 2, throw a knob of butter in it and coat the damn pan. Fat is your friend, don't be shy with it. Step 3: Cook the eggs. If a little bit sticks that's fine. You probably should have used more butter - but no worries - just go wash it off in the sink the same way you'd wash anything else. It's a giant piece of iron - you aren't going to hurt it with a little soap, water and elbow grease. When you are done dry it off on the stove and hit it with a little grease/oil/fat to keep it from rusting. If you forget and it rusts... still no big deal - scrub off the rust, give it a little grease and bobs your uncle. This shit is only hard if you decide it is.

Source: Been cooking exclusively on carbon steel, cast iron and stainless for years.

[omnicognate]

Yes, scrambled eggs works wonderfully in a cast iron skillet but it needs to be well worn in. On a new pan you'll end up with an awful mess. But feel free to go to town on that with washing up liquid, steel wool and a sandblaster if you want. There isn't some magical pixie dust on it you need to worry about rubbing off. Just dry it properly after and oil it before you put it away. Keep frying in it regularly and it'll be fine. A brief hiccup in your skillet's breaking-in process.

Edit: In fact we had scrambled eggs as part of dinner this evening (with rice, chilli crisp, garlic mushrooms and bak choi) and the pan is currently in the sink full of water, where it will remain until tomorrow morning because it's Friday night, dammit, and it will be fine.

[BugsJustFindMe]

Washing cast iron with soap is really fine. Actual seasoning doesn't come off with dish soap.

[miloandmilk]

I just use mine, always with some oil. I never season it as a separate process.

Eggs pancakes, fish, no problems.