/ck/ - Food & Cooking

[Cast-iron No.18611513]

What am I doing wrong?

I have to constantly reseason it or else this shit shows up. It's always on the sides, never the bottom. It looks like dirty but it won't come off when I scrub it.

[Anonymous No.18611520]

I always notice it after I clean it but if it were due to what I cook or how I clean it, why won't the bottom show it as well?

[Anonymous No.18611552]

not getting stainless is what you did wrong

[Anonymous No.18611568]

did you heat the pan after you wash it? If you don't it won't dry properly and will rust

[Anonymous No.18611585]

it's rust. wipe your pan down with a thin coat of oil before storing it.

[Anonymous No.18611593]

>>18611568
Always. Oddly enough I tend to notice the marks the moment I start heating it.

>>18611585
I'll try that. Should I still reseason this one time before I start doing so?

[Anonymous No.18611596]

>>18611520
That is food. It's stuck to your pan because you got a rough cast iron, which collects bits of food inside the grit of the texture. You can get it off by using a chain mail scrubber. It will take some muscle, but that's the common way to deal with food that's tough to get off the seasoning. Since you've seasoned several times, probably not having removed the food properly, you may have a lot of carbonized food layered in your seasoning, which might require a more abrasive scrubber and reseasoning.

You can also solve your problem by sanding the pan with literal sandpaper to make it smooth, and reseasoning, or (preferable) just by buying a different pan that just has a smooth cooking surface which is easier to clean.

There's one woman on this board who will try to gaslight you about how food doesn't stick to rough cast iron, and will probably troll the thread to oblivion, but IMO, that's not rust, it's food and this is the best advice you're going to get before the troll arrives.

[Anonymous No.18611634]

>>18611593
yes. if its rusting it means the bare metal is exposed to the air so the seasoning must have been scraped off while cooking or scrubbed off while cleaning

[Anonymous No.18611649]

>>18611513
>>18611520
It's food, not rust, as >>18611596 says. Sand it down smooth and re-season. It's a bit of work but you won't regret it, here's a step by step video if you need it: https://youtu.be/ljSQrSoSYAE

[Anonymous No.18611653]

Don't clean cast iron so much. Just wipe out food bits with plain water (no soap), rub on a little bit of oil if it looks dry, then put it back on the heat for a few minutes to dry. Once you have a good season you can use soap occasionally.

[Anonymous No.18611658]

>>18611596
>There's one woman on this board who will try to gaslight you about how food doesn't stick to rough cast iron, and will probably troll the thread to oblivion
Counting down to someone posting one of the webms....

[Anonymous No.18611830]

>>18611653
The no soap rule is only if you're still trying to get a better seasoning down and that's only if you're doing the stovetop method rather than the oven method. I've built seasoning in my cast iron just cooking with it over the past year and not even soap or vinegar heavy dishes affects the seasoning anymore.

>>18611513
If you want an easy way to season your pan, just buy bacon. Keep heat about medium, bring it up to high temperature, and fry 3-4 slices at a time while draining grease between sets of bacon. Once all the bacon is cooked, drain the grease one more time and throw in all the bacon again to crisp them up. The duration and quality of the fat will lay down a nice layer of seasoning in addition to the bacon for your meal.

[Anonymous No.18611859]

>>18611513
>>18611520
I finally got sick of it and grinded mine completely smooth
It can work bumpy with enough oil but I like making sugary glazes which is just a pain

[Anonymous No.18611871]

>>18611859
>sugary glazes
why wouldn't you just use stainless steel or copper at that point? they have smoother temperature distribution and much finer temperature control compared to cast iron.

[Anonymous No.18611882]

>>18611830
I disagree slightly on both of these points.

Ordinary dish soap isn't going to hurt your seasoning. It will affect leftover oil, though, which may be destined to become seasoning next time you cook with it, but that oil may also become rancid and sticky if you don't cook with it soon. The "lore" about no soap almost certainly hearkens back to your grandparents' time, when soap contained lye, and extremely caustic substance which will indeed dissolve seasoning.

I also don't think bacon is really that good for building seasoning, and I don't like to cook with it unless the pan has a thick layer of seasoning because all the sugar in it will stick to the pan. What I would recommend to build your seasoning is frying potatoes at a pretty high heat for an extended period of time. Any food frying, I think, tends to result in a more-seasoned cast iron pan than when I started.

[Anonymous No.18611885]

>>18611871
I put it on the meat to get a bit of char to be clear. Like Asian kinda dishes
Stainless is fine copper sticks horribly
Cast iron seems to handle bits of burnt sugar the best by far now that it's smooth

[Anonymous No.18611892]

>>18611885
>Stainless is fine copper sticks horribly
No one cooks *in* copper. Copper pans should always have some sort of lining, either stainless or tin. I'm not sure the chemistry, whether the copper itself is leaching into food or if it's reacting to create some harmful compounds, but it is considered unsafe to eat food cooked in copper.