That amazon basics dutch oven looks exactly like a lodge one… I kind of suspect that it IS a lodge one.
Hey for what it’s worth, I’m a cast iron fanatic. So, to nip a few of these:
A cook or more with acidic stuff is fine. I do it all the time. Yes, it does eat into the seasoning, but seasoning is more tolerant than a single dish for sure. Plus you can just reseason it. Seasoning is an actual chemical reaction to oil baked onto the surface, a carbonized bond so to speak. Other things can slowly wear it away: washing, soaps, etc.
Anyone using cast iron should know how to reseason as well as store it, which also prevents the rust. Even if it does rust, it can be cleaned off and again … reseasoned. It’s why I have a 3rd hand Wagner skillet that is at least 60 years-old and it’s still looking great. I have a couple other skillets with a little rust but some elbow grease and a reseason and they’re fine.
Cast iron gets a lot of negative talk due to seasoning. In my humble opinion, it should get negative talk for WEIGHT, not seasoning. The former takes a couple of times to learn, but the latter is truly where people struggle with it. A 12 inch cast iron skillet is a very heavy cooking vessel.
I’ve linked it before but if anyone was considering cast iron, this guy is the shit:
He collects, restores and uses cast iron from all over. About half way through that video he covers reseasoning and about 3/4 through, how to clean and store it to prevent issues.
Cooking a quick tomato sauce in a well-seasoned cast iron skillet is different than multiple hours braising in the oven.
I think my point is that neither ruins cast iron. It’s might hardy. Reseasoning is easy to do. If for some reason I really needed to cook a tomato sauce for hours in the oven I could, but that such a rare case I don’t think it’s worth worrying about. Also, all cast iron leaches iron into food. Fortunately our body can use it, since the amounts are negligible. You don’t even have to have something acidic, all dishes will end up with a little iron. The same is true for carbon steel cookware by the way, as well as aluminum and even copper. They can and do leech into food you cook.
@stusser to the leeching issue, you might find this useful. They only did this comparative study between aluminum and cast iron:
But note:
Conclusion
The results obtained in the study have revealed that different foods have different potential of accumulating trace metals depending on the pot used, the type of food and the process applied. Also, the study has shown that cooking utensils like aluminum and cast-iron pots which are usually used in food processing in Apete have a positive impact on the metal transfer into the foodstuffs.
The DIM and HI values for the metals indicated that the population is more exposed to the toxic substances present in food substances which are frequently eaten by the population. This is because the values obtained from these indices with reference to the food samples exceeded the permissible limit [36]. The results show that the aluminum cookware poses a greater danger to public health when compared to cast iron cookware by approximately 1.7-folds in tomatoes sauce and 1.6-folds in beans. The assessments of metals in the cooked food with both cookwares confirm that those pots are a potential source of metals contamination of the foods and constituted a health risk for people who used them regularly. Based on the results obtained, prolonged usage of these pots in cooking and storing should be discouraged since this metal present a risk for the consumers particularly in the prolonged exposure even at low concentration.
While both cookware studied may pose health concerns, it is probably advisable to discontinue the use of aluminum cookware in preparing/processing acidic foods such as tomatoes sauce studied. Storage of food acidic foods in aluminum containers should also be discouraged to exposure of food to leaching even at low concentration.
On cast iron, I found smoothing to be revolutionary: https://youtu.be/ljSQrSoSYAE
It took me a while to do my 3 pans and reseason, but WELL worth it. I now do eggs on my pans.
I did that with help from a friend on a couple of skillets. It does help a lot. Here he is using a wheel on one:
And one of them after one seasoning. You can barely see some of the marks from grinding it and after the second seasoning they were unnoticeable. After doing this though I learned the sanding method is more preferable, easier, and less prone to leaving marks.
regarding potential rust in a cast iron pan…
Does it even matter?
I try to address it if it’s inside the pan surface I’m cooking with. Beyond that, not really. I mean, an insane amount of rust could create weak points in the iron but who knows how long that would take?
EDIT: I would note, that’s a good question, Timex. Who knows if it really is an issue?
Watched the new Good Eats Reloaded last night, and Brown says (for eggs and such) he now uses nothing but carbon steel pans. The ones on amazon range from ~ $35 to way more for a 10" skillet. I’m willing to guess that the ‘way more’ ones are not worth that much more. Might have to give one a try.
They’re a pain in the ass, you need to maintain the seasoning same as cast iron, and you don’t need incredibly high heat retention like searing a steak to make eggs so their main advantage is gone. They do tend to be lighter and smoother than modern cast iron, though, and you don’t need to throw them out every year or two like nonstick pans. So if that bothers you, go for it.
You can get a lodge carbon steel pan on Amazon, pre-seasoned, for like $30 which isn’t bad.
Well, this is the ‘gadgetry’ thread.
I would be thinking more about tasks that want heat retention, in fact.
Seems like we all have at least one preferred pan of some type. As long as we get used to them it’s a tool for better food in any case. I be interested in hearing what the go-to is for you guys as well?
Anyone use anything fancy on a day to day basis? Something like one of those carbon steel pans? Copper?
Nope, I use an all-clad sautee pan for most tasks and a cheap non-stick for non-stick stuff.
This for sure. A sautee pan with a thicker base for more even cooking is just great for a lot of things. I use a cast iron pan for a lot of things like brussel sprouts. I have more enameled dutch ovens than a normal person should have, but those get a lot of use. If you don’t have one, I really feel like having a large one is awesome. We make so much stuff in ours from risotto to baking bread in them.
A relatively inexpensive thing I can’t recommend enough are the stoneware enameled Le Creuset baking dishes. They are on sale a lot so you can find a full sized one for around $40 and they clean up so crazy well it is insane. Makes me way more willing to make all the things that are just a total f’ing mess to clean up in a pyrex baking dish.
Yes, I also have a pasta pot, an all-clad saucepan, a roasting pan with rack, and that lodge dutch oven. But really I use the all-clad sautee pan 90% of the time. It heats extremely evenly, heats up quickly, retains heat pretty well, and cleans up easily. I use it to sear steaks, etc, too.
Used to have cast iron for steak but didn’t find it worth the annoyance-- and it smoked up my apartment something fierce. I theoretically have a fan built-in to the microwave above my range but I’m convinced it’s actually a speaker that sounds like a fan as it seems to do nothing at all.
I use my Lodge cast iron for most things. We also have a liquid-core electric skillet that my wife loves.
I think we are members of a sub-club in there named, “The Shitty Range Hood Gang.” @ArmandoPenblade is also representing.
I HATE my range hood. Like the goggles, it does nothing.
Sheezus fuck yes. Also consider that our apartment opens to an interior hallway, that all of our windows are painted or bolted shut (I’ve never wanted to smell the great outdoors enough to figure out which), and that our “balcony” door leads out to a few feet of elevated concrete that is swarming with wasps 8 months outta the year, so we effectively have zero ventilation whatsoever in here. Everything I cook is gonna linger in the air with us for a niiiiiice long while. I got a fancy ionizing air purifier fan with a huge cubic foot rating, but it’s really just a bandaid over a sucking chest wound.
I don’t know what people are doing to their cookware, but we have 2 pieces of Le Creuset enameled cast iron and one Cousances (made by Le Crueset). The latter is a 30-year-old Dutch oven and there isn’t a single chip in it. One of the other two is a 10yr Dutch over that also gets regular use. The third is a small saucepan.No chips there either.
The stuff is expensive, so we keep a lookout for sales and discontinued colors.
We have some lodge cast iron. Nothing enameled, though I imagine it is fine. Certainly if you are going to mistreat stuff, buy cheap.