Cast Iron cookware

[Lobo]

My doctor told me to find ways to cut my cholesterol. I changed from regular shortening to all vegetable shortening. Lately I have noticed that my food is sticking in the cast iron ware. Is this due to the all vegetable shortening? Anyone else had any experience like this? I do season my cookware quite often and have not had the problem in the past.

Any input from experience would be helpful.

Thank you,

Lobo

[cubcadet]

Quit going to doctors. They know only what they read in their journals and they can only see $ signs. Do your homework. Get healthy.

http://sites.google.com/site/windintheroses/home

http://www.westonaprice.org/know-your-fats/531-cholesterol-friend-or-foe?qh=YTozOntpOjA7czoxMToiY2hvbGVzdGVyb2wiO2k6MTt zOjEzOiJjaG9sZXN0ZXJvbCdzIjtpOjI7czoxMjoiY2hvbGVzd GVyb2xzIjt9

[NCLee]

My doctor told me to find ways to cut my cholesterol. I changed from regular shortening to all vegetable shortening. Lately I have noticed that my food is sticking in the cast iron ware. Is this due to the all vegetable shortening? Anyone else had any experience like this? I do season my cookware quite often and have not had the problem in the past.

Lobo

I've used lard, regular (old style) Crisco, new Crisco, vegetable oil, etc. to season restored castiron cookware. Don't think that simply the change to "all vegetable" has a bearing. Something else is going on, as best I can tell, at this point.

For example, have you switched from "frying" to more baking in your CI? Have to switched from animal proteins (meats) to meat substitutes, such as soy based products?

One other thing, again, at this point in the discussion, is that you've been "season my cookware quite often". A well seasoned (cured) pan doesn't need re-seasoning for a long time, possibly years and years, unless something is happening to the CI that has a negative effect on the seasoning.

Can you elaborate a little more on what changes you've made with regards to what you're cooking now? Why you felt the need to season "quite often"? How do you season your CI?

Perhaps with a little more info, I can help you figure out what's going haywire.

Lee

[oldtimer]

I see you've swallowed the doctors lies.
There are some doctors who've waked up and will tell the truth.

Oldtimers never had any "cholesterol" problems. I believe it's a big farce.

It's this vegetable shortening that's clogging people's arteries. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.

Take a stick of butter and a stick of margerine and put them each on a plate. Set them out at about 90 degrees F. What happens? The butter runs all over the plate and the margerine will still hold its shape. You're running at 98.6. Which one is plugging up your arteries??? I don't believe it's the butter or the lard.

Lard is the same, set out a cup of crisco and a cup of good old lard. What happens?? Same thing.

Doctors used to tell us not to eat eggs too. Yet they've now "discovered" that eggs are on of the most perfect foods there is and many doctors recommend people with diabetes eat lots of eggs.

My grandfather loved butter and always ate all the fat on the meat and when Grandma would fry meat, he'd take and scrape the grease from the pan and pour it on bread. His cholesterol was low. My grandmother trimmed all the fat off, ate only margerine, her cholesterol was through the roof.

[NCLee]

Better half has had by-pass surgery. I firmly believe that all the margarine we ate because it was more "healthy" than real butter is one of the causes. My Mom fell for that hype when I was a kid. Switched from homemade lard and butter to Crisco and margarine because the "experts" said it was better. I followed along in her foot steps. BTW, lost my father to a heart attack.

Been thinking about your castiron question some more.

In your effort to cut back on cholestrol have you cut back too much on the amount of "grease" needed to cook your foods? A light spray of Pam is enough for some things, but with some things if you don't have enough fat in the pan, the food will stick. Fried squash and onions is an example.

Couple more thoughts that may or may not have a bearing... depends on what ya cooking.

* Make sure the pan and "grease" is hot before adding food, especially meats. It's better if the food is closer to room temp than refrigerator chill, too.

* Some of these "flavor added" products are harder to cook, especially if dissolved sugar is one of the ingredients that's been injected. Sugar does stick!

* Put a piece of meat into a pan with a limited amount of "grease" and it will seize tight to the bottom of the hot pan. Just be patient. Don't try to turn it too quickly. It will release, on its own, given enough time. That said, this is a balancing act between getting it to release and burning same. Variables include temperature of the pan, added ingredients such as sugars, breading components, etc. However, the principle is the same as cooking on a grill. Oil the hot grill, put on a pork chop. Chop will stick. In a few minutes, it will release. Try to turn it before it's ready and it won't budge without tearing it off.

* When you season your CI, go back to what was working for you. Everyone has their own favorite seasoning agent. That doesn't have any material bearing on consumption of cholestrol. A well seasoned/cured CI pan can only give off trace amounts, if any, of what you used to season it.

Just some more thoughts that may be useful in helping solve your CI problem.

Lee

[offgridbob]

I don't know the truth about health any more but you original question was about food sticking in your cast iron. So here is what I do. I use nothing but olive oil. When I fry I do not turn up the burners, in fact I very seldon cook past a medium setting. After use I was the cast iron out with my regular dish soap( Mild Dawn) I dry it a little and turn the burner up to high for a minute then turn it off. I then set the pan on the burner and put a little olive oil in the pan and take a paper towel and spread it around, then I just let it set untill it's cool enough to put away. Think of it as a mini seasoning after every use. Works for me.:yes2:

[Lobo]

The food I eat hasn't changed much the only change has been the shortening. I agree with the butter vs margarine issue and I do use butter. Guess I will be better off reurning to the non vegetable shortening.

I have just noticed lately that everything in my fry pan sticks (eggs-real fresh laid eggs not substitutes-,pancakes, etc). This has never been a problem before.

I have 2 cast iron saucepans that I use for boiling like rice, veggies, etc and that works fine but sometimes oatmeal sticks.

I 'wash' my cast iron saucepans after a thick food cooking with only hot water (no soap) and then return them to the stove to dry and then put in some shortening, smear it around and let is set on the warm side for awhile.

I have to admit that I do not clean the frypan after every use but when I do I do the same technique as above.

Hope I have answered all your questions for your continued imput.

Lobo

[NCLee]

Lobo, after reading your reply, the thought comes to mind that you may need to re-season your castiron.

If the bottom is still smooth when you run your fingers across it, there's no need to strip off the seasoning and start over. Over time your original seasoning may have worn thin. Especially if you've done a lot of water based cooking (cooking rice, for example). Once a pan is seasoned, it takes periodic "re-seasoning" to maintain it.

In the olden days, :) simply frying foods in plenty of grease, shortening, oil, etc. continually "re-seasoned" the pan. Grandma's fried chicken, batches of French fries, fried fatback to go along side scrambled eggs, fried cornbread, fish, fish, and mo fish - to mention a few. With today's low fat / no fat cooking there isn't the same replenishing of the seasoning as it once was.

Try this: If you don't already have it on hand, pick up a small can of Crisco. Heat your skillet and add a good amount of Crisco. You're gonna fry some taters. Good use for those old ones in the pantry that are growing sprouts. Cut up a couple and cook some fries. Get them done, remove from the pan and discard. Fry a few more, then toss. If temptation gets the better of you, cut up a good tater and cook it to eat, while doing several batches of the old ones. When you finish, drain the grease, wipe out the pan with paper towels. Hang up till you get ready to use it for something else.

If that doesn't work. To a regular seasoning. Put the skillet in an oven or on a gas grill (better, because of the smoke during seasoning). Heat the skillet to 350 degrees. With an oven mitt, remove from the oven/grill. Using tongs and a folded paper towel, brush melted Crisco (or vegetable oil) on all surfaces. Then, use paper towels to wipe off the oil. Wipe it dry, as you only need a very, very, very thin film of oil left on the pan. Put back into the oven/grill. Increase the heat to 450 degrees. Leave in the oven for an hour. Turn off the oven and let the oven/skillet cool naturally. You will get smoke as you're heating the skillet above the smoke point of most fats. Thus, advise to use a gas grill, outdoors, instead.

You may have to do this process a couple of times to rebuild the seasoning layer. Once you have it seasoned, fry up at least one large potato. Toss the tater (or sneak a bite or two as your reward for the work you're doing). As above, wipe out the excess oil and hang in the pantry.

If this doesn't work you may have to strip the skillet and start over. Wish I could see it in person and run my fingers over it, look at the color/condition of the seasoning. Because I can't do that, can't guarantee it'll solve the problem. However, it, IMHO, worth a try, to see if it'll help.

BTW, a tip, if you have to go back to shortening to get your fried eggs. Use 1/2 shortening and 1/2 vegetable oil. (I use canola oil and olive oil for all my cooking because we're on a low cholrestrol diet for heath issues. ) You'll get some of the lubrication benefit of the shortening, yet won't be using 100% shortening. Hope this thought helps.

Lee

[CountryBertha]

Suet is the best thing to use for seasoning cast iron pans, and it does not leech into the food. Rub it inside and outside the pans, put in a hot oven to melt it in, and let it cool.

Put 10 layers of the suet (one at a time) on the inside of your cast iron pan, and 7 layers on the outside of the pan (one at a time), heating in the hot oven after each layer. Don't get the oven so hot it will burn off the suet or you will have to begin again from the start of the process.

We've stopped using Crisco and have gone back to butter, lard and chicken fat for cooking. Amazingly, Paw's blood pressure normalized as did his cholesterol levels. The Dietician at the hospital told me soy milk and tofu were the worst things he could have on a daily basis, and I had been led to believe that stuff would be great for him. Well, it isn't. It thickens human blood and causes other horrific problems.

I never saw country people of any age, sick like city people are. Everyone is sick in the city. I'm shocked at the people my age (65) and younger who are on blood pressure meds and all kinds of other supportive meds. In the city, you can actually predict outbreaks of gallbladder attacks and subsequent surgery that always fall after the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year holidays. We never saw that in the country. Of all the people on that mesa where I grew up, only one man developed gallstones. And people out there lived to be very old -- in their late 90s and past 100.

One of the Surgeons I worked for and I were talking one day just before the holidays, about these outbreaks, and even he did not know why this was happening. He wondered if it was the heavy mix of spices causing the problems. It was an exhausting time for him -- and all of us. I do know out on the mesa, we did eat animal fats and our diets were bland in comparison to city diets, and we never ate junk foods. We thought soda drinks were medicines. I had never seen a faucet caked up and eaten through with minerals either, until I moved to the city. We had artesian water, pure as pure can get. Coffee was made strong and was only drank in the morning by adults. Our work was certainly more physical and hard compared to the work city people do, and everyone was healthy, trim, fit and very strong. I remember the first time I ever heard a city Doctor tell a Patient not to eat salt. We not only salted all our foods, in the Summer we poured salt in our hands and licked it off.

Paw developed two skin cancers on his back which is being treated with the sap from figs where they attach to the branch (applied directly to the lesions), and polyethylene glycol which is a prescription powder he drinks once a day mixed in water. Darned if it isn't disappearing! The smaller of the two simply fell off and has not presented again, and the skin is completely healed. I had contacted some Medical Researchers about this because his doctor refused to remove the lesions. The glycol had already been prescribed as part of his quadriplegia protocol, but not for those lesions, and the fig sap thing was being used in hospitals in India -- and we had the fig trees. This treatment has continued now a year, and there is obvious improvement. I have wondered if the "quick fix" of surgery would have been something that would have spread those cancers rather than heal them.

I do have faith in Doctors and Medical Science, but I also know it sure pays to know Researchers and not all Doctors keep up with the latest data, and some I know for a fact I'd never allow my family members to use.

It sure pays to get second and even third opinions.

[Lobo]

Lobo, after reading your reply, the thought comes to mind that you may need to re-season your castiron.

If the bottom is still smooth when you run your fingers across it, there's no need to strip off the seasoning and start over. Over time your original seasoning may have worn thin. Especially if you've done a lot of water based cooking (cooking rice, for example). Once a pan is seasoned, it takes periodic "re-seasoning" to maintain it.

In the olden days, :) simply frying foods in plenty of grease, shortening, oil, etc. continually "re-seasoned" the pan. Grandma's fried chicken, batches of French fries, fried fatback to go along side scrambled eggs, fried cornbread, fish, fish, and mo fish - to mention a few. With today's low fat / no fat cooking there isn't the same replenishing of the seasoning as it once was.

Try this: If you don't already have it on hand, pick up a small can of Crisco. Heat your skillet and add a good amount of Crisco. You're gonna fry some taters. Good use for those old ones in the pantry that are growing sprouts. Cut up a couple and cook some fries. Get them done, remove from the pan and discard. Fry a few more, then toss. If temptation gets the better of you, cut up a good tater and cook it to eat, while doing several batches of the old ones. When you finish, drain the grease, wipe out the pan with paper towels. Hang up till you get ready to use it for something else.

If that doesn't work. To a regular seasoning. Put the skillet in an oven or on a gas grill (better, because of the smoke during seasoning). Heat the skillet to 350 degrees. With an oven mitt, remove from the oven/grill. Using tongs and a folded paper towel, brush melted Crisco (or vegetable oil) on all surfaces. Then, use paper towels to wipe off the oil. Wipe it dry, as you only need a very, very, very thin film of oil left on the pan. Put back into the oven/grill. Increase the heat to 450 degrees. Leave in the oven for an hour. Turn off the oven and let the oven/skillet cool naturally. You will get smoke as you're heating the skillet above the smoke point of most fats. Thus, advise to use a gas grill, outdoors, instead.

You may have to do this process a couple of times to rebuild the seasoning layer. Once you have it seasoned, fry up at least one large potato. Toss the tater (or sneak a bite or two as your reward for the work you're doing). As above, wipe out the excess oil and hang in the pantry.

If this doesn't work you may have to strip the skillet and start over. Wish I could see it in person and run my fingers over it, look at the color/condition of the seasoning. Because I can't do that, can't guarantee it'll solve the problem. However, it, IMHO, worth a try, to see if it'll help.

BTW, a tip, if you have to go back to shortening to get your fried eggs. Use 1/2 shortening and 1/2 vegetable oil. (I use canola oil and olive oil for all my cooking because we're on a low cholrestrol diet for heath issues. ) You'll get some of the lubrication benefit of the shortening, yet won't be using 100% shortening. Hope this thought helps.

Lee

Thanks Lee,

Oddly my fry pan is the main problem. I went to all the local grocery stores and all they had was 'all veggie' shortening. I asked for real shortening and the employees looked at my 2 heads and said they could not help me and walked away. I finally broke down and checked Sprawl Mart and there it was. I have done pancakes and eggs since without a problem.

My cast iron saucepans for the rice boiling, etc have never stuck but I re-season them after each use.

Thanks all,

Lobo

[Mike LI]

I hadda chuckle reading Oldtimers and CountryBertha's post. I kinda giggled to myself and came to the conclusion that all this healthy stuff is killing us. Specially when CB said all the city people are sick, how right you are.

My family ate the same way, bacon grease everything was cooked in the stuff. We had a big can of it on the back of the stove. They ate butter and whole milk or butter milk and eggs and red meat. Most of em lived well into their 80's and 90's.

I have come to the realization that all the man made stuff margarine and what have you is nothing but toxic chemicals.

Sorry for goin off topic here just wanted to share that.

[Lobo]

I hadda chuckle reading Oldtimers and CountryBertha's post. I kinda giggled to myself and came to the conclusion that all this healthy stuff is killing us. Specially when CB said all the city people are sick, how right you are.

My family ate the same way, bacon grease everything was cooked in the stuff. We had a big can of it on the back of the stove. They ate butter and whole milk or butter milk and eggs and red meat. Most of em lived well into their 80's and 90's.

I have come to the realization that all the man made stuff margarine and what have you is nothing but toxic chemicals.

Sorry for goin off topic here just wanted to share that.

I remember when margarine came out as the answer to high cholesterol and then they found out it increased it. OOPPS!!

Lobo

[paul wheaton]

Hot off the press. I uploaded this video about eight minutes ago. It shows a cast iron skillet fished out of the garbage, covered in gunk. The gunk is burned off and a new seasoning layer is put on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjgP-6W_YN4

[ophchris]

I leave my ci in the oven. When I preheat they warm up then I pull them out.Then when I'm done backing I put lard in then and put them back in the oven.

[windmo]

You've all given me a lot to think about! City folks certainly are sicker, but I also agree they "believe" they are sicker than they really are. There's always something on the news to tell you about some new disease that's going to kill us all, some magazine article, etc., and then they're running to the doctor for a new pill to add to their ever-increasing daily diet of medications. However, diabetes is more widespread than it ever was, and that comes right down to the crap we all eat. A city person thinks they're eating healthy when they buy a tomato from the produce section of their grocery store, without realizing that tomato came from 2,000 miles away and was green when it was picked and gassed to appear red and ripe. What is THAT doing to your body? How about the chemicals and preservatives they cram into a can of "food", to make it last 3 years or more on the shelf? The hormones given to cows to produce more milk, the crap they feed to commericial chickens...it goes on and on.

Certainly eating a lot of fat, greasy foods and too much salt can wear on the body if you combine that with little to no excercise and pouring chemicals into your body. But I truly believe it's more than that that's killing us and making us sick; it's the "fake" foods we consume that's doing us all in.

Too often we take better care of our cars' health than our own bodies. We, as a country, need to wisen up and start eating real foods that come from real farms that were grown and raised the way nature intended, not in a lab and not with chemicals. The true farmer has become obselete...replaced with the Foster Farms farmer and Monsonto and we are all just blindly shoving stuff into our mouths with no thought of where it came from or what it even is.

Oh my, got me started on a rant lol.

[NCLee]

Hot off the press. I uploaded this video about eight minutes ago. It shows a cast iron skillet fished out of the garbage, covered in gunk. The gunk is burned off and a new seasoning layer is put on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjgP-6W_YN4

I'm on dial up and can't watch. (sigh)

I hope this doesn't show putting a piece of CI in a wood fire to burn off the crud prior to re-seasoning.

Yes, it does work, that is until it doesn't. People have learned the hardway that a wood fire can crack or warp a good pan. If overheated, it damages the metal in a way that can't be corrected. That may not be material for a recent China imported pan. However, that damage can turn a $1,000 valued collectable, such as rare Griswolds into a $10 boat anchor.

Please, please don't use a fire to burn off the crud. That is if you value the piece. Whether a collectable or Grandma's favorite skillet. Two different family members have learned that lesson the hardway when a 1 piece skillet became 2 pieces. (One was a Griswold.)

There are several other safe ways to clean and restore castiron cookware.

Lee