this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2024
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

You can wash Cast Iron all you like, I wouldn't suggest the dishwasher, just don't use soap, scrape with a plastic paint scrapper under hot water, heat until smoking, rub some oil on it, let cool. Easy peasy. After knowing we're all poisoning ourselves with the nonstick coating and have been for decades, the Cast Iron is a great nonstick alternative.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Use "soap" if you want. Modern dishwashing liquid doesn't have lye in it. It's the lye from old school rendered soap that damages the seasoning.

Don't use anything with an abrasive more than the rough side of a sponge, and even with that, don't rub super hard or in the same place for too long.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

This thread is full of people claiming that dish soap doesn't contain lye, but the most popular dish soap I'm aware of, Dawn, contains lye and that's easily found in a two second Google search.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 hours ago

Interesting. Sodium hydroxide.

Well, while I don't use Dawn, I do use dishwashing liquid, whatever happens to be in the house, and I've never had a bit of trouble with it.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (2 children)

My main issue is with calling cast iron "non stick" when things most definitely stick.

The trick of pre-heating it to unreasonable temperatures before adding the ingredients isn't a property of cast iron, it works on all materials, but it can quickly go wrong and make everything stick. Which is a shame, because teflon is poison and we do really need alternatives.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 hours ago

Teflon itself isn't poison. The entire point of teflon is that it's so chemically unreactive that nothing can even bind to it on a molecular level.

The problem with Teflon is that manufacturing it uses a lot of actually toxic chemicals incidental to making the Teflon bind to the metal of a pan and because it's so non-reactive and very brittle, general use and any disposal of it will result in Teflon molecules just floating around in the environment unable to be broken down by anything.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

It is non-stick if the seasoning is right, but often it's not smooth enough off the shelf.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (4 children)

Eh, not really. You can "season" it and if you add eggs with no oil they'll stick. Of course we forget now, but this is exactly why teflon became so popular so fast, even though cast iron has existed for ages.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Eggs with no oil will stick in a "non-stick" pan, too.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago

They key with cast iron is using enough fat, which is generally more than you'd use with other cookware. High heat just burns the fat and/or the food, ruining your meal and making cleanup more difficult.

What cast iron is really good at in terms of heat is retaining it. There's enough mass that you have to preheat the pan for longer, but once it's hot, it stays at a pretty stable temperature when you add your ingredients. It doesn't get hot spots as severly, either, especially if preheated for a good long time at a relatively low heat.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago

A tiny bit of water unsticks them.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

Yeah cast iron, even with a good seasoning, will never match a Teflon coating. It's pretty good, but you will need to cook some bacon in the pan before the eggs to make them not stick.