I have two cast iron griddles, one smallish and one medium size. I also have a cast iron pot. I use them with the Traeger pellet smoker and the charcoal grill.

Yesterday was the second time I used the griddles. I was smoking some lamb shanks and afterwards tilapia. I used them to catch the drippings and I don't have to clean the Traeger at all. Also, I used them as "backing" for when I use the Su-V gun to char the outside. I don't want to expose the grates directly to the Su-V flame.

I'm supposed to clean the cast iron griddles while still warm but I have to eat first. When I got to them, I had to scrape stuff off, use some stainless steel mesh, a stiff brush, and kosher salt to clean them under warm water.

Then I have to towel them dry with shop towels. Apply avocado oil on them. Stick them in the oven at 350 degrees for 5 minutes. Then I have to wipe off the excess avocado oil in the morning before I can put them away.

With normal cookware, I just soap it down, rinse it, and let it dry on its own. It seems like a lot of work or am I doing too much work?

You're doing it wrong.

Once properly seasoned*, using abrasives and detergents remove or compromise the seasoning.

*(the oil polymerizes during seasoning and continues as you use them)

Cooking acidic food, leaving same or high moisture food in the pan for too long after cooking, also contribute to breaking the seasoning.

When pans are seasoned, it presents a non-stick surface that can be easily cleaned with hot water and wiped clean.

I use a hand hammered carbon steel wok, and cast iron pans. Heat to smoke point and cook with medium high-high heat and using high smoke point oils helps season.

I also use a bamboo "wok brush" to clean.

To aid in seasoning, and remove the "metallic/iron" taste, put on high heat and get the pan to smoking point, toss in about a cup of cut green onions thin sliced ginger and garlic and push them all around until blackened. Turn of the heat and let it sit until cool enough to touch, then dump the mess in the trash, use fresh oil on paper towel and wipe the pan. Do this anytime you have washed with soap (accidently) or after food that have a lot of moisture.

The key to seasoning is high smoke point oil, heat, and very thin oil surface (almost completely wiped dry) time and repetition. After that, it is proper use, cleaning and periodic "touch up" as above.

I do not use cast iron for simmering "liquid based" meals. I use typical non-stick stuff for that.
And I do not use metal utensils. Nylon/plastic, silicone spatulas and bamboo utensils.

The heat retention, flash fry, caramelizing and charring adds a distinct flavor that I can't get enough of.
(Smash burgers, blackened anything, pan seared steaks, charring veggies and more)

It requires a bit of attention, but worth it to me.

Once well seasoned, I heat the pan up to about smoke point, add oil and allow it to come up to temp, then add food to be cooked. I reduce the temp as needed depending on the food but I always start high to establish a good initial sear avoid cooling the pan too much when the food hits the pan.

Cleaning usually involves a wipe down for excess oil / butter (don't want it going down the drain). Then using hot water and the Lodge brush. If by chance the is some stuck food bits, I'll use the plastic Lodge scraping tool or my fingernail. Usually very quick and no soap. Just a quick scrub and rinse. Then heated until it starts to smoke and then set it aside to cool naturally.

It's perhaps a little extra work but not much. But the sear (maillard) and avoidance of non-stick coatings is worth it for me. My All-Clad stainless are also basically non-stick but they don't seem to retain heat as well as the steel pans (cast iron or carbon).

I clean as soon as possible after using. Waiting until after I eat normally. Usually just a rinse under hot water is enough. I use a bamboo brush to get any bits of food off. Wipe dry, put back on medium heat to evaporate any remaining rinse water. Add a dime size drop of oil. I use grape seed oil and rub it around the base and sides and outside of the pan.

If for some reason something sticks in the pan I will heat the pan up and then put it under hot water to steam any stubborn food off the pan. I think the biggest mistake people make with cast iron is to put too much oil in after cleaning. A good seasoning is made of many thin layers of oil not a few thick layers. Too much oil makes it sticky and gummy and does not promote seasoning.

I have a 12" 70 year old Griswold which is my work horse and a 10" Wagner that I'm not certain of the age. These two pans do the majority of my cooking. Rarely do I ever reach for any other of our pans.

I have a 10" modern Finex pan which is a great looker and cooks nicely but it is a heavy heavy beast and I rarely use it.

A properly seasoned piece of cast iron should almost wipe clean with a paper towel, be rinsed with hot water, then lightly re-oiled under heat. If one uses anything abrasive to “clean” one, the finish is most likely ruined as mentioned above.

quote:

It seems like a lot of work or am I doing too much work?

Yes. Personally, I don’t understand the appeal of cast iron. We have a skillet, and I have yet to cook something and afterwards utter, “Thank goodness I had cast iron.”

YMMV

My wrought iron cooktop griddle with my iron cleaning tools. Usually a wipe down with a paper shop towel is sufficient, but I have these if necessary:

Chainmail

Stiff silicone spatula

Sharp scraper

For a really bad stick I heat the pan to medium low, put in EVOO, and work the chainmail around with the stiff silicone spatula. Hot oil is a good detergent.

A REALLY bad stick gets the knife-sharp little scraper first. I position its blade nearly tangent to the pan surface. Its corners are slightly rounded.

---

Serious about crackers

I think you're doing it wrong, as noted above.

I have a couple pieces of well-seasoned cast iron (skillet and dutch oven) that are for indoor use only. Those are as described, well seasoned initially and never seen soap or abrasive after. Not quite like non-stick, but close enough to be awesome.

I use completely separate pieces on the grill, mainly a pancake griddle. THAT one I don't worry about trying to re-season each use, since I'm not really trying for it to be non-stick-ish. Instead I'm looking to get uniform intense sear with that, and will be heating it up to 400-500, putting a little oil on it and a piece of meat.

With the combo of temps and smoke I don't know how you would keep a normally seasoned piece of cast iron from being gunked up on a grill. Gas "grill" perhaps, but of course that's not really a grill.

I have had better results taking it off the grill immediately and letting cool on some safe resting space rather than cooling down in the grill, but even with that generally hit it with the chain mail after it cools. No soap, but that is needed to scrape all the bits loose.

Some of the descriptions above sound like pieces that are exclusively inside. I think differentiating the two is more clear and it sounds like you are combining them into mixed use.

I don't understand why anyone would ever use cast for a drip pan. That's what disposable aluminum pans are for. Also I believe the cleaning regimen you described is closer to starting for a re-seasoning, rather than just a normal cleaning.

CI is an alternate culture of kitchen and campsite cooking, I derive a lot of fun from it. Just learned to make griddle omelettes, with vegetables, hash browns, ham, bacon, cheese...adapted from Blackstone guys on YT.

I only need to use water on my cast iron about once out of every 15 times I use it. Most of it is modern, Lodge pieces but I also use my grandmothers Wagner from the 50’s a lot.

I have 10.25” Lodge, 9” Wagner, 6.5” with a top, 3.5”, a round griddle, a reversible rectangular griddle, cornstick mold, and footed Dutch oven. I use them all of the time.

The big deal about cast iron cookware is that it lasts forever, and it does a really good job of cooking your food! Yes, there is a learning curve to using cast iron, but it is not to hard to learn. Well cared for cast iron cookware will be passed down to your children, and their children, and their children. Most non-stick cookware, lasts 5 or maybe 6 years. I heard a smarter man than I say that the first day you bring non-stick cookware home from the store is when it will be the best it will ever be, but the first day you bring cast iron cookware home it is the worst it will ever be.
Now how to season and care for cast iron? Ask 10 experts, get 10 different answers.
Rod

You're doing too much work.

Cook, clean with soap and water, dry, and put away.

Contrary to popular belief, soap won't hurt your seasoning. Heck, commercial kitchens run them through the same dish washer everything else goes through multiple times a day with far stronger detergents than you use at home.

After it's clean and dry, there's no reason to coat with more oil and pop back in the oven. The seasoning will protect it until you use it again. It will be just fine stored dry, and the next time you need it heat it, add oil and you will be good to cook again.

People treat their cast iron like it's the most delicate thing in the world. It's not. Lots of pans have been used to prepare meals daily for 100+ years with little care beyond cleaning between use, and they will still be going strong in another hundred years.

quote:

Originally posted by lastmanstanding:
I think the biggest mistake people make with cast iron is to put too much oil in after cleaning. A good seasoning is made of many thin layers of oil not a few thick layers. Too much oil makes it sticky and gummy and does not promote seasoning.

I think I can cop to that. The clue I got is after I've heat it in the oven, I have to wipe off oil off the griddle. So how much is the right amount and how do I apply it?

I used avocado oil spray which is what I used to season the charcoal grill also. I'm glad I had a grill tarp underneath as I was mopping up oil.

Then I sprayed the oil into a glass and used a silicone brush to brush the oil on the griddle instead. And I still had to wipe off the oil with a shop paper towel.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
I don't understand why anyone would ever use cast for a drip pan. That's what disposable aluminum pans are for.

I thought cleaning the cast iron griddle would be less work than replacing the aluminum foil I use to line the plate that directs the drippings to the grease channel and down into the bucket. I think replacing the aluminum foil now would have been a lot quicker.

After washing, I wipe with a paper towel to get most water, then heat on stove until it is dry, put in about a teaspoon of oil and use a folded up paper towel as a pad with tongues to wipe all the inside while the pan is hot.

Then when it has cooled, I wipe again with dry paper towel. It will leave a very thin film and put it away.

That's enough, and when you use the pan again and heat it to smoking point, that is adding to the seasoning layer, as well as cooking with oil and foods with fat content.

Once you have it seasoned and keep with the routine, you'll find your really not doing any more work with it, your just using it differently as part of the routine.

Not unlike greasing a baking sheet, spraying "Pam", or adding a spoon of shortening or bacon grease etc. to other pots/pans, preheating, par boiling, sautéing aromatics or other things you do to cook.

IMO Corn Oil is the worst. It is thick and sticky and will build up like pine sap.

I use peanut oil, but canola is as good and OK, for people with nut allergy.

I typically use crisco for seasoning.

I never clean my cast iron while still warm. I'd rather eat hot food.

After I'm done with my meal, I run hot water in it, gently brush it out with a chain mail scrubber, heat it briefly in the stove and add a tiny bit of oil.

That's it. I never use salt or other seemingly boutique cleaning methods.


They do take a little more care than stainless steel, but I find them easier to clean.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
a folded up paper towel as a pad with tongues to wipe all the inside while the pan is hot.

You are one crazy sadistic monkeyclucker!

You noticed...

quote:

Originally posted by Veeper:
...I have yet to cook something and afterwards utter, “Thank goodness I had cast iron.”

YMMV

I think this when I make corn bread! Makes an excellent crust.


I had found great tips on sigforum that I now love using my CI pans.

Once cooled, I scrape any thick residue loose with a plastic scrapping item, then I use a "scrub daddy" from home depot with foam to clean my CI. Heating gently to dry off and thin coat of oil to store. I render bacon fat to get a good non-stick cooking results with eggs.

I have an enamel coated one for cooking with tomato sauces. I use a SS pan for anything that leaves a lot of fond that sticks. Easily cleaned with SS scrubbing pad.