So the wife and I, as luck has it, have had pan fried food the four days or so.

One night we (read: l) fried a pound of bacon for BLTs.

The next morning , and before the bacon coma released it grips and I could clean the pan, she cooked herself some eggs followed my lunch (chopped smoked shoulder), and tonight tater tots (we only added oil (saffron for her eggs) when needed].

Seems too be better.

I cooked potatoes in beef fat which had sat in a cast iron skillet for weeks outside in the winter. Extraordinary flavor.

As for cleaning, they never get 'cleaned'. I'll pour out the drippings, maybe wipe the pan with a dirty towel, then flip it upside down on the burner and run the flame on it for 30 seconds.

All that gear stays outside in a cabinet near the kitchen door; the range, propane tank, the cast iron pans, etc. I've kept all frying out of the kitchen for a while few years; the kitchen stays so much cleaner now.

There is a restaurant in Memphis I believe that fries their burgers in a large cast iron skillet with lard. The lard is never cleaned from the skillet only added to. It's the same pan from the restaurants start in the late 1800's. Every night at close they put the skillet in the walk-in and every morning bring it out and bring it up to temp. Supposed to be awesome burgers.

I just wipe mine out, if it sits for a couple of weeks , I just wipe it out with a damp paper towel before I use it.

With cooking temps, you'll kill any nasties, so that really shouldn't be a concern. The only issue with leaving the greasy crud in the pan is that the fats will go rancid and taste horrible.

Cleaning the pan after each use will prevent this, will prevent any food bits from sticking and burning, and will keep a nice smooth seasoning. We all forget, or don't get to it right away, at times, but just make a habit of doing it. Your pan will thank you.

9 out of 10 times, mine gets a wipe from a paper towel and nothing more. I have 3 pans that all receive the same cleaning regimen and I don't have any issues.

I reuse some of the leftover bacon grease all the time, for the very next meal. It's great.

I've probably been overkilling as usual. I've been following the maintenance per the seasoning video.

Brush under hot water. Apply lard to warm pan. Wipe dry. Put over flame until smoking. Let cool.

Maybe I'll just do the brush under hot water and then wipe with paper towel (blue ones). Sounds quick and easy. I'll do the lard every once in awhile then (every 10th use or something).

Depending on what I've cooked in it....routinely my cast iron gets scrubbed with a stainless mesh under hot water. Once all the food crusties are gone, it's wiped with a paper towel, placed on the high heat burner until all the water is gone. Then I add a dab of lard. Later once cooled, I pour out the liquid and give it a final quick wipe with a paper towel before putting away.

At this point all but one of my pans have had years of fairly consistent and frequent use, so they are well seasoned. I pay more attention to the newer one. It is spared the water scrub whenever possible. I've toyed with the idea of giving the cooking surface a quick sand, as it's just not grinding down fast enough. I like the super smooth surface that my other pans have from age and wear.

I scour mine out with salt, then wipe it down good.

Hot water when the pan cools off to get crusty things off and then a sponge with warm water to wipe it out.
Put on the stove, low heat until all water is gone and lastly, a very small amount of some good olive oil rubbed in until it just leaves a sheen on the bottom.

quote:

Originally posted by joatmonv:
Hot water when the pan cools off to get crusty things off and then a sponge with warm water to wipe it out.
Put on the stove, low heat until all water is gone and lastly, a very small amount of some good olive oil rubbed in until it just leaves a sheen on the bottom.

This is what I do. Works great.

I spent years scrapping eggs from stainless steel frying pans cooked in regular oil... then a while back I discovered the secret... two things...

cast iron and butter....

wife won't let me cook bacon in the house (rough life) and so I cook it on a griddle in my outside kitchen... 3-4lbs at a time.... griddle is 16" deep and 43" wide.

Growing up our 'cooking oil' was a large coffee can beside the stove with bacon grease in it.

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
I spent years scrapping eggs from stainless steel frying pans cooked in regular oil... then a while back I discovered the secret... two things...

cast iron and butter....

wife won't let me cook bacon in the house (rough life) and so I cook it on a griddle in my outside kitchen... 3-4lbs at a time.... griddle is 16" deep and 43" wide.

Growing up our 'cooking oil' was a large coffee can beside the stove with bacon grease in it.

I just got into griddle cooking recently. Mine is 16X36. Just cooked breakfast on it yesterday morning. Spam with bacon, eggs and hash browns.
Still getting the learning curve out of it. I'm careful not to get things to hot so I have been cooking a little hotter every time I use it until I find the sweet spot.

As far as cast iron goes I thought I lost or someone stole my 12" Griswold. I last used it at a party where I made fajitas for 30 about 15 miles out in the country at a farm place some people owned. I knew about 6 people the rest I didn't. I sauteed the onions and peppers in my Griswold there and haven't been able to find it since. That was about a month ago.

Found it yesterday. I put it inside my smoker when I was done and putting things away. I usually put that kind of stuff in the back of my truck. It's a bitch getting old!

Anyway it was pretty grungy. Soaked in hot water scrubbed it with a chain mail to get the chunks out. Put it on the stove for 5 minutes to dry out. Added just a bit of oil and let cool.

Made a apple cobbler in it last night and not even the carmelized brown sugar stuck to it.

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
I spent years scrapping eggs from stainless steel frying pans cooked in regular oil... then a while back I discovered the secret... two things...

cast iron and butter....

For eggs, I used to do the same. Then, I went to lard. The problem with butter, is that you really need to clean it off well afterwards or else future eggs will develop a black color on them as the butter breaks down, goes bad, and burns. If you wash the pan with a little soap and water after using this won't be an issue, but I've found that lard is just so easy and a much better grease for frying eggs (and just about everything). Wipe it down and move on.

I put a little dab of lard on my griddle and start heating it up on low. Just when the lard is melted I'll put on my egg and let it fry, loosening the edges as needed (not usually needed). When ready to flip, I'll do so, and then immediately turn off the heat and let the egg continue to cook until I butter the toast and take the bacon/sausage out of the other skillet. Eggs turn out perfect every time - whites done through and yolks hot and runny. Nothing sticks, so clean up is just a matter of wiping up the excess lard and I'm done.

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
wife won't let me cook bacon in the house

If she ever gets mad and questions your love for her, point back to this.

that's love right there, honoring such a random thing.

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
wife won't let me cook bacon in the house

point back to this ... honoring such a random thing.

I stopped in-house cooking May 2016 when my stove went Ka-Boom. When I needed Tupperwares for holiday coleslaws, after a bit I noticed they had stayed clean ranged as they were above the kitchen cabinets. Instead of having a film of greases and dust on them.

These days my woodworking hobby on the kitchen table precludes frying anything in the kitchen; gotta keep everything clean. That does not stop me from high-heat burgering. Out back yesterday afternoon my 80/20 pounder patty melt threw up a stratospheric cloud of greasy smoke, harmless to all but the dieting.

Those splatter screens catch almost all / a great deal of the grease.

I use them for burgers and bacon, when cooking them inside.

Makes cleanup so much easier.

quote:

Originally posted by thunderson:
There is a restaurant in Memphis I believe that fries their burgers in a large cast iron skillet with lard. The lard is never cleaned from the skillet only added to. It's the same pan from the restaurants start in the late 1800's. Every night at close they put the skillet in the walk-in and every morning bring it out and bring it up to temp. Supposed to be awesome burgers.

Dyer's Burgers.