Bumping this thread with more cast iron-related chatter.
My gf got me a new Lodge carbon steel for my birthday. I probably wouldn’t have went with lodge if I bought it myself, but it was a pretty thoughtful gift. Why would a normal sane person know about contemporary Lodge products’ crappy factoring seasoning and porous surface?
So I tried it out today and it’s pretty cool but I think it’s gonna need some help to really kick ass. I read in some Amazon reviews about people sanding down the surface with 200 grit sandpaper to smooth it out a bit. That seems like it would be fine, right? Should I worry about unleashing some sort of fucked up petrochemicals by disrupting the factory-made “seasoning” coating that it comes with?
Also in an attempt to get it improving quickly just to try it out this morning, I rubbed a little oil in and heated it on the stove till it smoked. Now I have some uneven seasoning in the pattern of a stove burner. It makes me realize most of my cast irons have this as well, because I’m not that diligent about taking care of em I guess. But I guess I’m gonna strip it all off and try to get a really proper seasoning job done in the oven sometime soon.
Anyone have thoughts or experience that would be relevant here?
I haven't used a Lodge before, so I'm not sure what the pan's looking like but:
In my experience, most people don't wait long enough when cooking delicate, sticky foods. Chicken/fish skin will naturally start releasing from the pan when they've reached that crispy point. A lot of cooks want to check progress 5ish minutes in, before the skin has done much. I started just teasing my food with tongs to check if it's ready to release.
I start my chicken breasts in a cold, regular-ass pan (with oil in it of course). They never stick because I've learned to 'listen to the skin'.
A good trick if things are sticking is to add a pat of butter - the moisture in it will help deglaze the pan, and pop whatever is stuck, off.
Eggs are where this technique breaks down (all that flipping). If you're trying to cook pancakes/eggs, then my only advice is to season your pan like 5 times and then never, ever, no matter what, no matter what anyone says, or anyone has done, no matter whatever - don't cook anything else in that pan. No meat, no vegetables, no phad pok, just eggys.
credentials: spent 10 years as a professional cooking bitch, several years exclusively using carbon steel.
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