/ck/ - Food & Cooking

A word of warning, /ck/ is full of delusional retards when it comes to cast iron voodoo.

I'm too drunk to type more but just take everything that gets posted here with a grain of salt.

>>4077047
Meh, you should clean that off with soap and then reseason the cast iron with flaxseed oil.

>>4077047
post more photos of that fish tank.

>>4077053
thanks for the heads up. im just looking for basic does and donts for this thing

>>4077055
im suspicious but i know the brits consider flaxseed oil a delicacy with certain food...

>>4077057
like this? sorry its crooked. the fish is my black ghost knife. paid $25 a year ago.

yes post more photos of the fish tank then we will answer your stupid questions

That gunk is probably oil that sat in the pan for a long time, went rancid and just turned to sludge. Make a paste out of kosher salt and water and really get in there with a stiff brush (not steel wool, it'll strip the seasoning) and put some elbow grease into it. Wipe it out with a damp towel and you're good to go. After every use afterwards, wipe it out with a towel and that's it.

Also be careful with all those bala sharks man, they start getting real jittery and nervous when they get big, sometimes you scare them when you walk up to the tank or they see a shadow and think its a bug. One of mine pointed his body up at my lid and jumped full force out of the water and smacked the top. Died right before my eyes.

>>4077067
http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/

>>4077067
do not post crooked photos anon we are not cheap whores you find on a street corner

>>4077073
i suppose.

this is my clown knife. again, sorru for the blur. fish are next to impossible to get clear on a digital camera

>>4077075
sorry to hear about your bala man. mine seem pretty chill so far.

>>4077076
looks promising. will report back after i read.

>>4077078
my apologies.

>>4077055
Nha...not flaxseed oil, use grapeseed oil, or if you're a traditionalist, bacon grease

yes scratch that fuckin rust off with a wire brush and if you want flavor in your skillet the kind of flavor you dont wash, cook bacon and garlic in it.

>>4077082
thats like a huge fucking knife fish

>>4077085
>>4077089
i do love bacon grease, will think about garlic. more fish porn.

its my chocolate rhino plecostomus. also the newest member of my tank.

>>4077097
Plecos love tomatoes

>>4077085
here we fuckin' go

OP, your grandparents and your great-grandparents didn't have any fancy shit. They had lard. They had bacon. It's pretty goddamn hard to fuck up cast iron. Properly seasoned cast iron won't be affected by soap, but being cautious is probably best.

The best way to season it is to actually use it. Fry chicken. Fry bacon. Wipe it down with grease and fry eggs. Wipe it down and use it as a baking dish for cornbread, or brownies, or whatever. The rolling stone gathers no moss. When you're done with it, wipe it down with some oil and then wipe it down again with bare paper towels.

>>4077075
Fucking bala sharks ate every other motherfucker in my tank, including my massive angel fish.
Sorry, back to cast iron

you can find all this information online

you need to strip the coating off and start over
strip:
either use over cleaner to tear off the seasoning, then a vinegar bath solution to remove rust
or toss it in a fire or send it through a oven self clean cycle

season:
multiple thin layers of flax seed oil. don't argue with this. use flaxseed oil.

>>4077105

Red-belly pacus did a hell of a number on fish in my parents old tank. Those poor silver dollar fish were missing most of their fins by the time they died.

>>4077111
flax seed oil is for transsexuals use lard or bacon.

>>4077093
he is rather large...

>>4077102
sorry if i turned over some sort of forbidden stone... fortunatley this seems to be turning int a fish thread.... ???

>>4077101
noted. i will try that tomorrow

>>4077105
wow. i know they can turn mean when they arent in the correct enviroment.... mine have always been fairly docile. only chasing each other after feeding time.

>>4077111
after following the link from>>4077076 i believe yall. will definetly do this. thanks to all of you. very helpful

>>4077114
the pacu is closely related to the pirahna and is not to be triffled with.


pic is an overall view of my 125 gallon tank, wieghing well over 1,000 pounds. and its /k/ themed!

>>4077085
yes, flaxseed.

>>4077102
you don't know what you're talking about. The content of modern lard is different than it used to be. In the past lard was a big business. Pigs were specially bred to be lard pigs and they had diets which made their fat very good for seasoning pans. This is no longer the case.

>>4077126
the modern world has changed many things that we do not realize. wheat grain is full of gluten now, pigs have different diets that make thier lard less valuble for seasoning. crazy how things change.

>>4077126
then just stick with bacon, it's not hard
>>4077123
Sorry, not trying to be a dick to you, just the people who like to bitch about this kind of stuff. Cast iron is NOT rocket science, and there's no be-all end-all ABSOLUTE way you have to do things. As long as your food doesn't stick and and oil in the pan doesn't turn rancid, you're doing perfectly fine.

>>4077136
>bacon
>not made from pigs

>>4077136
what hes saying is we can no longer trust pigs they have joined a dark sect in which individuals who choose to live in the light cannot interseed.

>>4077136
no biggie. im pretty level headed and hard to offend. However, i think i will try flaxseed oil, which occarding to >>4077119 makes me a transexual. ill report back on my sexual status when im finished. should be sometime tomorrow.

>>4077149
dont do it you will have the desire to cut off your penis

>>4077148
being from /k/ i can help you defend from pigs and boars. a .22 rifle will suffice. take multiple shots

>>4077151
i know pcp has similar effects. usually followed by throwing said penis at authority figures.

Your fish tank is overstocked as fuck.

>>4077190
by the typical inch of fish to gallon ratio, it may be. but they get along nicely and i monitor my levels closely. also have a fluval canister filter that does a killer job of keeping the thing clean. im considering adding more. the fish inch / gallon theory is widely debated anyway.

ey OP
If you ever feel like fucking up that cast iron
All you gotta do is heat that bitch up in really high heat, then pour cold water all over it
Also, if you feel like fucking up the seasoning, feel free to scrub it with a wire brush for a while
have fun bro

>>4077201
sounds like sound advice.

pouring water over a hot iron would fuck up my day as well.

and i plan on ruining the current seasoning. for the purpose of reseasoning to my likeing.

i feel that you came to this thread a little late

0/10 fail troll

>>4077190
in 2004, there were 29,569 gun-related deaths in the United States, including almost 12,000 homicides, more than 16,750 suicides and approximately 650 unintentional deaths. This adds up to about 80 gun-related deaths in the United States every day—or almost 2.5 times of the number of persons killed at Virginia Tech each day.

There were also approximately 70,000 non-fatal gun shot injuries in 2005 serious enough to require at least an emergency room visit. In addition, there were 477,040 victims of gun-related crimes in the United States in 2005.
-John Hopkins school of public health-

>>4077212
interesting statistics. wrong thread.redirect here>>>/pol/8269851

>>4077126
>lard pigs
>dude wut

>>4077232
http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/pigs.html

apparently, hes right.

Not the /k/omrade OP, but I was very interested in this thread and felt like I had to chime in. I will be getting my first cast iron skillet this Christmas from good ol' grandma, and this is what I've gained from the thread:


1. Use oven cleaner to take the original "seasoning" off

2. Season in flaxseed oil, and bake at 300 degrees (repeat several times)

3. The first thing you should make in it is some bacon with a bunch of garlic to add to the finished seasoning


Is this correct? Also, how would I go about using oven cleaner to take all the original seasoning off the pan?

>>4077259
>Use oven cleaner to take the original "seasoning" off

Is that safe? I mean wouldn't there be oven cleaner reside on your cast iron and therefore your food?

>>4077259
set the oven as high as it will go for 1 hour. use thin layers, at least six times. or at least thats what ill be doing

just follow the directions on the oven cleaner. you slather it on the iron, put iron in oven for however long the instructions say

>>4077266
you cook in the over that was cleaned with oven cleaner.

>>4077272
My oven is self cleaning and it cleans with high heat not oven cleaner.

lol what a fucking dork
comes here to show off his faggy shit
you are trying way too hard.
just search "cast iron" on youtube you loser

>>4077266
it's very very dangerous. read guides on how to do this. wear gloves and a mask. let the cleaner do its work for two days. The vinegar solution bath is supposed to neutralize the lye in the oven cleaner.

http://www.ibelieveicanfry.com/2010/12/reconditioning-re-seasoning-cast-iron.html

>>4077286
leave

>>4077259
>3. The first thing you should make in it is some bacon with a bunch of garlic to add to the finished seasoning
were you serious with this one? you don't need to do that. once it's seasoned you just cook with it as you normally would. you don't need to "christen" it with bacon

>>4077296
Yikes. I think elbow grease is still the way to go.

>>4077286
thanks for the advice

>>4077296
scary.i will look into that

>>4077301
Not really serious that that it's required, but I intend to christen it with bacon n' garlic.

>>4077306
there are other methods. I stripped a lodge once using the self clean cycle on my oven (which for people who don't know allows the oven to get very very hot, much hotter than you can program it to be). I don't think I'll do that with my griswolds because I don't want to risk them cracking. I might make a video when I get around to using the oven cleaner + flax oil method.

>>4077329
I would be very interested to see that.

It seems like youtube has a lack of, "okay I just got my first cast iron skillet, wat do?" videos on it.

>>4077329
i second the video. would be helpful to see actual results.

>>4077296
read the article. i will certainly heed the warnings within it. a good read too

so it looks like i will be using the cleaning methods from
http://www.ibelieveicanfry.com/2010/12/reconditioning-re-seasoning-cast-iron.html

and the seasoning methods from
http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/

wish me lu/ck/, and again, thanks for the advice!

>>4077361
these look about right. don't be afraid of high heat.

when you're done, that pan will be black and shiny and awesome. go to it.

>>4077373
my iron doesnt appear to be valuable, and i got it for free. so im not to worried about heat.

also. just got done spaying oven cleaner. that is some tough shit. perhaps its the pacu of cleaners.

>>4077384
do you know the manufacturer?

>>4077384
once it's clean, coat it with crisco (or that flaxseed oil) and put it in the oven at high heat (400+) for a while. It bakes the fat into the pores of the iron, and basically glazes it. That glaze stays on there forever. You scrub the pan with water and salt after cooking (never soap) and let air dry. Occasionally put some more crisco on it. Iron pans are awesome.

Not to derail the thread, by recently one of my cast iron pans developed some redness (rust?) on the bottom, so I simply heated up the pan and then rubbed some oil on it while it was hot, and that seemed to have made it go away.

Was what I did safe? Or is there a different way of dealing with rust?

>>4077047
Don't use it. The handle's metal so you could burn yourself.

>>4077402
i cant see anything except what faintly appears to be inch skillet. its pretty heavily coated in black squishy goo

>>4077412
your funny. i like you.

>>4077404
From the same person as above, she talks about removing rust.

http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/perfect-popovers-and-how-to-clean-reseason-cast-iron/

just buy a new cast iron pan and start from scratch, those things are cheap as shit and it'll be easier and quicker than trying to scrape all that out and then re-season it.

>>4077047
Steel wool that fucker, don't go too hard on it though, it should be clean, but the black shit should be staying on.

Season that motherfucker to the high heavens, cook your meals on that B, welcome to the world of cast iron frying pans.

Glad this thread is here, I happen to have a set of three cast iron pans that belonged to my great grandmother, my mom found them just wasting away in her garage but then never used them because they were pretty rusty and nasty. I haven't been using them either because they need to be reseasoned and I wasn't sure how to go about it. Thanks for posting this OP.

throw it into the middle of wood fire coals for 30-45 minutes, then let it cool off it will look rusty, like unusable. then rub lard all over it, and throw it pan side down into an oven at 300 degrees for a couple of hours. from that point forward the seasoning will only get better, as long as you dont wash it with soap.

>>4077658
>He thinks new cast iron skillets are as good as the old ones!

Did anyone ever save that thread where a guy fully stripped and reseasoned his pan? I think it was about a year ago, might be relevant to your interests.

Also OP you and progun should make babies.

Don't listen to /ck/, soap on cast iron is fine.

You need to use 600+ F degree heat and oven cleaner to remove that coating. Regular soap is going to do jack shit.

wow this thread is still alive!

i just got home a few hours ago from the family range, after i finished cleaning the guns and such i decided to check the cast iron pan.

the thinnest spots of the old seasoning are completely removed, but the black gunk needs more time. if i had known this thread were still alive i would have taken picture for you guys. perhaps i will start to document this process in detail for you guys and make a nice thread for yall. the least i could do after you guys helped me do it...

>>4079709
nice fish tank op : )

>>4078031
you know, when i become a transexual after using flaxseed oil on this cast iron pan that may be a possibility....

>>4077991
you are very welcome

>>4079714
thank you, my fish tank is nearing its 3rd birthday this new year. it has certainly been one of my best investments

>>4078031
I saw it. Dudes pan looked great in the end.
Also remember him saying that its pretty much impossible to damage a well formed patina with soap and a normal scourer.

>>4079751
Oh, I also remember him saying that it was pretty much a fucking huge waste of time because cast iron pans are 20$ new, and he spent over that amount stripping the old seasoning off.

>>4077140

CLR then lard. What's your deal, bro?

>>4079797
i dont think clr is gonna cut it. the skillet has been soaking in oven cleaner for 2 days now and the squishy black crub shows no sign of leaving. i think it may be time to scrape it off.

>>4081209

what is it about /k/ and /fit/ that you have to announce that you also post on those boards?

does it really impress people that you have shot a gun, or have lifted weights?

pathetic.

>>4081244
its not to impress people.
i do it to mark myself as someone who is less educated than the average poster of whatever board i may be on. plus i know people here really like a trip named progun who speaks highly of /k/. it was just meant to be friendly.

>mom uses cat iron skillet occasionally
> I'm now paranoid I'm being poised by it

Welp

>>4077047

Machinist here; I'd suggest you find a shop that will sand blast / bead blast
the frying pan so that it's completely clean of rust and gunk, then follow the
instructions in this thread for seasoning cast iron cookware.

>>4081305
i hadnt even thought of that. i may buy some glass beads for my blaster. or hell i might try my walnut shells that i have left over from my stoplight restoration project. sweet turbo manifold btw. yours? make/model?

I've made a bit of a hobby out of restoring old cast iron.

The easiest way to clean it and start from scratch is to put it in an oven with a self cleaning function, and run it. Then steel wool anything thats still stuck on.
at this point, you'll be able to tell the quality of the pan.

Some older pans are machined on the inside and are glassy smooth right from the get go, that would be the fucking best

Almost all new pans and a lot of old ones are not machined inside, and will require a significant build up of "seasoning" to become non-stick.

Either way, you'll have to immediately coat it in oil or lard(lard is better imho) and season it the way these other gents have told you

>>4081327
what other methods of cleaning have you tried?

Just boil some vinegar in it and scrub it down with oil and salt at high heat.

>>4081318
> i may buy some glass beads for my blaster

If you've already got a sand blaster, you're all set. No need to spend the money on glass beads.

> sweet turbo manifold btw. yours?

No, just a pic I found on-line to show how easily sand blasting will clean up cast iron.
Fuck all that rubbing with salt BS - Work smart, not hard.

And while you'll use your air compressor to blow it off, wipe if down throughly with alcohol afterwards
to really clean the fine particulates of sand out of the nooks and crannies before seasoning.

I've also heard that antique cast iron cookware can be worth quite a bit to collectors (or just a really
cool item for the owner). Does the pan have any text or emblems cast into the bottom, identifying
the maker and such?

>>4081347
i cant read any real text. its to covered in crud.
perhaps we will know tomorrow.

>turbo mani
i wonder what a sand blaster would do to incanel compared to cast iron....

update! i am making progress with the oven cleaner. you should be able to make out the text "inch skillet" clearly!

>>4081602
this is the inside of the pan. it feels really smooth so i believe this pan may be of some quality at least.

>>4081610
and this is the wierd black gunk that refuses to come off. the oven cleaner was trying to get this crap off... but since it is so squishy i am going to try baking it off. its in the oven on 500*F now.

>>4077047
If that's rust in the middle of the pan, it's probably fucked OP.

>>4081625
the rust was just mild surface rust. since it has cleaned up a little i cant even tell where it was.

>>4081625
has no idea wtf they are talking about

>>4081643
yea.... i was being nice though. i figured they would learn

>>4081643
yea... i was being nice though. i figured they would learn.

and i come to you with another update.

my house is full of smoke and smells weird.

back to oven cleaner.

>>4081662
try using that sand blaster

>>4081678
actually what little time it was in the oven turned the sticky crap into hard crap. hard.. and brittle. so i busted out the scrapers and got to it. ill upload pics in just a second.

i have to admit i am biased against using a blaster. my setup is not contained and is a huge pain to set up for just one thing.i useully let things build up and blast many things at once.

>>4081715
picture after scraping. there would appear to be so pitting rust around the outside. but not on the bottom or inside. its back it the oven and hopefully there will be less smoke this time. then its back to oven cleaner

>>4081730
http://www.ibelieveicanfry.com/2010/12/reconditioning-re-seasoning-cast-iron.html

here is a step by step guide for reconditioning and reseasoning ancient rusted-and-gooped cast iron.

But it's not magic. Soap is bad because it mucks up the seasoning. Since you need to reseason anyway, just scrub that bad boy raw with soap and steel wool. Give precisely zero fucks.

>>4081745
i have that interpage up a few tabs over, actually. along with a few others. i have started to document this process and i think im going to turn it into a infopic for y'all to use whenever someone else asks this question.

>>4081754
good work then, jesus.
I'm sorry my people killed you that one time.

>>4081785
lol

another update coming soon. its cooling off. the oven certainly speeds up rusting.

>>4081792
still more crud to get off. and im getting a headache. so the skillet is slathered in oven cleaner again. update tomorrow after work y'all

>>4081730
Throw on high heat, add salt and a drop of oil. rub and scrub pan with paper towel until it becomes nice and shiny. It is not rocket science

And have fun cooking after youve been fucking that thing up with oven cleaner.

>>4078031
Hey, that was me! They actually archived that thread. OP you might want to take a look at that, as it's pretty close to what you're doing:
[can't post the link, thinks it's spam? Look it up I guess]
What you're doing right now (stripping the old seasoning and caked in gunk off) is the hardest part. If you continue to use Oven Cleaner (like I did) you're probably just going to have to deal with some old black flakes remaining in there. That said, your nod to "camping" suggests another alternative: supposedly if you chuck that thing inside the hottest part of your campfire for a while, it burns all that seasoning off to ash which can then be easily wiped or rinsed off. It's the same thing as using the high temps of a self cleaning oven without the risk of starting an oven fire behind the locked door of your oven and maybe burning your house down. Be warned that people have voiced concerns that the cast iron may warp or otherwise degrade at those high heats, so I'd try with a pan I don't care about first.
That said, if you continue with oven cleaner, I can make some recommendations about the tricky sides you're having trouble with. Make sure when you're spraying to keep the can as upright (perpendicular to he ground) as you can, as more of the complete mixture will come out of the can allowing it to stick MUCH better to the sides vs. just dripping down into the bottom of the pan. It might sound obvious, but if you're a dumb-ass like me, you're afraid of the spray at first, so you put the pan on the ground and spray it with the can almost parallel to the ground. It's a major difference.
Soaking in that lye is the key to removal, as all the scraping afterwards did almost nothing. Let each spray sit for at least 48 hours.
Let me know if you have any other questions (I'll try to check in later).

>>4077199
The inch/gallon thing is dumb as fuck and does not work at all
I've kept fish for years and have 6 tanks atm

You tank seems decent though, just be warned that pleco is going to ruin everything in a few months

>>4077199
>>4082919
The inch/gallon thing (1cm per 1½litres) is silly and wrong. The real thing is surface area, live plants, filtration and bubblers.
Each live plant adds 3cm of fish (about an inch) that your tank can hold. Also, 3cm for every 30cm2 of surface area (1 inch per foot2, I think?). If you have a tall, narrow tank that holds 75 litres (about 20gal) that only has 30cm2 of surface area (12 inches, about) and no plants, you can only have a single goldfish in there. I can't calculate for filtration or bubblers because they vary considerably manufacturer to manufacturer.
Reason being: fish need oxygen. Water has oxygen. As fish breathe, they use up the oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide, just like you and I. How does more oxygen get into the water? From the air and from plants that use up the carbon part of carbon dioxide and breath back out regular ass oxygen.
How does oxygen from the air get into the water? From the water's surface, from bubblers and from filtration.
Basically, figuring out how many fish a specific set up can use is an exercise in near futility because of each variable being so very... variable between one and the next. Different plants provide different amounts of oxygen, different bubblers and filtration systems aerate the water more or less than other systems and so on. It's best to just play it by ear and not worry about it too much.
And now you know.

>>4082948

not true about the plants. plants in an aquarium are not beneficial to the fish, and vice versa.

an aquarium is not a full-blown ecosystem. if it were, you would not need to clean the filter or the gravel.

>>4082900
i have given thought to getting a good fire going and pitching it into the coals. i have also noticed that the can of oven cleaner can be temperamental about angles.

>>4082919
the plants are fake. i have thougth about a separate tank to grow plants for feeding him. but the logistics of it were a little over the top.

>>4082948
good man.

>>4082970
fish tanks are not full blown ecosystems, but that not say plants don't have benefits to them. plants can help put oxygen back into the water, as well as filter waste. fish are also more comfortable with real plants. they know the difference. i used to have live plants and the fish loved them. its amazing just how much you notice things when you own a fish tank.