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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Not the ones I own. I should know, back when I was counting calories not using oil when simply frying an egg was an easy trick to monitor and predict the fat intake.
You don’t need vegetable oils, you need lipids in general. I’ll agree with you that making that source of lipids be vegetable oil is overall healthier than animal fat, though.
But I never said I never ingested oils - I said I was precisely monitoring calories, which in turn could mean deciding not to use oil when eating eggs. I could choose to ingest fats in more tasty or practical ways. Weight gain or loss is a matter of building a caloric deficit or surplus. If you’re going to do that by reducing carbohydrates that’s your choice, go for for it, but do keep in mind some people need to carefully monitor fat intake even if you do not consider weight objectives at all.
I’m just explaining that a pan that forces you to use oil to not stick can’t be honestly called “non-stick” because actual non-stick materials won’t require the oil. Otherwise, every pan is non-stick so long as you use enough oil. Don’t get me wrong: Teflon is poison, it’s bad, we should look for alternatives. But using a lot of oil everywhere to prevent sticking on cast iron means cast iron is not a viable solution to the same degree that teflon was.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It is non-stick if the seasoning is right, but often it’s not smooth enough off the shelf.
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.
Eggs with no oil will stick in a “non-stick” pan, too.
Not the ones I own. I should know, back when I was counting calories not using oil when simply frying an egg was an easy trick to monitor and predict the fat intake.
When you’re cutting out vegetable oils to lose weight, you’re doing it wrong.
Your body needs them.
What it doesn’t need is animal fat, and what you can safely reduce to lose weight are simple carbohydrates.
You don’t need vegetable oils, you need lipids in general. I’ll agree with you that making that source of lipids be vegetable oil is overall healthier than animal fat, though.
But I never said I never ingested oils - I said I was precisely monitoring calories, which in turn could mean deciding not to use oil when eating eggs. I could choose to ingest fats in more tasty or practical ways. Weight gain or loss is a matter of building a caloric deficit or surplus. If you’re going to do that by reducing carbohydrates that’s your choice, go for for it, but do keep in mind some people need to carefully monitor fat intake even if you do not consider weight objectives at all.
I’m just explaining that a pan that forces you to use oil to not stick can’t be honestly called “non-stick” because actual non-stick materials won’t require the oil. Otherwise, every pan is non-stick so long as you use enough oil. Don’t get me wrong: Teflon is poison, it’s bad, we should look for alternatives. But using a lot of oil everywhere to prevent sticking on cast iron means cast iron is not a viable solution to the same degree that teflon was.
A bit of olive oil in a mister doesn’t add enough calories to matter.
That’s just an abuse of olive oil. Olive oil is a finishing oil when you want the flavor. Use a neutral oil like avocado.
I like evoo. 🤷♀️ I like avocado too, and I live in a food and transportation desert, so there’s also that.
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.
A tiny bit of water unsticks them.
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.