Cast Iron II: The one where John McClane drives a motorcycle into a helicopter
This morning when I got up, I decided to make pancakes. I threw together a quick batch and heated my pan while I let the batter sit and hydrate the flour. When everything was ready, I took a scoop of my batter and put it in the pan. But: disaster! I had neglected to put any butter or oil in my pan. Forced to follow through, I waited while the mass of pancake batter surely bonded itself to my pan at the molecular level. When it came to the normal flip time, I braced myself for the coming fight, jabbed my spatula under the pancake, and stood slack-jawed in awe as my delicate flapjack gracefully released from the pan. No butter, no oil, no magic. Just good seasoning on cast iron.
This is a sort of “lessons learned” or after-action report that will serve as an addendum and follow-up to the cast iron article. I haven’t changed my procedure as much as refined it, so all the advice in the previous article still stands. The big takeaway is to use the thermal mass of your pan to your advantage.
1: Use Crisco over canola oil. I have started using Crisco for two reasons: First, it was recommended to me a number of times. Second, it stays mostly solid at room temperature and takes much longer to go rancid than other oils or fats. Lard is the tried and true method that old school cooks swear by, but for most people it goes rancid too easily and they don’t have many other uses for it.
2: Preheat your pan! In addition to using Crisco for seasoning, I now add a thin layer when I first put the pan on the stove. The important part is to let the pan heat slowly and thoroughly before cooking in it. This is important for any pan but even more so for cast iron. This does two things: it brings the pan to a stable temperature and it prepares the seasoning layer to do its job. The big factor at play here is the pan’s thermal mass. Cast iron takes a long time to soak up heat, but when it does, it dishes that heat back out very well due to cast iron’s high emissivity. This high thermal inertia means that putting food in your pan won’t lower the temperature enough to interrupt the Leidenfrost Effect (which keeps food from sticking by introducing a vapor layer between the food and the metal, keeping the two from binding and sticking).
3: Use a good, stout, metal spatula. Get that plastic nonsense out of here. Using metal utensils will wear on the surface of your pan and, over the course of a decade or so, contribute to the glassy smooth surface that very old pans are prized for. Besides, nothing’s better at breaking up sausage or hamburger, and you look cool.
4: Mess up your seasoning? Just cook in it. The most common mistake someone new to cast iron will make is using too much oil when seasoning. This results in sticky uneven spots instead of the mirror shine you wanted. The solution? Cook something! Heat your pan back up and make some bacon or pancakes or something. The heat will loosen up that extra oil, and your metal spatula will smooth everything out. When you’re done you’ll have a solid and consistent seasoning layer.
A lot of these tips involve un-learning all of your nonstick wisdom from years of cooking on it, but the reward is well worth the effort. If you have questions about your cast iron, the subreddit r/castiron is a good place to start. Or, ask me on instagram or twitter @dynamicinterests!