Mountain Buzz banner

What!?! Use metal utensils and soap on my Dutch Oven!?! You better believe it.

6K views 18 replies 14 participants last post by  elkhaven 
#1 ·
#2 ·
a couple comments on the video.

I grew up on a one mule two cow farm in North GA. My Mom cooked on cast iron fry pans all my life. And the food was great especially the corn bread. I never saw my Mom wash her fry pans and other cook gear in anything but hot soapy water with a good rinse after the wash. And she used her fry pans multiple times a day just about every day.

I have a bunch of cast iron Dutch Ovens and really do like to cook in them. I rarely wash them as I mostly bake in them and just wipe out and lightly oil them.

Since GSI hard anodized came out, that is the dutch oven's I cook with 90 percent of the time. The ability to wash and dry in the river dish wash train is why. They Do not hold heat like the cast iron, but you learn to adjust and the light weight and ability to wash like normal gear makes GSI my DO of choice these days.

I took a Cee Dub DO seminar and he had Lodge units that looked like black glass on the cook surfaces. Said many were left over from his early days along the middle fork in Idaho. A further exam by me into his pickup storage area revealed several GSI units that looked well used. Butch allowed he did use his GSI units on a lot of personal trips due to the light weight. Even with my seasoned cast iron or GSI I always spray the inside with PAM - we group cooked for three days with Butch's cast iron and never sprayed anything and zero sticking.

I used to use vegetable or seed oils but here lately use the Camp Chef stuff to oil my cast iron. Main reason is I store cast iron for a long time between use. Camp Chef oil is supposed to not go sour in long storage.

I switched over to wood spoons, scrapers etc for all my cooking gear along with the plastic flippers as well. I have scratched my GSI stuff and aluminum as well with metal utensils and find wood works really well for me. Going back to my Mom's cooking on cast iron, she used metal utensils and the few pans I retrieved from the barn when she passed on have solid glass like surfaces. Due to the decades of daily use she did is my guess why.

I do not recommend doing what ever seasoning routine a person uses in the Wife's oven. I did that one time, smoked up the house and got the message ASAP to not ever do that again else suffer greatly. My propane BBQ grill has a cover. What I do is use that covered grill to "cure" any cast iron I find and restore. My name is Dave and I am a cast iron addict. Doing my best to pass up rural yard sales, but that is difficult.
 
#4 ·
I've used the GSI Hard Anodized aluminum DO's on a few trips and they work great. I was paranoid about scratching the coating, but the owner of the DO's said not to worry about it and using a metal spatula to scrape off stuck on food was fine. He wasn't wrong, and I scraped pretty well. I still wouldn't go out of my way to do it, and I defintely wouldn't use a steel scrubby on it...but its more durable then you would think.

I've never proscribed to the "no soap" school of Cast Iron. I would get the hard core abrasive pads/scrubbers out, but a bit of soap isn't gonna ruin it. I've had people freak out on my about it though.

After watching the video in the first post, it linked to a few about sanding the roughness off of a new cast iron skillet or DO. I seem to remember reading that a lot of the older Lodge or similar cast iron stuff used to come with a much smoother finish that is more desirable from a non stick standpoint. It seems legit to me, and I'm kinda tempted to try it on the cast iron skillet I have. It takes more time to get the seasoning back up since you are starting completely from scratch, but starting with a nice smooth surface seems like a good way to go.

I've also wanted to take a whack at making my own Partner Steel DO or cookware. Buy some aluminum plate, weld it up, and then send it off to get hard anodized. I'd even be interested in figuring out the process myself, though I hear that Hard Anodizing is more involved then the standard style since you need to keep it cool and within a steady temperature range.
 
#5 ·
Nice video, but I know many folks that would dispute some of those "facts", or "fictions" really...

I was a NO SOAP guy for a long time, but I've converted over the past few years... You won't find my scrubbing with a scotch pad AND soap, at least not very hard but I do give them a quick wash.

As for smooth - the best cast piece I've ever had was an old '40's Wagner that was smooth as glass. Nothing stuck to that thing. It was a gift and was rusty when I got it. I cleaned it up roughly like described in the vid, seasoned it several times in a row and never looked back... until it cracked :( several years ago (like 10 years into my stewardship). I still have no idea why it happened - very sad day.

I've since sanded several others, usually that were very rusty. Cast Iron is HARD and very difficult to sand, plan on spending a lot of time sanding but I do think it's well worth the effort.

I'm hoping for a GSI from Santa my self... We had some on our fall MF trip and they were very nice and sooo light.

Lastly, I too would love to try my hand at making Partner style AL pieces. rectangular just makes so much sense in boating... I just need the equipment to do the welding :) - Santa?
 
#6 ·
Hi,

My mother undertook to clean and improve some of her dad's semi rusty cast iron by having it sand blasted.

Not good.

It cleaned it up beautifully, but also removed all the stuff filling in the granular metallic surface of the pan.

Shiny but sandpaper rough. It took me uncounted oil/heat cycles to restore a useable cooking surface, filling in all those granular cavities.

FWIW.

Rich Phillips
 
#7 ·
I purchased a GSI hard anodized 12 in DO soon after they came on the retail market. Liked it big time.

Might be just me but I baked up a DO of Brownies. Wanting to cut down on dish washing I used a regular eating type knife out of the cook kit to cut the brownies while still in the DO. I use that DO a lot and it still has the checkerboard outline of those brownies scratched in the bottom.

That experience prompted me to go to either wooden, bamboo or plastic cook utensils on all of my pots and pans. I do not stress out if some one does use metal in my GSI but do not cut anything in the DO.

Some one posted, ask ten different DO cookers about anything and you will get eleven different opinions. Or words to that effect. I have found this to be true most of the time. I have also found that these opinions have worked for them. Bottom line for me is people have been doing DO style cooking for more centuries than I can count and there is a lot to learn even now.

Several posts mentioned Partner Steel cook gear. My opinion is that gear is top of the line. Based on posts in this msg board, I contacted Partner and ordered one of their "lasagna" pans. Very similar to the griddles but has edges like a pan. I am really looking forward to using this pan next warm weather boating season to cook breakfast spuds, green beans any thing for a large group that needs to be stirred around while cooking. The griddles are great for things like pancakes but not so good for some other items.

No matter what the topic I enjoy and learn from msg's posted on this board. Keep it going !
 
#8 ·
okieboater;Several posts mentioned Partner Steel cook gear. My opinion is that gear is top of the line. Based on posts in this msg board said:
Perfect for breakfast Burritos :-D, I'll bring the green chili.
 
#10 ·
I scrub mine with steel wool like my grand ma did for 70 years they are smooth and don't stick. If i forget the steel wool then I use soap and a cloth and hot water. I dry them after the wash and heat em up to keep rust from starting.
 
#11 ·
Jesus. We are indeed in the depths of winter.
Do we drain cooler or not?
Strapping frame to boat
..............................
Anyway, good old cast iron is bullet proof and truly is non stick if you take care of it.
Soap, metal utensils, and green scratch pads; as long as it's dry when you put it away it will be there for you the next time. And the weight? So what; if it was easy they'd call it Kayaking.
 
#18 · (Edited)
I've got a couple of Lodge DO's that have a very rough surface on the interior. I've been thinking of sanding it for years. I was going to use an orbital sander with some fine sandpaper. Anyone ever try that?

Yep - 25 years ago I got a Griswold fry pan at a yard sale for 50 cents; totally rusty with a lot of small pits. Hit it with a orbital sander for a while, then seasoned it repeatedly. It is the one I always turn to in our quiver of skillets.
 
#14 ·
If well seasoned, a good water soak should be all one needs to get it clean with a plastic brush or even a paper towel after each meal. Of course if you burn the brownies, all bets are off.

If cast iron needs re-seasoning, I'll bring water to a boil and soak it for a half hour or more before discarding water and scrubbing with a green pad and (it's easy when the pan is warm), then applying fat and baking. Repeat a couple times if needed when you are at home because it is so convenient, but this can be done easily in the field too.

My goto is a 15" skillet that has been a crowd favorite for >25 yrs that requires little maintenance, but I am really the only one who cleans it after every use. I suppose the only way to make sure the cast iron is ready for the next use is for the owner to maintain it every time. I'm still looking for a lid for that skillet.
 
#15 ·
Speaking of Brownies, one trick I like is to line the DO with oiled parchment paper or foil, that way I can easily lift them out as soon as they are done. Since the DO holds heat, I tend to burn them if left in the DO.

Lot's of great info on this thread, thanks all!!
 
#17 ·
The flatter and more uniform the surface becomes the better, so whatever works to do that. I'm sure an angle grinder, palm sander, or any number of other tools would work. If you use the angle grinder, I think you'll have more luck getting it smooth with a flap disk then a true grinding disc. Lots and lots of youtube videos trying various methods to do it.

It will obviously need a complete reseasoning, but I think once a few layers go down it will be a completely different experience using it.
 
#19 ·
I've refurbished a couple old and rough pieces of cast iron. I ended up up using a grinder with a flapper wheel. The cast iron is really hard, an orbital would likely give a very nice result but would take hours. Many many hours I would think - at least to take a roughly finished lodge and get it smooth.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top