Recommend me cast iron

[Jaglavak]

The words pizza and stone just seem to go together, don't they?


The non flat bottom on my old dutch oven was installed by my girlfriend. That's what happens when you turn on the burner to preheat the pan, forget about it for 10 minutes, and then panic and quench it with cold water. It's got to be just about glowing red, but what happens is the cold water hits the inside of the pan causing it to suddenly cool and shrink while the other side is still red hot. Bingo, your pan has a slightly curved bottom. Then the hot side cools down and shrinks, compressing the living crap out of the inside while stretching the metal on the outside. Thus locking in some pretty severe stresses. If you overheat a pan, let it cool down slow. If it's on fire just slap the lid on and back away.


One final comment, when I say no soap contact that does include the kitchen scrubber even if you rinse it thoroughly. There will still be enough soap left in it to slay the seasoning. If you use a scrubber, you need one that has never touched soap.

Originally Posted by Fatwater Fewl

Ideally, water will never touch my cast iron skillet at all. I scrub mine while it's still quite warm with oil and salt and a clean, dry cloth...

Interesting, I'll have to try that.

[Glazer]

Originally Posted by Jaglavak

The words pizza and stoned just seem to go together, don't they?

FTFY

[krisolov]

Lodge also makes some really nice enameled cast iron that rivals that crazy expensive le Creuset stuff for a much nicer price.

I have a large enameled dutch oven from them that absolutely is the best stew/chili/deep fry pan ever.

[Wolf Larsen]

Originally Posted by Jaglavak

Interesting, I'll have to try that.

We use salt to scrub with and it works pretty well to remove any cruft without killing the patina.