nice. Lodge is a favourite brand. fairly inexpensive, bought my 30cm pan prologic preseasoned cast iron when I was in Toronto in 2002 or 2003. Still use it, now on induction. I have taken it to 370 C on induction to season it, induction for safety reasons cut off the operation. very very minimal warping but that could have happened on gas too. I used flaxseed oil once (unfortunately and that gave me a very hard time) I regretted using it. I used steel brushes and sanding paper to make it smoother, not as smooth as yours, seasoning doesn't adhere that well. It seems that the rough surface is creating hot pockets filled with tiny amounts of oil and that prevents food from sticking. Fissler have some stainless steel pans that are actually griddled surface, creating little squares, their marketing stated that the oil is trapped and food does not stick. The downside of the rough surface in cast iron, is that not only seasoning polymerises, from time to time when I run my fingers, the pans gather some dark matter, that is carbonisation and it sometimes is visible on the egg whites. So with a very mild soapy solution that is cleaned up and I don't like the carbonisation. I realised there were no blackening fingers on my de buyer (black iron pans) due to the smooth surface. Care was the same, washing was the same. Now when people say this a better cast iron, this is not that good, I am sorry I also own non brand ones, they perform the same. The metal alloy is the same, iron and silicon, so the difference is the thickness. Non brand ones are heavier than lodge. We are not comparing enamelled ones, as there is a difference between French staub and le creuset compared with the Chinese enamel. Very good video. Thanks
I've heard so many people say they love their Lodge CI, it is a great price too of course, but so many people say they hate it. I expect the people that "hate" it just spent too much money and need to justify the purchase by putting down the competition. The handles are a little shorter, they are hefty also, but with induction that probably doesn't matter and no matter which pan I use, the handles heat up beyond the point that I can hold them. Personally I believe that Lodge skillets are made to last and designed not to fail, they are practical pans. Any new pan can be smoothed out easily with sandpaper if anyone doesn't like the rough texture. As far as the rough finish in regard to non-stick, I'm still testing this out, I've had rough that stick and smooth that stick. I find that a higher cooking temperature helps (maybe the release of steam) the idea of the oil having a place to sit does make sense to me, however many of the smooth pans I have perform very well and they are incredibly easy to clean.. I literally just use the metal spatula and a little paper towel and done. I've been researching the types of cast iron, and it is an alloy of sorts because there are other little ingredients they add to make it more fluid during the pour, so there are different types, and I suppose you could kind of say that might be related to the quality. My thought here is that one mix of materials is better for a particular purpose than another. In general what you say is what I believe as well. I've only ever cracked one pan, and that was because I accidentally put the burner on high with nothing in the pan, going from 20C to 300C in a matter of a few minutes without heating the entire pan evenly caused a crack. An interesting subject, I want to learn more about this. Something very cool that I saw recently was the process of hardening the 'ways' of a lathe bed using induction heating in some type of coolant (looked like water) I never knew cast iron could be hardened. Thanks for the note I appreciate you thoughts on this very much!
"It seems that the rough surface is creating hot pockets filled with tiny amounts of oil " the metal machining have the same concept too, the metal surfaces needs to be flat but at the same-time have to rough to contain lubricating oil, if your surfaces were too smooth, two contacted metal surfaces will squeeze out the oil, and you won't get the lubricating effect.
The difference in temperature reading is just an error from the infrared thermometer. This instrument is sensible to surface finish. In thermodynamics, it's called the emissivity of a surface. One way you could test it, with the same equipement, would be to stick a piece of tape, or anything non reflective on each section, and mesure that instead. I bet you the temperature is in fact the same everywere on the pan. Try it!
I need a multi-meter desperately, that would be a really useful feature to have. I have a meat thermometer which I'll try, but I don't think the range is high enough, though I could just keep the temperature low since there was a significant difference no matter the high or lower temps. I wanted to try using something on the pan like a small piece of thin metal, maybe a cross section of a piece of steel rod. Then the sheen would be identical for each piece. I wonder if turning the lights off and taking a measurement in the dark would help. I'd prefer not to do the "old-school" how long can you hold your finger on it.... I appreciate your input on this, this is pretty cool stuff.
Makes sense, I had been hanging onto a heat shield from an old computer monitor, it's black and fairly thin (0.5mm) that could work. I still like the meat thermometer idea though.
I'm struggling with the readings still, I've tried thin pieces of paper, parchment paper, and computer monitor heat shield, and the original rough finish is still reading much higher. I'm going to check the skillet for a perfectly flat bottom and see whether that may be contributing to the false readings.
Just a tip from someone who has been doing this for decades...I've modified a number of rough cast iron pans and griddles with super success using only 80 grit sand paper. The result was a smooth surface, but the 80 grit sanding left a tiny micro-texture to allow the seasoning to get established and not be lifted off by use. Even the Stargazer company realized they had better results by having a tiny micro-texture allowing seasoning to hold. You will love the results...God Bless.
I agree, I followed up with a separate video on the subject as well. A light texture, like sandblasting would probably be perfect. I've boiled vinegar in teh pan first to etch it and that works quite well also. Thanks for taking the time!
Ihave and use a 10” Lodge & Stargazer cast iron skillet. The Lodge holds a seasoning far better. They both work but the Lodge is easier to live with despite the better ergonomics of the Stargazer. Guessing minis pre-microtexture. I seasoned it 7 times and even emailed them when it was new. PITA…
I inherited a Griswold skillet and a Wagner skillet that were both manufactured around 1920. I use one or the other almost every day. Unlike modern cast iron skillets, they are both perfectly flat on the bottom and don't "teeter" on the stove. They too have very slick cooking surfaces. I can only imagine how many great meals were cooked on them before they came to me. They are wonderful skillets. I really treasure them.
You're mistaken. Modern cast iron skillets absolutely sit flat. I've never seen a new lodge pan that doesn't have a flat bottom. In fact, it's the old vintage skillets that usually wobble/spin. They are thinner and many have been warped over the years.
@@thomassnapp1341most new cast iron pans are as good, and can cook just as good as antiques with minimal effort. You can buy a $15 pan and sand it with 80 grit, season it a few times and it cooks just as well as a BSR, Wagner, Griswald etc. I have numerous antiques, and many modern pans. If you want to turn a $15 pan into a $200 dollar pan, spend 15 mins sanding it down with 80 grit. Hell, I have even done it to my antiques that were heavily rust damaged. Made them good as new....even though collectors that wouldn’t have cooked on them said I ruined them. But I have been cooking on them for decades after saving them from a rusty useless mess. A useless pan isn’t worth anything to me.
I am an IR newbie, this makes sense, I made a few attempts at adding a different material to the surface, however the readings were still off, not as much, but more time needs to be taken review the temperature reading properly. Thank you for the comment :)
@Donald Kasper Infrared thermometers have good accuracy when measuring most objects, but shiny, reflective surfaces can be a challenge. ... Putting a piece of non-reflective tape (such as electrical tape) over the shiny surface or applying some flat paint gives you a target from which you can get a better measurement. (From Fluke's IR website)
@@NeedItMakeIt You could always use your meat thermometer and touch the prob to the pan to get the temp. Not as flashy but it'll give better results on shiny surfaces.
@Donald Kasper the black surface would absorb more from an outside source such as the sun or a light bulb, but not from contact from below such as on a burner.
I have a lot of iron skillets, pans and griddles, a mix of Lodge and Griswold all antiques passed down through 3 generations and all are dang good pans. I don't know what anyone has against Lodge, they've stood the test of time for me and mine. Like anything else, if you treat it right, season it and clean it as needed, it'll be here for your great-grandchildren.
The difference in temperature reading is due to the emissivity of the surface being different from a rough to polished surface, rough surfaces have a higher value, eg. rough black iron 0.95, while shiny surfaces can be much lower, eg. polished steel is around 0.07.
Yep, emissivity but color plays a factor. Black is the color of a material that absorbs all visible wavelengths, white reflects all and bare cast iron is grey. A "black body" is the easiest to measure because it readily emits "black body radiation". I'm not sure if color or roughness is the dominant factor but they are both responsible.
I did this one of my cheap pans a few years ago to try it out, but I'm lazy and used a synthetic abrasive brush in my drill, and an orbital sander. Anyway, I like the difference. For me, it seems to be seasoning faster, and is more non-stick and much easier to clean. Can't see any drawbacks of doing it.
Thanks, I agree as well. I went too far in this video of course, tonight I'll be releasing a video showing a few more reasonable grits to sand to and 1 very unique surface finish. I have nothing against people using orbitals etc. The main reason I do this work by hand is because I like to do hand-work, I personally prefer the final product to have some type of variation that you'd see with things made by hand. Do you have any brands of CI that you prefer?
Just out of curiosity, why did you finish up with steel wool? IIRC, 0000 steel wool is roughly equivalent to 400 grit sandpaper - if you've already polished to 2000 grit, wouldn't steel wool introduce scratches instead of polishing?
For sure, check out my latest video, I use your technique and also built a device to spin the pan at the same time to re-shape the inside of it and smooth it also. Thanks for the comment!
You can’t use a temp gun on a shiny surface. It’s essentially measuring how bright it is in the infrared spectrum. You’re getting a lot of IR from the environment bounced off the surface and washing out the color of the pan.
Sir, I liked and subscribed to your channel 10 seconds into your video. It was solely based on how you organized/divided your video into segments in the video description and gave the time so people can skip around as needed. THANK YOU!
Crazy the way these phones listen in. Wife just bought this exact pan last week for $20 at Canadian tire. Upon seeing it, I said it was too rough and proceeded to polish the inside. Turned out great. Certainly did not search up anything related to lagostina, nor grinding a pan, yet this morning, what shows up in my feed? 1984? Yup.
I had the same experience a few weeks ago, a coworker was telling me about a new method of welding pieces of aluminum together, call Friction Stirring. I would never had thought of searching for this and had no idea it existed. That night it showed up on my feed. I'm going start talking about something I would never have before to see what happens... BTW, they may have improved this pan's design, but they were manufactured with a bulge in the middle. it might be worth putting a straight edge on the inside to see if you have the same problem as I did. The bottom is also concave by 1/16" and this causes any oils or eggs to move to the outside of the pan. Also I'm working on a video to fix this right now, but they may have already changed the design because they had a lot of comments from customers on this problem. I saw that sale also, and I was tempted to buy another, I don't have room for any more!
Yea, I was talking to a friend about her ski trip she took over xmas to Utah last week and i got a ski Utah email two days later. But nope they are not listening to you! Lol
The pan had the same temp along the entire bottom, but shiny objects radiate less IR energy than dull objects at the same temp. So if you're using an IR thermometer, it has to be calibrated to the emissivity of the material you're measuring.
Griswold is my favorite pan.. plus they are collectable and only go up in value. Oh and the best part is you have to cook with them to maintain there value.
I've heard a lot about the Griswold pans, do you have a particular model or size that you like to use the most? I've never used one myself; I really enjoy my $10..10" Kitchen-aid, it's just a solid pan that performs so well. From your experience, do you think that the kind of oil used makes a big difference, or is the seasoning more important or the texture of the surface? Maybe something else? Thanks for taking the time!
@@NeedItMakeIt What Riley said is true about Griswold. But i prefer late production Wagner pans (last produced in late 80's) with machine finish inside for cooking. i have a 10" and an 8". These pans have Wagner 1891 original cast into the bottom as well as 4 step seasoning instructions cast in.They are not as deep as some of the older Wagners that say Sidney with a number designating their size. My 8" measures 1 and 7/16" deep. The older Wagners and Griswolds are deeper and the Griswolds are of a finer grained (ductile perhaps) iron and have a smooth finish all over whereas the Wagners and others (benjamin Medwin comes to mind) have a cast finish on the underside and on handles. The sides on the late Wagners are sloped a bit compared with the steeper sided older pans. That makes getting my spatula under fried eggs easier when they are right up against the edge. They all can be found on Ebay or if you prefer the hunt, thrift stores and garage/yard sales.
NeedItMakeIt I have nearly fifty Griswold skillets and Dutch ovens and more ,, I use olive oil for seasoning , the pan needs to have its pores open so make sure it’s a little more then warm when you season it , don’t over do it either ! When it comes to cleaning I Initially use water then dry it out and clean with coarse salt and a stainless Scouring pad ,,, my pans are like glass inside ,,, PS. Be careful what oil you use to season if it sits too long it can become rancid , that’s why I use olive oil !
@@NeedItMakeIt Over the years I have acquired a #0, and #3-#9 Griswolds. There is no size I like the most. It depends on what I'm cooking, sizing the pan to the food for the most efficient use of the available heat.
The difference in temp is due to your reflective surfaces. If you can put something non-reflective on it, you'll get even temps across the entire surface.
Some of the comments on why the infrared thermometer was measuring different temperatures were close to being correct. Infrared thermometers measure the far infrared light that's being emitted by a surface to determine its temperatures. Surfaces have a property known as emissivity, this is a measure of how well the surface emits far infrared light. Many properties of the surface can change it's emissivity. Black rough surfaces tend to have a high emissivity which means they emits far infrared light well. Silvery smooth or shiny surfaces tend to have a low emissivity which means they do not emit far infrared light well. Low emissivity surfaces will indicate lower temperatures than high emissivity surfaces at the same temperature. High-end infrared thermometers have an emissivity setting so the thermometer can be calibrated for the particular surface you are measuring. Infrared thermometers are good for non-contact measurements but they're not very accurate. Nothing beats a physical contact measurement.
That is excellent information. I was in the shop last night working on another testing project and I was seeing a similar temperature differential, the rough surface read higher values than the smoother/lighter surfaces. I agree that a contact measurement method would be better, I have an instant read thermometer, which works great for meat, not so good for hard surfaces. Thanks for your thoughts on this!
@@NeedItMakeIt Back at university we tested this with a block of aluminum on a stove. The aluminum was everything from sandblasted to polished holed with different diameters and some with thread. Conclusion was that to get an accurate measurement on a surface with an unknown emissivity you want to measure a threaded hole at least three times the depth of the diameter. or use some special tape with a known emissivity.
@@rasmusegeolesen Alright, excellent advice. I had attempted using black thermal paper from a computer months ago. That didn't work because it refused to sit flat on the surface, so I'll go ahead and look up this thermal tape and use this in a follow up test. I may also try to source a direct method of reading temperature. I may have to make something to house an instant-read thermometer, however even that comes with it's own set of problems.
I know that an infrared thermometer will read different from a shiny surface as compared to a mat surface. My question is, how much difference does surface area make? In my lay opinion, the more surface area you have, the higher the temperature. If you sand away the highs aren't you losing surface area?
@@christopherbronson748 it's hard to say how much the emissivity will change for any given physical change to a surface. In order to calibrate your infrared thermometer you're going to have to make a physical measurement with a more accurate contact thermometer. The best way to do this is to make a single contact measurement near the temperature that you intend to measure. Then use your infrared thermometer to measure the temperature. You can use these two temperatures to create a correction factor for your infrared thermometer. As long as you don't change the surface again you should be able to use your infrared thermometer to make more accurate measurements. Although the repeatability of your measurements will depend upon the quality of your infrared thermometer and how closely you're repeating the physical arrangement of your infrared thermometer and the surface your measuring. Overall infrared thermometers are very limited on how accurate they are. They're really not good for making high accuracy measurements. They can be used for making comparative measurements on surfaces that are similar in situations where it is difficult or impossible to make a contact measurement. They will also give you a rough idea of how hot something is within a few degrees.
I polished several cast iron pans with poor results. Like you they would not hold the seasoning. I eventually had to rough it up with some sand paper to get them to hold it. I eventually came to the conclusion that the rougher surface of the modern skillets hold the seasoning better and hold up better to use with things that need to be boiled.
It makes sense to me now as well. A little bit of rough texture would be the best. I recently finished a follow up video showing how lower grits of sandpaper would hold the seasoning, and along with a good process for apply the coating, each of them worked out very well. It was a neat experiment, but there is no way I'll be polishing another pan, anywhere from 100-220 grits work very well. I've not really tried to boil anything in my pans, and I don't own any pots, but that might be a good method of testing as well.
what i believe the the reason for the different surfacing between old (smooth) and new (rough) pans is all about seasoning grip as pointed out in a few comments. at some point, i think late 70's, don't quote me on that, manufacturers realised that a rough finished surface was easier to blacken and preseason than a smooth finish, so the entire world cast iron pan industry changed its methods and now we have the modern rough finished pan, and apparently when changing they also thinned out the pans and added a ringed base to strengthen the thinner pans. this is visible by flipping your pan and you will see a ringed bottom instead of the flat smooth bottom like that of the older antique pans. but i might be wrong. but but my old pans (from my mom) are as described and my newer ones (that i have bought) are as described. check out your own and see. also try weighing and older v newer of same diameter and notice the difference in weight. happy cooking folks, oh ps. all my new pans, not my moms, i have sanded and re-seasoned, but i have found that going to a 320 grit (i use Klingspor wet/dry auto-paper) is more than enough, any smoother and you just scratch and damage the surface when cooking. The nonstick is more in the seasoning and oiling rather than the smoothness i think. but i guess you got to get both right to be successful.
I have to use the barbecue because it smells up our house quite a bit. I've found that leaving the pan in at 450f for about an hour does a great job in setting a hard seasoning layer. The same concept though, the Stargazer website has a great method that is easy to understand.
@@NMETSGChan I believe he said Oil Bake. The simplified (Oil) baking process is: 1. Clean your pan with soap and water, dry immediately 2. Place in the oven at around 200f for about 10-15 minutes (removes any residual moisture and "opens the pores") Note: As far as opening the pores, I'm not sure this is what's really happening, but I can't really prove it either way. In either case it works. 3. Take out and apply a coat of Canola/Veg oil to the surface, apparently the higher the smoke point the better... Canola works great. 4. Wipe off the excess thoroughly. Any drips will show up if you don't catch them now. Some people say to wipe everything off... I personally like to leave a thin coating 5. Preheat oven, or bbq to 450C and place pan back in upside down. Some people say place something below... if you wipe off the oil properly, you don't need to. Also, the pan won't crack because it is being heated evenly. 6. Leave in oven/bbq to bake for 1 hour, this part is very important, the purpose is to cause the oil to polymerize, or convert into a carbon structure, both bonding to the pan, and creating a non-stick water resistance surface. I'm not a chemist, but it is similar to the process of Boiled linseed oil being applied as a furniture finish, just much quicker. 7. Turn the oven/bbq off and leave for an hour or so, this will continue to cure the seasoning so that it is not sticky and it should be hard / black and water repellent when it is finished. 8. If the pan is not seasoned, you'll want to do this at least twice, but the more the better, so it can take a while. 9. Clean and oil the pan and you're ready to go. Troubleshooting: If the finish isn't very dark, you need to leave it at a high heat for longer, if it is sticky, you've applied too much oil or not enough time in the oven at high heat. If it is blotchy that could be an unclean surface before the oil was applied, or too much oil (pre-heating at 200f) seems to prevent this. You'll know the process is working when the pan is smoking and smelling up you house... again use a barbecue. Normal cooking on the stove top should not produce smoke, if it does, you are cooking too hot, or your seasoning is not set. I've been researching this process quite a bit and testing as well. Everyone has their own variation, and many methods work well. This works for me and it can be seen in my latest video on an un-seasoned pan. I hope this helps!
The smooth surface shows a lower temperature because it is more reflective. The colder environment partially shines through. Same thing happens with thermal cameras. If you took a temperature measurement by direct contact they would most likely all be the same.
I bought a 15" Westinghouse for my wife. It was as rough or rougher than what yours looked like. I took a 60grit flap disk on an angle grinder to it and cleaned it out. Took all the ridges out of it and it now works/looks great.
That's a huge pan, it must weigh quite a bit (good for strength training) the flap disk does work well, I've tried the wire wheel, and it struggled to get through the seasoning, which surprised me, seasoning is pretty tough stuff. I've never heard of the Westinghouse brand, have they been around for a while, or is it new? I see they are available on Amazon right now.
@@NeedItMakeIt Not sure how long they've been making pans, but they've been in business since George Westinghouse founded his Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company in January 8, 1886, which was later renamed to Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1945. Yah, it's a big pan. Pretty much unusable until I hit it with the flap disk, then re-seasoned it. Wife is real happy with it now. Fry an entire chicken in that thing :o)
Growing up my mom had the wooden handle cast iron from Taiwan from back in the 70s. I've slowly started amassing my collection, mainly with pan styles that she doesn't have. I keep trying to convince her to give them up as my parents are retired and don't cook at home anymore. Even went so far as to buy them all.
I saw one with the wooden handle, I was really tempted to buy it, but I figured that seasoning it would be a problem, unless the handle could be removed. People love their cast iron, they are like children... except they can cook!
@@NeedItMakeIt it varies by manufacturer, but most of mine use a threaded rod with washer to hold the handle on. I usually do a initial seasoning with everything torn down. After that I just stove top season with the handle attached as needed.
Emissivity is a very real thing. We had a 6000 horse power synchronous motor that the commutator would get too hot (turned out it had the wrong brush material, it needed brushes with a higher copper content) and the commutator needed rebuilt every year at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars. Before we found the problem we started stoning the commutator at least every day. We took readings with an IR temp gun before and after stoning. The temp would drop drastically after each stoning. The mass of the commutator was such that such a sudden drop wasn't possible. It was much shinier after stoning. Turned out to be emissivity. You could use black barbecue paint to fix that, but there is another problem. While the gun puts out a nice little dot for aiming, the actual area it is measuring is probably larger than the entire frying pan. A way around that would be to use an IR camera, but they are expensive. You can get a questionable camera attachment for a phone, but they are more than $100, and any decent IR camera will likely set you back a few thousand dollars. I would opt for a contact type thermometer.
the temperature gun (IR) works by sending a lazer beam down and seeing the light bounce back to it. the surface reflectivity can afffect it. for example a mirroir surface will never read right compared to a mat surface.
If your food sticks, I would do this treatment, but your well seasoned area did wonderful. I did this process with with. New pans, they work great now. I can do eggs well. One of them is a dutch oven. I can stir fry in it, just like if it was a carbon steel wok. The seasoning did took a while.
I'm doing some testing right now on Cast iron and there seem to be quite a few factors involved in prevent sticking. Do you think that temperature plays a role in the non-stick properties also? Do you think a thick layer of seasoning would perform better than a thin layer?
The newer pans with rough surfaces smooth out with use. The "pores" fill over time. I had one newer pan that I wasn't happy about because it had the rough bottom. Fast forward a year or two, I got a new larger pan. When I went to compare them, I noticed the first pan was smooth, not as perfectly flat as the one I got passed down to me, but it is smooth. I wouldn't waste your time sanding. Focus on seasoning the pan, that's what fills the voids. When washing, I basically just wipe it with an oily rag, if it needs scrubbing, I'll add coarse salt with a bit of oil and use that as an abrasive. If it needs more, sometimes I'll rinse with warm water, maybe scrub with a plastic brush. I've never used soap on my castviron pans. The key is leaving more seasoning to make a thicker coating. I have pans I can fry an egg in as if it was Teflon coated.
I agree, after some time testing and researching, I've come to the same conclusion. Seasoning builds up over time after repeated applications of fats. I have heard from other viewers that a metal spatula also speeds this process along, I switched to metal and so far it has no harmed my pans at all, it is a pleasure to use since it glides under food so easily. Those are all good points, I also have been using salt on occasion, it works very well. If you can't wait, I don't think there is any harm in knocking off the high spots, there is no point in polishing the surface, in fact it does not allow the seasoning layer to bond as well. I've just finished recording tonight for 2 more videos related to this one, they are both starring this Lagostina pan again, so I hope you'll weigh in on those when they're released within a week. Thanks for sharing!
@@NeedItMakeIt Now that you mention it, I've been using a metal spatula, I guess that may have helped. Hopefully I remember to check for your new videos. I love cast iron, it's all I cook with.
I'm convinced that a light sanding with 80-100 grit will do the job. You will eliminate the high points on the surface that cause the sticking. Just reseason to cover the bare metal exposed. At least it worked for me. If you want to make it smooth, that works too but is it worth the effort since it is mostly an aesthetic issue?
I completely agree, I've done follow up tests and the best results came from 100 grit sanding, the seasoning bonds best to a surface that has this level of abrasion. I don't really recommend polishing a cast iron pan, it is counterproductive, the seasoning doesn't bond too well and like you say, it is a waste of time, this was an interesting experiment though. I have a few more videos on the subject which really dial it in. Thanks for the great comment!
Gotta like CT sales eh, lol I bought the 12 inch model a couple weeks ago for $29. I sanded my 12inch Lagostina by hand too, I used a 80 grit then a 120 just to take the roughness / bumps off the thing. I also used a wooden sanding block to make sure I was sanding it flat. Once it had a few coats of seasoning it was very slippery. Now I use it for all the cooking I do. I have a small no name frying pan from Princess Auto too and a medium 10.25 Wagner that I also smoothed out but it had a machined surface when we bought it new. I used a wire wheel on my cordless drill for the Wagner to start the seasoning process over again because the thing sat on a shelf for 20 years or more and had some rusty spots on it. I really like cooking on the cast iron though... My elderly mom bought the 10 inch model you have and she uses it often also. Thumbs up! 👍🏼
This guy... I subbed because I really like your attention to detail and commitment to hand work and testing. This is a great vid that I’ll share with my cast iron-loving friends.
I sanded a new Lodge and it was a challenge to season. I thought the preseason was too coarse. My favorite is my old Griswold. Second fav is the 12 in mystery skillet. It looks like a Lodge but it has no markings at all. Thanks!
I find that a light "dusting" of cooking spray (Pam, or something similar) after every use is all that's required to keep my cast iron in tip-top condition. Spray lightly and then wipe it off. You don't need bacon grease or any fancy oil. The cooking spray is ideal.
Hey, Clarance: I have one smoothed Lodge that I've been experimenting on using the spray coatings. It seems quicker and appears to do a good job. I'm still in the initial stages with that one so time will tell.
coming from a guy that has only cooked in old cast iron the reason you want a smooth buff on it is simple rly once you take a day and carbon coat it RIGHT and not half ass'd you will never have to worry about cleaning it and a simple wipe while hot will do then a little re oil and your set if you have a textured finish you still need to / will have to sctub it if you bake or something all my old things can get stuff caked on and its just a wipe away with little to no effort where my wife's pan needs scrubbing if you cook in it regardless of how well you season it.
The temperature is not different. Use a thermocouple to verify. The infrared sensor is extremely sensitive to shiny surfaces and will often read most true on black / diffuse surfaces. Shiny surfaces tend to show very cold.
I have my grandma's corn bread skillet from around 1900. It does cook differently from the pan I got when I married. It is heavier for one thing and slick smooth inside. The bottom is flat and it holds heat better.
They used to smooth pans and left the seasoning to the user, but these days they're pretty rough. The smooth does look nice and does give me the impression of a higher quality, I still don't know if it is more non-stick, but it is much easier to clean. None of my pans are that old, would be nice to have an antique at some point. I have been wondering a bit about the thickness, and whether it has any impact on cooking. I know it takes longer to heat evenly, which is a bit of a drawback these days. Any advantages you can think of?
@@NeedItMakeIt The biggest advantage is that the pan holds heat longer and heats more evenly across the surface. Once up to temp you can reduce the heat and still cook well. I think the original advantage was that many people cooked on wood stoves or coal stoves. The cookware had to be very robust to take that kind of heat. Also in cooking outside over a wood fire a thin pan would burn the food very quickly. When using a Dutch oven or covered skillet the lid is very heavy which reduces evaporation and allows for longer simmering time. As an added bonus you can cancel your gym membership. Nothing like pumping cast iron to build those muscles.
I've got 2 faves. My daily driver is an 8" (I think) skillet that actually says Martha Stewart on the bottom. Someone gave it to me. I have the seasoning so thick that it looks wet with oil all the time but isn't sticky or anything. Just midnight black and shiny. I can slide eggs off it. Love it. My other is a massive 14" lodge skillet I meal prep with. It was also a used pan, so not sure the history on it. I actually got frustrated with it. Eventually I stripped it with the easy off method and put 4 coats of flax seed, and have been using olive oil since. Performs much better now.
It's tough to understand something we can't see. But it is picking up light, so it makes sense that a "mirror-like" surface would cause incorrect readings. This is a cheap model also so I'm not certain the readings are so accurate no matter where I take the measurement. I've been in the shop testing this lately and it's consistent in reading higher for a dark flat black surface compared to the lighter highly polished surfaces.
I couldn't agree more. I picked up a few old Wagners and have been really happy with them. I have a 10" wagner which does not sit flat so I and trying to find the best method of flattening it without removing too much material. The Griswald skillets are so expensive, are they really worth the money?
I like to season mine in my pellet grill, makes me feel like I’m cooking flavor into the pan😆. Something I’ve also done is deep dish Chicago style pizza in my pellet grill with the lodge, it’s a home run. My six year old year old takes great pride in making his own in a small skillet...
I have the little cast iron box for smoking on my BBQ, but I don't find it works well at all. I did the same thing with my son a week ago (actually twice) because it was such a hit. We pre-heated the pan in the oven as well and made it a deep dish too! What I found with the cast was that the crust wasn't as crispy as it was with the pizza stone, I wonder if that's because it didn't allow a place for the steam to go, did you have this problem? In either case, the pizza was great, we make 14" pizzas for ourselves and they don't last too long and look very "artistic" or hand-made.
Rub butter all over inside of cast iron skillet & sides, coat butter with fine shredded Parmesan sides as well, place in dough up to top of sides, add lots of mozzarella, add toppings, sauce over toppings, sprinkle Parmesan on sauce. Bake in pellet grill or oven until crust edges are golden brown at 375. Parmesan will caramelize on outer crust with the butter👍🏻 your welcome!!! Or you could just oil the pan....
I like the older brands like Wagner and Birmingham Stove (lots of unbranded pieces are BSR). Lodge bought the molds when BSR closed. BSR is heavier than many other old brands, much like Lodge. I ran across a brand out of South America called Victoria which I like very much. Not quite as heavy or rough as Lodge and a better design than the basic Lodge. It is in a similar price range unlike the new brands made in the US. Knocking down the high spots might work better than polishing. Using a heavy steel spatula over time will do that. Also, frying bacon after seasoning but before cooking eggs seems to finish the seasoning pretty well.
I'm a Wagner fan, we have plenty of vintage ones in my area and they are usually around $10. I have a lodge as well, but I personally think the Wagner's are better designed, with the exception of the handle length since they tend to be quite short and get pretty hot. I have a Kitchen-aid 10" which is actually really good, stays flat and is pretty hefty... with a longer handle, and the Lagostina pans are not good at all in my experience. I'd like to try using a metal spatula, I originally thought it was a bad idea, but I'm hearing from quite a few people that it works really well.
Still doesn’t duplicate like a griswold or old Wagner ,,, but to answer your question ,,,, the smoother is better and will continue to get better as it’s seasoned ! 👍
I have been given a number of the cast iron pan cookie kits. It’s a little three inch griddle, and it’s as rough as a rasp. I go at them with grinders, sand paper, whiz wheels, and a polisher when I hang around the shop after work. They come out fairly decently for something you can only cook a single egg on
I have a small lodge pan, it works really well for a single egg, I do find that even though the handle is small it tends to teeter a little until I add the egg into the pan to counter-balance it. The handles probably get nice and hot on these small pans too?
I think it'd be hard to resist a finish like that. I've heard that the old ones used to come standard with a smooth finish, but I'm not sure, maybe they became smooth with use over time. If you have the right equipment smoothing a skillet can be pretty quick (die grinder for example) Thanks for the comment.
I’m in the middle of stripping/sanding down a couple cast iron pans, and I’m using a couple of different hand sanders. Not the hardest task, but watching you do it by hand, how long did that take you? I’m curious.
The infrared light that is measuring the temperature basically reflects the light off instead of showing up as a good reading if that makes sense. If you're ever seen a mirror in a thermal camera it's the same thing.
I have no, but I will now that you mention it. So if I aim at something in the mirror, it will likely measure the object in the reflection? Not what I see, but what the tool "sees" ?
@@NeedItMakeIt Yeah, it's the same if you shone a laser pointer on it basically. you might see a bit of red but the rest of the light would be bounced off somewhere else.
I just bought the same pan (from Canadian tire for $20) and the first thing I cooked was bacon. Now I have brown stains that won't come off no matter how much I scrub. Thinking of smoothing it out just for easier cleaning. My other pan is an old smooth bottom and really easy to clean. Problem is the bottom has warped over time and is now more on the concave side. If I had a gas stove that wouldn't be a problem but the wife insisted on one of those glass top models.
I have a video coming out tomorrow on that exact subject with this very pan. When I bought mine it was already warped and bellied in the middle, I just didn't know anything about cast iron at that time... (i went to return it and the ones in the store were also) Have a watch for the video tomorrow night, then if you still have some questions just let me know, it will address your bacon staining question also.
@@thatguyoverthere555 th-cam.com/video/I1DaEke6sPQ/w-d-xo.html So there are timestamps in the description to bring you to the various parts that apply to your problem. So now you know you're not alone with your struggle with this pan. Also The very end of the video shows how I corrected most of the problem with the discoloration.
A 100 grit sandpaper on a die grinder would work best, after making a follow up video, I found that 100 grit worked the best for adhesion of the seasoning. Also make sure to clean it well afterward and then I like to boil vinegar in mine to etch the surface in prep for the seasoning. It also darkens the surface just a bit to give it a more vintage look from the start.
I like Lodge also, some people do seem to have a hate on for them, I think it is because they bought the expensive pans and have to justify it by putting down the cheaper pans. No name is just pans older than the requirement to have a 'made in' so they would be fairly old?
Likely the temperature is not very different, just the black body emission is different with different surface. Use a thermal couple to measure will give more reliable result.
The difference in temperature readings is due to different emissivities of black, rough and polished surfaces. It looks like your IR thermometer is very similar to mine, a cheap model I bought from AliExpress. It is possible to change the emissivity setting in mine, and for most uses the default setting of e = 0.95 is pretty accurate. But for shiny surfaces like my stainless steel pan, I have to change the setting to e = 0.16 to get correct readings. I found this by putting the pan in the oven at a known temperature and let it sit there for an hour to warm up completely. Then I measured the temperature with the IR thermometer and adjusted the emissivity setting until I got a correct reading.
To get better results, measure the actual temperature in your oven with an ovenproof thermometer. The thermostat in the oven is usually very inaccurate, so it is better to measure it.
@@anderseriksson1945 My most accurate measurement tool is the instant read thermometer www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/kitchen/measurement/thermometers/73812-javelin-instant-read-thermometer, I just need a way to insert it into something. I have another one that can go into the oven, but the scale is tiny and won't be good enough. I'll test what I have and maybe I need to buy something.
There is no actual temperature difference on the pan. I have one of those temperature guns and mine came with a setting to adjust it for getting accurate readings of different materials. Stainless steel might read differently than a painted vent register. The temperture difference probably had something to do with reflectivity of the light on the pan. As an example when you shoot the gun at a human forhead it never reads 98.6 or even close. It makes you wonder how the Chinese thought they were screening for their virus with those guns when they are not going to read skin temperatures corectly.
In my own experiance playing with a IR temp gun like this you can get a good reading if you point it inside your mouth. Your forehead is cooler than your core temp. The surface finish is messing with the reading I think that is evident. I have read some on "black body radiation" and used some info from that to make corrections to readings in spectra-photometers so that may be worth a look.
a human forehead shouldn't be 98.6... internal body temp and surface temp are separate matters, even in a location like the forehead. Still, if you aim a temp gun at everyone's forehead and come up with one number that's 4 degrees higher, you know where your problem is. Concerning the ability to temp different surfaces like cast iron, cast iron definitely has hotspots. Of the common pan materials, it's actually one of the worst performing conductors. It does have remarkably high ability to RETAIN heat once hot. finally, I agree that the surface finish couldn't possibly have any meaningful influence on the temperature characteristics of the material.
He could have done a better job... so he did; check out my latest video for this same skillet th-cam.com/video/I1DaEke6sPQ/w-d-xo.html. Very happy with it.
This was a test to see how smooth would perform against rough. The antique and vintage pans were smooth upon purchase. I'd really like to use a lathe to machine one, but my lathe is too small at 12" swing unfortunately.
Hey, so ill take a jab at the IR temp gun reading difference. On a FLIR camera, there are settings for how matte or reflective the surface you are measuring is. On reflective surfaces its harder to read a correct temp. I assume the same is true with an IR thermometer. A thermocouple would tell you the whole pan is the same temperature. as for WHY that is, i have no idea. i would think that a given surface at a certain temperature will give off a certain amount of IR light. if the IR thermometer is taking in that IR energy, i dont see why a different surface finish would matter. I would think that a coarse bar of steel glowing would put off the same visible light intensity as a polished bar thats heated.
@@michaelhudson1507I don't know how to get you the correct values to use, but you need to compensate for the emissivity of the surface. The darker cast iron radiates better in the Infrared bands that the IR temp sensor reads in. The polished surface is slightly skewed towards reflecting the ambient temperature of the room instead of only the radiated heat of the actual pan. The mirroring effect of polishing reflects IR just like the visible light is better reflected. In the electrical world this is a problem when trying to read the temperature of aluminum and copper electrical bus bars. To avoid this, before energizing we wrap a spot in Black electrical tape which has a high, consistent emissivity value that makes the IR temp sensor much more accurate. Finding a material that you can set into the pan in the three locations may not give you a 100% accurate temperature in absolute terms, but could allow for an accurate relative comparison.
I'm going to perform two tests tomorrow and return the results in the comments here. I hadn't thought about the finish affecting the reading, but it makes perfect sense. Thanks for the help.
Here is an update, the same note appears in a comment above also: "I'm struggling with the readings still, I've tried thin pieces of paper, parchment paper, and computer monitor heat shield, and the original rough finish is still reading much higher. I'm going to check the skillet for a perfectly flat bottom and see whether that may be contributing to the false readings."
As to WHY it’s because IR is wavelength just like visible light. The way it reads temperature is similar how we look at something and determine what is color. Any variables such as distance reflectivity and refractivity effect the test results.
I find it tough to get just the right temperature with cast iron on my stovetop. It seems that even though the temp is set to med, or just a little lower, the cast has such a higher ability to retain the heat that it keeps heating well beyond what you'd get with an aluminum non-stick pan. Much to learn. Thanks for the comment, and if you have any tips, I am all ears.
@@NeedItMakeIt I think it's about the same with my stove. I go to high heat for about a minute or two than go back to low-medium low, than wait at least 5 minutes. I will then add the butter and let it heat for at least a minute. I whisk the eggs and pour them to the pan after leveling the butter so it covers the pan well. I was able to get perfect scrambled eggs with nothing sticking.
NeedItMakeIt I’m relatively new to cast iron, but I think i understand it now. I never use heat above medium low. It gets too hot. I let it heat up fully before starting. And i only clean it while cold using only water if needed. Washing a hot pan can warp it.
Smooth surfaces reflect the light of the temperature gun, rough surfaces give a more precise reading, a contact measurement would reveal this, use a little oil for heat transfer to the contact pickup, temp guns work well for checking temperature differences , ie checking for a bad bearing, or hydraulic rams where one has a leak inside, fluid leaking causes a temperature rise due to the energy being released.
That's HUGE! I once bought a 24" cast iron pan as a gift from a surplus store, but it was so heavy nobody could lift it. Do you have a favorite brand? What kinds of things do you cook in this Monstrous dutch oven?
See link below. Shiny surfaces are poor infrared emitters and dull black surfaces are good infrared emitters. And your using an infrared thermometer. There's lots about this if you poke around but I'm glad that I learned to not trust ir thermometer readings on shiny surfaces. NEVER would have thought of that on my own.
Considering you tried measuring the temperature of other things than just the pan surface, maybe it's a mix of the bare metal transfering the heat to the air more freely in a direct sense but also the divot grooves make it so the air has to expand more before it rises/other circulation blockage. Then again, I'm just a 20 grit scrub.
This is a hot topic, so I think I'll make a follow up video under more controlled circumstances to show what is happening. When I originally saw these readings I thought the rough finish would release more heat due to surface area that is hot in contact with ambient air temperature. Great comment, thanks for adding your thoughts on this.
I'd love a Griswold, I do like the wagner pans, but on the glass cook-top I find that any I find are a little too irregular. Glass cook-tops weren't a thing back then. The machined pans are really nice. I think an investment into an induction top might be a great thing for cast iron, or gas, the electric coil or glass top just don't do them justice. Which type of stove to do you use?
Non contact infrared temperature sensors will take a different reading on smooth shiny surfaces when compared to black surfaces it’s called Emissivity and it’s on the basis that black bodies absorb all incident radiation so that all emitting radiation is a result of their own body heat. (Black surfaces have an emissivity factor of 1.0) .However shiny surfaces reflect a lot of incident radiation and therefore need special compensation to achieve comparable results ( i.e emissivity factor less than 1.0 for shiny smooth surfaces) for using this type of of temperature sensor
Get some thermal paste and a small bar of aluminum, copper, cold or hot rolled steel with consistent surface finish. Cut three identically sized pieces, slather one side of each (weigh it for consistency) and attach in each sector at equal distances from the sides. Take your readings after heating for awhile. Should do the trick, even moreso than if you had an adjustable emissivity IR gun. Great vid, tho I think I’ll stick with my 20-year old pan and save the arthritis-inducing work for another one of the 85 projects I’ve got going on here :-)
I was given a lodge 2-sided long griddle/skillet for Christmas. I lightly sanded it not knowing about sanding it all the way down. So, now there is a black smudge that comes off when I touch it and I can't wash it off. Any suggestions? Also, I currently do not have access to an oven. Is there another way I can season the griddle/skillet?
That is a little bit odd. When you heat up the pan can you wipe off the smudge? I suspect that when it was seasoned, a big 'blob' of oil was left in this spot and did not polymerize properly, which will leave a sticky residue. A really good way to season a pan is in the barbecue, I prefer this method, because the process of seasoning will take the oil to the smoking point and it will stink up/smoke up your house. If you don't have access to a barbecue, you can use your burner, just increase the temperature gradually, the cast iron retains heat well once up to temperature so be careful not to turn it up too high. The Stargazer website has a really good set of guidelines for seasoning, so I'd suggest following their process. stargazercastiron.com/pages/use-care?=page=clean#usecare_tabs3 I have plans in an upcoming video to review the seasoning process... as well as review a few other aspects of the process to help gain a better understanding of the dos and don'ts, everyone has their own ideas it can be difficult to know which method is the best.
Layer of the seasoning can affect the temperature, any thing that insulates metal will cause a higher temperature. On a cast iron pan you want the seasoning for it to non stick but it also will help the pan to heat up more.
Interesting, I don't think I have any measurement device accurate enough to test that, but I understand the concept, I like your thought process on this.
I read Michael's comment, but there is almost twice the surface area with the ridges of the unpolished side. Just sayin' And the pans without names are most likely pre 1960. Thanks!
Your laser temperature sensor is probably not measuring actual temperature differences between the different finishes, but is getting a different reading due to the different finishes. This affect is increased because you are not point the device at a 90 degree angle to the surface. The surface finish of the metal has a large impact on the measured temperature using this kind of device.
Wen it's time to clean up an old iron pan that i found in a thrift store or one that i let someone use and it comes back rusty or with burnt leftovers in it i use the self cleaning mode on my oven. Most ovens have a self cleaning mode where they get over 500 deg f. some as high as 750 deg f. u have to remove the oven racks and most of the cheaper oven thermometers. i just set the pan upright on the bottom of the oven and turn on the cleaning cycle. If the pan is real heavily caked in baked on grease it might be a little smokey after a while but most of the time the exaust fan over the stove sucks out the smoke. After a few hours when the cleaning cycle is over and the oven cools down you can open the oven door and the pan will have a fine coating of gray ash and rust. Then i use a new wire wheel on a drill, angle grinder or bench grinder to clean and polish the whole pan. then coat it with olive oil and pop it into a 350 deg F. oven for an hour and its like new.
I like it, simple and effective; do you only apply one coat of seasoning? I would really like to try this self-cleaning, maybe do a time-lapse video of the process also to see what happens. I know our exhaust fan is not great so I normally use the barbecue to season my pans. Great comment, thanks for sharing.
It is from the more reflective surface, it is a known thing using a IR gun like that. The best surface to get a temp from is a flat black surface, the more reflective it is the more the temps are thrown off.
Some people suggested attaching a small piece of metal painted black to the pan in these areas with thermal paste, that would removed the variable. Another good idea was to heat it in the oven to an even temperature, those were both good ideas I think. You guys have helped me a lot in understanding the pitfalls of the IR measurement method. Thank you.
Just for reference, those IR thermometers have a super hard time registering shiny surfaces, and if it is, will almost surely be in accurate. Great video though, very thorough. Thank you.
I do own a fair amount of cast iron, since we live just a stones throw from the Canadian border we see a fair amount of cast iron made in Canada. My favorite pans are Canadian made. I do not know much about them out side of they were made in the early 1900’s but they are shallow and smooth.
Was this before they started to add manuf. info? I'd love to know who made them. I had Wagner, but my obsession forced me to sell quite a few of mine, now I have Kitchenaid and Lagostina, after I flattened them, they work really nice. Lots of effort of course, it'd be easier to buy a good old one, I'd imagine.
black absorbs more heat. than anything reflective. It's why people put aluminum foil when cooking in an oven. Same applies to cast iron... just a theory :))
I just checked these out to see what they look like. I have to say that I'd like to have one of these, I like the low sides, that would be great for flipping eggs without a spatula too! Very nice and a little jealous.
@@NeedItMakeIt It's pretty cool, cause sometimes I'll flip it upside down and use the higher edge to catch liquids. I can sear 4 or 5 steaks on it at a time. Apparently, it lived in my grandparent's cabin for at least 40 years according to my mom. It'd be cool to get some backstory on something like that for sure!
@@NeedItMakeIt Mine looks a lot like this one, with the "high and low" sides. But the way Erie is stamped into the metal, (not script, and it has the quote marks) it was most likely made before 1900, if the internet is correct. So cool! queensofcookware.auctivacommerce.com/Product.aspx?ProductId=2680695
I have a full array of cast iron. I have stuff as much as 70 years old and I will say I prefer my old smooth stuff. That being said, I have no problem using my newer, rougher stuff. Perhaps that is because all my newer stuff is Lodge. I never buy anything else if I’m buying new.
I find it amazing how divided people our about their CI brands, it reminds me a bit of people and their car brands. I like the lodge, they aren't as refined, but I think they are well constructed and made to last. As far as being rough, I'm starting to come understand that rough doesn't necessarily mean it's bad, but I do think smooth is easier to clean. Do you use metal on your pans? Do you think it smooths the pans out over time?
Just fyi, they are all the same temperature. The more reflective to infrared a material is, the less you can read the surfaces temperature. As a fireman, if I aim my thermal camera at a window that is holding back fire, I'll still get the temperature of the sky, tree, or whatever is reflected in the window from behind me.
There is a lot that I don't understand about IR. So because IR is a form of light, it reflects just like the light we can see? Maybe there are some videos I can watch to help me understand this. Thank you for this, your comment has give me a practical way to try and understand it.
I own 8 cast iron skillet. I bought then second hand, and found that the only way to reach metal is to put them in a wood fire until red hot. I tried sand paper and then a power drill with a metal brush attachment to no effect. I tried caustic soda, with partial success. That factory black finish is bullet proof.
I have a Lodge grill pan. It has ridges in the bottom for cooking steaks. The black factory coating has started to flake off. I have been coinciding throwing it in a fire.
Probably covered..Your polishing has made the surface more reflective to the IR device. A physically touching the surface with a probe would reveal minimal (if any) differences in temperature. I had to shoot a spot of spray paint on the lid of a pressure canner to get accurate readings with my el cheapo IR. Assuming the heat below the pan is consistent that is. To verify that, spin the pan and check again.
I have an idea for an upcoming video and experiment and I will use your technique of using paint because it won't come in contact with food for the test... but it will be related to food. Thanks for taking the time!
A few years ago I tried this with a carbon steel pan but it was a complete waste of time. Fortunately I used sanding/polishing pads and an electric drill so not THAT much time but I had an actual mirror finish on it.. Couldn't get any seasoning to stick at all. Ended up going over it with 200 grit or so sandpaper, and it's been pretty decent since. Of course the carbon steel was already polished so not comparable. I think there's something to be said for getting rid of the casting marks on the surface of a cast iron pan, you just don't get a benefit taking it to a mirror finish or anything even close.
I'd agree, I did a follow up video showing exactly what you did and I had really good results with 100 - 220 grits. The seasoning benefits from some small abrasions in the surface to help it stay on. I also found that the Stargazer seasoning method worked better than ones I had tried in the past.
Refractive index may be different for different surfaces. Actual temp may not be so different. Just a thought. Also, BIG no no, running water directly onto hot pan.. = cracks
Thank you for the comment. I've been cleaning my pans this way for several years now, not every time of course. I realize I didn't go into any detail about the process as it was not the subject of the video. Very hot water and a just a little bit of water goes a long way. I haven't experience cracking or warping, this pan is on a glass top it is still sits nice. In any case, if people don't want to use this process, then don't, if you want to try it, I might just say to limit the size of the pan to 10". I have tested the temp drop in a worst-case scenario, which is 150C pan. Dousing it with just warm water three times does drop the surface temp down to 70C. It didn't crack this pan, but it could happen if there are weaknesses in the pan already. To address the sticking at the source, I have found that cooking bacon in the oven avoids most of the need to clean CI in this way, also cooking with warm eggs into a hot pan seems to also work well. The smooth pan is really a treat to clean, even with paper towel. I like your message by the way, it is controlled, and you've capitalized EXACTLY what was needed to draw attention, very nice.
@@NeedItMakeIt I appreciate all the work and appropriate observations along the way. It is a joy to watch your videos, and also the humility involved in the process. That way the opportunity is there for all to learn. Very cool. I always enjoy opportunity for excellence and these vids help me down that path. Thank you. Also, thanks for your patience with my cringing watching water go onto a hot pan, me not knowing the water temp. It was a knee jerk reaction lol. Peace
Things do like to stick, especially just after cleaning. On the other hand, they last a very long time, which is nice in an age of things only having a lifespan of a year or two.
A few years back I took some scrap metal to the metal recycling section of the dump. Threw out my metal and there were two old cast iron skillets with layers of crud on the bottoms and rust from rain on the tops. I didn’t know one pan from another back then. I was burning large piles of sage brush so just put the pans on one pile and lit it off and came back at the end of the day and uncovered them from the ash and coals. I brought them into the shop to cool down over night. Next day brought them into the house to see how much cleaning needed to be done. Most of the crud burned off both skillets so hand scrubbing in hot water wasn’t too bad. One pan is a #9 Griswold small logo so one of the later ones probably 1950’s. I seasoned them and the Griswold was a real find the other one has machine marks that was not smooth and very disappointing. I could clamp it down on the milling machine but will probably go back to the metal pile someday. A couple days ago I watched a video on figuring out what cast iron you have. Turns out I also have an old Griswold #5 large logo Erie skillet plus a smaller non discript skillet that works very well oh the #5 Griswold also has the ring on the bottom. Pretty sure that came with some stuff when a close friend died.
They don't let me anywhere near the metal pile at my dump :( we don't really even have scrapyards anymore either around my area, so I am forced to look to the antique shops for my pans. Those are some excellent finds, I've heard of cleaning pans by putting them in the fire, I expect that it would heat the pans evenly so no need to worry about them cracking even at such a high temperature. If you're interested, I can probably re-finish the pan by hand-scraping (check out my latest video). It would make for an interesting video also. These pans are probably expensive to ship, so maybe it's not possible, just a thought.
I have plans on a video on this subject, a few people have commented on this, however I took this technique from an expert and as long as the water is very hot, you'll be in good shape. I clean all of my cast iron this way now, and none have cracked.... not to say they couldn't, it might depend largely on whether they are prone to cracking or their material composition, but when I have some time I'll take an extreme approach to it and see if I can crack it. I have cracked 1 cast iron, I accidentally turned the burner on to HI and it was a 12" skillet, cracked it within a few minutes. I appreciate the comment, keep them coming!
@@NeedItMakeIt I use this same cleaning technique, and here is my opinion: water from the hot and cold taps only varies by 30-40 degrees F. Very little when you are dealing with temperatures of the skillet of 400F or more. Cast iron will definitely crack if heated or cooled unevenly and quickly. So, I use whatever water is coming from the tap, don't worry about making it very hot. Just DO NOT put much water in the skillet at once. The steam seems to be the thing that does the cleaning, and a couple of tablespoons of water seems to be enough to accomplish the job. So a few tablespoons of water in the skillet, swirl it quickly to distribute the cooling effect, a quick brush, and dump it out...clean pan. I have been using this for several years, and have not cracked one yet. Cast iron is the best non-stick cookware out there, and I have tried them all. Another case of don't fix it if it ain't broke. So glad I came across my first cast iron at the junk yard. One man's trash, etc.
Using only a little water is a very good advice. You just need some steam to loosen sticky stuff. You may also let the skillet cool down a little and then use very hot (boiling) water. Just make sure never to put the skillet through big, sudden differences in temperature or it may warp or even crack.
The Lodge oil is light and super convenient, just a little spray inside a dry clean pan and wipe it inside and out, I use the blue shop towels. Then I heat pan just until it smokes and they store nice. This also builds and repairs seasoning easily in pan as you use them.
I find old kitchen towels and socks work well, but I've heard of a few other people using the shop towels with good success, so that's a good tip. I'll try the just heating until it smokes a bit, I usually season in the barbecue because it smokes up the house and I leave it for an hour then to cool in the BBQ also.
Joints in my fingers wouldn't make it past the initial scrubbing with a brilllo Pad ! :) I used the $5 grinding wheel on a drill, like dozens of others in here. Then took it one step further. 120 grit on a small D.A. sander Initial seasoniing didn't look like it took well, but after using them a bit, works every bit as well has one of the wife's super pans ! To each their own! I enjoy doing it, and the Nastalgic part of using them. Always said, kinda like a Smoker using a Zippo instead of a Bic.
I would have used power tools, but I've found that people tend to hate when you"Ruin" a pan with power tools, so I've tried to do most of the work by hand. It also shows that you can do this even if you don't have any special equipment.
I know that an infrared thermometer will read different from a shiny surface as compared to a mat surface. My question is, how much difference does surface area make? In my lay opinion, the more surface area you have, the higher the temperature. If you sand away the highs aren't you losing surface area?
I thought I would see, so I measured it today. With hot water it drops 70C top surface, 50C bottom the pan is heated to 145C to 160C for normal cooking. The sidewalls only heat to around 100C at their max on my glass cooktop. So the question is, does a 70C drop on cast iron cause a problem? I can speak from my experience only, and this process works well for me. If people dont want to do it, well... don't do it. I can imagine that cold water (11C) at my house at the moment, would cause a greater temperature change. I'd like to do a follow up test video on this subject, but I'm a little concerned I may be crusified. So I will be thinking about the right way to approach this, which had to be showing the facts and my own opinions are left out. Thanks for the comment.
nice. Lodge is a favourite brand. fairly inexpensive, bought my 30cm pan prologic preseasoned cast iron when I was in Toronto in 2002 or 2003. Still use it, now on induction. I have taken it to 370 C on induction to season it, induction for safety reasons cut off the operation. very very minimal warping but that could have happened on gas too. I used flaxseed oil once (unfortunately and that gave me a very hard time) I regretted using it. I used steel brushes and sanding paper to make it smoother, not as smooth as yours, seasoning doesn't adhere that well.
It seems that the rough surface is creating hot pockets filled with tiny amounts of oil and that prevents food from sticking. Fissler have some stainless steel pans that are actually griddled surface, creating little squares, their marketing stated that the oil is trapped and food does not stick. The downside of the rough surface in cast iron, is that not only seasoning polymerises, from time to time when I run my fingers, the pans gather some dark matter, that is carbonisation and it sometimes is visible on the egg whites. So with a very mild soapy solution that is cleaned up and I don't like the carbonisation. I realised there were no blackening fingers on my de buyer (black iron pans) due to the smooth surface. Care was the same, washing was the same.
Now when people say this a better cast iron, this is not that good, I am sorry I also own non brand ones, they perform the same. The metal alloy is the same, iron and silicon, so the difference is the thickness. Non brand ones are heavier than lodge. We are not comparing enamelled ones, as there is a difference between French staub and le creuset compared with the Chinese enamel.
Very good video. Thanks
I've heard so many people say they love their Lodge CI, it is a great price too of course, but so many people say they hate it. I expect the people that "hate" it just spent too much money and need to justify the purchase by putting down the competition. The handles are a little shorter, they are hefty also, but with induction that probably doesn't matter and no matter which pan I use, the handles heat up beyond the point that I can hold them. Personally I believe that Lodge skillets are made to last and designed not to fail, they are practical pans. Any new pan can be smoothed out easily with sandpaper if anyone doesn't like the rough texture.
As far as the rough finish in regard to non-stick, I'm still testing this out, I've had rough that stick and smooth that stick. I find that a higher cooking temperature helps (maybe the release of steam) the idea of the oil having a place to sit does make sense to me, however many of the smooth pans I have perform very well and they are incredibly easy to clean.. I literally just use the metal spatula and a little paper towel and done.
I've been researching the types of cast iron, and it is an alloy of sorts because there are other little ingredients they add to make it more fluid during the pour, so there are different types, and I suppose you could kind of say that might be related to the quality. My thought here is that one mix of materials is better for a particular purpose than another. In general what you say is what I believe as well. I've only ever cracked one pan, and that was because I accidentally put the burner on high with nothing in the pan, going from 20C to 300C in a matter of a few minutes without heating the entire pan evenly caused a crack.
An interesting subject, I want to learn more about this. Something very cool that I saw recently was the process of hardening the 'ways' of a lathe bed using induction heating in some type of coolant (looked like water) I never knew cast iron could be hardened.
Thanks for the note I appreciate you thoughts on this very much!
"It seems that the rough surface is creating hot pockets filled with tiny amounts of oil "
the metal machining have the same concept too, the metal surfaces needs to be flat but at the same-time have to rough to contain lubricating oil, if your surfaces were too smooth, two contacted metal surfaces will squeeze out the oil, and you won't get the lubricating effect.
The difference in temperature reading is just an error from the infrared thermometer. This instrument is sensible to surface finish. In thermodynamics, it's called the emissivity of a surface. One way you could test it, with the same equipement, would be to stick a piece of tape, or anything non reflective on each section, and mesure that instead. I bet you the temperature is in fact the same everywere on the pan. Try it!
Will do, what do you think would be a good food safe material to test with?
I need a multi-meter desperately, that would be a really useful feature to have. I have a meat thermometer which I'll try, but I don't think the range is high enough, though I could just keep the temperature low since there was a significant difference no matter the high or lower temps. I wanted to try using something on the pan like a small piece of thin metal, maybe a cross section of a piece of steel rod. Then the sheen would be identical for each piece. I wonder if turning the lights off and taking a measurement in the dark would help.
I'd prefer not to do the "old-school" how long can you hold your finger on it....
I appreciate your input on this, this is pretty cool stuff.
Makes sense, I had been hanging onto a heat shield from an old computer monitor, it's black and fairly thin (0.5mm) that could work. I still like the meat thermometer idea though.
I'm struggling with the readings still, I've tried thin pieces of paper, parchment paper, and computer monitor heat shield, and the original rough finish is still reading much higher. I'm going to check the skillet for a perfectly flat bottom and see whether that may be contributing to the false readings.
Try flipping it over and get a reading from the bottom of the pan since you haven't changed the finish there
Just a tip from someone who has been doing this for decades...I've modified a number of rough cast iron pans and griddles with super success using only 80 grit sand paper. The result was a smooth surface, but the 80 grit sanding left a tiny micro-texture to allow the seasoning to get established and not be lifted off by use. Even the Stargazer company realized they had better results by having a tiny micro-texture allowing seasoning to hold. You will love the results...God Bless.
I agree, I followed up with a separate video on the subject as well. A light texture, like sandblasting would probably be perfect. I've boiled vinegar in teh pan first to etch it and that works quite well also. Thanks for taking the time!
Gonna do this with my pan. So 80 grit it is. Not too rough not too smooth
Yep, going past 80 grit has diminishing returns.
Ihave and use a 10” Lodge & Stargazer cast iron skillet. The Lodge holds a seasoning far better. They both work but the Lodge is easier to live with despite the better ergonomics of the Stargazer. Guessing minis pre-microtexture. I seasoned it 7 times and even emailed them when it was new. PITA…
I inherited a Griswold skillet and a Wagner skillet that were both manufactured around 1920. I use one or the other almost every day. Unlike modern cast iron skillets, they are both perfectly flat on the bottom and don't "teeter" on the stove. They too have very slick cooking surfaces. I can only imagine how many great meals were cooked on them before they came to me. They are wonderful skillets. I really treasure them.
The older ones were so much better.
You're mistaken. Modern cast iron skillets absolutely sit flat. I've never seen a new lodge pan that doesn't have a flat bottom. In fact, it's the old vintage skillets that usually wobble/spin. They are thinner and many have been warped over the years.
@@BornIn1500 Not "mistaken" at all.
@@thomassnapp1341most new cast iron pans are as good, and can cook just as good as antiques with minimal effort.
You can buy a $15 pan and sand it with 80 grit, season it a few times and it cooks just as well as a BSR, Wagner, Griswald etc.
I have numerous antiques, and many modern pans. If you want to turn a $15 pan into a $200 dollar pan, spend 15 mins sanding it down with 80 grit.
Hell, I have even done it to my antiques that were heavily rust damaged. Made them good as new....even though collectors that wouldn’t have cooked on them said I ruined them. But I have been cooking on them for decades after saving them from a rusty useless mess.
A useless pan isn’t worth anything to me.
It is the same temperature, The IR thermometer has a worse time with reflective surfaces.
I am an IR newbie, this makes sense, I made a few attempts at adding a different material to the surface, however the readings were still off, not as much, but more time needs to be taken review the temperature reading properly.
Thank you for the comment :)
@@NeedItMakeIt that is fascinating
@Donald Kasper Infrared thermometers have good accuracy when measuring most objects, but shiny, reflective surfaces can be a challenge. ... Putting a piece of non-reflective tape (such as electrical tape) over the shiny surface or applying some flat paint gives you a target from which you can get a better measurement. (From Fluke's IR website)
@@NeedItMakeIt You could always use your meat thermometer and touch the prob to the pan to get the temp. Not as flashy but it'll give better results on shiny surfaces.
@Donald Kasper the black surface would absorb more from an outside source such as the sun or a light bulb, but not from contact from below such as on a burner.
I have a lot of iron skillets, pans and griddles, a mix of Lodge and Griswold all antiques passed down through 3 generations and all are dang good pans. I don't know what anyone has against Lodge, they've stood the test of time for me and mine. Like anything else, if you treat it right, season it and clean it as needed, it'll be here for your great-grandchildren.
I don't understand the prejudice against Lodge either. I have a few really old ones and they work every bit as good as the "expensive" ones...
My lodge is the best of three
The difference in temperature reading is due to the emissivity of the surface being different from a rough to polished surface, rough surfaces have a higher value, eg. rough black iron 0.95, while shiny surfaces can be much lower, eg. polished steel is around 0.07.
Thats interesting
Yep, emissivity but color plays a factor. Black is the color of a material that absorbs all visible wavelengths, white reflects all and bare cast iron is grey. A "black body" is the easiest to measure because it readily emits "black body radiation". I'm not sure if color or roughness is the dominant factor but they are both responsible.
now wet sand and buff, and you're ready for paint! oh wait.. that's a pan
Hotpockitrockit same thing hit me!
Haha no profile left paint will fall off
I did this one of my cheap pans a few years ago to try it out, but I'm lazy and used a synthetic abrasive brush in my drill, and an orbital sander. Anyway, I like the difference. For me, it seems to be seasoning faster, and is more non-stick and much easier to clean. Can't see any drawbacks of doing it.
Thanks, I agree as well. I went too far in this video of course, tonight I'll be releasing a video showing a few more reasonable grits to sand to and 1 very unique surface finish.
I have nothing against people using orbitals etc. The main reason I do this work by hand is because I like to do hand-work, I personally prefer the final product to have some type of variation that you'd see with things made by hand.
Do you have any brands of CI that you prefer?
Just out of curiosity, why did you finish up with steel wool? IIRC, 0000 steel wool is roughly equivalent to 400 grit sandpaper - if you've already polished to 2000 grit, wouldn't steel wool introduce scratches instead of polishing?
There is different grit of steel wool. Some of it is very very fine and great for polishing
I've used an angle grinder with a flap wheel to resurface these. It's a lot less elbow grease than doing it by hand.
For sure, check out my latest video, I use your technique and also built a device to spin the pan at the same time to re-shape the inside of it and smooth it also.
Thanks for the comment!
Exactly....
You can’t use a temp gun on a shiny surface. It’s essentially measuring how bright it is in the infrared spectrum. You’re getting a lot of IR from the environment bounced off the surface and washing out the color of the pan.
That's right, thanks for the info.
Sir, I liked and subscribed to your channel 10 seconds into your video. It was solely based on how you organized/divided your video into segments in the video description and gave the time so people can skip around as needed. THANK YOU!
That is great feedback, I was doing this and had no idea people were actually using it. I can definitely add this into my newer videos. :)!
You have amazing super powers! Never seen hands move so fast 😁
Crazy the way these phones listen in. Wife just bought this exact pan last week for $20 at Canadian tire. Upon seeing it, I said it was too rough and proceeded to polish the inside. Turned out great. Certainly did not search up anything related to lagostina, nor grinding a pan, yet this morning, what shows up in my feed? 1984? Yup.
I had the same experience a few weeks ago, a coworker was telling me about a new method of welding pieces of aluminum together, call Friction Stirring. I would never had thought of searching for this and had no idea it existed. That night it showed up on my feed.
I'm going start talking about something I would never have before to see what happens...
BTW, they may have improved this pan's design, but they were manufactured with a bulge in the middle. it might be worth putting a straight edge on the inside to see if you have the same problem as I did. The bottom is also concave by 1/16" and this causes any oils or eggs to move to the outside of the pan.
Also I'm working on a video to fix this right now, but they may have already changed the design because they had a lot of comments from customers on this problem.
I saw that sale also, and I was tempted to buy another, I don't have room for any more!
Yea, I was talking to a friend about her ski trip she took over xmas to Utah last week and i got a ski Utah email two days later.
But nope they are not listening to you! Lol
The pan had the same temp along the entire bottom, but shiny objects radiate less IR energy than dull objects at the same temp. So if you're using an IR thermometer, it has to be calibrated to the emissivity of the material you're measuring.
True. That is reason to keep a surface thermometer on hand.
Griswold is my favorite pan.. plus they are collectable and only go up in value. Oh and the best part is you have to cook with them to maintain there value.
I've heard a lot about the Griswold pans, do you have a particular model or size that you like to use the most? I've never used one myself; I really enjoy my $10..10" Kitchen-aid, it's just a solid pan that performs so well.
From your experience, do you think that the kind of oil used makes a big difference, or is the seasoning more important or the texture of the surface? Maybe something else?
Thanks for taking the time!
@@NeedItMakeIt What Riley said is true about Griswold. But i prefer late production Wagner pans (last produced in late 80's) with machine finish inside for cooking. i have a 10" and an 8". These pans have Wagner 1891 original cast into the bottom as well as 4 step seasoning instructions cast in.They are not as deep as some of the older Wagners that say Sidney with a number designating their size. My 8" measures 1 and 7/16" deep. The older Wagners and Griswolds are deeper and the Griswolds are of a finer grained (ductile perhaps) iron and have a smooth finish all over whereas the Wagners and others (benjamin Medwin comes to mind) have a cast finish on the underside and on handles. The sides on the late Wagners are sloped a bit compared with the steeper sided older pans. That makes getting my spatula under fried eggs easier when they are right up against the edge. They all can be found on Ebay or if you prefer the hunt, thrift stores and garage/yard sales.
NeedItMakeIt I have nearly fifty Griswold skillets and Dutch ovens and more ,, I use olive oil for seasoning , the pan needs to have its pores open so make sure it’s a little more then warm when you season it , don’t over do it either ! When it comes to cleaning I Initially use water then dry it out and clean with coarse salt and a stainless Scouring pad ,,, my pans are like glass inside ,,, PS. Be careful what oil you use to season if it sits too long it can become rancid , that’s why I use olive oil !
@@NeedItMakeIt Over the years I have acquired a #0, and #3-#9 Griswolds. There is no size I like the most. It depends on what I'm cooking, sizing the pan to the food for the most efficient use of the available heat.
The difference in temp is due to your reflective surfaces. If you can put something non-reflective on it, you'll get even temps across the entire surface.
Some of the comments on why the infrared thermometer was measuring different temperatures were close to being correct. Infrared thermometers measure the far infrared light that's being emitted by a surface to determine its temperatures.
Surfaces have a property known as emissivity, this is a measure of how well the surface emits far infrared light. Many properties of the surface can change it's emissivity. Black rough surfaces tend to have a high emissivity which means they emits far infrared light well. Silvery smooth or shiny surfaces tend to have a low emissivity which means they do not emit far infrared light well. Low emissivity surfaces will indicate lower temperatures than high emissivity surfaces at the same temperature. High-end infrared thermometers have an emissivity setting so the thermometer can be calibrated for the particular surface you are measuring. Infrared thermometers are good for non-contact measurements but they're not very accurate. Nothing beats a physical contact measurement.
That is excellent information. I was in the shop last night working on another testing project and I was seeing a similar temperature differential, the rough surface read higher values than the smoother/lighter surfaces.
I agree that a contact measurement method would be better, I have an instant read thermometer, which works great for meat, not so good for hard surfaces.
Thanks for your thoughts on this!
@@NeedItMakeIt Back at university we tested this with a block of aluminum on a stove. The aluminum was everything from sandblasted to polished holed with different diameters and some with thread. Conclusion was that to get an accurate measurement on a surface with an unknown emissivity you want to measure a threaded hole at least three times the depth of the diameter. or use some special tape with a known emissivity.
@@rasmusegeolesen Alright, excellent advice. I had attempted using black thermal paper from a computer months ago. That didn't work because it refused to sit flat on the surface, so I'll go ahead and look up this thermal tape and use this in a follow up test. I may also try to source a direct method of reading temperature. I may have to make something to house an instant-read thermometer, however even that comes with it's own set of problems.
I know that an infrared thermometer will read different from a shiny surface as compared to a mat surface. My question is, how much difference does surface area make? In my lay opinion, the more surface area you have, the higher the temperature. If you sand away the highs aren't you losing surface area?
@@christopherbronson748 it's hard to say how much the emissivity will change for any given physical change to a surface. In order to calibrate your infrared thermometer you're going to have to make a physical measurement with a more accurate contact thermometer. The best way to do this is to make a single contact measurement near the temperature that you intend to measure. Then use your infrared thermometer to measure the temperature. You can use these two temperatures to create a correction factor for your infrared thermometer. As long as you don't change the surface again you should be able to use your infrared thermometer to make more accurate measurements. Although the repeatability of your measurements will depend upon the quality of your infrared thermometer and how closely you're repeating the physical arrangement of your infrared thermometer and the surface your measuring.
Overall infrared thermometers are very limited on how accurate they are. They're really not good for making high accuracy measurements. They can be used for making comparative measurements on surfaces that are similar in situations where it is difficult or impossible to make a contact measurement. They will also give you a rough idea of how hot something is within a few degrees.
I polished several cast iron pans with poor results. Like you they would not hold the seasoning. I eventually had to rough it up with some sand paper to get them to hold it. I eventually came to the conclusion that the rougher surface of the modern skillets hold the seasoning better and hold up better to use with things that need to be boiled.
It makes sense to me now as well. A little bit of rough texture would be the best. I recently finished a follow up video showing how lower grits of sandpaper would hold the seasoning, and along with a good process for apply the coating, each of them worked out very well. It was a neat experiment, but there is no way I'll be polishing another pan, anywhere from 100-220 grits work very well.
I've not really tried to boil anything in my pans, and I don't own any pots, but that might be a good method of testing as well.
what i believe the the reason for the different surfacing between old (smooth) and new (rough) pans is all about seasoning grip as pointed out in a few comments. at some point, i think late 70's, don't quote me on that, manufacturers realised that a rough finished surface was easier to blacken and preseason than a smooth finish, so the entire world cast iron pan industry changed its methods and now we have the modern rough finished pan, and apparently when changing they also thinned out the pans and added a ringed base to strengthen the thinner pans. this is visible by flipping your pan and you will see a ringed bottom instead of the flat smooth bottom like that of the older antique pans. but i might be wrong. but but my old pans (from my mom) are as described and my newer ones (that i have bought) are as described. check out your own and see. also try weighing and older v newer of same diameter and notice the difference in weight. happy cooking folks, oh ps. all my new pans, not my moms, i have sanded and re-seasoned, but i have found that going to a 320 grit (i use Klingspor wet/dry auto-paper) is more than enough, any smoother and you just scratch and damage the surface when cooking. The nonstick is more in the seasoning and oiling rather than the smoothness i think. but i guess you got to get both right to be successful.
I always smooth my cast pan then oil bake them this results in one of the best if not the best pans ever.
What do you mean Oil Brake them?
I have to use the barbecue because it smells up our house quite a bit. I've found that leaving the pan in at 450f for about an hour does a great job in setting a hard seasoning layer. The same concept though, the Stargazer website has a great method that is easy to understand.
I think oil, then bake.
@@NeedItMakeIt Could you elaborate oil, then brake is kind of vague! What do you mean by brake?
@@NMETSGChan
I believe he said Oil Bake.
The simplified (Oil) baking process is:
1. Clean your pan with soap and water, dry immediately
2. Place in the oven at around 200f for about 10-15 minutes (removes any residual moisture and "opens the pores") Note: As far as opening the pores, I'm not sure this is what's really happening, but I can't really prove it either way. In either case it works.
3. Take out and apply a coat of Canola/Veg oil to the surface, apparently the higher the smoke point the better... Canola works great.
4. Wipe off the excess thoroughly. Any drips will show up if you don't catch them now. Some people say to wipe everything off... I personally like to leave a thin coating
5. Preheat oven, or bbq to 450C and place pan back in upside down. Some people say place something below... if you wipe off the oil properly, you don't need to. Also, the pan won't crack because it is being heated evenly.
6. Leave in oven/bbq to bake for 1 hour, this part is very important, the purpose is to cause the oil to polymerize, or convert into a carbon structure, both bonding to the pan, and creating a non-stick water resistance surface. I'm not a chemist, but it is similar to the process of Boiled linseed oil being applied as a furniture finish, just much quicker.
7. Turn the oven/bbq off and leave for an hour or so, this will continue to cure the seasoning so that it is not sticky and it should be hard / black and water repellent when it is finished.
8. If the pan is not seasoned, you'll want to do this at least twice, but the more the better, so it can take a while.
9. Clean and oil the pan and you're ready to go.
Troubleshooting: If the finish isn't very dark, you need to leave it at a high heat for longer, if it is sticky, you've applied too much oil or not enough time in the oven at high heat. If it is blotchy that could be an unclean surface before the oil was applied, or too much oil (pre-heating at 200f) seems to prevent this.
You'll know the process is working when the pan is smoking and smelling up you house... again use a barbecue. Normal cooking on the stove top should not produce smoke, if it does, you are cooking too hot, or your seasoning is not set.
I've been researching this process quite a bit and testing as well. Everyone has their own variation, and many methods work well. This works for me and it can be seen in my latest video on an un-seasoned pan.
I hope this helps!
The smooth surface shows a lower temperature because it is more reflective. The colder environment partially shines through. Same thing happens with thermal cameras.
If you took a temperature measurement by direct contact they would most likely all be the same.
I bought a 15" Westinghouse for my wife. It was as rough or rougher than what yours looked like. I took a 60grit flap disk on an angle grinder to it and cleaned it out. Took all the ridges out of it and it now works/looks great.
That's a huge pan, it must weigh quite a bit (good for strength training) the flap disk does work well, I've tried the wire wheel, and it struggled to get through the seasoning, which surprised me, seasoning is pretty tough stuff. I've never heard of the Westinghouse brand, have they been around for a while, or is it new? I see they are available on Amazon right now.
@@NeedItMakeIt Not sure how long they've been making pans, but they've been in business since George Westinghouse founded his Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company in January 8, 1886, which was later renamed to Westinghouse Electric Corporation in 1945. Yah, it's a big pan. Pretty much unusable until I hit it with the flap disk, then re-seasoned it. Wife is real happy with it now. Fry an entire chicken in that thing :o)
Growing up my mom had the wooden handle cast iron from Taiwan from back in the 70s. I've slowly started amassing my collection, mainly with pan styles that she doesn't have. I keep trying to convince her to give them up as my parents are retired and don't cook at home anymore. Even went so far as to buy them all.
I saw one with the wooden handle, I was really tempted to buy it, but I figured that seasoning it would be a problem, unless the handle could be removed.
People love their cast iron, they are like children... except they can cook!
@@NeedItMakeIt it varies by manufacturer, but most of mine use a threaded rod with washer to hold the handle on. I usually do a initial seasoning with everything torn down. After that I just stove top season with the handle attached as needed.
Leave it as it is. No need to change anything about it. I have a cheap unbranded one & after seasoning it it works perfectly.😂
Emissivity is a very real thing. We had a 6000 horse power synchronous motor that the commutator would get too hot (turned out it had the wrong brush material, it needed brushes with a higher copper content) and the commutator needed rebuilt every year at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars. Before we found the problem we started stoning the commutator at least every day. We took readings with an IR temp gun before and after stoning. The temp would drop drastically after each stoning. The mass of the commutator was such that such a sudden drop wasn't possible. It was much shinier after stoning. Turned out to be emissivity. You could use black barbecue paint to fix that, but there is another problem. While the gun puts out a nice little dot for aiming, the actual area it is measuring is probably larger than the entire frying pan. A way around that would be to use an IR camera, but they are expensive. You can get a questionable camera attachment for a phone, but they are more than $100, and any decent IR camera will likely set you back a few thousand dollars. I would opt for a contact type thermometer.
the temperature gun (IR) works by sending a lazer beam down and seeing the light bounce back to it. the surface reflectivity can afffect it. for example a mirroir surface will never read right compared to a mat surface.
If your food sticks, I would do this treatment, but your well seasoned area did wonderful. I did this process with with. New pans, they work great now. I can do eggs well. One of them is a dutch oven. I can stir fry in it, just like if it was a carbon steel wok. The seasoning did took a while.
I'm doing some testing right now on Cast iron and there seem to be quite a few factors involved in prevent sticking. Do you think that temperature plays a role in the non-stick properties also? Do you think a thick layer of seasoning would perform better than a thin layer?
The newer pans with rough surfaces smooth out with use. The "pores" fill over time. I had one newer pan that I wasn't happy about because it had the rough bottom. Fast forward a year or two, I got a new larger pan. When I went to compare them, I noticed the first pan was smooth, not as perfectly flat as the one I got passed down to me, but it is smooth.
I wouldn't waste your time sanding. Focus on seasoning the pan, that's what fills the voids. When washing, I basically just wipe it with an oily rag, if it needs scrubbing, I'll add coarse salt with a bit of oil and use that as an abrasive. If it needs more, sometimes I'll rinse with warm water, maybe scrub with a plastic brush. I've never used soap on my castviron pans. The key is leaving more seasoning to make a thicker coating. I have pans I can fry an egg in as if it was Teflon coated.
I agree, after some time testing and researching, I've come to the same conclusion. Seasoning builds up over time after repeated applications of fats. I have heard from other viewers that a metal spatula also speeds this process along, I switched to metal and so far it has no harmed my pans at all, it is a pleasure to use since it glides under food so easily.
Those are all good points, I also have been using salt on occasion, it works very well.
If you can't wait, I don't think there is any harm in knocking off the high spots, there is no point in polishing the surface, in fact it does not allow the seasoning layer to bond as well.
I've just finished recording tonight for 2 more videos related to this one, they are both starring this Lagostina pan again, so I hope you'll weigh in on those when they're released within a week.
Thanks for sharing!
@@NeedItMakeIt
Now that you mention it, I've been using a metal spatula, I guess that may have helped.
Hopefully I remember to check for your new videos. I love cast iron, it's all I cook with.
imissivity of the pan: the surfaces emmit IR diffrently.
there is a calibration for this in the thermometer.
I'm convinced that a light sanding with 80-100 grit will do the job. You will eliminate the high points on the surface that cause the sticking. Just reseason to cover the bare metal exposed. At least it worked for me. If you want to make it smooth, that works too but is it worth the effort since it is mostly an aesthetic issue?
I completely agree, I've done follow up tests and the best results came from 100 grit sanding, the seasoning bonds best to a surface that has this level of abrasion. I don't really recommend polishing a cast iron pan, it is counterproductive, the seasoning doesn't bond too well and like you say, it is a waste of time, this was an interesting experiment though. I have a few more videos on the subject which really dial it in.
Thanks for the great comment!
I appreciate your diligence.
Thanks a lot, it is very time consuming to make these videos.
Gotta like CT sales eh, lol I bought the 12 inch model a couple weeks ago for $29. I sanded my 12inch Lagostina by hand too, I used a 80 grit then a 120 just to take the roughness / bumps off the thing. I also used a wooden sanding block to make sure I was sanding it flat.
Once it had a few coats of seasoning it was very slippery. Now I use it for all the cooking I do. I have a small no name frying pan from Princess Auto too and a medium 10.25 Wagner that I also smoothed out but it had a machined surface when we bought it new. I used a wire wheel on my cordless drill for the Wagner to start the seasoning process over again because the thing sat on a shelf for 20 years or more and had some rusty spots on it. I really like cooking on the cast iron though... My elderly mom bought the 10 inch model you have and she uses it often also.
Thumbs up! 👍🏼
This guy... I subbed because I really like your attention to detail and commitment to hand work and testing. This is a great vid that I’ll share with my cast iron-loving friends.
Thank you very much. Lots of work goes into these videos, I hope to have more time in 2020 for more videos like this one.
I sanded a new Lodge and it was a challenge to season. I thought the preseason was too coarse. My favorite is my old Griswold. Second fav is the 12 in mystery skillet. It looks like a Lodge but it has no markings at all. Thanks!
I find that a light "dusting" of cooking spray (Pam, or something similar) after every use is all that's required to keep my cast iron in tip-top condition. Spray lightly and then wipe it off. You don't need bacon grease or any fancy oil. The cooking spray is ideal.
Hey, Clarance: I have one smoothed Lodge that I've been experimenting on using the spray coatings. It seems quicker and appears to do a good job. I'm still in the initial stages with that one so time will tell.
coming from a guy that has only cooked in old cast iron the reason you want a smooth buff on it is simple rly once you take a day and carbon coat it RIGHT and not half ass'd you will never have to worry about cleaning it and a simple wipe while hot will do then a little re oil and your set if you have a textured finish you still need to / will have to sctub it if you bake or something all my old things can get stuff caked on and its just a wipe away with little to no effort where my wife's pan needs scrubbing if you cook in it regardless of how well you season it.
It is difficult to understand what you are writing. Try interpunction, add some commas and stops.
The temperature is not different. Use a thermocouple to verify. The infrared sensor is extremely sensitive to shiny surfaces and will often read most true on black / diffuse surfaces. Shiny surfaces tend to show very cold.
I have my grandma's corn bread skillet from around 1900. It does cook differently from the pan I got when I married. It is heavier for one thing and slick smooth inside. The bottom is flat and it holds heat better.
They used to smooth pans and left the seasoning to the user, but these days they're pretty rough. The smooth does look nice and does give me the impression of a higher quality, I still don't know if it is more non-stick, but it is much easier to clean. None of my pans are that old, would be nice to have an antique at some point.
I have been wondering a bit about the thickness, and whether it has any impact on cooking. I know it takes longer to heat evenly, which is a bit of a drawback these days. Any advantages you can think of?
@@NeedItMakeIt The biggest advantage is that the pan holds heat longer and heats more evenly across the surface. Once up to temp you can reduce the heat and still cook well. I think the original advantage was that many people cooked on wood stoves or coal stoves. The cookware had to be very robust to take that kind of heat. Also in cooking outside over a wood fire a thin pan would burn the food very quickly. When using a Dutch oven or covered skillet the lid is very heavy which reduces evaporation and allows for longer simmering time. As an added bonus you can cancel your gym membership. Nothing like pumping cast iron to build those muscles.
I've got 2 faves. My daily driver is an 8" (I think) skillet that actually says Martha Stewart on the bottom. Someone gave it to me. I have the seasoning so thick that it looks wet with oil all the time but isn't sticky or anything. Just midnight black and shiny. I can slide eggs off it. Love it. My other is a massive 14" lodge skillet I meal prep with. It was also a used pan, so not sure the history on it. I actually got frustrated with it. Eventually I stripped it with the easy off method and put 4 coats of flax seed, and have been using olive oil since. Performs much better now.
Smithey is a beautiful brand of cast iron skillets. Pricey but very nice quality
IR thermometers have a hard time reading temp from shiny or reflective surfaces while flat black is the perfect surface for them
It's tough to understand something we can't see. But it is picking up light, so it makes sense that a "mirror-like" surface would cause incorrect readings. This is a cheap model also so I'm not certain the readings are so accurate no matter where I take the measurement. I've been in the shop testing this lately and it's consistent in reading higher for a dark flat black surface compared to the lighter highly polished surfaces.
the color is not important, it could be black or white or orange. just the reflectivity matters for infrared thermometers :)
Get a good old Wagner or Griswald. Lodge preseasoning is super bumpy and sucks, have to sand like crazy to smooth out
I couldn't agree more. I picked up a few old Wagners and have been really happy with them. I have a 10" wagner which does not sit flat so I and trying to find the best method of flattening it without removing too much material. The Griswald skillets are so expensive, are they really worth the money?
I like to season mine in my pellet grill, makes me feel like I’m cooking flavor into the pan😆. Something I’ve also done is deep dish Chicago style pizza in my pellet grill with the lodge, it’s a home run. My six year old year old takes great pride in making his own in a small skillet...
I have the little cast iron box for smoking on my BBQ, but I don't find it works well at all. I did the same thing with my son a week ago (actually twice) because it was such a hit. We pre-heated the pan in the oven as well and made it a deep dish too! What I found with the cast was that the crust wasn't as crispy as it was with the pizza stone, I wonder if that's because it didn't allow a place for the steam to go, did you have this problem? In either case, the pizza was great, we make 14" pizzas for ourselves and they don't last too long and look very "artistic" or hand-made.
How about a video of making pizza in your pellet grill?
Rub butter all over inside of cast iron skillet & sides, coat butter with fine shredded Parmesan sides as well, place in dough up to top of sides, add lots of mozzarella, add toppings, sauce over toppings, sprinkle Parmesan on sauce. Bake in pellet grill or oven until crust edges are golden brown at 375. Parmesan will caramelize on outer crust with the butter👍🏻 your welcome!!! Or you could just oil the pan....
I like the older brands like Wagner and Birmingham Stove (lots of unbranded pieces are BSR). Lodge bought the molds when BSR closed. BSR is heavier than many other old brands, much like Lodge. I ran across a brand out of South America called Victoria which I like very much. Not quite as heavy or rough as Lodge and a better design than the basic Lodge. It is in a similar price range unlike the new brands made in the US. Knocking down the high spots might work better than polishing. Using a heavy steel spatula over time will do that. Also, frying bacon after seasoning but before cooking eggs seems to finish the seasoning pretty well.
I'm a Wagner fan, we have plenty of vintage ones in my area and they are usually around $10. I have a lodge as well, but I personally think the Wagner's are better designed, with the exception of the handle length since they tend to be quite short and get pretty hot. I have a Kitchen-aid 10" which is actually really good, stays flat and is pretty hefty... with a longer handle, and the Lagostina pans are not good at all in my experience.
I'd like to try using a metal spatula, I originally thought it was a bad idea, but I'm hearing from quite a few people that it works really well.
Still doesn’t duplicate like a griswold or old Wagner ,,, but to answer your question ,,,, the smoother is better and will continue to get better as it’s seasoned ! 👍
Maybe so, I will keep trying. It would be nice to cast my own and then machine it smooth and flat.
NeedItMakeIt yes your right ,,, season what you’ve done , I think you’ll be surprised
I have been given a number of the cast iron pan cookie kits. It’s a little three inch griddle, and it’s as rough as a rasp. I go at them with grinders, sand paper, whiz wheels, and a polisher when I hang around the shop after work. They come out fairly decently for something you can only cook a single egg on
I have a small lodge pan, it works really well for a single egg, I do find that even though the handle is small it tends to teeter a little until I add the egg into the pan to counter-balance it.
The handles probably get nice and hot on these small pans too?
Good stuff. Seems like like they should definitely be selling with a glass finish!
I think it'd be hard to resist a finish like that. I've heard that the old ones used to come standard with a smooth finish, but I'm not sure, maybe they became smooth with use over time.
If you have the right equipment smoothing a skillet can be pretty quick (die grinder for example)
Thanks for the comment.
I’m in the middle of stripping/sanding down a couple cast iron pans, and I’m using a couple of different hand sanders. Not the hardest task, but watching you do it by hand, how long did that take you? I’m curious.
You have WAY more patience than I do.
Thank you! Sometimes I don't know when to give up.
The infrared light that is measuring the temperature basically reflects the light off instead of showing up as a good reading if that makes sense. If you're ever seen a mirror in a thermal camera it's the same thing.
I have no, but I will now that you mention it. So if I aim at something in the mirror, it will likely measure the object in the reflection? Not what I see, but what the tool "sees" ?
@@NeedItMakeIt Yeah, it's the same if you shone a laser pointer on it basically. you might see a bit of red but the rest of the light would be bounced off somewhere else.
I just bought the same pan (from Canadian tire for $20) and the first thing I cooked was bacon. Now I have brown stains that won't come off no matter how much I scrub. Thinking of smoothing it out just for easier cleaning. My other pan is an old smooth bottom and really easy to clean. Problem is the bottom has warped over time and is now more on the concave side. If I had a gas stove that wouldn't be a problem but the wife insisted on one of those glass top models.
I have a video coming out tomorrow on that exact subject with this very pan. When I bought mine it was already warped and bellied in the middle, I just didn't know anything about cast iron at that time... (i went to return it and the ones in the store were also)
Have a watch for the video tomorrow night, then if you still have some questions just let me know, it will address your bacon staining question also.
Looking forwards to it.
@@thatguyoverthere555 th-cam.com/video/I1DaEke6sPQ/w-d-xo.html So there are timestamps in the description to bring you to the various parts that apply to your problem. So now you know you're not alone with your struggle with this pan. Also The very end of the video shows how I corrected most of the problem with the discoloration.
Would a wire wheel brush on a die grinder do the same thing? Bought a new skillet and going to try smoothing the bottom tomorrow.
A 100 grit sandpaper on a die grinder would work best, after making a follow up video, I found that 100 grit worked the best for adhesion of the seasoning. Also make sure to clean it well afterward and then I like to boil vinegar in mine to etch the surface in prep for the seasoning. It also darkens the surface just a bit to give it a more vintage look from the start.
Lodge and no name are my favorites.
I like Lodge also, some people do seem to have a hate on for them, I think it is because they bought the expensive pans and have to justify it by putting down the cheaper pans. No name is just pans older than the requirement to have a 'made in' so they would be fairly old?
Likely the temperature is not very different, just the black body emission is different with different surface.
Use a thermal couple to measure will give more reliable result.
I'll have a look to see what's available that would measure a surface, thanks!
The difference in temperature readings is due to different emissivities of black, rough and polished surfaces. It looks like your IR thermometer is very similar to mine, a cheap model I bought from AliExpress.
It is possible to change the emissivity setting in mine, and for most uses the default setting of e = 0.95 is pretty accurate. But for shiny surfaces like my stainless steel pan, I have to change the setting to e = 0.16 to get correct readings. I found this by putting the pan in the oven at a known temperature and let it sit there for an hour to warm up completely. Then I measured the temperature with the IR thermometer and adjusted the emissivity setting until I got a correct reading.
Good tip, I plan on trying this in a few minutes.
To get better results, measure the actual temperature in your oven with an ovenproof thermometer. The thermostat in the oven is usually very inaccurate, so it is better to measure it.
@@anderseriksson1945 My most accurate measurement tool is the instant read thermometer www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/kitchen/measurement/thermometers/73812-javelin-instant-read-thermometer, I just need a way to insert it into something. I have another one that can go into the oven, but the scale is tiny and won't be good enough. I'll test what I have and maybe I need to buy something.
There is no actual temperature difference on the pan. I have one of those temperature guns and mine came with a setting to adjust it for getting accurate readings of different materials. Stainless steel might read differently than a painted vent register. The temperture difference probably had something to do with reflectivity of the light on the pan. As an example when you shoot the gun at a human forhead it never reads 98.6 or even close. It makes you wonder how the Chinese thought they were screening for their virus with those guns when they are not going to read skin temperatures corectly.
In my own experiance playing with a IR temp gun like this you can get a good reading if you point it inside your mouth. Your forehead is cooler than your core temp. The surface finish is messing with the reading I think that is evident. I have read some on "black body radiation" and used some info from that to make corrections to readings in spectra-photometers so that may be worth a look.
a human forehead shouldn't be 98.6... internal body temp and surface temp are separate matters, even in a location like the forehead. Still, if you aim a temp gun at everyone's forehead and come up with one number that's 4 degrees higher, you know where your problem is. Concerning the ability to temp different surfaces like cast iron, cast iron definitely has hotspots. Of the common pan materials, it's actually one of the worst performing conductors. It does have remarkably high ability to RETAIN heat once hot.
finally, I agree that the surface finish couldn't possibly have any meaningful influence on the temperature characteristics of the material.
If you find a griswold buy it at any cost
He didn’t take it down far enough on the 1st sanding. There are still pits in the metal.
He could have done a better job... so he did; check out my latest video for this same skillet th-cam.com/video/I1DaEke6sPQ/w-d-xo.html. Very happy with it.
Temp is different due to the corse surface vs shiny the temp gun reads the reflection of the beam
What was the reason for doing all that sanding ?????
This was a test to see how smooth would perform against rough. The antique and vintage pans were smooth upon purchase. I'd really like to use a lathe to machine one, but my lathe is too small at 12" swing unfortunately.
Hey, so ill take a jab at the IR temp gun reading difference. On a FLIR camera, there are settings for how matte or reflective the surface you are measuring is. On reflective surfaces its harder to read a correct temp. I assume the same is true with an IR thermometer. A thermocouple would tell you the whole pan is the same temperature.
as for WHY that is, i have no idea. i would think that a given surface at a certain temperature will give off a certain amount of IR light. if the IR thermometer is taking in that IR energy, i dont see why a different surface finish would matter. I would think that a coarse bar of steel glowing would put off the same visible light intensity as a polished bar thats heated.
Excellent info, I'm going to get back in the kitchen later today to see if I can find a way to get correct readings.
@@michaelhudson1507I don't know how to get you the correct values to use, but you need to compensate for the emissivity of the surface. The darker cast iron radiates better in the Infrared bands that the IR temp sensor reads in. The polished surface is slightly skewed towards reflecting the ambient temperature of the room instead of only the radiated heat of the actual pan. The mirroring effect of polishing reflects IR just like the visible light is better reflected.
In the electrical world this is a problem when trying to read the temperature of aluminum and copper electrical bus bars. To avoid this, before energizing we wrap a spot in Black electrical tape which has a high, consistent emissivity value that makes the IR temp sensor much more accurate. Finding a material that you can set into the pan in the three locations may not give you a 100% accurate temperature in absolute terms, but could allow for an accurate relative comparison.
I'm going to perform two tests tomorrow and return the results in the comments here. I hadn't thought about the finish affecting the reading, but it makes perfect sense. Thanks for the help.
Here is an update, the same note appears in a comment above also: "I'm struggling with the readings still, I've tried thin pieces of paper, parchment paper, and computer monitor heat shield, and the original rough finish is still reading much higher. I'm going to check the skillet for a perfectly flat bottom and see whether that may be contributing to the false readings."
As to WHY it’s because IR is wavelength just like visible light. The way it reads temperature is similar how we look at something and determine what is color. Any variables such as distance reflectivity and refractivity effect the test results.
I wouldn't wait for the eggs to get a crust. A good test for a non stick surface is the ability to move the food while it starts to stick to the pan.
I find it tough to get just the right temperature with cast iron on my stovetop. It seems that even though the temp is set to med, or just a little lower, the cast has such a higher ability to retain the heat that it keeps heating well beyond what you'd get with an aluminum non-stick pan. Much to learn. Thanks for the comment, and if you have any tips, I am all ears.
@@NeedItMakeIt I think it's about the same with my stove. I go to high heat for about a minute or two than go back to low-medium low, than wait at least 5 minutes. I will then add the butter and let it heat for at least a minute. I whisk the eggs and pour them to the pan after leveling the butter so it covers the pan well. I was able to get perfect scrambled eggs with nothing sticking.
NeedItMakeIt I’m relatively new to cast iron, but I think i understand it now. I never use heat above medium low. It gets too hot. I let it heat up fully before starting. And i only clean it while cold using only water if needed. Washing a hot pan can warp it.
Smooth surfaces reflect the light of the temperature gun, rough surfaces give a more precise reading, a contact measurement would reveal this, use a little oil for heat transfer to the contact pickup, temp guns work well for checking temperature differences , ie checking for a bad bearing, or hydraulic rams where one has a leak inside, fluid leaking causes a temperature rise due to the energy being released.
I use a 24 inch cast iron Dutch oven with a multy use cover for cooking just about every night.
That's HUGE! I once bought a 24" cast iron pan as a gift from a surplus store, but it was so heavy nobody could lift it.
Do you have a favorite brand? What kinds of things do you cook in this Monstrous dutch oven?
Great idea! Keep it simple.
Wow! I have a 15 inch Lodge skillet and I thought that was a beast.
See link below. Shiny surfaces are poor infrared emitters and dull black surfaces are good infrared emitters. And your using an infrared thermometer. There's lots about this if you poke around but I'm glad that I learned to not trust ir thermometer readings on shiny surfaces. NEVER would have thought of that on my own.
Considering you tried measuring the temperature of other things than just the pan surface, maybe it's a mix of the bare metal transfering the heat to the air more freely in a direct sense but also the divot grooves make it so the air has to expand more before it rises/other circulation blockage. Then again, I'm just a 20 grit scrub.
This is a hot topic, so I think I'll make a follow up video under more controlled circumstances to show what is happening. When I originally saw these readings I thought the rough finish would release more heat due to surface area that is hot in contact with ambient air temperature. Great comment, thanks for adding your thoughts on this.
Love my griswolds. If new, the stargazer and the field co. pans are nice.
I'd love a Griswold, I do like the wagner pans, but on the glass cook-top I find that any I find are a little too irregular. Glass cook-tops weren't a thing back then. The machined pans are really nice. I think an investment into an induction top might be a great thing for cast iron, or gas, the electric coil or glass top just don't do them justice. Which type of stove to do you use?
Non contact infrared temperature sensors will take a different reading on smooth shiny surfaces when compared to black surfaces it’s called Emissivity and it’s on the basis that black bodies absorb all incident radiation so that all emitting radiation is a result of their own body heat. (Black surfaces have an emissivity factor of 1.0) .However shiny surfaces reflect a lot of incident radiation and therefore need special compensation to achieve comparable results ( i.e emissivity factor less than 1.0 for shiny smooth surfaces) for using this type of of temperature sensor
Get some thermal paste and a small bar of aluminum, copper, cold or hot rolled steel with consistent surface finish. Cut three identically sized pieces, slather one side of each (weigh it for consistency) and attach in each sector at equal distances from the sides. Take your readings after heating for awhile. Should do the trick, even moreso than if you had an adjustable emissivity IR gun. Great vid, tho I think I’ll stick with my 20-year old pan and save the arthritis-inducing work for another one of the 85 projects I’ve got going on here :-)
I have all of those materials already, great ideas, thanks.
I was given a lodge 2-sided long griddle/skillet for Christmas. I lightly sanded it not knowing about sanding it all the way down. So, now there is a black smudge that comes off when I touch it and I can't wash it off. Any suggestions? Also, I currently do not have access to an oven. Is there another way I can season the griddle/skillet?
That is a little bit odd. When you heat up the pan can you wipe off the smudge? I suspect that when it was seasoned, a big 'blob' of oil was left in this spot and did not polymerize properly, which will leave a sticky residue. A really good way to season a pan is in the barbecue, I prefer this method, because the process of seasoning will take the oil to the smoking point and it will stink up/smoke up your house. If you don't have access to a barbecue, you can use your burner, just increase the temperature gradually, the cast iron retains heat well once up to temperature so be careful not to turn it up too high.
The Stargazer website has a really good set of guidelines for seasoning, so I'd suggest following their process. stargazercastiron.com/pages/use-care?=page=clean#usecare_tabs3
I have plans in an upcoming video to review the seasoning process... as well as review a few other aspects of the process to help gain a better understanding of the dos and don'ts, everyone has their own ideas it can be difficult to know which method is the best.
Layer of the seasoning can affect the temperature, any thing that insulates metal will cause a higher temperature.
On a cast iron pan you want the seasoning for it to non stick but it also will help the pan to heat up more.
Interesting, I don't think I have any measurement device accurate enough to test that, but I understand the concept, I like your thought process on this.
IR thermometers do not read accurately on shiny surfaces.
I read Michael's comment, but there is almost twice the surface area with the ridges of the unpolished side. Just sayin'
And the pans without names are most likely pre 1960.
Thanks!
Your laser temperature sensor is probably not measuring actual temperature differences between the different finishes, but is getting a different reading due to the different finishes. This affect is increased because you are not point the device at a 90 degree angle to the surface. The surface finish of the metal has a large impact on the measured temperature using this kind of device.
Wen it's time to clean up an old iron pan that i found in a thrift store or one that i let someone use and it comes back rusty or with burnt leftovers in it i use the self cleaning mode on my oven. Most ovens have a self cleaning mode where they get over 500 deg f. some as high as 750 deg f. u have to remove the oven racks and most of the cheaper oven thermometers. i just set the pan upright on the bottom of the oven and turn on the cleaning cycle. If the pan is real heavily caked in baked on grease it might be a little smokey after a while but most of the time the exaust fan over the stove sucks out the smoke. After a few hours when the cleaning cycle is over and the oven cools down you can open the oven door and the pan will have a fine coating of gray ash and rust. Then i use a new wire wheel on a drill, angle grinder or bench grinder to clean and polish the whole pan. then coat it with olive oil and pop it into a 350 deg F. oven for an hour and its like new.
I like it, simple and effective; do you only apply one coat of seasoning?
I would really like to try this self-cleaning, maybe do a time-lapse video of the process also to see what happens. I know our exhaust fan is not great so I normally use the barbecue to season my pans.
Great comment, thanks for sharing.
It is from the more reflective surface, it is a known thing using a IR gun like that. The best surface to get a temp from is a flat black surface, the more reflective it is the more the temps are thrown off.
Some people suggested attaching a small piece of metal painted black to the pan in these areas with thermal paste, that would removed the variable. Another good idea was to heat it in the oven to an even temperature, those were both good ideas I think.
You guys have helped me a lot in understanding the pitfalls of the IR measurement method.
Thank you.
Just for reference, those IR thermometers have a super hard time registering shiny surfaces, and if it is, will almost surely be in accurate. Great video though, very thorough. Thank you.
I do own a fair amount of cast iron, since we live just a stones throw from the Canadian border we see a fair amount of cast iron made in Canada. My favorite pans are Canadian made. I do not know much about them out side of they were made in the early 1900’s but they are shallow and smooth.
Was this before they started to add manuf. info? I'd love to know who made them. I had Wagner, but my obsession forced me to sell quite a few of mine, now I have Kitchenaid and Lagostina, after I flattened them, they work really nice. Lots of effort of course, it'd be easier to buy a good old one, I'd imagine.
black absorbs more heat. than anything reflective. It's why people put aluminum foil when cooking in an oven. Same applies to cast iron... just a theory :))
My favorite is a 130ish year old Erie pancake griddle. Got it from my grandma.
I just checked these out to see what they look like. I have to say that I'd like to have one of these, I like the low sides, that would be great for flipping eggs without a spatula too! Very nice and a little jealous.
@@NeedItMakeIt It's pretty cool, cause sometimes I'll flip it upside down and use the higher edge to catch liquids. I can sear 4 or 5 steaks on it at a time.
Apparently, it lived in my grandparent's cabin for at least 40 years according to my mom. It'd be cool to get some backstory on something like that for sure!
@@NeedItMakeIt Mine looks a lot like this one, with the "high and low" sides.
But the way Erie is stamped into the metal, (not script, and it has the quote marks) it was most likely made before 1900, if the internet is correct. So cool!
queensofcookware.auctivacommerce.com/Product.aspx?ProductId=2680695
I have a full array of cast iron. I have stuff as much as 70 years old and I will say I prefer my old smooth stuff. That being said, I have no problem using my newer, rougher stuff. Perhaps that is because all my newer stuff is Lodge. I never buy anything else if I’m buying new.
I find it amazing how divided people our about their CI brands, it reminds me a bit of people and their car brands. I like the lodge, they aren't as refined, but I think they are well constructed and made to last. As far as being rough, I'm starting to come understand that rough doesn't necessarily mean it's bad, but I do think smooth is easier to clean.
Do you use metal on your pans? Do you think it smooths the pans out over time?
@@nadaso8819 I think I'm a little bit obsessed. I'm sure I'm not the only one right???
Just fyi, they are all the same temperature. The more reflective to infrared a material is, the less you can read the surfaces temperature. As a fireman, if I aim my thermal camera at a window that is holding back fire, I'll still get the temperature of the sky, tree, or whatever is reflected in the window from behind me.
There is a lot that I don't understand about IR. So because IR is a form of light, it reflects just like the light we can see? Maybe there are some videos I can watch to help me understand this. Thank you for this, your comment has give me a practical way to try and understand it.
@@NeedItMakeIt There's just some quirks with IR. You're reading radiation and sometimes it can reflect that's all.
I own 8 cast iron skillet. I bought then second hand, and found that the only way to reach metal is to put them in a wood fire until red hot. I tried sand paper and then a power drill with a metal brush attachment to no effect. I tried caustic soda, with partial success.
That factory black finish is bullet proof.
I have a Lodge grill pan. It has ridges in the bottom for cooking steaks. The black factory coating has started to flake off. I have been coinciding throwing it in a fire.
Probably covered..Your polishing has made the surface more reflective to the IR device. A physically touching the surface with a probe would reveal minimal (if any) differences in temperature. I had to shoot a spot of spray paint on the lid of a pressure canner to get accurate readings with my el cheapo IR.
Assuming the heat below the pan is consistent that is. To verify that, spin the pan and check again.
I have an idea for an upcoming video and experiment and I will use your technique of using paint because it won't come in contact with food for the test... but it will be related to food. Thanks for taking the time!
A few years ago I tried this with a carbon steel pan but it was a complete waste of time. Fortunately I used sanding/polishing pads and an electric drill so not THAT much time but I had an actual mirror finish on it.. Couldn't get any seasoning to stick at all. Ended up going over it with 200 grit or so sandpaper, and it's been pretty decent since. Of course the carbon steel was already polished so not comparable. I think there's something to be said for getting rid of the casting marks on the surface of a cast iron pan, you just don't get a benefit taking it to a mirror finish or anything even close.
I'd agree, I did a follow up video showing exactly what you did and I had really good results with 100 - 220 grits. The seasoning benefits from some small abrasions in the surface to help it stay on. I also found that the Stargazer seasoning method worked better than ones I had tried in the past.
Refractive index may be different for different surfaces. Actual temp may not be so different. Just a thought.
Also,
BIG no no, running water directly onto hot pan.. = cracks
Thank you for the comment.
I've been cleaning my pans this way for several years now, not every time of course. I realize I didn't go into any detail about the process as it was not the subject of the video. Very hot water and a just a little bit of water goes a long way. I haven't experience cracking or warping, this pan is on a glass top it is still sits nice. In any case, if people don't want to use this process, then don't, if you want to try it, I might just say to limit the size of the pan to 10". I have tested the temp drop in a worst-case scenario, which is 150C pan. Dousing it with just warm water three times does drop the surface temp down to 70C. It didn't crack this pan, but it could happen if there are weaknesses in the pan already.
To address the sticking at the source, I have found that cooking bacon in the oven avoids most of the need to clean CI in this way, also cooking with warm eggs into a hot pan seems to also work well. The smooth pan is really a treat to clean, even with paper towel.
I like your message by the way, it is controlled, and you've capitalized EXACTLY what was needed to draw attention, very nice.
@@NeedItMakeIt I appreciate all the work and appropriate observations along the way.
It is a joy to watch your videos, and also the humility involved in the process. That way the opportunity is there for all to learn. Very cool.
I always enjoy opportunity for excellence and these vids help me down that path. Thank you.
Also, thanks for your patience with my cringing watching water go onto a hot pan, me not knowing the water temp. It was a knee jerk reaction lol.
Peace
Cast iron is great but it must be oiled and cleaned properly after each use if you want it to work properly
Things do like to stick, especially just after cleaning. On the other hand, they last a very long time, which is nice in an age of things only having a lifespan of a year or two.
A few years back I took some scrap metal to the metal recycling section of the dump. Threw out my metal and there were two old cast iron skillets with layers of crud on the bottoms and rust from rain on the tops. I didn’t know one pan from another back then. I was burning large piles of sage brush so just put the pans on one pile and lit it off and came back at the end of the day and uncovered them from the ash and coals. I brought them into the shop to cool down over night. Next day brought them into the house to see how much cleaning needed to be done. Most of the crud burned off both skillets so hand scrubbing in hot water wasn’t too bad. One pan is a #9 Griswold small logo so one of the later ones probably 1950’s. I seasoned them and the Griswold was a real find the other one has machine marks that was not smooth and very disappointing. I could clamp it down on the milling machine but will probably go back to the metal pile someday. A couple days ago I watched a video on figuring out what cast iron you have. Turns out I also have an old Griswold #5 large logo Erie skillet plus a smaller non discript skillet that works very well oh the #5 Griswold also has the ring on the bottom. Pretty sure that came with some stuff when a close friend died.
They don't let me anywhere near the metal pile at my dump :( we don't really even have scrapyards anymore either around my area, so I am forced to look to the antique shops for my pans.
Those are some excellent finds, I've heard of cleaning pans by putting them in the fire, I expect that it would heat the pans evenly so no need to worry about them cracking even at such a high temperature.
If you're interested, I can probably re-finish the pan by hand-scraping (check out my latest video). It would make for an interesting video also. These pans are probably expensive to ship, so maybe it's not possible, just a thought.
You earned my subscription. Good stuff.
Thanks for the demo! A worse of advise: don't every cold shock the pan like that, it may lead to cracking.
I have plans on a video on this subject, a few people have commented on this, however I took this technique from an expert and as long as the water is very hot, you'll be in good shape. I clean all of my cast iron this way now, and none have cracked.... not to say they couldn't, it might depend largely on whether they are prone to cracking or their material composition, but when I have some time I'll take an extreme approach to it and see if I can crack it.
I have cracked 1 cast iron, I accidentally turned the burner on to HI and it was a 12" skillet, cracked it within a few minutes.
I appreciate the comment, keep them coming!
@@NeedItMakeIt I use this same cleaning technique, and here is my opinion: water from the hot and cold taps only varies by 30-40 degrees F. Very little when you are dealing with temperatures of the skillet of 400F or more. Cast iron will definitely crack if heated or cooled unevenly and quickly. So, I use whatever water is coming from the tap, don't worry about making it very hot. Just DO NOT put much water in the skillet at once. The steam seems to be the thing that does the cleaning, and a couple of tablespoons of water seems to be enough to accomplish the job. So a few tablespoons of water in the skillet, swirl it quickly to distribute the cooling effect, a quick brush, and dump it out...clean pan. I have been using this for several years, and have not cracked one yet. Cast iron is the best non-stick cookware out there, and I have tried them all. Another case of don't fix it if it ain't broke. So glad I came across my first cast iron at the junk yard. One man's trash, etc.
Using only a little water is a very good advice. You just need some steam to loosen sticky stuff.
You may also let the skillet cool down a little and then use very hot (boiling) water. Just make sure never to put the skillet through big, sudden differences in temperature or it may warp or even crack.
Yeah, when I saw that I pretty much lost any faith that he knows cast iron
Just don't do it with a very hot pan. Just hot enough to sizzle the water
Liked cast iron vid
Awesome thanks for the support!
The Lodge oil is light and super convenient, just a little spray inside a dry clean pan and wipe it inside and out, I use the blue shop towels. Then I heat pan just until it smokes and they store nice. This also builds and repairs seasoning easily in pan as you use them.
I find old kitchen towels and socks work well, but I've heard of a few other people using the shop towels with good success, so that's a good tip. I'll try the just heating until it smokes a bit, I usually season in the barbecue because it smokes up the house and I leave it for an hour then to cool in the BBQ also.
Joints in my fingers wouldn't make it past the initial scrubbing with a brilllo Pad ! :) I used the $5 grinding wheel on a drill, like dozens of others in here. Then took it one step further. 120 grit on a small D.A. sander Initial seasoniing didn't look like it took well, but after using them a bit, works every bit as well has one of the wife's super pans ! To each their own! I enjoy doing it, and the Nastalgic part of using them. Always said, kinda like a Smoker using a Zippo instead of a Bic.
I would have used power tools, but I've found that people tend to hate when you"Ruin" a pan with power tools, so I've tried to do most of the work by hand. It also shows that you can do this even if you don't have any special equipment.
8:16 guy just grabs the hot handle like its no big deal
if you are going to test why divide half pan and then 2 quarters why not 3 pie shapes
I'm sure I had a good reason (at least I hope), but I can't really recall it was a little while ago and I have kid brain at the moment.
I know that an infrared thermometer will read different from a shiny surface as compared to a mat surface. My question is, how much difference does surface area make? In my lay opinion, the more surface area you have, the higher the temperature. If you sand away the highs aren't you losing surface area?
The temperature difference comes from the reflectivity lecture of the IR thermometer according to the surface finish.
Crazy temperatures change
I thought I would see, so I measured it today. With hot water it drops 70C top surface, 50C bottom the pan is heated to 145C to 160C for normal cooking. The sidewalls only heat to around 100C at their max on my glass cooktop. So the question is, does a 70C drop on cast iron cause a problem?
I can speak from my experience only, and this process works well for me. If people dont want to do it, well... don't do it. I can imagine that cold water (11C) at my house at the moment, would cause a greater temperature change.
I'd like to do a follow up test video on this subject, but I'm a little concerned I may be crusified. So I will be thinking about the right way to approach this, which had to be showing the facts and my own opinions are left out.
Thanks for the comment.