Lodge Skillet Sanding Smooth & Seasoning with Crisbee

Hello all jokers, welcome to learn how to cook with a joker's touch. I was inspired to get better at cooking by watching YouTube videos and recently I've been learning from Kent Rollins, now he's a real cowboy cook and has his own. youtube channel and he was saying that he loves himself, an iron

skillet

that he loves and when he cooks an amazing picnic outside it's so good you know so I put a link to his channel below and make sure to Seeing it, it's very fun. To look at now I have never owned or cooked with an iron

skillet

so I watched some of his videos and he has a lot of tips on this.

I also decided to watch a lot more on youtube to learn what they are all about and I will tell you that there are thousands of different opinions on how to season, clean and maintain iron cookware so be sure to do your research and I'm just giving you what I thought It was really good advice, now that iron pans can be priced anywhere. from a few dollars to over two hundred dollars so you can really go crazy if you have the money now a very popular entry level brand is Lodge and there is a high quality frying pan so that's what I decided to start with so I bought a A 10 inch and a 12 inch skillet on Amazon for 50 and they come pre-seasoned from the factory, they have a very rough surface compared to what you would find with older skillets or those expensive ones that are much

smooth

er and what I learned from Kent Rollins and several other videos show that you can actually sand the surface of these large pans to make them

smooth

er and then you can reseason them to get that better nonstick surface.

Now, a warning: they are very heavy and, like Arnold. Schwarzenegger would say that cooking with an iron skillet is healthy for the body and for building muscles and I chose to take some 80 grit sandpaper with a small sander and went over the inside a bit to expose some bare metal that I have seen on others wear. grinder wheels and get the surface almost to a simple finish, but I don't like it and I don't think that's the right thing to do because some of those people had noticed that when they did that it was harder for the

seasoning

to stick. the pan so they had to redo it so I decided it only took 30 minutes of

sanding

with about four or five sheets of sandpaper and this is what it looks like and you can actually hear the difference so check this out and here's another one Great advice. to get rid of the old

seasoning

you can put the pans in the oven and run them through an oven clean cycle to remove the old seasoning and that will actually prepare the pan to accept the new seasoning and it was actually a really good thing because I noticed in some spots that the seasoning was starting to come off right from the factory so I'm really happy I sanded it down and I'm going to clean off the old seasoning and then just put new seasoning on it so before you do this though make sure you air out your kitchen because when you run the oven cycle it creates a lot of fumes and my cycle ran for about four hours so your oven may be a little different.

Now there are other methods to remove old ones. condiments like using oven cleaner or soaking in bleach or vinegar, you know, watch those YouTube videos if you're interested in that, do your own research, but I really like this oven cleaning cycle method because it was easy and didn't involve a long time. process or harsh chemicals so after letting it cool for several hours I cleaned it with a sos pad and some liquid detergent to remove any remaining residue and it can rust very quickly so dry it right away make sure it is completely dry , you can place it.

Place a burner on the stove for a few minutes over medium heat to heat it up and make sure it is completely dry. Be careful with cast iron because you want to make sure you don't heat it or cool it too quickly because it can crack. Never put cold water in a hot pan or hot water in a cold pan and the same goes for cooking, start at a lower temperature to heat the pan and then gradually increase the temperature so don't turn it all the way up. hot from the beginning, so now we are ready to start the seasoning process, but if for some reason you are not ready to start seasoning right away, you want to rub a super light layer of canola oil on your pan and this will prevent it from burning. flashe.

It rusts, so there are many ways to season a pan and people have strong opinions on this topic, but there is no consensus on which oil or method is best, so the only thing we all agree on is that there are what to season Your pan will either rust and corrode and be no good, so popular oils are crisco grapeseed and flaxseed butter and there are several other oils that will work. After a lot of research, I chose a product made for seasoning cast iron. It's called crispy, that's what it looks like and it comes in disc or stick form.

I chose the disc shape and it comes in this small tin. I also like it crunchy because it doesn't go rancid over time like other oils, so I start seasoning. heating the molds in an oven at 200 degrees for 30 minutes and I take them out one at a time and as Arnold would say, remember that so be careful, use both hands with proper kitchen gloves, it's also a good idea to put a towel or something to protect the surface you're working on thanks Arnold for that safety tip so now I'm going to take this crisp out of the can and I decided to hold it vertically because it was easier to grab but basically I'm just going to slide it onto the pan and it starts melting into oil instantly so it only takes a small amount so don't go crazy and then I take a little lint free microfiber cloth to spread the oil all over the pan. making sure you coat the pan well in every nook and cranny and if you miss a spot it can rust and cause problems right away so take your time and make sure you do a really good job again.

Be careful with the pans as they become very slippery with the oil now we want to remove the excess oil with a dry part of the cloth or a second dry cloth so that the pan appears dry now it may have a slight shine left, it just you need a small amount of residual oil that has already soaked into the surface, if you leave too much oil it would give it a shiny look, it can leave a sticky residue after seasoning and you don't want that, remember to use a lint free cloth if you use a towel plain paper or a fuzzy cloth which would leave lint that can bake on the surface and cause a problem with the seasoning, that's fine so turn the oven up to 400 degrees and place them face down on the rack to bake the ramekins for an hour, you can put some aluminum foil. on a rack under the pans to catch any excess oil, but if you do it correctly there should be no oil dripping from the pans and it's a really good idea to check after about 10 minutes to make sure there is no excess.

Oil starts to build up on the surface of the pan which can cause leopard spots and if you see excess oil just wipe it dry after baking for about an hour, let it cool in the oven for several hours and this is what It looks like after the first seasoning it has a nice golden brown bronze color that the oil has now turned into a polymer and is sticking to the pan and has created a teflon like surface. Now is the time to repeat the seasoning process at least two more times each time. the pan will darken a little so don't worry because they won't look like that classic black patina that will appear over time if you properly maintain and use the pan, so this is what I ended up with.

I was very happy. They look amazing and I was so excited to do the classic test to see if you have a well-seasoned pan. It's the fried egg test, so here we're going to cook an egg and some other breakfast items, so it's important to have your frying pan. quite hot over medium heat, if it's too cold, not hot enough, the egg will stick very poorly, so my pan wasn't hot enough when I started, so the edges stuck a little, but as you can see , the egg was released with a little. A little coaxing with the spatula and I was very pleased with the crispy seasoning as I was able to use up my cast iron skillet fried breakfast.

I also cooked some scrambled eggs with bacon and pancakes and didn't really have any sticking problems. It was very slippery, super excited, it worked on the first try. Now with cleaning it is very important not to use soap, so you know that if you do, you can use up your condiment quickly. If you have grease on the pan, you probably want to clean it. with a paper towel, drain it into a coffee cup or you can save it, strain it into a glass jar for storage and future use. You know it's up to you, but basically you want to get the excess fat out so it doesn't spill out. go down the drain, so I took the hot pots to the sink.

I used warm water now, if you have very stubborn food particles you can use a plastic scraper or they make a chain mail cloth that won't damage the pan or seasoning. dry it well in the pan, put it back on the burner over warm heat and that will help make sure it's completely dry and also preheat the pan to prepare it for a light coating of crispiness to protect it when you store it, so with the heat. pan just take the cloth that you use to season the pan with the crispy, it will have enough crispy oil left and what you do is you just rub a super light coating on the pan, then take a cloth and blot up the excess.

Put it back on the heat to heat it over medium heat until it starts to smoke a little and then turn off the heat, let it cool. Your pan is ready to store and use again in the future. I have been cooking with my skillet for about a month. and I really enjoy it, so I will be making several cast iron recipe videos coming up as I continue to learn, but let me know in the comments what you like to cook in your cast iron. Send me a recipe. I would love to try it and maybe. make a video thanks again to all the youtubers and their cast iron videos, much love and respect also thanks to Arnold for stopping by.

I'll be back and until next time I'll be inspired to cook with a pinch of joker.