"Charlie S." > wrote in message
news:Wmflg.232$VF.122@trndny03...
> On the recommendations from either this group or another cooking group I
> bought some cast iron frying pans. (I have to blame someone:-) From a
> cooking point of view I've been very happy. The meats cook evenly and
there
> is plenty of heat. The problem I'm having is cleaning.
>
> I initially followed the seasoning directions. Cleaning wasn't that
> difficult. My biggest problem was determining what I should wipe the pan
> down with afterwards. I found the paper towels left a lot of lint behind.
> A soft cotton cloth leaves a lot less. When these is a lot of grease in
the
> pan... I'm at a loss as to where to begin.... paper towel or cloth?
>
> I'm finding it more and more difficult to clean the pan. It seems even a
> little meat burning leaves a lot of crud on the pan and I can't scrape it
> off. I guess you are not suppose to use steel wool. So, cleaning is
nearly
> impossible.
>
> I am wondering why meat is sticking to the pan.
Not enough fat in the pan before the meat is inserted into the pan.
IMHE, A tablespoon of oil in the pan is needed before putting in meats.
Is the heat too high? Not
> seasoned properly? Or, is it normal, and I should boil water in the pan
> after cooking to dissolve it. How long after cooking should I begin
> cleaning the pan?
>
> I was thinking of following the cleaning directions from the following
site
> and starting all over again. However, I don't want to keep repeating the
> same mistake over and over again.
I use the following method and have very. very rarely had anything remain on
the pan such that I had to scrape it, nor have I needed to re-season my pans
in 25 years.
In the couple times I did have to redo the cleaning process, I scraped the
hard-to-remove stuff once or twice with a steel spatula, to get the big
stuff off, and then put a tbs of oil in the pan and reheated the pan in
order to reclean.
Using only cool water, always clean the cast iron when pretty hot -
med-high hot, like it is when "searing" or finishing the meat at the end of
frying.
(If you used it for baking a roast, say, then wipe out the inside and heat
it up on the stove top or in the oven to roughly 350-375 F - but don't "burn
away" the oil )
The sides need to be hot, not just the bottom. And if the pan is not hot
enough, the food will not release easily from the iron oxide and the method
will appear to not be working well.
This method takes about 15-20 seconds, tops. (I always do it just after
putting the fried item on the plate.)
You need a natural bristle vegetable brush, the round kind with a longish
handle.
1) Remove the pan from the heat with one hand and immediately use the
sloppy-wet-with-cold-water vegetable brush to brush the insides of the hot
pan with the other.
( There will be steam, so use caution. You only need to be firm in your
brushing and fairly quick in all the water-adding steps.)
2). Put the brush back under running cool water and repeat.
Repeat until pan is no longer boiling the water added by the brush
3) Rinse out the pan and the brush.
4) Hang up and let dry.
fwiw
> http://antiques.about.com/cs/miscell...anCastiron.htm
>
> I apologize in advance if this is a redundant question.
>
>