I think the key is plenty of flour on the towels. Not being very good at flour management myself I have tossed out a couple of towels along the way.
Tossed them out?! lol, I mean sure - they're messy, and dumping the dough from the towel into the pan dumped flour all over my kitchen, but just how did you come to have to toss them out?
^ This is the way to do it. Per Jacques Pepin: Pre-heat the iron skillet, get it nice and warmed. Generally, I use medium-high heat, and have pre-heated the skillet for between fifteen and twenty minutes. It takes a while to properly pre-heat the skillet, due to the mass of the cast iron. Also, at the same time start pre-heating the oven to about 250 degrees. Set aside a plate with a slice of bread, crust removed, for each piece of steak. These will serve as crouton beds for the steaks once removed from the skillet. Before you place the steaks in the skillet, dry the steak using a paper towel to ensure no excess moisture is there to react to the oil/butter (that would cause excess smoke). <!-- / message --><!-- sig --> Before you put the steak in the skillet, rub a little oil on each side. This causes the capillaries to close up, retaining more moisture inside the beef, and it also promotes searing of the surface of the steaks. You can now add coarse pepper or salt to the beef, to your taste (generally, I just use coarse pepper and save the salt for later). Put a hunk of butter into the pre-warmed skillet. Once the butter is almost completely melted (this will happen pretty fast), place each steak into the skillet. Allow each side to cook for about 1-1/2 to 2 minutes, then turn. Once you turn the steaks, add more butter to the skillet if it looks like it's getting dry in there. Once the steaks have cooked on each side (they should have a nice, carmelized appearance on each side), remove them from the skillet and place them on the crouton beds on the plates, then quickly into the pre-heated oven for about five minutes. This allows them to finish cooking, without overcooking (charring) the outside, thus guaranteeing a more tender piece of beef. You can use the juices remaining in the hot skillet to make a nice sauce by adding some red wine, allowing it to boil down, then right before it is done boiling down to a nice medium thickness, adding about two or three table spoons of mustard. Stir the mustard into the sauce to get an even texture and color. Remove the steaks from the oven, pour on the sauce, and serve. :dg
The bottom right on is my favorite, its the smoothest bottom, works brilliantly, just did a salmon in it this evening.. The one above it is my egg pan, works pretty darn good. The rest need some season work, but I almost never use them.. Just got the dutch oven, I think its going to get a restart and cleaning before I start using it.
Yup. Hasn't hurt anything. I've only ever used it on the front two burners (big and small) and there is zero noticable advanced wear / scratches / damage on those compared to the rears. That said, I don't throw them around / bang them / drop them.
I have a solid black ceramic top on my stove and use cast iron on it. Just be careful! I have no marks and we keep it perfectly glossy.
you are missing out! i love my cast iron on my inductive stove.. it is very effective. heats up fast and stays very consistant.
I took 60 grit sandpaper in a random orbit sander to a Lodge pan until it was as smooth as glass and then seasoned it. It works great with eggs
I have been thinking about doing this with a big Lodge skillet I have. Was 60 good enough or did you do up a few grits (120, 240) also????
yes heats faster then gas can heat it. edit as far as taking the dimples off a lodge, use it first with the dimples you may like it that way.
I thought I would have to use a couple of finer grits, but I the 60 did a fine job. hit it with some 60 or 80 and see what happens. Mine turned out slick as a ribbon and no sign of a scratch
The dimples are actually not that bad. I have an induction and gas and they do work great on both, but different. I like gas because its a visable indicator, induction is fast, especially boiling water, but I like to get a little rough sauting and flipping and the iron grates work great for that
Not sure but it probably has already been mentioned here: As part of the seasoning, I periodically throw my cast iron skillets upside down in a campfire (wood only) and let it cook for hours. It makes a great taste to the food. Not sure what exactly it does, but had an old farm boy show me that years ago and it gives it a good seasoning.
Thanks for the tips on smoothing out modern CI. I have a 12" Lodge that is about 10 years old. The cooking surface is very rough and never gets really non stick. I'm going to smooth that sucker out. I have a vintage Griswold #6 (699B) that I got on ebay for pretty cheap several years back. The bigger pans, 10-14", are VERY expensive on ebay. This pan is a bit smaller, so I got it cheap. It turned out to be a bit smaller than I pictured in my mind when I bid on it. I was worried at first that it was too small. But it has turned out to be my favorite pan. It's surface is smooth as glass. It's a bit lighter due to being smaller. It turns out that the size is perfect for a medium strip + 1 small tenderloin steak - which feeds my wife and me. It's also perfect for a 2 egg omelet. I hardly use my big Lodge anymore. I only use that for doing two huge ribeyes or a whole mess of bacon. I'll also bake chicago deep dish pizza in it.