cast iron question - rough surface

[freemotion]

Anyone ever speed up the process with a grinder or something to smooth the inside? I don't care about the seasoning, as it is so easy to season and I like a lard seasoning best. Smooth and slick, no sticky globs like veg oil leaves. I've been eyeing the Dutch oven at TSC, because my lovely antique one is rather large and I would like one for smaller meals.

 

[~gd]

I'm taking it back to get Lodge. I'd really like to get an un-seasoned one and do it myself, but I don't know if they sell them that way anymore. I'll check one of the local Amish stores.

They don't have them (unseasoned) on their website anymore( I just checked) but you may be able to find them in a store that doesn't turn over their stock quickly. I pick up mine at yard sales and flea markets

 

[~gd]

Anyone ever speed up the process with a grinder or something to smooth the inside? I don't care about the seasoning, as it is so easy to season and I like a lard seasoning best. Smooth and slick, no sticky globs like veg oil leaves. I've been eyeing the Dutch oven at TSC, because my lovely antique one is rather large and I would like one for smaller meals.

Yes I bought one of the smaller frying pans for cooking eggs and small omlets. Used a randon orbit sander with carbide? (the black grit used for auto body repairs) wore out two sheets of 120 grit to knock the tops of the grit off and worked down to 400 grit to remove the scratches. Where the metal was removed the surface was the grey color but the pits were still there as black spots. salt and pepper effect with ~75% black. At that point it felt fairly smooth to the touch so I quit. Cleaned up with veg. oil and wipped often to remove the iron and grit. did a veg oil seasoning and did a test egg which stuck badly. Did some bacon and used the grease for the next seasoning. Now I know why you like lard! It still isn't as good as the stuff handed down by my mother as far as non stick goes but it is my favorite because of the size and the weight. I lost count of the number of teflon small fryers that I ruined by over heating or using metal utensiles and scratching up the coating.

 

[journey11]

I like the really old cast iron best. You can tell the quality is better on the old ones. The metal should not be pitted. Ideally it should not be rough. I think they pre-season them to try to hide the fact that they are cheaply made. I prefer to season them myself. It probably won't stick much, being that it is already coated, but be aware that "pre-seasoned" isn't really what we think of as seasoned cast iron. It is a synthetic coating that they apply.

 

[Javamama]

I took it back but they didn't have Lodge - which I prefer, so I am going to keep looking. Maybe I'll find a nice one at a yard sale.

 

[i_am2bz]

roughness resulted in superior non stick properties, that the pits allowed the seasoning to stick to the metal better and not be removed by people who tended to use and clean their cookware in methods not recommended by Lodge (Cooking with water and acid based foods and leaving cookware to soak to clean it)

I haven't gotten any cast iron yet, but it's on my list...but ya'll are making nervous! I don't know good cast iron from bad, since I've never had any (even Mama didn't cook with it, & she grew up on a farm)...
And now...am I reading this right?...you're not supposed to cook with water? Or acid-based, meaning tomatoes?

Do I need to take cast-iron cooking lessons...?:/

 

[miss_thenorth]

I guess, regarding my lodge preseasoned pan, rough is not the correct word to use, it was slightly bumpy, and now thatI haveused it for aobut 5months, it is smooth.

I cook everything in my cast iron. Everything. the only thing you need to take care of is when you are cleaning it.

 

[Javamama]

The one I just took back was like course grit sandpaper - I didn't see how that could ever become smooth. The handle was so rough I didn't want to pick it up because it hurt. I think it was a really bad piece.

 

[kcsunshine]

We cook everything in ours. Just don't let food sit in it - it starts to taste "irony" and will pit your cookware. My mother always told me (and don't you just hate when they're always right?) to never, never fry anything in the pan you use for cornbread. It will stick the next time you use it. I've had to thump my husband over the head several times with my skillet when I found he had fried bacon in it.

 

[freemotion]

Frying bacon in it should really season it! Shouldn't it?

A well-seasoned cast iron pan will hold up to cooking with liquids and tomatoes. You may need to re-season after. But you don't go back to square one. I've braised ribs with tomatoes and wine, and I regularly make chops and such with cream of mushroom soup as the braising liquid and the pan/pot is often cooking for hours.