I’ve seen a lot of statements made all over the internet and in how-to guides in weekly newspapers and the like, on how to best deal with cast iron skillets…

So here’s my own, the large Griswold skillet and the smaller, unknown make, egg pan came from my grandparents - they cooked for decades on them and in fact the egg pan is one of the “old” pieces my grandmother got from HER grandmother.

They were cleaned with a stainless steel scouring pads for as long as I can remember, and we’re talking early 1970’s. I use stainless steel Chore Boys on them. The mid-sized Griswold saucier pan, is one I found at a yard sale some 30 years ago… It was black with the baked-on acrylamides and it’s almost finally scrubbed clean of all that nasty black gunk.

It’s kind of the reason why I’m not that famous on Lodge pans - they’ve got that texture to them that catches the baked on seasoning and it’s hard to get super clean.

I season - just wash, dry and wipe with coconut oil and bake for 45 minutes or so at 350 degrees, every 6 months.

I store them in my oven proper, with a light coat of coconut oil on them. All three are close to mirror smooth from being steel polished for decades and with a light amount of cooking oil (usually coconut) seldom does food stick.

Oh cool! I’ll show to husband - he’s the chef in the family, I’m just the one that came into the relationship with all the cookware.

Speak to me of this carbon steel cookware! I haven’t heard of this before… is it a new thing?

I tried this and found I couldn’t get the seasoning to take. (It’ll failed the deglaze-with-water test.)

It seasoned up nicely, no doubt, but then tossing water into a leidenfrost-hot pan removed it. (Actually? I think I was doing asparagus, the water was to steam after a quick fry.)

Your mileage may vary, though. Just make sure to have a proper filter mask on ( not the cheap dental masks)

You do not want the filings in your lungs.

And a strong magnet near will reduce the iron dust moving about the shop. Put it in a doggie poo bag for easy cleaning.

Fun fact: carbon steel cookware has less carbon (around 1%) than cast iron (average 3%).

I think I’d prefer to clean iron fillings off a magnet than dog poop. Why not use an empty bag instead? Sorry, I’m a bit of a noob when it comes to cast iron pans.

I’m saying the small bags people use to clean up poo on their walks- previously unused- You put the magnet inside then you can set that anywhere.

When done, instead of fighting the magnet, you just invert the baggie and trap the filings and toss.

We’ll have to see. The other comment here warned me against it, saying they couldn’t get the seasoning to stick. Mine is actually pretty smooth anyway, with just some pitting.

I’ll season it soon and share the current state.

I don’t see why the seasoning wouldn’t stick with a smooth surface over a pebbled surface, though. The polymerization should happen at the surface no matter what.

Reddit swore by it.

Lots of people swear by lots of things when it comes to cast iron. There’s a lot of confidently stated incorrect information about cast iron all over the internet, which gets repeated by commenters in places like reddit.

It’s like when people swore by flaxseed oil, which makes for a pretty seasoning that flakes off easily and is actually a terrible choice for cooking.

Or all sorts of old wives tales about not using detergent, or using chain mail instead of a regular scrubber, or avoiding metal utensils. There’s a ton of misinformation out there that doesn’t hold up to real experience (and often traces back to vibes, not science).

Plenty of people have sanded their lodge pans with no issues. I personally haven’t, but mainly because I don’t care enough about the smooth surface.