this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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Buy It For Life
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The top answer for me is always a good cast iron pan. Doesn’t have to be expensive but should be quite heavy. It’s not just buy it for life either, it’s buy it for future generation’s lives.
Sand the crap out of any new pan can make a 'meh' pan into a 'muah' pan. A lot of them aren't nearly as smooth as they could/should be. We bought a cheap one that was quite bumpy, sanding down was a night and day difference.
I think one of the things a lot of people miss in the bifl mentality is the requirement of maintenance, care, and in this case alteration. My post mentioned knives and watches and boots. Learning the right tools and techniques and treatments for those things is just as important as buying the right thing. Good post, I never would have known sanding down a cast iron to make it smoother would make it a better performer.
I heard that the bumps were there to help the seasoning stick. Actually, looking it up and the point seems moot - with people disagreeing as a matter of preference. So there is a bit of nuance there.
I actually have a Lodge that has gone smooth just from the daily use of repeated oiling and scraping and of course carbon buildup.
I had a lodge that I didn't do anything but cook on, didn't have any issues. The ex got that one. Had an old crappy one that I couldn't get to non stick the way my lodge did, then I sanded and seasoned it well before next use. By far my favorite pan years later.
It's kinda funny just how strong folks' opinions are on this.
I've also done rock salt scrub + reseason in oven, and that's completely turned around whiny pans.
There seem to be a thousand ways to get the pans to behave like we want, but the most important being continual use.
Especially with bacon 🤤
The smoothness of the pan means nothing. Whatever oil you use should be sufficient to keep anything from sticking, and it's not like .2mm of height difference is going to change the conductive properties of a honking great slab of metal to a honking great slab of meat.
I used to think the same thing, then I tried it with one of my crappiest pans for shoots and ladders. It's my best pan by far and probably won't need to buy another one.
Never scrap cast iron pans! You can damage factory seasoning and then it will rust in a second.
Easily dealt with by seasoning yourself. It's not hard to get a nice initial season, then add some bacon for the good stuff.
It is impossible to replace factory seasoning at home. Cast iron is pale grey metal, black stuff you see is seasoning. Once you scratch black stuff until you see grey, your cookware becomes useless pile of rust.
Here to rep the ceramic gang. Perhaps not as long lasting as cast iron, but I still have my first ceramic pan from 6? 7? years ago. Still as good as the day I got it. If you like non-stick and don't want to deal with maintinence or fear of fucking up a cast iron, ceramic is an excellent alternative with plenty of longevity.
The only consideration for care needed is just to hand wash it over putting it in the dishwasher. Which you should already be doing for nonstick. People say you can use metal utensils on ceramic but I've never tested that