Is the black residue that remains in my cast-iron pans after scraping them clean a problem? I fry something, and when the pan cools off, I use a scraper to loosen particles, then I use a paper towel, sometimes two or three clean ones, to wipe up the remaining detritus while retaining a healthy coat of cooking oil residue in the pan. BUT the paper towels always come up black no matter how thoroughly I wipe the pan “clean.” Is this normal, inevitable, just fine? Or should I use a little water with a drop of dishwashing liquid to get the pan free of any of this gunk (and then apply a fresh dusting of cooking oil, turn the heat up, and re-wipe it clean)? In other words, am I being finicky in declaring the black residue a problem, and am I being too meticulous in simply not reusing the pan with a thin film of black frying residue on it?
You’re being way too precious with your pan. Scrub it clean with soap and hot water and then dry it on the stovetop for a few minutes on low heat. You can’t hurt its seasoning with soap and you don’t need to reseason it after every use. You also don’t need to oil it afterwards provided you’re using it regularly or even semi-regularly.
So the black residue on the paper towels isn’t a problem?
It’s burnt food and oil. Wash it out. With soap, water, and a good stuff brush. If you had a similar layer on your stainless steel pan you absolutely wouldn’t leave it in there, right?
Thanks. I kind of got that it’s the residue of something I cooked. What I’m asking is: after I clean it, with soap and water, then dry it with a paper towel, the paper towel still comes up with black traces, not pure white. Is this a problem? Do I need to wash it again until the paper towel comes up white? Or just cook with it next time?
I think so long as you give it a good cleaning you’re fine. I am not a pan scientist.
A bit of black streaking is normal and why I use paper towels (and subsequent heat) to dry my clean pans. I think of it like wiping pencil lead. If you’re getting any residue particles larger than a fine dust, then you’re not cleaning it well enough.
My mom cooked my dad’s breakfast (bacon and eggs) every morning in a small cast-iron frying pan. She never did anything special to it. It would go in the sink with the rest of the dirty dishes. And I can bet that it was never seasoned either.
The daily bacon was seasoning it. Before all the modern hoopla about seasoning with 6 coats of flaxseed oil and all that (which I’ve done), you bought a pan and cooked with it, and the daily use naturally seasoned it.
Obligatory xkcd: xkcd: Cast Iron Pan
I cook bacon and or sausage in mine and then let it soak in hot water while we have breakfast.
Then I scrape with my spatula and put a few tablespoons of salt in there. I scrub the inside with the wet salt until I can see the shiny black surface and then dry it with paper towel and put it away. I love this old pan even though it is heavy and takes a while to heat up on our electric range.
This is true provided that you have a good seasoning base on the pan. Dish soap will help remove oil, burnt starches, and a little scrubbing will free up any proteins and heavier fats, but unless you are using sandpaper or are scrubbing like it is one of the labors of Hercules, the underlying base will be fine. What will damage that coating are detergents, and especially in a very hot water/steam environment which is why you should never put cast iron or carbon steel (cookware or knives) in a dishwasher.
It should be understood ‘seasoning’ a cast iron or carbon steel pan is polymerizing the heavier (saturated) fats into a non-permeable layer. Bacon fat certainly has the constituents to do this, although because of the proteins in it it won’t be totally non-stick. Seasoning with flaxseed oil for several cycles will give you an almost perfectly non-stick surface, especially if the pan is milled down to a good surface finish, which is nice for cooing things like fatty fish that tend to stick to everything. Of course, with enough neglect that coating will degrade––especially if you are cooking anything acidic in the pan––and you’ll have to thoroughly scrape it down to the bare finish and renew the seasoning base, but for most needs this really doesn’t need to be done.
The great thing about cast iron and carbon steel pans is that you aren’t going to burn off that finish just by cooking at any reasonable stovetop temperatures, you don’t have to be precious about the utensils used (within reason; don’t gouge the surface with a fork or scrape hard with a metal spatula), and there is basically no way you can permanently damage the pan short of shooting it with a high powered rifle. But it does have to be hand washed, and you shouldn’t run it through the dishwater or let it sit in a sinkful of water for hours at a time.
Stranger
I was gonna mention salt as a cleaning agent too.
I’m kinda fastidious so I understand what you’re saying.
I think the bit of staining on the paper towel is a natural thing. And won’t hurt you.
If you’re really concerned go thru a reseasoning process. I’m not into the whole flax seed oil thing. My Granny didn’t have any stinkin’ flax seed and her pans were the perfect black mirror surface.
If you are having a bunch of sticking and scorched foods it’s not right to begin with. I worry about that scraping you were talking about.
Now that is a rares aves.
Seems most modern cast iron cookware leaves the pan interior as simply the raw rough sand-cast surface. Takes a LOT of seasoning cycles to fill in all the low spots before you can start to cover the high spots.
You can get milled cast iron skillets like these if you are willing to pay the premium. Of course, if you have an end mill you can just mill down the cook surface of a cheap Lodge pan, too. But if you are just using it to fricassee chicken or pan sear a steak it doesn’t really matter.
Stranger
A related question; what is your (asking everyone) opinion of enameled cast iron? I’m thinking of Le Creuset stuff, though I think Lodge also sells it. Is it a smoother surface than the rough sand-cast finish of most cast iron? And does it need seasoning?
Thanks for the cite. I once bought a small cheap Lodge pan as an experiment to “end mill” it with a disc sander. I wasn’t expecting much success and I had even less.
Le Creuset does need seasoning.
My Dutch oven sticks anything cooked in it with tomatoes in.
Plus it weighs as much as a cinder block or two. It gets more use around here weighing stuff down.
I took pity on it holding open the walk thru door out to the garage and put it up a few months ago. It was needed with costume constructions last week to hold glued pieces down. So it’s out again. It’s red. So festive.