I am completely convinced that your cast iron pans aren’t properly seasoned. Eggs only stick on mine if the seasoning needs repair.
Here’s a quick, though imperfect, video I recorded just now on one of my cast irons. I’ll just fast forward it to the part where you can see how cleanly the egg comes off the bottom:
You can watch the rest, if you wish. The only fat on that pan was a spray of Pam, which I then wiped out of the pan (which I show in the beginning), so as not to be accused of “boiling the egg in oil.” It releases completely clean. I try to swirl the egg around the pan, but I would need for the top to set a little more. (Apologies for some of the shaking as I’m walking around – this is a new camera and I didn’t have “vibration reduction” on, and I didn’t fell like doing a take two.)
I said I usually use the 12-inch Lodge. I have a 10-inch Lodge, and a 10-inch Chinese frying pan. The Chinese one has a smooth finish, and the Lodge came with the pebbled finish. After using the Lodge for years, it’s nice and smooth. I use it almost exclusively for cornbread now. I slather it with Crisco before dumping in the batter. When the cornbread is done, it pops right out. I used the Chinese pan last night to broil a couple of steaks.
Both videos are using vintage pans, not the utter trash that is a Lodge pan.
Oh … man … don’t make me get my Lodge. (Problem is, I’m not 100% sure where it is and it may not be in good shape.)
ETA: OK - I don’t have a Lodge. It turns out to be a Keilen pan or something accoding to the bottom of it. I bought it for $15 at Target back in 2004. It does have a surface that resembles Lodge to me. I remember it being gritty, and it still looks somewhat pebbly.
I don’t have a video, but I can attest that I regularly fry eggs in my Lodge pan, and they literally slide right out of the pan. And no, I’m not “essentially boiling them in oil”. The only oil in the pan is a light spray of Pam, or the generic equivalent.
Adding for the record, I have a fairly new lodge skillet. Real bumpy and devoid of any old timey vintage seasoning. Eggs don’t stick to it. It’s like there’s some sort of voodoo on the thing, I drop an egg onto that bumpy gray surface and it just slides right off.
I use butter as the lubricant. Occasionally bacon drippings if they are at hand. I don’t use Pam if I can avoid it, wonder how much of an issue that is. I’m pretty damn sure the seasoning is on point. Out of frustration, I did a 2 day lye bath and wire wheel scrub to bare metal a few years ago and subsequently built up about 6 layers of flaxseed oil seasoning. It’s been used regularly to fry bacon (which always leaves protein scum stuck to it believe it or not) and I always re-oil after cleaning off the perpetually stuck food bits. If this pan isn’t seasoned correctly I contend it’s not possible to do so.
OK, here’s the other pan I have. It’s not a Lodge, but it sure as hell looks like a Lodge in terms of how gritty it is. It is not one of these vintage perfectly milled cast irons. It is a simple $15 pan from Target from almost twenty years ago:
(I’m not sure if the preview is showing yet, but if you click on it, it should take you to the finished egg shot. No problems there, and you can see it’s not a slickly milled pan. In the beginning somewhere, I show you a closeup where you can see all the imperfections in it.)
I had that happen once. Then I remembered I had to break the shell.
People keep saying this. What is the best alternative that I can go into some store and buy new?
Upthread someone linked to a Finex brand. Butter Pat is another I’ve looked into. Both are very pricey, usually ~$200 and up per pan, not sure if they are available in any big box stores. These are all sanded/milled smooth unlike the cheaper Lodge and it’s peers. Most wonks swear by vintage stuff but I’m never likely to stumble across one at a garage sales/estate sales since I don’t live in a place where that’s a thing. That said, since I’ve never personally used a smooth/milled pan myself the difference is purely anecdotal on my part.
Here, here’s a guy who simply lightly oils a new Lodge 6" pan and fries an egg in it. It does not appear to stick.
Yeah, I wonder what it is that people are doing wrong. I even screwed up a bit by not getting the pan up to temperature with the egg, and it still released fine.
I will say one thing, though – I’ve actually not had luck with cooking bacon as being beneficial to my seasoning. I find it leaves the pan a bit sticky/tacky, and that it leaves a bit of cooked on residue. I wonder if maybe it’s the sugar a lot of bacon cures have or something like that?
Sticking to normal cooking oils and flax seed oil has served me fine. My big cast iron pan is pebbly AF but cooks just fine, even though it’s been abused, cooked plenty of tomato sauces, washed with dish soap, and left outside all winter in the grill (which is where I found it – forgot I left it there.)
To be honest, I’m not sure. I’ve had OK results using repeated bacon frying to complete the seasoning, and most places seem to warn against using animal fats to season. But yeah, not all bacon is the same. I can imagine if it has a bunch of sugar in its cure it wouldn’t be ideal.
I have never actually “seasoned” my Lodge skillet. I’ve simply been cooking in it using the seasoning from the factory, and I’ve had no problems with it.
I find that happens with pretty much any kind of meat, whether bacon, or steak, or whatever.
After cooking meat I pour off any excess grease, and then immediately, while the pan is still hot, rinse out the pan and scrub it out with a little soap. That way the sticky meat drippings don’t get a chance cool and harden to the pan. Then rinse, dry, and rub a little oil on the pan.
From what I understand, the idea that you should never use soap on cast iron is an old wives tale, and it’s perfectly fine to use soap occasionally. I actually wonder if @Omniscient’s issue is that he’s never cleaned it with soap, and has allowed sticky meat residue to build up, which is causing food to stick.
Hmm, that may be the reason it works for me. I scrub out my cast iron while it’s hot, as well.
Me, as well.
I’m not super averse to using soap. I try to rinse with hot water when possible and only use soap when required. I’ll give it a light rubbing with a sponge until it’s clean and then I dry it and re-oil it. Pretty much following the cast iron playbook.
I pour off the grease. Then, while the pan is still hot, I wipe off as much grease residue as I can and put the pan back in the still-hot oven. The 12-inch pan and the 6-inch pan live in the oven, so any greas in them gets cooked when I use the oven for other things.