cast iron and soap

cast iron pans are great for a few reasons,

the homesteaders like them lots,
but why ?
they are very heavy when looking at other types of pans,
and when traveling by wagon weight counts,
so you know that it has to have some amazing advantages for them to have bothered,
and the distribution of heat is sure one advantage, but copper does that with much less weight,
cast iron is cheep, but then so is tin (or was at the time)

but the real selling point is that they don't need any soap to make them work.
and they are non stick if you use them that way,

the modern cast iron pans almost always come with a rough sand casting surface,
and that will just not work at all,

some people fight with them and let the carbon build up till they are flat...
it works but takes a few years,

sanding the surface down with sand paper and a block works even better,
get the "wet or dry" sand paper and sand it under running water in the sink,
it takes about 45 min. of work and you will have got down to where there are no more high points that will grab the utensils you use, I have done this on many pans (I use to fix them for others)

then you want to dry it out (under heat to get it very dry)
then oil it (use your favorite vegetable oil or lard) and heat it up to let the oil sink into the metal,
now you don't want to bring the oil to the smoking point or burning,
you need the oil to be a liquid and to seep into the metal,
that way when you heat up the pan again the oil seeps back out creating a non stick surface,

you need to heat up a cast iron pan before you put food in it for this to work.
also in heating up the pan first you sterilize it, so you don't need any soap,
try this with a stainless pan can get you nickel poisoning...

if you get soap on your pan it takes that oil away,
if the soap gets into the metal then ruins future oil from getting in the metal,
and you loose that fantastic non stick surface,

if you do mess up a cast iron pan there is a fix for it,
burn it.
if you have a bond fire you can tie wire the handle (so you can find it later) and toss it into a bond fire,
it will not hurt the pan at all,
but it will burn off all evil from it.
a very hot camp stove will also do this, but it has to be a very hot one.
then you locate it, wash it off (remember no soap), dry it under heat, oil it, and heat it up so that the oil soaks in.

you can never just leave cast iron wet,
don't put it in the sink for a day or two and expect it to be ok, or even a few hours, and you can't use a dish washer,
it will be a rusted mess if it is wet for to long, though you should be able to leave it dirty on the stove all day and be just fine.

after you are done cooking with it,
wash it with water (no soap !), scrub brushes and metal tools are just fine, but rinse the soap off your cleaning tools first,
and dry it (with a towel or not, but it will stain your towel, and paper towels work great )
then dry it with the heat of the stove and re oil it. (super thin coating is ideal)

it may not seem like a big deal to no need soap now,
but out on the rough edges of civilization you might not have much if any soap,
and was is a much appreciated feature long ago.

I know people that use cast iron without dong much of what I say,
and they sure work if you use soap to clean them,
but you loose lots of the potential they have doing that.

time to take things down, it is already getting sparse...