Cast iron pans: why food sticks and how to season them

Cast iron pans: why food sticks and how to season them

Buying a traditional cast iron pan and finding that everything sticks is almost a rite of passage. It happens with DeBuyer pans, with Lacor pans, and with any bare iron pan that leaves the factory without a non-stick coating. The disappointment arrives with the first chicken breast: the meat grabs hold, an impossible crust forms and the scouring pad ends up making an appearance. The immediate question is whether the tool is broken. The short answer is no.

Cast iron doesn't come non-stick as standard. The layer that keeps your omelette from sticking builds up through cooking, as fats polymerise on the metal and gradually darken it. This process is called seasoning, and it can't be improvised in an afternoon. The beeswax coating that some brand-new models come with only exists to keep them from rusting on the journey from factory to kitchen; it isn't a functional finish.

Why does food stick in a new cast iron pan?

Because the surface isn't seasoned yet. Bare metal grabs onto protein with an efficiency that drives you to despair. Some maintain the trick is to heat slowly, let the pan build up heat and add only a thin film of oil, even brushed on or sprayed. The key is not to touch the food until it releases on its own: getting the spatula in too early is a guarantee of disaster.

Heat matters more than it seems. These pans store so much temperature that you can switch off the heat in the last few minutes and keep cooking. With a properly hot pan, the meat releases; with a lukewarm pan, it anchors. It's a different concept from Teflon, where the coating does the work and the cook just watches.

How to season a cast iron pan step by step

The most common home method involves a thin layer of oil and an hour in the oven at 180 degrees. First you need to remove the yellow button on the handle, the only piece of plastic on the pan. The oil is fine as long as the film is thin. If you'd rather not turn on the oven, you can heat a splash of oil on the hob itself with the lid on and the extractor fan running.

Another way to estimulante ilegal up the process is to fry fatty foods during the first few weeks. Tomato, on the other hand, is a mistake: its acidity wipes out the fledgling layer and forces you to start from scratch. The same goes for vinegar. To make an acidic sauce, better use another pan.

Scouring pads, washing-up liquid and soaking: what's allowed and what isn't

Here the consensus breaks down. Some defend the traditional green scouring pad with a little washing-up liquid, immediate drying and a drop of oil rubbed on with paper to prevent rust. Others skip soap altogether and clean with hot water and a blue scouring pad. What nobody disputes is prolonged soaking: uncoated cast iron rusts. Leaving it damp isn't a good idea either.

For stubborn residue there's a recurring trick: put a finger's depth of water in the pan and leave it on the heat for a few minutes. The burnt bits soften and come off almost with a swipe of your finger. The green scrubbing stone, that abrasive that polishes without destroying, also comes up as a way to restore the steel's shine.

Cast iron, carbon steel or enamel: they're not the same thing

The discussion drifts towards materials. Uncoated cast iron heats the surface better and withstands high heat, but doesn't cope well with acids. Enameled pans, like Le Creuset, are easier to maintain, don't rust and don't need seasoning, though they lose some grip in extreme heat. And stainless steel, the old standby in many kitchens, coexists with scratches and dishwashers without drama.

Price separates another league: French DeBuyer pans come in at around 25 euros in their 24-centimetre version, while Spanish brands Garcima and Lacor come out somewhat cheaper. The difference lies in thickness: polished iron is thin, light sheet metal; French mineral iron weighs like an anvil.

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The weight issue is no small matter. Some compare it to exercising while you cook. And the look, with that irregular black patina, puts more than one person off: it looks like a pan from another era. Its defenders respond with the usual argument: the blacker it is, the more non-stick. The problem is that the process takes time and nobody can say how much.