[0:00] This is by far the most [music]
[0:02] inexpensive, durable, multi-use tool you
[0:05] can possibly buy for your kitchen, and
[0:07] everybody is afraid [music] to use it.
[0:09] Not anymore. This is your all-inclusive
[0:11] guide for using [music] cast iron from
[0:14] the beginning of seasoning to cooking
[0:17] with to cleaning. This is the only guide
[0:19] you'll ever need, so let's begin. Before
[0:21] you start cooking, we're going to talk
[0:23] about [music] seasoning. Don't get
[0:24] scared. Relax.
[0:27] >> [sighs]
[0:28] >> What the hell is seasoning? All you're
[0:29] doing is creating a protective layer of
[0:32] essentially built-up polymerized oil.
[0:34] That's oil that's basically just been
[0:36] blasted so hard with heat into the pan
[0:38] that it's created a hardened layer
[0:40] that's essentially [music]
[0:41] invisible to the eye, but your pan will
[0:43] look matte. Number one, it prevents food
[0:44] from sticking, [music] but number two,
[0:45] it creates a protective layer that keeps
[0:47] your pan looking like this all the time.
[0:49] You can even use soap. When you have a
[0:50] proper seasoning, which is that layer on
[0:52] your pan, it's essentially protected for
[0:54] life. Every time you cook in it, you
[0:56] don't even need to re-season it usually
[0:57] if you keep cooking with it because as
[0:59] you cook, you increase the layer of
[1:01] seasoning. Whether you have a pan that's
[1:03] sitting somewhere in your kitchen that's
[1:04] up and you think is unusable or
[1:06] you have a brand new pan, I'm going to
[1:08] show you what to do. Now, if your pan is
[1:09] up and it's sitting somewhere,
[1:11] maybe you're thinking about throwing
[1:12] away. Maybe there's rust on it. Maybe
[1:13] there's food all crumpled up on it. It
[1:15] looks disgusting. [music] You can still
[1:16] use it. You can fix it with what I'm
[1:18] about to show you next, which is the
[1:20] stripping portion. First step, you're
[1:21] going to be doing something that you
[1:22] might think is wrong. And well, you
[1:24] know, sometimes two wrongs make a right
[1:26] because this pan is also in a state of
[1:28] what I would consider raw. That's going
[1:30] to go into a sink, into a bowl, or some
[1:33] sort of a container. We have a bathtub,
[1:35] something that it'll fit in. Or you
[1:36] could even plug up your sink and fill
[1:37] that up. That works, too. So, you're
[1:38] going to cover it with equal parts water
[1:40] and white distilled vinegar. So, mix
[1:42] that around. Make sure that it's
[1:43] thoroughly combined, and you're going to
[1:45] let that sit [music] for at least an
[1:47] hour or around two hours. You don't need
[1:49] to strip the pan every time. You'll only
[1:51] need to strip it when it's super
[1:52] up. But if you do need to re-season your
[1:54] pan, simply revisit the seasoning
[1:56] portion of this video. Now, after it's
[1:58] soaked, we're kind of there. A lot of
[2:00] the up is gone. This is
[2:02] already starting to come off. So, at
[2:03] this stage, you're going to sprinkle on
[2:06] baking soda, which obviously is going to
[2:07] react with the vinegar. And then, you
[2:09] ever seen one of these? These are so
[2:11] dangerous. Oh my god. Metal [music]
[2:13] scouring pads. Be very careful. Maybe
[2:14] wear gloves if you don't have rough and
[2:16] tumble hands. Just get in there. You'll
[2:18] notice that I'm scrubbing in circles.
[2:20] Don't just scrub like
[2:22] Think about it, right? Circles are the
[2:23] best way to scrub. I don't know why.
[2:25] Just scrub in little circles and trust
[2:27] me, okay? You can dunk in your vinegar
[2:28] mixture, scrub. Now, the point here is
[2:30] to do two things. Number one, clean the
[2:32] pan thoroughly, get all the out of
[2:34] it. But, number two, you want to strip
[2:35] the pan a little bit. The pan is going
[2:37] to look a little bit more silvery than
[2:38] black. And you're just going to repeat
[2:40] this with your entire pan. The inside of
[2:42] the pan, the walls on the inside, the
[2:43] outside, the [music] bottom, the handle,
[2:45] everything. Now, once that pan is
[2:47] stripped, you can season it. Look at
[2:49] this guy. It's looking a lot less
[2:51] up, but still up. It's okay. I
[2:52] know you're seeing like, "Oh my god, I
[2:54] rubbed all the sort of black pan look to
[2:56] it." Don't worry. It's going to come
[2:57] [music] back. You're seeing a little bit
[2:58] of raw cast iron in there, and that's
[3:00] okay. So, we're going to wipe this out,
[3:01] get it as dry as you can get it with a
[3:03] towel. And you're going to see some of
[3:04] that soot, some of that metal shaving on
[3:06] your towel. So, I would recommend using
[3:08] a tea towel that you probably don't plan
[3:10] to keep after this. [music] I would only
[3:11] wash it with like towels if that makes
[3:13] sense. You might look at this and go,
[3:15] "Oh, this is dry. You're ready to roll,
[3:16] right?" It's not. Cast iron is porous.
[3:19] If you put your hand here, you can
[3:20] immediately see the condensation cuz
[3:21] there's still water emanating in those
[3:23] pores. So, to get that out completely,
[3:25] we're going to take it over to the
[3:26] stove, set it on medium high, explode
[3:28] your kitchen also, and then you're just
[3:30] going to let this sit for like a minute
[3:31] or two until you don't see any more wet
[3:33] spots on the pan. That just guarantees
[3:35] the pan is totally [music] bone dry. You
[3:37] want to do this as quickly as possible
[3:38] because it will start to get a little
[3:40] bit of surface rust. That's okay. We'll
[3:42] wipe that off in a second. Okay, our pan
[3:43] is dry. Take it back over to your linen.
[3:46] Now, from here, we're going to use
[3:47] organic flaxseed oil. This is the
[3:50] optimal oil to use because we
[3:52] essentially want it to completely
[3:53] [music] oxidize in the oven. Flaxseed
[3:55] oil is basically begging to oxidize.
[3:57] Drizzle some of that on there and then
[3:59] using a towel again, the towel that I'm
[4:01] going to throw away, going to wipe
[4:02] [music] the whole thing out. And you're
[4:04] going to see a lot of stuff come off
[4:06] your pan doing this. The oil is part of
[4:09] not only the seasoning process, but the
[4:11] cleaning process. You're going to get
[4:13] everything. Get the handle, the inside
[4:15] of the handle, get this little hangy
[4:17] hook thing, the edges, [music] and the
[4:20] walls of the inside of your pan. You're
[4:21] going to flip it over. You're going to
[4:23] do the same thing on the other side. I
[4:25] want you to get not just the bottom, but
[4:27] the sides of the bottom. [music] I want
[4:29] you to get the underside of the hook
[4:31] dangly hanging foot side and then
[4:33] finally I want you to get [music] the
[4:34] whole underside of the handle, the sides
[4:36] of the handle, absolutely everything,
[4:38] guys. So, that's not apparent. And then
[4:39] you're essentially just going to wipe
[4:41] off all of that oil. At this stage we
[4:43] are ready. If you have a up cast
[4:45] iron pan, it is now ready to be
[4:47] seasoned. [music] If it wasn't this
[4:48] stage, you were just ready to add in
[4:49] your seasoning, now you're on to your
[4:51] seasoning stage. So, we already have
[4:53] applied the oil. If you want to feel
[4:55] extra good about yourself, you could
[4:56] always add another layer, but the key is
[4:58] this is the most important part about
[5:00] seasoning cast iron. Although you're
[5:01] wiping the oil on, you're coating the
[5:03] surface of the pan, your goal with your
[5:05] towel should be to wipe off as much of
[5:07] it as you can cuz it's going to leave a
[5:09] very thin veneer no matter what you do
[5:11] cuz it's in the crevices, in [music] the
[5:13] pores of the metal. If you do not wipe
[5:15] it out enough, what will happen when you
[5:17] season this and I know you guys have
[5:18] experienced this. My pan was sticky
[5:20] after I seasoned it. That was because
[5:21] there was too much oil in there. You got
[5:22] to basically leave the thinnest [music]
[5:24] veneer possible. Your goal should be to
[5:25] basically try to wipe it all out. We are
[5:27] ready to pop this in our oven. First, on
[5:29] the bottom of your oven, place a sheet
[5:32] tray and then directly on the rack above
[5:34] that, which would be your middle rack,
[5:35] you're [music] going to set your pan
[5:36] overturned this way down directly over
[5:39] your sheet tray. The oven's totally
[5:41] cold. It's off. Close that, start
[5:43] [music] it, and then you're going to set
[5:44] that to 500° F. Now, once it's preheated
[5:47] to 500 degrees Fahrenheit, you're then
[5:49] going to leave it at 500, but the second
[5:51] that they can dings and says, "I'm hot."
[5:53] Set a timer for 1 hour. Now, we have a
[5:55] beautifully seasoned pan. It's matte.
[5:57] Nothing's feeling sticky in here. This
[5:58] is ready. Now, how do we cook with this?
[6:00] There are three main ways to cook with
[6:03] cast iron. Number one is possibly the
[6:05] most important thing, and I think most
[6:07] people do not get this. It's cast iron,
[6:10] you got to be really careful. My god,
[6:11] might get up. Literally, just use
[6:13] it like a normal pan. Obviously, it is
[6:15] not a nonstick pan. You can get it close
[6:17] to that, but let's not
[6:18] ourselves. It's not a nonstick pan. But,
[6:20] it is a cheap pan that has stainless
[6:22] steel capabilities. Cook with it
[6:23] normally. You can make things like
[6:25] steaks in it, crab cakes. I don't know
[6:26] why I went to crab cakes. I think I
[6:28] really just want a crab cake right now.
[6:30] Saute vegetables, make chicken thighs,
[6:32] make pancakes in it. Use it like you
[6:34] would use stainless steel or even a
[6:36] griddle, for example, right? These are
[6:38] great for things like steak. You get
[6:39] your pan, set your burner to a medium
[6:41] high, let that get hot, add a little bit
[6:43] of oil in there, add a steak that's been
[6:44] seasoned to your liking, sear for 2 to 3
[6:47] minutes, flip, sear for another minute,
[6:49] add in some butter, baste it if you
[6:50] like, take your steak out, slice and
[6:52] serve. And guess what? You would have
[6:54] done the exact same thing with
[6:56] stainless. It's just cast iron. If
[6:57] anything, you could beat this up even
[6:59] more. You could use different tools that
[7:00] you maybe don't want to use in your nice
[7:02] stainless. The second way, this doubles
[7:05] as your oven's best friend as well as
[7:07] serveware. You can [music] serve your
[7:09] guests with this pan cuz it looks cool,
[7:11] looks nice, right? You can bake things
[7:12] in this like cobblers, like pies, like
[7:15] pizzas. And it can go in and out of your
[7:17] oven constantly with very minimal
[7:19] cleaning. But, the most important thing
[7:20] is because it's so
[7:22] heavy and thick, it doesn't heat up as
[7:24] quickly as stainless steel. I wouldn't
[7:25] make a pie in a stainless steel pan. You
[7:27] could, but frankly, you risk burning
[7:29] because the metal is so thin and the
[7:30] crust ends up burning. But, this can
[7:32] handle all of your favorite baked goods.
[7:34] And when you serve this with a bubbling
[7:35] mac and cheese or a bubbling cobbler
[7:37] [music] in the center of a table, I
[7:38] mean, it looks nice. You could give
[7:40] someone a metal spoon and they can
[7:43] they can do this all they want. This pan
[7:45] is almost indestructible and it still
[7:47] looks nice. So, for example, with a
[7:49] cobbler, you would take a cold pan, you
[7:51] don't need to set it on the stove, add
[7:52] whatever fruit you want to [music] add,
[7:54] sugars, spices, etc. Toss it together,
[7:57] macerate it, top it with whatever drop
[7:59] biscuit dough you want, and bake it. It
[8:01] is the easiest dessert, but look how
[8:02] beautiful this is. You set that on a
[8:04] table, put a big fat scoop of vanilla
[8:06] ice cream, and let it melt, let people
[8:07] scrape at that, they're going to be
[8:08] happy. And all of a sudden they're going
[8:10] to be like, "Man, I should get [music]
[8:11] my cast iron seasoned." Yeah, you
[8:13] should, Sally. I know you're using your
[8:15] oven as a storage space and you're
[8:16] leaving it there, and I know it stinks a
[8:18] little. And number three, the final
[8:20] thing. This isn't just a pan, this is
[8:23] also a fryer, right? A shallow fryer or
[8:26] a deep fryer. In this case, it would be
[8:28] a shallow fryer cuz it's pan, but if you
[8:30] get a pot version, it becomes a deep
[8:31] fryer. It's [music] the perfect thing
[8:33] for deep frying because when you drop in
[8:35] your fried foods in this pan, for
[8:36] example, you're making a chicken cutlet
[8:38] or chicken katsu, that oil temperature
[8:40] is going to retain heat much better than
[8:42] it would in stainless steel because of
[8:43] all of the heat that's retained [music]
[8:45] in the pan itself. Baking and frying are
[8:48] the two things that cast iron does that
[8:50] stainless steel can do, but actually not
[8:52] as well. And that's hard for me to
[8:54] admit, but it's true. For example, add
[8:55] in just enough vegetable oil to fill it
[8:57] up halfway, we heated it until 350° F,
[8:59] we have a beautiful breaded chicken
[9:01] cutlet that goes in and fries for about
[9:03] 4 to 6 minutes until it's crispy, golden
[9:06] brown, and cooked throughout. Then you
[9:08] just set it down, maybe serve it with a
[9:09] little bit of katsu sauce and Kewpie
[9:11] mayo, some fresh green onion, and guess
[9:13] what? This is actually the easiest
[9:15] method to clean because you just toss
[9:16] your oil as you usually would, and then
[9:18] just give it a little wipe, maybe a
[9:19] little bit of hot water in there, that's
[9:21] done. The point in frying is the oil
[9:23] [music] goes in, you heat the oil to a
[9:24] specific temperature, you put the food
[9:25] in until it's done. That's it. It's
[9:27] amazing. But Josh, what are all the
[9:28] things I'm not supposed to cook in a
[9:30] cast iron pan? Everybody told me I
[9:31] should never put tomatoes in a cast iron
[9:33] pan, or it will literally turn into a
[9:35] demonic void that unleashes the
[9:37] hellscape that's been residing in the
[9:39] center hot magma of the earth and it
[9:41] will take over the rest of the world
[9:43] mineral engineer AI to compete against
[9:45] me and my work. That's a fair concern
[9:47] these days. You can put acidic foods in
[9:49] them, it's fine. Just be aware that the
[9:51] longer [music] that they sit in there
[9:52] the more likely they'll start to have
[9:54] kind of an iron flavor. Don't let them
[9:56] sit in there for too long. Don't let the
[9:57] pan cool down [music] and then spoon it
[9:59] out of there. The point is get it in,
[10:00] get it out of the pan as quickly as you
[10:02] can. Try to avoid too many acidic
[10:04] ingredients. The one thing that I don't
[10:06] love using cast iron for and I really
[10:07] would advise not using it for is just
[10:10] boiling water. It's really not great for
[10:12] it. I'd rather you go get a cheap
[10:13] aluminum pot that you keep to the side
[10:15] for pasta and just [music] boiling water
[10:17] stuff in general. I don't think that
[10:18] this is the right pan for boiling any
[10:20] kind of water. So don't do that. And
[10:22] then the third and final thing and this
[10:23] is not a no-no zone, it's more of just
[10:26] like a
[10:27] it's not my first pick is really really
[10:29] really delicate high-fat fish. Yes, you
[10:31] can blacken fish in this really nicely,
[10:33] but if the fish is something that will
[10:35] fall apart in the pan, I would opt for
[10:37] frying that fish in this pan like
[10:38] breading and frying and shallow frying
[10:40] or deep frying or doing some sort of a
[10:42] blackening where there's a lot of oil in
[10:44] the pan. Not a no-no, you just need to
[10:45] be super aware of how you use it. So the
[10:47] best way to clean this pan is while
[10:49] [music] it's still warm or hot. So
[10:52] usually what I do is first I have my hot
[10:54] pan that I've just finished cooking this
[10:55] steak in. First you'll sprinkle the pan
[10:57] with a generous amount of salt, scrub
[10:58] that with chain mail or a metal scouring
[11:00] pad, remove [music] any stuck-on debris,
[11:02] then take it to your sink, add in some
[11:03] hot water, scrub aggressively. Don't use
[11:06] [music] any plastic to clean this while
[11:07] it's this hot cuz the plastic will melt.
[11:09] Rinse it out with water and it's good as
[11:10] new. Once that's done, you need to dry
[11:12] it immediately and completely with a
[11:13] towel [music] and then if you're going
[11:14] to take it a step further, I would
[11:16] recommend that you set it over a medium
[11:18] or low heat burner until all [music] of
[11:21] the liquid has been evaporated off the
[11:22] pan even after wiping it down cuz
[11:24] sometimes it gets stuck in the pores.
[11:26] That's it. It's 10,000 [music]
[11:28] times easier to scrub off any
[11:29] particulate matter that's stuck to it.
[11:31] If the pan is ripping ripping, ripping
[11:32] hot, just be cautious adding water
[11:34] that's too cold because you can [music]
[11:35] crack the pan sometimes if you
[11:37] completely submerge it in ice cold
[11:39] water. A lot of people over-obsessed
[11:40] with oh, you do this, don't do this.
[11:42] Cast iron pans are essentially
[11:43] indestructible. Unless you manage to
[11:45] find a way to crack one in half, it's
[11:46] likely still usable. You just got to
[11:48] learn how to fix it. And once you learn
[11:50] how to use [music] cast iron, it will
[11:51] last not only the rest of your life, but
[11:53] your children's life, their lives, etc.,
[11:56] etc., etc. Do we have a study yet on
[11:57] when cast iron runs out? I don't think
[11:59] society is old enough yet. I'm not a
[12:01] history buff, guys. If I'm wrong here,
[12:02] just just leave me alone. Subscribe.
[12:04] Love you so much. Bye.