RE: The Best Way To Clean A Cast Iron Frying Pan
One thing to note...NOT ALL CAST IRON IS CREATED EQUAL!
Look at your last photo....
Do you see the concentric rings(circles from inside out) ?
That is from polishing that was done to these pans up until the 1950's or so....maybe after, but less and less as teflon gained market share.
The modern production Lodge cast iron are great.....EXCEPT they havent been polished like this one. It will take 5 years of use with a metal spatula to get it polished by use(that is our experience.). More polished means LESS stick. So...better.
Luckily we inherited some old cast iron recently....and now we are in duck heaven!!!
Always best to get old cast iron and rehab them...than to buy modern...... Just be sure any rust is just light surface rust AND NOT PITTING /PITTED.
GOOD LUCK and thanks so much for sharing @citizenzero
I totally agree. Newer cast iron is also a lot thinner. Polished bottoms are the best, but you can actually build up the carbon in the bottoms of the the newer ones by constant use and by not letting them soak in water. Eventually even these become non-stick. But if you do overheat them or somebody does you a "favor" by scouring in a sink of soapy water, you have to start all over again. I know people pay hundreds of dollars for stainless cookware. I'd say if you find one of these old cast iron pans with a polished bottom that is in good shape, whatever price they are asking it's probably worth it. You can use these pans every day for your entire life and a hundred years from now they'll be virtually unchanged. The cast iron pan is an icon. Everything we build should attempt to be as long-lasting and durable as a cast iron frying pan. But sadly, like you state, even cast iron frying pans aren't built as well as in the past. Time for a paradigm shift. Thank you.