@@superresistant8041 At least Ragusea isn't all "YOU MUST DO IT LIKE THIS!!!" and is instead like "here's what I like and how it works. feel free to adjust to your needs." Chefs that are super insistently prescriptive just dissuaded me from cooking. Most of the time idgaf about making the "authentic" dish and feeling like exotic/expensive ingredients and tools are absolutely necessary otherwise the dish is ruined just makes cooking edible food look a lot harder than it actually is.
Buy a knife and cheap sharpener, use the sharpener every now and then, clean and dry after use and store the knife in a place where it doesn't bang against other kitchen tools. It's that easy
@@stonecat676 The simple fact is that most people can just get a pull through and be fine. The average person does not (and should not) care about having a perfect mirror finish, and no, you're not going to "remove too much matieral" using the dang thing a couple times a year. 1)Use a sharpening technique you actually will do 2)Clean and dry it immediately 3)Don't store it loose in a drawer
Discovering Facebook groups where old southern dudes sell restored cast iron has been a game changer for me. Highly recommend getting a pan from one of those sellers rather than buying a new one.
@@g33dav3y also a solid option if you're good at restoring cast iron! I've, honestly, had a hard time getting a good initial seasoning on my pans, so I like the help of an expert.
@@beccajustine2233 I also have had bad luck seasoning pans, but I've had great luck just cooking with them. I know that my dad and grandfather never seasoned a pan in their lives. They scorched them a few times by accident, which probably accomplished the same thing.
@@beccajustine2233 Nothing magical about it, nor are there any absolutes or indisputable Internet secrets of RUclips alchemists, as some would have the rest of the free world believe. Buy a $5 skillet at your local thrift store; they're all over the place. If it's rusty soak it in a bath of 50/50 vinegar and water for about an hour or so. Scrub vigorously with an SOS pad and rinse thoroughly. All of the rust should disappear. If it still has old carbonized seasoning you will want to remove that before reseasoning. The easiest and most convenient way to do that is with Heavy Duty Easy Off oven cleaner. Be very careful to follow the safety precautions when handling this product. Otherwise, go ahead and apply a light coating of Crisco, and heat it at 400 F an hour minimum. There are many detailed videos on RUclips illustrating this technique for restoring used cast iron to its bare metal condition, applying, and curing the seasoning medium of your choice. Careful though. Cast iron hunting, collecting,, cleaning, seasoning, and cooking is highly addictive. 👌
One trick to tell the difference is that the older stuff has a capital PYREX and the new stuff is all lower-case. My 1C and 8C measuring cups are the old style which I got from estate sales.
@@icanwatchthevideos the old stuff is borosilicate glass which is temperature shock resistant, the new stuff is just tempered glass, which will shatter is subjected to extremes in temperature for instance if you take a hot Pyrex dish and put it on a cold stone countertop.
important note about soap: the myth that soap is bad for cast iron is based on the fact that old soap used lye, which can remove seasoning, so you’re fine unless you buy your cleaning products from tyler durden
Thanks - you’ve just given me a response to share w/my partner when he sees me using a drop of Dawn to wash out the heavily-curried remains from our pan since I don’t want everything we cook in the pan to taste the same!
Soaps still use lye as the saponifying agent so idk it's probably over scrubbing and not drying the pan well. Cause if there was leftover lye after soapmaking then your hands would also be damaged lmao they're not... cast iron. Plus soap and detergent are different.
+1 to this method as the essential. I use soap and water, dry mine over high heat, apply a very thin film, leave till smoking, and then let cool. The pan is shiny, smooth, and cooks wonderfully. No fuss needed.
@@F4Y541 I use the same technique. After mine cools I store it upside-down on top of my toaster oven, mainly to keep the cat from snooping around in it. If I had room I'd hang it up but that's not practical in my home.
I just want to say that, as a new owner of a cast iron pan AND as someone who is diagnosed with an obsessive disorder, it's so powerful to hear you frame this as "one fewer thing to obsess over". I'm so excited to use my cast iron pan now, and this video gave me just the right amount of information and confidence/permission to go forward that I needed.
People buy “raw denim” pants because they last for a long time and become aesthetically pleasing after enough consecutive wears. They aren’t supposed to be washed in the laundry, according to some. People will get rid of odors by freezing out the bacteria. I personally just do tub soaks once in a while.
@@aygwm Afaik teflon is not harmful to your organism, because it doesn't react with the gut and can't be absorbed by the body. Only way teflon is harmful is if you heat it up too much until it starts releasing fumes (you will see and smell this). The fumes can give you flu like synptomes for a short time, but there are no known long-term complications
@@wernerbeinhart2320 Although it's worth noting that teflon kills some types of birds extreamly quickly. Doesn't even need to fume, just using it in the same room where your birds are and you'll kill them
Nothing beats the absolute satisfaction of watching a NetShaq video and realizing that you've been doing it right all along. Hooray, I haven't been accidentally destroying my cast iron skillet nor have I been going overboard with the maintenance! I got it right for once!
@@devyndavidson375 You know what? Even a large amount of dish soap is perfectly fine, if wasteful. The concern isn't quantity but chemistry, and modern lye-free soaps just don't have the chemistry to harm a cast iron seasoning.
He doesn't need to do this for a living... as such, he can focus solely on quality and what he wants... Most RUclipsrs need to create a bunch of videos a week, so having a set style you can easily just redo over and over is helpful in doing that and creating an image that comforts viewers. And because they post so much, they end up making RUclips their way of living, so they need more sponsorship and more video time... Internet Shaquille don't need to worry about his channel not making him money.... the money is a bonus, not necessity...
Honestly, I used my parents cast iron for years, so I knew how to just use it and take care of it.... but after watching so many cast iron videos, it feels wrong to not go overboard... I logically realize I don't need to... but so many videos saying otherwise just got to me..
@@TheDeathmail That's the problem these days you can't get good sources and good tips by reasonable people with good experience who have a grasp of the idea of diminishing returns. Pretty much no matter what field you're interested in, everyone focuses on things that have at best 5% impact, while neglect the things that have at least 95% impact.
@@pubcollize I feel like that comes from professionals who have been in their fields for so long that they lose touch with what the general public knows and can do. Like professional chefs' have totally different concept of what's "easy to cook" than most people (sorry Gordon Ramsay I ain't ever taking that long to cook scrambled eggs). I work at a teaching hospital and I feel like I see an analogous phenomenon in how old doctors who have been in their field for several decades are often much worse teachers to new residents than younger docs who are almost done with residency or have just finished residency. It's not because they know less about medicine. It's because they usually know less about what a brand-new resident knows and what rules of thumb are best to start off with. People think the best teachers are the people at the top of that particular field, but really teaching is a skill in and of itself.
@@tomisaacson2762 Interesting. In high school I was a really quick learner. Above average class in Pre-cal (I had a life). I didnt need to go into the essentials math course because I knew it all(what a percentage is and basic geometry). Every once in a while I would help out one of the essentials math folks with their homework. They would play up how difficult the coursework was to understand and how unintuitive it was. But nearly every time, after I explained it a few different ways, the kid would leave *knowing* shit that they'd just spent a month struggling to catch. Do most adult teachers just suck? Do they just not remember what the basics actually are anymore? Do they forget to teach foundational ideas because they have forgotten just how little a child actually knows?
@@thekingoffailure9967 sometimes they simply can't relate, they can't see things from the perspective of a "noob", because they're far too removed from that state. Like, as an advanced beginner at guitar playing I've watched people's "complete beginner courses" that were so high above my level that I didn't even understand what they were talking about. Like Rick Beato's "How I would re-learn guitar today" - where he proceeds to explain how he'd start stuff that I had never heard of and couldn't remotely grasp. Or do. They simply have no idea what a beginner can do and understands. Because it's that simple for them and because they are used to truly complex thinking that they can't dumb down enough. And that's the secret to teaching: Being able to simplify things enough. An intermediate often is more suited to explaining things they understand than a master is because they still remember what it's like to be a beginner
A good point to note is where the "don't use soap myth" comes from. Back in the day most dish soaps used lye, which is a caustic material and _would_ cause damage to your seasoning. Modern dish soaps don't use this, so they're a-ok to use on seasoned cast iron
i wonder if it would be actually good then to use a good soapy scrubbing to get down and find out i DON'T have a good base coat on my pan. i think i did cook too many acidic things and ruined whatever base coat i had in there. i tasted metal in too many dishes and i think it stripped it off. i'm pretty sure i do need to get a good new base coat going.
Incidentally that's similar to the origin of that "don't wash your teapot!" myth. It dates back to times when a) soaps were more aggressive and b) most teapots were unglazed and you used the tea to season the inside, similar to using fat on a pan. Over time the tea/tannins gave it a nice coating which led to having a smoother surface that bacteria (et. al) could not stick to easily and it became easier to clean. Today that's a complete non-issue.
@random user When you season your pan the oil is going through a process called polymerization. Without getting too technical this basically turns the fat into a polymer that bonded to the iron. While yes soaps are designed to bond to fat molecules, the polymerization is changing the structure of the fat molecules and it makes them much less reactive, which is why modern dish soaps won't harm the coating. That being said I only use a small amount of soap when I'm washing my pan, and only if absolutely necessary. In general if you clean your pan while it's still hot after cooking and you have a good base seasoning you won't really need to scrub too hard or use soap to get everything off.
Certain things just change over time... but it's not like the internet was big years ago... so when soap changed and became safe for cast iron, most people couldn't get the info...
The fact I've watched like twenty thirty minute videos on cast iron before watching this ... I'm so glad this was made for anyone who hasn't gone through what I've already had to suffer 😭 In the meantime, the overload-overwhelm prevented me from even cooking with it. Now it has rust lmfao. Let's start again on a chill and real note. Thank you!
ruclips.net/video/PDTCgxvmShc/видео.html&ab_channel=JoshuaWeissman here watch this vid on how to remove rust, he used flax oil but any veg oil will work
right? what helped me get over all that internet fussiness was a couple of the "cowboy cook" ones, where dude just rubs oil on the pan and sticks it in the campfire until it stops smoking and turns black, nothing else to it i have a couple good pans, a cast iron and a carbon steel, and every now and then i rub oil on the inside and stick it on the stove until it stops smoking and turns black, nothing else to it
Coming from only knowing Walmart non stick pans, the patience’s required from my gen z desensitized mind to slowly season a cast iron was a learning curve itself.
cast iron isn't hard to maintain and cook with, cook with it like any other pan, clean it like any other pan then make sure you dry it reeaally reeaally well, the stove is a foolproof method then wipe a very thin layer of oil onto it, make sure you cook with it at least once a month otherwise the oil will go rancid
Be happy you weren't like my roommate. This guys got non stick pans that have the coating scraped off of them. Then the bare whatever metal gets REALLY sticky, so he washes whats left of the pans with steel wool. Never-ending cycle of MISERY.
When you lifted up your tiny cast iron pan i smiled so wide. I didn't even know they existed in such a small size, now i want one!! We own one cast iron pan and i can only lift it using both hands
Cast iron is heavy, might be impractical for many, find yourself a carbon pan, pretty much the same as cast iron, just less heat retention, but on the flip side it heat up faster and is more responsive. It need the same amount of care and it's pretty much as cheap.
I have a cute little cast iron the same size. It's my go-to for a small single serving of scrambled eggs, or just one fried egg to put on some toast. It's always fun to lift up the pan and watch the egg slide all around without a hint of friction, allowing you to feel content and smug in your successful seasoning having yielded well-earned non-stick glory.
"take your apc's out of the freezer you dingus" this man has a way with words in all of his videos, i genuinely wish i was half as charismatic as this dude
This is just what I needed, I was gifted a Le Creuset pan for Christmas and I've used it just a few times just because I could not get a clear guide on how to maintain it, I'm busting it out asap
Do they even sell raw cast iron at all? Your pan is probably enameled. It doesn't need seasoning, but in exchange you need to be a bit precious with the enamel, because it can crack. I love my LC dutch oven for soups and slow cooking meat, especially in wine/tomato sauces (which raw cast iron can't really do without making your marinara taste like blood), but for things like searing steak or baking giant choc chip cookies you're probably better off with raw cast iron. Either way, cast iron is a wonderful piece of kitchen equipment and I hope you have a lot of fun with your pan
@@angiek207 It's a round cast iron grill pan, not enameled I do have an enameled dutch oven, although I am not as careful since it's not a LC (60-something € off of Amazon) and I use it almost exclusively for bread making
Every single Le Creuset product is enameled, that's why they're expensive. Even the grill pans, Woks, and Tajines, have *black* enamel inner coating. This means you won't really get much benefit from seasoning, as it doesn't really stick to the enamel. On the plus side, you don't have to stove dry the pan as the enamel prevents the iron from rusting. Also, dont scrape too hard with metal tools as the enamel can slowly degrade.
@@LaggyKikee Aight, I checked their user manual, and while it IS enameled cast iron the manual says "Satin Black enamel will keep its good looks and allow a patina to build on its surface with continued use. A patina is the result of the natural oils and fats from foods baking on to the hot surface. The patina should not be cleaned off, as it enhances the cooking performance and the release of foods. It also reduces the need for surface oiling." which sounds an awful lot like seasoning
@@enricocillario9375 Oh yep it definitely seasons, but its much much harder to build up than on regular iron. Trust me, I've tried, and I've never really managed to get the patina they speak of. Good luck to you though, you might get it. The fact that you don't have to stove dry still applies though, so that's a plus.
The cast iron fat jar in the thumbnail had me fuming, I couldn't believe you were about to recommend such a thing and I was very relieved when you didn't. Thank you Mr. Shaquille
Youngster, I just found you and I keep being boggled about how you look like my son....only a bit toasty browner! I love your videos! Love from a Colorado mama who lives in the Netherlands!
this actually answered so many questions i had about cast iron pans that other videos just made it more complex and confusing. I seriously thought you needed to oven heat a cast iron pan after you use it every time.
You are the most straightforward, thorough, nerdy yet simple, polite yet unapologetic, humorous yet dark, moderately rambunctious, sassy & groovy individual I've never met. And I haven't met most of the humans on planet Earth. Keep on truckin' brotha. One of the best channels on this double hemisphere we reside in.
I appreciate your making this since a) you’re the only cooking channel I’m subscribed to and b) I wouldn’t’ve really sought this out on my own but now have a sustainable alternative to recommend to my non-stick-addicted mother
You're so right, theres way too many cast iron videos out there and I sadly watched almost all of them, but this is honestly the only one I care about now. I can always trust you to be real.
Bro I can’t overstate how awesome this video is. I was an overwhelmed, late 20s, first time cast iron pan owner. This made it so easy and transparent. Thanks dude!
Fantastic video. Having the XKCD acknowledging the prevalence of multiple standards made it even better. Thanks for making cast iron a little bit less mysterious to the everyday person! Always love this content.
I wish I had this video a year ago! I bought a cast iron pan when I moved into my new apartment right at the beginning of quarantine and then didn't use it for a year because I was so confused and overwhelmed by everything. This is such a relief to watch
Pretty accurate. I bought mine in 1990 at the estate sale of the granddaughter of the original owner. $5. I am sharing this to a few who are too panicked to take the dive in. Even if you pay $150, it’s a value.
Love it. I would love to see a video on chopping/preparing garlic.... I hate it so much because its so sticky and manual and messy but I have a feeling I might just be doing it wrong. Keep up the great content!
honestly this is so refreshing, i've been using cast iron all my life and they're by far the easiest pans to use and care for no matter what hipsters say. i make everything from eggs in my 6" to lazy spanakopita in my 14" (ping for recipe) and rarely do more than oil-dry them like shaq suggests. btw frying eggs in cast iron is a great way to both season them and test how good your coating is, with just oil and eggs a lot of fat seeps into the metal plus having an egg not stick is the mark of a great pan.
Literally just bought my first cast iron skillet last week and have been worrying about this since, the timing is oddly perfect. Thank you our cooking guru 💙
Thank you for inspiring my cooking Shaq. I wish I had a cast iron in my current electric-only setup. Agree on the cast iron hipsters, definitely weird to obsess over a product like that (love the selvedge denim comparison lol)
I'm a new cast iron user and yes- I have watched a bunch of videos online to understand how to care and maintain cast iron. watching yours do make me feel like i did not put myself in a commitment to continuously care for them. So, Thank you!
I’ve been procrastinating restoring my cast iron since all the info I’d gotten previously was overwhelming. This has motivated me pull it out again, thanks
it's like you specifically tailored this for me. there's so much information about the care for these pans, with a lot of it being contradictory. this video is literally perfection and I'm so glad you cleared a lot of my worries up, thank you!
So close to being the end-all-be-all video I can share with friends about cast iron! Just one mistake-flaxseed oil works really good in the beginning, but the seasoning is prone to flaking off after use
Still, cast iron can take a while to get great; and at least when it's new, it might be a good idea to take a lot of steps.... not only would it be a good exercise to give it a great start, but it'd make you respect it more, understand it more and frankly, care more... plus, it can be used as a meditative cycle to teach patience. But in the end, as long as you constantly use it... cast iron is quite easy to use... you would reach a point where you'd never even need to season it, with it being like any other pan... My parent's cast iron never needs to be seasoned and works great... mine, which is much newer, did need more seasoning.... but after a year of constantly seasoning it and also using it... it's starting to need less and less seasoning... Of course, you don't need to go that far... but at least a weak, try going the overboard method... One week of hard work for a life time of joy... seems worth it... And you can just use Pam spray to season it...
I JUST discovered you and I must say your videos are so helpful and informative in a pleasantly minimalistic way! Wish I would have known about this channel sooner but better late than never! Take care!
The whole "no soap" thing is the one that has bugged me the most over the years, because it is a simple misconception that has been repeated so often it has become gospel. The truth is that when that advice started, you COULD damage your seasoning by washing with soap. But that is only because they were washing with REAL LYE SOAP. Your dish washing liquid is NOT soap, it is DETERGENT, and doesn't have the same chemical properties or interactions with lipids. I've washed my cast iron just like a normal pan for years with no issues and you can, too.
I've been too intimidated by the cast iron I bought a few months ago to put it to use. This made me feel a little more at ease about it. Probably the best cast iron video I've seen
I didn’t realize I could be a nerd about cast iron, but it would explain why I screech like a demented rooster when I see someone scrubbing one with soap.
@@UATU. I've got old griswold pans and soap work just fine, it's degreasing unlike salt so I don't share your opinion that salt works better and it's way less expensive than using salt. Also salt water is much more damageable to your pans so you need to make sure to rinse it and dry it really well. The only advantage it has over soap is a little bit of abrasiveness, that dilutes quickly in the water and is ultimately useless to clean a pan if you use heat to detach food that could be stuck to it. But you do what you feel like, it doesn't really matter. I've washed mines with salt too until I figured out it didn't serve much purpose.
I will never use soap OR water to clean my cast iron. I just stare at it intensively for 20-30min at a medium to high heat. Then I soak it in goat seed oil immediately after. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you otherwise YOULL RUIN YOUR CAST IRON
Thanks shaq, the internet had me believing i needed to season the pan all over every time. Its been sitting on a shelf for months because of it. I want to get it out again now!
I have multiple cast iron pans that I have had for years and I appreciate this video because it lets people know how simple their care is. Too many times I have heard someone go into some long and complicated process that seems so unnecessary to me. I bought a Lodge many years ago which I use often. I came across a free rusty as hell Lodge soon after. I ground off the rust, seasoned and put into rotation. I can now no longer tell which one is which. Cast Iron is great, I have a crush on a cast iron cauldron from a local company which I may own soon.
the “without being a nerd about it” is my favorite series
without being a Ragusea'bout it
fuck it up is my favorite to watch. I'd love to see more of it
SuperResistant wait, that’s kind of Adam’s thing as well, though he gets pretty nerdy with the scientific videos
100%, its strong fucking content.
@@superresistant8041 At least Ragusea isn't all "YOU MUST DO IT LIKE THIS!!!" and is instead like "here's what I like and how it works. feel free to adjust to your needs."
Chefs that are super insistently prescriptive just dissuaded me from cooking. Most of the time idgaf about making the "authentic" dish and feeling like exotic/expensive ingredients and tools are absolutely necessary otherwise the dish is ruined just makes cooking edible food look a lot harder than it actually is.
“How to take care of knives without being a nerd about it”
impossible, some things just require you to be a nerd if u wanna do it properly
Don't put it in the dishwasher, dont buy $300 in whetstones right away, use a honing rod often, make sure its clean and dry before storing.
Buy a knife and cheap sharpener, use the sharpener every now and then, clean and dry after use and store the knife in a place where it doesn't bang against other kitchen tools. It's that easy
@@stonecat676 The simple fact is that most people can just get a pull through and be fine. The average person does not (and should not) care about having a perfect mirror finish, and no, you're not going to "remove too much matieral" using the dang thing a couple times a year.
1)Use a sharpening technique you actually will do
2)Clean and dry it immediately
3)Don't store it loose in a drawer
@@stonecat676 cope!!
Discovering Facebook groups where old southern dudes sell restored cast iron has been a game changer for me. Highly recommend getting a pan from one of those sellers rather than buying a new one.
I got my 12 inch pan from an old man on Facebook Marketplace.
Or you could pay $3 at your local thrift store, but what do I know.
@@g33dav3y also a solid option if you're good at restoring cast iron! I've, honestly, had a hard time getting a good initial seasoning on my pans, so I like the help of an expert.
@@beccajustine2233 I also have had bad luck seasoning pans, but I've had great luck just cooking with them. I know that my dad and grandfather never seasoned a pan in their lives.
They scorched them a few times by accident, which probably accomplished the same thing.
@@beccajustine2233
Nothing magical about it, nor are there any absolutes or indisputable Internet secrets of RUclips alchemists, as some would have the rest of the free world believe. Buy a $5 skillet at your local thrift store; they're all over the place. If it's rusty soak it in a bath of 50/50 vinegar and water for about an hour or so. Scrub vigorously with an SOS pad and rinse thoroughly. All of the rust should disappear. If it still has old carbonized seasoning you will want to remove that before reseasoning. The easiest and most convenient way to do that is with Heavy Duty Easy Off oven cleaner. Be very careful to follow the safety precautions when handling this product. Otherwise, go ahead and apply a light coating of Crisco, and heat it at 400 F an hour minimum. There are many detailed videos on RUclips illustrating this technique for restoring used cast iron to its bare metal condition, applying, and curing the seasoning medium of your choice. Careful though. Cast iron hunting, collecting,, cleaning, seasoning, and cooking is highly addictive. 👌
Way to just drone strike Pyrex without even skipping a fucking beat. Well done.
One trick to tell the difference is that the older stuff has a capital PYREX and the new stuff is all lower-case. My 1C and 8C measuring cups are the old style which I got from estate sales.
@@largeandscary8662 Nice find.
@@seymourglass26 What's the main difference between the old stuff and the new stuff?
@@icanwatchthevideos the old stuff is borosilicate glass which is temperature shock resistant, the new stuff is just tempered glass, which will shatter is subjected to extremes in temperature for instance if you take a hot Pyrex dish and put it on a cold stone countertop.
@@g33dav3y thanks!
important note about soap: the myth that soap is bad for cast iron is based on the fact that old soap used lye, which can remove seasoning, so you’re fine unless you buy your cleaning products from tyler durden
Thanks - you’ve just given me a response to share w/my partner when he sees me using a drop of Dawn to wash out the heavily-curried remains from our pan since I don’t want everything we cook in the pan to taste the same!
I only wash my pans with fat that's been sucked out of people at a plastic surgeon's office.
Soaps still use lye as the saponifying agent so idk it's probably over scrubbing and not drying the pan well. Cause if there was leftover lye after soapmaking then your hands would also be damaged lmao they're not... cast iron. Plus soap and detergent are different.
Lodge even says it's okay to use a little bit of soap. The important thing is to make sure it gets dry.
All soap IS lye and fat. By definition, that is what soap is.
You are the only man I will watch an ad for.
I get paid whether or not you watch it :) I give you permission to avert your eyes
@@internetshaquille *angry advertiser noises*
@@internetshaquille I just zone out
@@internetshaquille that just makes me wanna watch it even more! 😂
I actually do respect Shaq for giving us the heads up
+1 to this method as the essential. I use soap and water, dry mine over high heat, apply a very thin film, leave till smoking, and then let cool. The pan is shiny, smooth, and cooks wonderfully. No fuss needed.
What do you do after it cools? Also where do you store the pan?
@@F4Y541 I use the same technique. After mine cools I store it upside-down on top of my toaster oven, mainly to keep the cat from snooping around in it. If I had room I'd hang it up but that's not practical in my home.
That's really frustrating and unhealthy to make the pan smoke in the kitchen all the time, and that's why I'm not so convinced about using it...
How is that sustainable for your skin?
@@F4Y541 after it cools I just put it away. As it happens, I also keep mine on top of my toaster oven haha. Right side up though. No cats in my house.
I just want to say that, as a new owner of a cast iron pan AND as someone who is diagnosed with an obsessive disorder, it's so powerful to hear you frame this as "one fewer thing to obsess over". I'm so excited to use my cast iron pan now, and this video gave me just the right amount of information and confidence/permission to go forward that I needed.
The APC-raw denim reference made me feel seen for the first time in 22 years.
ask me about my whiskers
@@internetshaquille I'm more of a honeycombs man
NO ROOM IN THE FREEZER BECAUSE MY PANTS ARE IN THERE
I am totally lost. What?
People buy “raw denim” pants because they last for a long time and become aesthetically pleasing after enough consecutive wears.
They aren’t supposed to be washed in the laundry, according to some. People will get rid of odors by freezing out the bacteria. I personally just do tub soaks once in a while.
Another positive of cast iron: far less environmentally detrimental to produce than Teflon.
Also, no Teflon floating around in your organs.
@@aygwm but do you really want stuff sticking to your organs?
@@aygwm Afaik teflon is not harmful to your organism, because it doesn't react with the gut and can't be absorbed by the body. Only way teflon is harmful is if you heat it up too much until it starts releasing fumes (you will see and smell this). The fumes can give you flu like synptomes for a short time, but there are no known long-term complications
@@Laughing_Chinaman teflon aka super-fiber
@@wernerbeinhart2320 Although it's worth noting that teflon kills some types of birds extreamly quickly. Doesn't even need to fume, just using it in the same room where your birds are and you'll kill them
Nothing beats the absolute satisfaction of watching a NetShaq video and realizing that you've been doing it right all along. Hooray, I haven't been accidentally destroying my cast iron skillet nor have I been going overboard with the maintenance! I got it right for once!
If I have to argue with ONE more person about using a small amount of dish soap on my cast iron pan... I'ma just link them this video now.
@@devyndavidson375 You know what? Even a large amount of dish soap is perfectly fine, if wasteful. The concern isn't quantity but chemistry, and modern lye-free soaps just don't have the chemistry to harm a cast iron seasoning.
And its still useful because of the bandana tid bit!
It's honestly rude how well these videos are made. No wasted words at all. Such good content
He doesn't need to do this for a living... as such, he can focus solely on quality and what he wants...
Most RUclipsrs need to create a bunch of videos a week, so having a set style you can easily just redo over and over is helpful in doing that and creating an image that comforts viewers.
And because they post so much, they end up making RUclips their way of living, so they need more sponsorship and more video time...
Internet Shaquille don't need to worry about his channel not making him money.... the money is a bonus, not necessity...
This is the first time cast iron sounds like a practical tool for a home gamer.
Honestly, I used my parents cast iron for years, so I knew how to just use it and take care of it.... but after watching so many cast iron videos, it feels wrong to not go overboard...
I logically realize I don't need to... but so many videos saying otherwise just got to me..
@@TheDeathmail That's the problem these days you can't get good sources and good tips by reasonable people with good experience who have a grasp of the idea of diminishing returns.
Pretty much no matter what field you're interested in, everyone focuses on things that have at best 5% impact, while neglect the things that have at least 95% impact.
@@pubcollize I feel like that comes from professionals who have been in their fields for so long that they lose touch with what the general public knows and can do. Like professional chefs' have totally different concept of what's "easy to cook" than most people (sorry Gordon Ramsay I ain't ever taking that long to cook scrambled eggs). I work at a teaching hospital and I feel like I see an analogous phenomenon in how old doctors who have been in their field for several decades are often much worse teachers to new residents than younger docs who are almost done with residency or have just finished residency.
It's not because they know less about medicine. It's because they usually know less about what a brand-new resident knows and what rules of thumb are best to start off with.
People think the best teachers are the people at the top of that particular field, but really teaching is a skill in and of itself.
@@tomisaacson2762 Interesting. In high school I was a really quick learner. Above average class in Pre-cal (I had a life). I didnt need to go into the essentials math course because I knew it all(what a percentage is and basic geometry). Every once in a while I would help out one of the essentials math folks with their homework. They would play up how difficult the coursework was to understand and how unintuitive it was. But nearly every time, after I explained it a few different ways, the kid would leave *knowing* shit that they'd just spent a month struggling to catch.
Do most adult teachers just suck? Do they just not remember what the basics actually are anymore? Do they forget to teach foundational ideas because they have forgotten just how little a child actually knows?
@@thekingoffailure9967 sometimes they simply can't relate, they can't see things from the perspective of a "noob", because they're far too removed from that state. Like, as an advanced beginner at guitar playing I've watched people's "complete beginner courses" that were so high above my level that I didn't even understand what they were talking about. Like Rick Beato's "How I would re-learn guitar today" - where he proceeds to explain how he'd start stuff that I had never heard of and couldn't remotely grasp. Or do.
They simply have no idea what a beginner can do and understands. Because it's that simple for them and because they are used to truly complex thinking that they can't dumb down enough. And that's the secret to teaching: Being able to simplify things enough. An intermediate often is more suited to explaining things they understand than a master is because they still remember what it's like to be a beginner
A good point to note is where the "don't use soap myth" comes from. Back in the day most dish soaps used lye, which is a caustic material and _would_ cause damage to your seasoning. Modern dish soaps don't use this, so they're a-ok to use on seasoned cast iron
i wonder if it would be actually good then to use a good soapy scrubbing to get down and find out i DON'T have a good base coat on my pan. i think i did cook too many acidic things and ruined whatever base coat i had in there. i tasted metal in too many dishes and i think it stripped it off. i'm pretty sure i do need to get a good new base coat going.
Incidentally that's similar to the origin of that "don't wash your teapot!" myth. It dates back to times when a) soaps were more aggressive and b) most teapots were unglazed and you used the tea to season the inside, similar to using fat on a pan. Over time the tea/tannins gave it a nice coating which led to having a smoother surface that bacteria (et. al) could not stick to easily and it became easier to clean. Today that's a complete non-issue.
@random user When you season your pan the oil is going through a process called polymerization. Without getting too technical this basically turns the fat into a polymer that bonded to the iron. While yes soaps are designed to bond to fat molecules, the polymerization is changing the structure of the fat molecules and it makes them much less reactive, which is why modern dish soaps won't harm the coating. That being said I only use a small amount of soap when I'm washing my pan, and only if absolutely necessary. In general if you clean your pan while it's still hot after cooking and you have a good base seasoning you won't really need to scrub too hard or use soap to get everything off.
More specifically an excess of lye, which causes the seasoning to saponify and become the soap and thus dissolve
Dude, this is how my dad takes care of his pan and has done so for over a decade. Thank you for showing soap isn't the enemy of cast iron.
It used to be, bit modern soaps are extremely gentle, so they don't do shit to anything but regular oil now, does nothing to polymer
Certain things just change over time... but it's not like the internet was big years ago... so when soap changed and became safe for cast iron, most people couldn't get the info...
The fact I've watched like twenty thirty minute videos on cast iron before watching this ... I'm so glad this was made for anyone who hasn't gone through what I've already had to suffer 😭
In the meantime, the overload-overwhelm prevented me from even cooking with it. Now it has rust lmfao.
Let's start again on a chill and real note. Thank you!
ruclips.net/video/PDTCgxvmShc/видео.html&ab_channel=JoshuaWeissman here watch this vid on how to remove rust, he used flax oil but any veg oil will work
Big same
@@manspeej
I legit just did my skillet using both of these videos! Two awesome content creators 🙏
right?
what helped me get over all that internet fussiness was a couple of the "cowboy cook" ones, where dude just rubs oil on the pan and sticks it in the campfire until it stops smoking and turns black, nothing else to it
i have a couple good pans, a cast iron and a carbon steel, and every now and then i rub oil on the inside and stick it on the stove until it stops smoking and turns black, nothing else to it
@@Langey_Fitness fr I love Josh
Coming from only knowing Walmart non stick pans, the patience’s required from my gen z desensitized mind to slowly season a cast iron was a learning curve itself.
cast iron isn't hard to maintain and cook with, cook with it like any other pan, clean it like any other pan then make sure you dry it reeaally reeaally well, the stove is a foolproof method then wipe a very thin layer of oil onto it, make sure you cook with it at least once a month otherwise the oil will go rancid
Ok
Wow, how little is your patience xD
Be happy you weren't like my roommate. This guys got non stick pans that have the coating scraped off of them. Then the bare whatever metal gets REALLY sticky, so he washes whats left of the pans with steel wool. Never-ending cycle of MISERY.
@@thekingoffailure9967 holy shit get the man a new pan, this is sad
When you lifted up your tiny cast iron pan i smiled so wide. I didn't even know they existed in such a small size, now i want one!! We own one cast iron pan and i can only lift it using both hands
brought a chap pan off amazon and it came with a 'free' mini one about the size of a fried egg
@@Laughing_Chinaman lucky! :D
Cast iron is heavy, might be impractical for many, find yourself a carbon pan, pretty much the same as cast iron, just less heat retention, but on the flip side it heat up faster and is more responsive. It need the same amount of care and it's pretty much as cheap.
Very nice size for a skillet-cookie-for-two which let's be honest I'm gonna eat all by myself right
I have a cute little cast iron the same size. It's my go-to for a small single serving of scrambled eggs, or just one fried egg to put on some toast. It's always fun to lift up the pan and watch the egg slide all around without a hint of friction, allowing you to feel content and smug in your successful seasoning having yielded well-earned non-stick glory.
"take your apc's out of the freezer you dingus" this man has a way with words in all of his videos, i genuinely wish i was half as charismatic as this dude
This is just what I needed, I was gifted a Le Creuset pan for Christmas and I've used it just a few times just because I could not get a clear guide on how to maintain it, I'm busting it out asap
Do they even sell raw cast iron at all? Your pan is probably enameled. It doesn't need seasoning, but in exchange you need to be a bit precious with the enamel, because it can crack. I love my LC dutch oven for soups and slow cooking meat, especially in wine/tomato sauces (which raw cast iron can't really do without making your marinara taste like blood), but for things like searing steak or baking giant choc chip cookies you're probably better off with raw cast iron. Either way, cast iron is a wonderful piece of kitchen equipment and I hope you have a lot of fun with your pan
@@angiek207 It's a round cast iron grill pan, not enameled
I do have an enameled dutch oven, although I am not as careful since it's not a LC (60-something € off of Amazon) and I use it almost exclusively for bread making
Every single Le Creuset product is enameled, that's why they're expensive. Even the grill pans, Woks, and Tajines, have *black* enamel inner coating. This means you won't really get much benefit from seasoning, as it doesn't really stick to the enamel. On the plus side, you don't have to stove dry the pan as the enamel prevents the iron from rusting.
Also, dont scrape too hard with metal tools as the enamel can slowly degrade.
@@LaggyKikee Aight, I checked their user manual, and while it IS enameled cast iron the manual says "Satin Black enamel will keep its good looks and allow a patina to build on its surface
with continued use. A patina is the result of the natural oils and fats from foods baking on
to the hot surface. The patina should not be cleaned off, as it enhances the cooking
performance and the release of foods. It also reduces the need for surface oiling." which sounds an awful lot like seasoning
@@enricocillario9375 Oh yep it definitely seasons, but its much much harder to build up than on regular iron. Trust me, I've tried, and I've never really managed to get the patina they speak of. Good luck to you though, you might get it.
The fact that you don't have to stove dry still applies though, so that's a plus.
The cast iron fat jar in the thumbnail had me fuming, I couldn't believe you were about to recommend such a thing and I was very relieved when you didn't. Thank you Mr. Shaquille
Youngster, I just found you and I keep being boggled about how you look like my son....only a bit toasty browner! I love your videos! Love from a Colorado mama who lives in the Netherlands!
this actually answered so many questions i had about cast iron pans that other videos just made it more complex and confusing. I seriously thought you needed to oven heat a cast iron pan after you use it every time.
You are the most straightforward, thorough, nerdy yet simple, polite yet unapologetic, humorous yet dark, moderately rambunctious, sassy & groovy individual I've never met. And I haven't met most of the humans on planet Earth. Keep on truckin' brotha. One of the best channels on this double hemisphere we reside in.
Shaq this video is gold. I'm moving out for grad school and won't have dining hall meal plans to crutch on. I needed this. Thanks man
Shaquille where were you two months ago when I bought a pan and watched 40 minute pan tutorials for two whole months
I have watched so many cast-iron videos and this is the first one that has been truly helpful
Fit all the necessary info, a few memes AND a sponsor into less than 7 minutes. No BS. Great video as usual.
I appreciate your making this since a) you’re the only cooking channel I’m subscribed to and b) I wouldn’t’ve really sought this out on my own but now have a sustainable alternative to recommend to my non-stick-addicted mother
You're so right, theres way too many cast iron videos out there and I sadly watched almost all of them, but this is honestly the only one I care about now. I can always trust you to be real.
I’ve been trying to season my cast iron for like 2 weeks now...you don’t know how much I needed this video. Thank you
Bro I can’t overstate how awesome this video is. I was an overwhelmed, late 20s, first time cast iron pan owner. This made it so easy and transparent. Thanks dude!
Fantastic video. Having the XKCD acknowledging the prevalence of multiple standards made it even better. Thanks for making cast iron a little bit less mysterious to the everyday person! Always love this content.
I’d love if you made a similar video for knife sharpening! It’s either way too oversimplified or needlessly complex when other people present it
I wish I had this video a year ago! I bought a cast iron pan when I moved into my new apartment right at the beginning of quarantine and then didn't use it for a year because I was so confused and overwhelmed by everything. This is such a relief to watch
As a cast-iron enthusiast, I love this.
Thanks so much!
Pretty accurate. I bought mine in 1990 at the estate sale of the granddaughter of the original owner. $5. I am sharing this to a few who are too panicked to take the dive in. Even if you pay $150, it’s a value.
I got mine for like $20 I think off of FB Marketplace
This video is exactly what I was looking for, something that just explains the bare minimum and essentials.
I appreciate your existence so much you can't even fathom how much I appreciate you and your channel. Thank you so much.
I really really appreciate that your info is ACTUALLY beginner friendly. You actually explain how a normal user should use it.
Love it. I would love to see a video on chopping/preparing garlic.... I hate it so much because its so sticky and manual and messy but I have a feeling I might just be doing it wrong. Keep up the great content!
honestly this is so refreshing, i've been using cast iron all my life and they're by far the easiest pans to use and care for no matter what hipsters say. i make everything from eggs in my 6" to lazy spanakopita in my 14" (ping for recipe) and rarely do more than oil-dry them like shaq suggests. btw frying eggs in cast iron is a great way to both season them and test how good your coating is, with just oil and eggs a lot of fat seeps into the metal plus having an egg not stick is the mark of a great pan.
You've managed to answer every single question I have or should have had about cast iron pans with this video. Very good man!
Literally just bought my first cast iron skillet last week and have been worrying about this since, the timing is oddly perfect. Thank you our cooking guru 💙
Thank you for inspiring my cooking Shaq. I wish I had a cast iron in my current electric-only setup. Agree on the cast iron hipsters, definitely weird to obsess over a product like that (love the selvedge denim comparison lol)
I can't get enough of this man. Jesus.
I'm a new cast iron user and yes- I have watched a bunch of videos online to understand how to care and maintain cast iron. watching yours do make me feel like i did not put myself in a commitment to continuously care for them. So, Thank you!
man, thank you for making this video, cut thru a lot of the noise around cast iron and made it simple to understand.
“I’ve seen Andy Baraghani’s medicine cabinet” hahaha nice reference, keeping it all in the kitchen!
I do my tikka masala in it hahaa, it was yellow for a while thanks to the tumeric
Please never stop making these
I’ve been procrastinating restoring my cast iron since all the info I’d gotten previously was overwhelming. This has motivated me pull it out again, thanks
"SNYDER CUT, SNYDER CUT, SNYDER CUT" xDD
this has notes of Eric Andre's:
"NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE NIGHTMARE"
You are the man for real dude
it's like you specifically tailored this for me. there's so much information about the care for these pans, with a lot of it being contradictory. this video is literally perfection and I'm so glad you cleared a lot of my worries up, thank you!
Not quite perfection. You don't want to use flaxseed oil.
I just got a very old cast iron pan from my grandad as a going away present for college and this video was a life saver
So close to being the end-all-be-all video I can share with friends about cast iron! Just one mistake-flaxseed oil works really good in the beginning, but the seasoning is prone to flaking off after use
my thoughts exactly. really good video otherwise
Irradiated by 7G towers. Great line
It sent me 😆
I literally choked on the wine I'd just sipped before he said that
As a beginner who is easily overwhelmed, this was EXTREMELY helpful and informative!!! Thank you!!!
If only more videos were this concise and straight to the point
Thanks for the info
I got rid of my cast iron pan because I couldnt be assed to do the 5 billion "MANDATORY" steps to care for it. This seems much simpler... regret
Still, cast iron can take a while to get great; and at least when it's new, it might be a good idea to take a lot of steps.... not only would it be a good exercise to give it a great start, but it'd make you respect it more, understand it more and frankly, care more... plus, it can be used as a meditative cycle to teach patience.
But in the end, as long as you constantly use it... cast iron is quite easy to use... you would reach a point where you'd never even need to season it, with it being like any other pan...
My parent's cast iron never needs to be seasoned and works great... mine, which is much newer, did need more seasoning.... but after a year of constantly seasoning it and also using it... it's starting to need less and less seasoning...
Of course, you don't need to go that far... but at least a weak, try going the overboard method...
One week of hard work for a life time of joy... seems worth it...
And you can just use Pam spray to season it...
@@TheDeathmail its like leather you have to use it and take a little care and it will hold up for centuries
@@TheDeathmail ...just keep it oiled and dry lol, good Lord. It's like people have a built in resistance to keep cast iron simple.
If I send Curology pics of my cast iron, will they send me oils and stuff for my seasoning routine?
Lmao
I JUST discovered you and I must say your videos are so helpful and informative in a pleasantly minimalistic way! Wish I would have known about this channel sooner but better late than never! Take care!
I love seasoning the pan. It's so satisfying to give it a layer of oil every single time.
The whole "no soap" thing is the one that has bugged me the most over the years, because it is a simple misconception that has been repeated so often it has become gospel. The truth is that when that advice started, you COULD damage your seasoning by washing with soap. But that is only because they were washing with REAL LYE SOAP. Your dish washing liquid is NOT soap, it is DETERGENT, and doesn't have the same chemical properties or interactions with lipids. I've washed my cast iron just like a normal pan for years with no issues and you can, too.
2x monthly netshaq? #blessed
Great videos; super helpful. I had never heard the dry & oil on the stove trick before. That really makes it easy to maintain.
OMG, this is the video I needed! Other people were making it WAY too complicated. Thank you!
We need an apology for the last video
hold on i'm putting my hair into a messy bun
@@internetshaquille Don't forget the heavy sigh at the intro.
I love you Shaq
let's stay playful together :)
@@internetshaquille Absolutely, more Videos if you don't mind please
Finally, i get the base information that i need for deciding to get cast iron or not. Thanks mr. Internetshaq, very cool.
I've been too intimidated by the cast iron I bought a few months ago to put it to use. This made me feel a little more at ease about it. Probably the best cast iron video I've seen
Why I season my cast iron, NOT my steak
Wrong channel bro
"Made without chemicals like those in teflon"
Carbon: am I a joke to you?
Dude I love your videos their simple, to the point, and I love the humor. Keep putting out great videos!
The basics you said literally came written on a sticker on my cast iron when I got it. Great stuff!
I will never forgive our neighbor we let borrow a cast iron skillet. She took a metal brillo pad to years' worth of seasoning...
So they chose death!
I didn’t realize I could be a nerd about cast iron, but it would explain why I screech like a demented rooster when I see someone scrubbing one with soap.
How do you feel now that you know most modern dish soap won't affect your pan coating?
@@drunkenmasterii3250 I’m too old to change, and so are my ancient pans. Salt works better than soap anyway. 😛
@@UATU. I've got old griswold pans and soap work just fine, it's degreasing unlike salt so I don't share your opinion that salt works better and it's way less expensive than using salt. Also salt water is much more damageable to your pans so you need to make sure to rinse it and dry it really well. The only advantage it has over soap is a little bit of abrasiveness, that dilutes quickly in the water and is ultimately useless to clean a pan if you use heat to detach food that could be stuck to it. But you do what you feel like, it doesn't really matter. I've washed mines with salt too until I figured out it didn't serve much purpose.
this dude's way of speaking is unmatched. love the videos
What a great discovery this was! Been using cast iron for 10+, been fluffing around with all sorts of nonsense to keep it from rushing. Thx
Too bad if you watch videos about cast iron you are already a nerd
Minimum
Level
Effort
Sounds nice...
Man this has gotta be one of my favorite RUclips channels
I love your content! Straight to the point, easy to understand and catered to us normal, everyday people.
Damn this video's longer than the Snyder Cut
I will never use soap OR water to clean my cast iron. I just stare at it intensively for 20-30min at a medium to high heat. Then I soak it in goat seed oil immediately after. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you otherwise YOULL RUIN YOUR CAST IRON
Thanks shaq, the internet had me believing i needed to season the pan all over every time. Its been sitting on a shelf for months because of it. I want to get it out again now!
this video actually got me to start using my cast iron regularly after basically being afraid of it for years. no regrets!!
preroll advertising shoutout? smh april fools changed you,,, disliked unsubscribed
I have a rusted cast iron in need of some seasoning... This was a sign to go show it some love🙃
I have multiple cast iron pans that I have had for years and I appreciate this video because it lets people know how simple their care is. Too many times I have heard someone go into some long and complicated process that seems so unnecessary to me.
I bought a Lodge many years ago which I use often. I came across a free rusty as hell Lodge soon after. I ground off the rust, seasoned and put into rotation. I can now no longer tell which one is which. Cast Iron is great, I have a crush on a cast iron cauldron from a local company which I may own soon.
Another solid video. Thank you as always for the knowledge and the entertainment.
Best video about cast iron for beginners I’ve seen yet!
Thanks for this. I wish I saw this before getting mine. It took me a little while to fall into my cast iron pan routine.
Mate, you're vidoes are everytime on point! Good job!
Thanks for the no nonsense approach mate ✌🏻
And now I'm subscribed. I've watched a lot of videos on cast iron and this is the best.
I’m not kidding when I say this is probably the best channel I follow.
This is the video I was looking for. Best one about cast iron for sure. Kept it simple.
i watched this video and finally bought a cast iron. havent looked back since!! ty!!!