I think their data is out of date

"CalzoneGolem" (calzonegolem) 09/18/2019 at 12:29 • Filed to: None

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facw > CalzoneGolem 09/18/2019 at 12:40

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Yep something that was $26 for years jumped up to ~$50 a year and a half ago. I’d guess that recommendation was made before that (maybe the recommendation triggered the jump?)

CalzoneGolem > facw 09/18/2019 at 12:47

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Strangely enough the article is from 2019

https://www.foodsharkmarfa.com/best-carbon-steel-wok/

facw > CalzoneGolem 09/18/2019 at 13:03

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Weird...

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > CalzoneGolem 09/18/2019 at 13:04

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I bought a wok with a ceramic coating for ~$25 a couple weeks back. Not from Amazon, though, from H-Mart . See, I was picking up supplies for pork bulgogi and didn’t have a good wok, so...

CalzoneGolem > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 09/18/2019 at 13:09

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I keep deb ating cast iron vs carbon steel.

CalzoneGolem > facw 09/18/2019 at 13:10

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Unless it’s an old article that they slapped a 2019 on or stole from somewhere else.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > CalzoneGolem 09/18/2019 at 13:18

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I’d used teflon coated woks before, and wasn’t in the mood to repeat that. Carbon steel uncoated probably works pretty well, but with how nice and durable the ceramic enamels are and having fried some dumplings a week before on such a coating, I went New Fancy Stuff instead of Real Authentic Stuff.

Austenitic stainless I know gets a little weird at high temps. Any non-stick effect from being smooth gets outweighed by the sticking power of really evil foods, particularly ones you’re trying to char for reasons.

I’ve been cooking some stuff on cast iron regularly at home, but with one pan never having been scoured smooth/de-coked and the other not really maintaining a good season... I kind of need to do a scour and re-seasoning pan audit.

CalzoneGolem > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 09/18/2019 at 13:31

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I love c ast iron and find them pretty easy to maintain. Carbon steel seasons the same way CI does so it should be just as non-stick.

I have a new Lodge pan and even though it’s sooo much lumpier than my vintage CI it is non-stick champ. I’ve been cooking in the same CI skillets for 20+ years with nary a scour and re-season.

Just wipe it down with crisco of vegetable oil and heat it up to the smoke point every once in awhile.

But seriously though there are tons of good info on /r/castiron

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > CalzoneGolem 09/18/2019 at 13:45

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Yeah, the small cast iron we have is just straight up too coarse to be non-stick, and while I always cook in it with an oil, the big one has been last heated to smoke point never. Just haven’t gotten around to it. Its season was ruined by dumb members of my family using soap - we’ve finally reached the point where everybody treats it properly, but it’s not really seasoned. Huzzah.

Making matters worse is that the range is an older electric jenn-air with slow response, so things are always cooked most in the center of the pan.

Assuming you have gas to cook with, I’m thinking the carbon steel wok just because it can heat up so quickly you won’t have to wait to add oil/etc.

Ash78, voting early and often > CalzoneGolem 09/18/2019 at 13:55

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The review must be like a few hours old or something.

Amazon’s frequently and haphazardness of price changes is not helping their reputation much. 

CalzoneGolem > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 09/18/2019 at 13:57

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Most modern soaps won’t hurt seasoning because they lack lye. I was mine with Dawn on the regular.

This article goes deeper into the science of seasoning : https://www.scienceofcooking.com/science-of-cast-iron-skillet-cooking.html

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > CalzoneGolem 09/18/2019 at 14:08

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I guess it would depend largely on the intact chain length of the polymers on the surface and sites for forming hydrogen bonds. How soluble in general, how intertwined with the substrate, how many esterases or other oxidation is present.

Which is to say, lye will break down the polymers by oxidizing them , but a combination of repeat burning, scouring, and strong detergent can definitely wreck the seasoning too in damaging the molecules on the surface and then dissolving them , because that’s what happened. Possibly even some metal scouring.

facw > CalzoneGolem 09/18/2019 at 14:41

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Also worth a read: https://www.seriouseats.com/2016/09/how-to-clean-maintain-cast-iron-pan-skillet-cookware.html

Key bit:

Soap is good at washing away grease and dirt, so perhaps it’s understandable that people think it can also wash away seasoning, since the seasoning is essentially baked-on fat. But even though the seasoning started out as a fat, it’s been so thoroughly transformed (“polymerized” is the technical word) that it’s no longer at risk of being stripped away by a bit of soap, especially not the gentle modern soaps we work with today.

No, if you wanted to remove the seasoning, you’d need to either scour it with something very abrasive, like steel wool; heat it at a very high temperature for an extended period of time without any fat in it; soak it in a strong lye solution; or strip it via electrolysis. Suffice it to say, it takes quite a bit of effort to actually take the seasoning off a cast iron pan.

But soap? Soap ain’t gonna do jack to that seasoning. We know, because we regularly wash our pans with soap at Serious Eats, and they’re as beautifully seasoned as ever.