memes

Look at Ol' Diamond Jim over there with his $100 skillets!

I got 2 cast iron frying pans, a 6qt dutch oven, a 2 burner flat iron, and one cast iron 2qt kettle. I ain't got $50 into the whole lot of them. Vintage cast iron is cheap because it will last for multiple generations and there is lots of it floating around to be had on the cheap.

And if you ain't got 5 minutes to clean a cast iron frying pan, then no $10 nuclear glow int the dark Walmart special is going to do any better in your care. I highly recommend you find someone to cook for you. Before you give yourself food poisoning.

Teflon also should not go in the dishwasher. Anything with exposed aluminum should not go in the dishwasher. Even stainless steel cookware recommends against dishwasher

You have those prices reversed though. My cast iron collection, as noted further down, cost less in total than my one really good stainless steel pan, and guess where some of that cast iron was purchased? For $10 at Walmart, LOL. And at thrift stores and Target.

First, everyone (not you because you don't like it) should buy their cast iron at the hardware store, should be ~ $30. It'll last pretty much forever so that $30 over a lifetime is not much.

If you don't cook a starch or aromatic in it, just wipe it out and let it get super hot.

If you do cook starch in it, hand wash it with soap, just let it get over 212 degrees on the stove to dry it.

If you want to throw it in the dishwasher, just pull it out at the end of the cycle and throw it on the stove > 212 degrees to dry. A well seasoned pan is generally so easy to clean, this would be a waste of your time, but it won't kill anyone.

If you want to subscribe to the no soap, scrub off the cooked starches with water and a non scratch scouring pad, re-coat in a fine layer of oil and let it smoke off under high heat. I really don't bother and just use whatever it takes to get it clean easily.

If the seasoning polymer you get from burning off oil gets cruddy after 6-8 months, re-season.

If you accidentally get a little rust on it, soak it in vinegar until the rust dissapears, scrub the spot with a 3m pad until the spot is clean and re-season.

You can get a rusty ass pan from a yard sale, soak it in vinegar for a day, scrub it down and re-season it. It'll come out like new.

If over the years, the seasoned surface starts to look super cruddy, soak it in sodium hydroxide until the polymer disolves, then reseason.

Yeah, they're harder than throwing it in the dishwasher, But they're wasteless, cheap, pleasant to cook on and give great results.

I keep a teflon pan and a couple different cast iron around. Even found a glass top lid that fits.

Tbf the cast iron i'm cooking out of was found as scrap in the woods. I wash with soap regularly, and use normal oil/butter qty's. I just don't dishwasher it, not that i have a dish!asher XD. I've seasoned it one single time which is right after i found it. It's been a year.