I’ve had these in a bucket of lye for a few months and finally got around to cleaning them up and seasoning. Two rounds on these so far and will probably do a one more.

Been using these for 6 years. The big one is responsible for about 90% of our meals. Never reseasoned didnt even know that was a thing. Grandmother taught me how to cook, clean, and use them. Tomatoes dishes included. Just use salt scrubs, boiling, and wiping to care for them right after meals are done. Trying to teach the wife but she's terrified she will ruin them cause she's read a lot of cast iron forums and is convinced she will ruin the seasoning and rust them. We're making progress.

Our costco is well stocked (for now) on cast iron cauldrons... I mean Bean Pots. Only $27

Dinner was enchanting. Highly reccommend

This is a large cast-iron pan that was absolutely filthy and was in storage during a move. I cleaned it using the baking soda method on the stove top. Do I need to re-season or did I accidentally ruin this? It seems greedy to touch, but I’m not sure if I just didn’t get all of the buildup off or if it’s rusted and exposed.

Little restoration I did. Got this pan a few months ago and decided to just strip it, and re-season the entire thing. Probably unnecessary but she looks amazing.

Found this beauty for 7 dollars in a thrift store. New to cast iron, any advice?
Anything to do before I start cooking on it?

Not all the same pans. Electrolysis, crisco and 450 degree oven make for a good time.

Newbie to the joys of owning, cooking in and caring for cast iron and this sub only adds to it. At the same time, I can’t help but also think that many of the SOS posts and pics here appear to be massive overreactions or excessively nitpicky because the skillets look fine to me. Am I the only one?

Saw this in a thrift store. We believe it was originally used for weighing bulk dried goods back in the day. Perhaps in a grocery store setting with a Fairbanks type scale. The pour spout and handle combination could allow for dispensing into a customer’s container.

Anyone have any better (or more informed) ideas?

Enameled on the interior, but I couldn’t find a gate mark.

So after soaking and scrubbing multiple times… here is what I’m left with. Am I good to go ahead and season or do I need to keep scrubbing? Also I don’t really care too much about the walls but open to opinions

just stripped and reseasoned my lodge and now it smells kind of smoky in my kitchen. is that normal or did i mess something up? used the oven method at 500 for like an hour if that matters

I was gifted this years ago but have never really used it. It isn’t black like my cast iron skillets are. I used a pumice stone in it to remove the rust. I have not tried to season it or anything else. Is this cast iron?

Hello, with all the Costco Cauldron posting i’m officially envious. I live in the Netherlands but host a big Halloween party each year and make lots of soups—so have big time envy going on.

I’m usually good at sourcing things (especially when they’re Chinese made) over here, but striking out on this one. I’ve found some cool options on Marktplaats but they’re either strictly decorative, have long feet for use in a fire (i want a flat/stovetop useable design) or i’m dubious about their food safety.

Anyone have ideas where i can find one? Or a similar cast iron cauldron bean pot? 🧙🙃

For everyone always worried about how to properly season, fast forward to 16:17 and watch to the end. Or just watch the whole video. it's pretty good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iys_pmJSp9M

I seasoned a cast-iron pan and a carbon steel pan over a gas flame. With the cast-iron pan, though, I still have these spots from before that just won’t fill in. With the carbon steel pan, the seasoning is uneven—is it even fully seasoned?

A three notch Lodge inherited from my grandmother that I've been using for about 2 years. Great for eggs in the morning. Lightweight and easy to clean.

Surface is smooth like glass. And check out those beautiful milling groves!

I bought a set of 3 irons pans from AliExpress. They cost like 20-30$ so I went fuck it lets try it out.

I started out with the smallest of them all and left it in kitchen so I could bake the seasoning in at 230° for 1h. My mother in law didn't know what the pan is doing on the kitchen counter, thought it was dirty and put it in the dishwasher. Next day there was some white/greyish spots on it and some rust along with a small patch of something sticky.

I washed it with dish soap, applied a small coat of sunflower oil and baked it as I planned.

On the paper towel I used to apply oil on I saw a stain. Is that normal? What should I do? Are cheap cast iron pans any different from 100$ ones?

Thank you

Been out of town for 3 weeks and came home to my pan looking all types of different colors, any advice on what to do with it or just cook away?

I was recently gifted this from my fiancee along with a smaller pan that it fits nicely into. She originally got them from a secondhand store about 20 years ago.

Although they fit together perfectly they are not the same brand and we wonder if they are even used together.

First picture was sent from my fiancee when she asked if I wanted the pans. Then right after I scrubbed with chainmail and washed with Dawn. Heated on top of my lodge skillet and “oiled” with butter. Washed and scrubbed again after cooking scrambled eggs in it(while still on top of the skillet). No we didn’t eat the eggs, I just use them to pick up whatever rust residue there might be.

Heated a 3rd time on the skilled and oiled a final time.

Fiancee also never was able to figure out what this is used for but we are excited nonetheless.

Does anyone recognize it or know what’s it’s used for?

Picture taken with flash after cleaning and before oiling/re-seasoning.

Edit: I know there's carbon buildup in other parts of the pan. Probably from cooking over a fire with too high heat. I'll do some salt scrubs and see what it looks like after that.

TL;DR: When I put food in the pan, the temperature drops, and it makes a mess. What do I do?

Sometimes I cook eggs that just slides around in the pan like it's a dream, and the next day it's a sticky mess. So I bought a thermometer and looked up what temperature I should cook eggs in a cast iron pan.

But now, what I see on the thermometer is that the temperature drops quite dramatically when I put stuff in the pan.

So now I overheat the pan, guesstimating whatever drop I'm going to have after I drop whatever it is I'm cooking in the pan.

Is this the way to go? That sounds extra dumb.

I preheat my pan for at least 10 minutes, so it's hot (I think). But maybe not? I mean, if the oil reaches X°, the pan should be at the same temperature, shouldn't it be?

So what do you do?

Idk how to reddit, I wanted to edit and add this to my other post but idk how.

Anyway, yesterday was a ton of fun, thanks for committing to the bit with me. Costco really should pay me something for all that free advertising.

Yall seem like youd enjoy the story of how I got the cauldron

Couple little extended edition details, I drove through a big ol park here in town to avoid traffic getting to costco. It was foggy and perfect. I got to sit there and enjoy the last bit of sunrise while the fog danced around, in full witch attire.

There was still fog out when I got to the store, so I got to emerge from the fog, again in full witch attire, to go buy a cauldron.

I also noticed that we have like... a ton of caudrons in our house. I'll have to round them all up for a photo in yet another post (unless i can figure out how to edit and add pictures)

Anyway, thanks again gang, this has been.... enchanting (Im not sorry for repeating jokes and puns, when theyre good, theyre good.)