Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Tim,

Thanks for the info, and to answer your other question -- so long as they both fit in the oven, I don't see why you shouldn't do two. When I do my Griswolds (an 8- and a 10-inch), I will probably do them together.

Becca,

I love my 12-inch cast iron pan until I have to scrape the contents into the slow cooker. It needs to have a nice big helper handle on the side.

What I want to know is where does she live that they have washing soda in the grocery store? I can't find it for love or money.

Amazon. Eligible for Prime (although I read there that the price is very high).

I make my own laundry detergent using washing soda. Do you happen to have a local Ace Hardware store? That is where I get mine. However, before that I bought it a case at a time from: http://www.buythecase.net/product/9332/ ... d_cleaner/

I LOVE homemade laundry detergent. The recipe is on my blog.

We have some Ace Hardwares here, also some old-fashioned, stocked-with-everything type hardwares stores. I'll try one next time I'm out and about. If I don't have luck there, I'll just have to get it from Amazon along with $15 worth of trashy novels for the free shipping.

Some observations.

-Washing soda (Sodium Carbonate) is usually the main ingredient in your favorite OxyWhatever detergent booster product if you are unable to find it pure.

-Detergents (also called 'surfactants') work by reducing surface tension in water, allowing it to more easily permeate porous surfaces (cloth, wood, sponges, etc) to wash away embedded grime.
-Soaps work to remove fats and oils because the molecules can 'stick' to (emulsify) both water and oil (two things which ordinarily don't mix) at the same time, allowing one to remove the other.
-Degreasers (such as oven cleaner or lye) are usually extremely alkaline and work by neutralizing/combining with the acids in lipids/oils through saponification, combining to form...soap! (which can then be rinsed away, see above).
So...soaps and detergents (or mild acids such as vinegar or tomato sauce) shouldn't remove the seasoning because they won't be able to get any purchase on the coating to be able to eat into it and lift it off any more than Mop-N-Glo will remove linoleum. Lime/Lye/ammonia or other alkaline cleaners (or excessive abrasion) will eat into it and kill it, though.

-For maintenance, I assume a saturated fat (like coconut oil) would make a good 'scratch cover' and storage oil, as it were. A quick brush before storage will be like oiling your tools before you put them away (which...really is what you're doing, I guess). I also assume that using a more cooking-neutral oil (such as peanut or canola) as your 'regular' oil on the interior of the pan would result in a sort of 'soft seasoning' forming on the interior. This sounds like it might protect your underlying seasoning from premature wear, though of course now we'll need to conduct some experiments, hmm?

-Rancidity shouldn't really be something to worry about. Unsaturated oils get rancid because the molecules have free 'hands' which snatch oxygen out of the air. Light and heat are catalysts which hasten this process (which is why you're supposed to keep oils in a cool, dark place). When you take a thin coating of unsaturated oil and bake it in an oven, you are trying to accelerate this process over a wide surface area (relative to thickness) which, by the time you are done, means that oil is pretty much as rancid as it's gonna get. Ideally, it will have decided to shake hands with its neighbor (ie, polymerize) rather than grabbing at the air (ie, getting rancid). Oil you add later (to wet the surface before cooking...kinda like Rain-X'ing a windshield, really) can still go rancid (if it is not removed after the cooking is done). Theoretically, swishing some household hydrogen peroxide around your warm pan should finish off any unbonded molecules in the oil (peroxide is chock full of extra oxygen which it will actively try to shed sorta like soda pop tries to get rid of its carbonation) though I don't know if there would be any drawbacks to doing so (from either a durability or safety standpoint).

I'm pretty smart, sure. But I'm no chemist, so I make no guarantees. YMMV and all that...but please post your findings. More data=better!

--Geekboy

If you don't see it, ask them if they can order it. That is what my Ace Hardware did.

By the way! Anyone who is a parent or caregiver (especially of a young child) should look into Amazon Mom. It is basically like a free prime subscription. It also offers big discounts on diapers, etc

Thanks for the tip, Becca!

Geekboy -- Peroxide? Really? Are you sure you're not the one overthinking this time?

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_yield.html

Oils and their melting points and Iodine Values
Oil
Approx.
melting point
deg C
Iodine Value
Tung oil
-2.5
168
Linseed oil
-24
178
Sardine oil
-
185
The latter evidently sold as a pet supplement.

Ivy,

I don't think Sardine Oil would smell too good, either.

Welcome to the Board!