Cornbread Stick Pans Dilemma

D

dawnnys

Well-known member
I just got a new cast-iron cornbread/stick pan and I am dissapointed in it. Does anyone else have one, and if so, do you like it?

It came "preseasoned" so I just used a little spray of Pam before I put the cornbread batter in it. I preheated the 375F oven and out it in the hot oven. Eleven minutes later, I took it out of the oven and the sticks didn't look they were going to pull away from the sides of the pan very easily... but patiently waited a half hour to let them cool, and tried to get them out. Nope, I had to pry them out with a wooden skewer, and when they did come out they were almost breaking and were all crumby, with a lot of crumbs still stuck to the pan.

So while the pan was cooling, I made 6 mini-muffins with the batter, respraying with Pam, baked 11 minutes, and they came out very easily. I thought to myself that maybe I should use oil, not the spray, to get into those little tiny cracks and crevices that make up the individual kernels. So I rinsed the now-dirty pan with hot water, dried it, then oiled the pan very heavily, blotted the excess with a paper towel, and tried again.

Same thing. Let it cool, pulled away from the sides a little bit more, but the sticks still stuck. They taste great, but I'm having buyer's remorse for my new little pan. Arghhh. Any advice?

 
Dawn, I think even a "preseasoned" pan needs more seasoning. Is there fat in the batter?

There may need to be at first. You already noticed improvement between the first and second tries. Cast iron gets better with use.

Try this: after use, clean with plain water, dry, brush with a thin layer of oil and heat empty until it begins to smoke a little. Cool and store.

 
I wonder if butter would've been better than oil... thought it might burn. Next time

I'll try that and see.

 
Not sure if this will help, but here's my experience with cast iron pans...

I'm fortunate to have a large, 10", cast iron skillet and two small 8" pans that I inherited from DH's mother and that I use to make my cornbread. They are well "seasoned", meaning that they have been in use with lots of grease for a long time. I've had some other pans that weren't as well seasoned, but here's how I overcome the sticking problem: put your oil in the pan and place it in the oven for about 10 minutes, until it gets HOT. In the case of the cornstick pans, I'd rotate the oil around the pan after it's hot. (Be careful, don't burn your fingers)! Then pour in the cornbread batter (it will sizzle and rise up around the edges) and bake as directed. I think that your pan will become well seasoned if you use this hot oil method. Let me know.

 
Ahh, with a little love and seasoning, it would have caught up to your inherited pans.

Though it is always a wonderful gesture to donate to Goodwill, I think Lodge figured out that no one was currently buying their raw iron pans because of the task of seasoning. So they sprayed them with a little oil, baked it on until it was black, and upped the price for "pre-seasoned."

It's only seasoned so far as the very first use of an iron skillet. It takes several layers of burnt fat to really season it.

I find the best way to break in a new pan is pancakes. The pan is very hot, with just a little oil, for an extended period. It smokes a bit but makes wonderful crisp pancakes, and seasons itself in the process.

 
Funny, the best seasoning my woks & cast iron ever got was when our house burnt down...although I>>

wouldn't recommend it necessarily as the most cost-effective method going.

I've also been known to give 'em a coating of Crisco, throw 'em in a 500 degree oven for an hour, remove, cool then repeat 4 or 5 times. Great idea for those long winter evenings, but not so much during our LA summers.

 
Mine is a Lodge, too. Is it burned fat that makes the batter not stick?!

I would think just the opposite.

 
There's a chemical reaction as the iron actually absorbs fat and bonds with it.

I tend to do the same.

 
Seasoning primarily prevents rust, but has the nonstick bonus. The hot oil polymerizes--it

forms a dense plastic-like layer that keeps out oxygen and thereby prevents rusting. But that same layer prevents sticking.

You can season anytime you want. If I'm cooking bacon, I try to use my cast-iron just to keep it in shape.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top