Newbie with an old Genesis--learning to refurb!


 
Scott Smith said:
In the restaurant industry, they often put regular aluminum pans on top of Viking-style gas burners to make sauce. A common hack is to get a large tin can lid to keep between the burner and the pots. Less sticking and burning without fancy pots.
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This is very interesting to me. See, I would have been scared I would damage the burner unit on a gas range (I do not own a commercial range--nowhere near a Viking)

I can see how the thing works, though, especially with your description of a large tin can lid.
 
Cassondra said:
So I've got a question about the cast iron griddle...about the stainless steel grates....about seasoning in general actually.

Last summer we bought a Blackstone griddle, and I bet I watched 200 hours of videos on "how to season a griddle". Cuz I watched most of them multiple times.

I came to the conclusion that seasoning is not rocket science. My mom was good at it. She would burn off the crud on a cast iron skillet by putting it in the coals of a hot fire and leaving it overnight, as I previously described. Then when she got it out and pronounced it a decent skillet, she cleaned it with an SOS pad, washed it with dish soap, wiped it dry, wiped it with a light coating of whatever oil she had (often it was probably lard) and stuck it in her oven, on very low heat, overnight. In the morning, you had the slickest, blackest skillet you ever did see.

At this point, the skillet took its place in her kitchen, OR she gave it to one of her two daughters. (My mom yard sale shopped for us until she no longer could, looking for good cast iron.)

So the Blackstone. ALL the cool people said to clean it with water (while on low heat) after cooking, then seal it with a light coating of oil (no shocker there) and cook that ON HIGH HEAT for ten minutes.

Now then, according to my mom, high heat was NOT THE WAY NOT THE WAY, TURN THAT HEAT DOWN, PRIVATE, AND GIVE ME TWENTY!

So here I am, with this NEW LODGE griddle. The only wrench in the works, is that it's sitting on a GRILL. A GAS grill where low heat can be had, I think, with one burner, and the lid propped open.

So I'm about to plop some skinless salmon on this grill, and my instincts say, "don't put it on the stainless grates. I think I'll lose half of it.

SO...I can always sear it on the griddle.

But that griddle is still kinda rough, so Ima lose some seared fish on that rough surface.

I would like to have a discussion about sophisticated seasoning techniques for use in this instance. My GOOD cast iron skillets (via mom) are as smooth as glass. Cuz...they're seasoned the way a skillet should be. The Lodge griddle...it ain't that smooth.

SO.... (once my oven is installed in my kitchen--God knows when I'll get THAT done) I can bring this griddle in and season it to my mom's standards.

But in the meantime, I've got the Weber. (no indoor range. Just a toaster oven, and that won't take the griddle)

I would like to know if there is a way to season this new griddle the way it should be, to a smooth surface (that takes several coats I think, cuz it is not a smooth surface--hmmm...maybe I need to grind it down a little)

I have observed that discussions about seasoning cast iron are as divisive as discussions about beans in chili or 9mm vs .45.

So even though it's a risk to ask this question....

Tell me how y'all, who love grills and grilling, season stuff that you use on the grill?
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Lodge intentionally finishes their stuff nowadays with a pebbled finish. The antique pans that your mom found were intentionally finished with a smooth finish, as you describe. My understanding is that Lodge made the switch out of necessity - something to do with their automated casting or automated seasoning. The new finish seems to really bother folks such as yourself that grew up around the old stuff, but apparently works just fine for the rest of the world.

The heat you season cast iron at impacts the finish. Low and slow seasoning produces a wet finish that soaks into the metal. Hot seasoning produces a glassier, dryer finish that is more easily scratched. My understanding is that in the glory days of cast iron, cooks would have different pans for different purposes that they cared for differently. Even today, common sense should tell you that you don't want to use a perfect corn bread pan for rough work like browning beef.

My personal cast iron collection is pretty basic. I have an old Griswold skillet, as well as an old Wagner. I also have the bottom of a dutch oven to fry chicken in that is cracked through but still works fine. I have some other stuff but I don't really use it. That Lodge camp griddle keeps calling my name.
 
I took a new CI skillet and ground it down with a sanding disk and grinder. Then I seasoned it and is is now nice and smooth and works great. Would it have worked without sanding. Probably. Lots of Youtube vids on smoothing CI if you want to. They come seasoned and you should try it before doing anything to see how you like it.
 
I throw salmon right on the grates and rarely lose so much as a molecule of it. I prefer doing it with skin on salmon though as I like to top my salmon (glaze) it sometimes with a little maple syrup and other spices. Sometimes just a basic rub. I like skin on because I can slap it down on the skin and purposely make the skin stick. Once the fish is roasted the way I want, I slide a large spatula under the flesh and it comes right off leaving the skin behind. Once the grates cool down the skin lets loose for easy removal and disposal.
Another trick I use (due to necessity) because many times my preferred sashimi grade organic salmon is only available skinless is I use a piece of parchment paper in place of the skin. Works like a champ. But many times I do put the skinless fish right on the grates. I do the same with catfish, and Chilean Sea Bass. (wife won't touch salmon it's like the pork of the sea to her). I will also do scallops and shrimp direct on the grates, calamari, octopus and quite a few other things
 
Cassondra said:
Tell me how y'all, who love grills and grilling, season stuff that you use on the grill?
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Hi Cassondra

I am new around here and new to the intricacies of fine grilling, and also recently bought a griddle for my grill.

I don’t have the same history as you relating to seasoning cast iron, but I own a few Lodge skillets.

I did a quick search and found something that seemed reasonable:

TLDR:

1. Wash the new unseasoned griddle with soap and water, and let dry

2. Wipe down all surfaces with canola or corn oil, probably other high heat oils are good too, probably not olive oil though.

3. Remove as much oil as possible from all surfaces

4. Put it on the grill and fire it up- maintain 450 degrees for 30 minutes and turn off the grill and let the griddle cool down.

Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 at least two more times, three is probably better.

Done and ready to cook. Each time you use the griddle it will get more seasoned.

I wouldn’t use soap on the seasoned griddle though. I have a Lodge bristle brush that does a good job of getting and food residue off the surface, so that’s what I use.

I would bet there are people on the forum who know way more about this than me, so…bump

Cheers
 
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I'll copy and paste from a grill grate seasoning post I made recently:

When I was a teenager, I worked at an italian deli in NJ and the old man had these two iron frying pans that we made home fries in. I think he had been using them for over 20 years by the time he showed me his technique. If I ever used anything but a wooden spoon in the pan I think I would have been buried under Giants Stadium, and even the wooden spoon was hardly ever used because it was so non-stick that you could flip the potatoes without a utensil and nothing ever stuck. The pans were completely blackened. But, they were cleaned every day. Never with soap, and never scraped, but cleaned out mechanically with a rag to get all of the potato particles out. The blackening of that pan was a hundred times better than any teflon frying pan I've ever used, there was no stick at all. That's what seasoning a pan does.

Now, these particular pans were just iron frying pans, not cast iron, but over the course of 20 years with daily heavy use they got pretty seasoned. For the deli, we didn't want cast iron because we wanted to be able to flip the potatoes using only the pan. But I'd say the key is to clean any blackened pan without soap and with little water. You're just trying to physically brush off any food particles. Burned on oils and such are what build up that blackened finish, and it becomes a perfect non stick surface. I'm sure after some heavy use the blackened surface on a non-smooth cast iron pan would even out and become about as slick as a greased watermelon.
 
Scott Smith said:
Lodge intentionally finishes their stuff nowadays with a pebbled finish. The antique pans that your mom found were intentionally finished with a smooth finish, as you describe. My understanding is that Lodge made the switch out of necessity - something to do with their automated casting or automated seasoning. The new finish seems to really bother folks such as yourself that grew up around the old stuff, but apparently works just fine for the rest of the world.

The heat you season cast iron at impacts the finish. Low and slow seasoning produces a wet finish that soaks into the metal. Hot seasoning produces a glassier, dryer finish that is more easily scratched. My understanding is that in the glory days of cast iron, cooks would have different pans for different purposes that they cared for differently. Even today, common sense should tell you that you don't want to use a perfect corn bread pan for rough work like browning beef.

My personal cast iron collection is pretty basic. I have an old Griswold skillet, as well as an old Wagner. I also have the bottom of a dutch oven to fry chicken in that is cracked through but still works fine. I have some other stuff but I don't really use it. That Lodge camp griddle keeps calling my name.
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It has already paid for itself. It's cooked something three nights out of five since I've had it. The other two nights and two days (I was grilling chicken for some special-needs cats) I have used the grill grates.

Yes, I do like the slick surface, and I'm insulted that I cannot have it on modern cast iron. 🤓
 
Joe Anshien said:
I took a new CI skillet and ground it down with a sanding disk and grinder. Then I seasoned it and is is now nice and smooth and works great. Would it have worked without sanding. Probably. Lots of Youtube vids on smoothing CI if you want to. They come seasoned and you should try it before doing anything to see how you like it.
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I take your words to heart.

At this point, I have tried a number of the pebbled finish cooking tools. Fragile foods stick to them, and there is no way around that, that I have found. NO amount of "hot pan, cold oil" or "temperature control" keeps fragile foods from sinking into those depressions in the surface, and remaining there when you pick up the main part of it. . They also don't "sear hot and release" as easily as the smooth finish...at least so far, for me.

Disclaimer:
I think there is a certain level of "spoiled brat" involved in this...IN THAT...I can cook eggs in my old cast iron skillets, and I do cook eggs on them regularly. They act exactly like very expensive nonstick cookware. There ain't no stickin'.

So...I want that. I could not do that on any of the new lodge cookware. I have a round Lodge griddle that has that new surface. It takes a LOT of thin layers of seasoning to make it smooth. I've gotten close, but still...not there yet.

Honestly the only two reasons I can think of that Lodge wants to sell their cookware as "pre-seasoned" is that, 1- modern American folks don't know how and/or won't take time to do it right. AND..2-..it would be all rusty in the store before I was bought, unless it came coated in cosmoline or some such (yes, I'm joking about the cosmoline, and it will be interesting to see who knows what it is. :p
 
LMichaels said:
I throw salmon right on the grates and rarely lose so much as a molecule of it. I prefer doing it with skin on salmon though as I like to top my salmon (glaze) it sometimes with a little maple syrup and other spices. Sometimes just a basic rub. I like skin on because I can slap it down on the skin and purposely make the skin stick. Once the fish is roasted the way I want, I slide a large spatula under the flesh and it comes right off leaving the skin behind. Once the grates cool down the skin lets loose for easy removal and disposal.
Another trick I use (due to necessity) because many times my preferred sashimi grade organic salmon is only available skinless is I use a piece of parchment paper in place of the skin. Works like a champ. But many times I do put the skinless fish right on the grates. I do the same with catfish, and Chilean Sea Bass. (wife won't touch salmon it's like the pork of the sea to her). I will also do scallops and shrimp direct on the grates, calamari, octopus and quite a few other things
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I will admit right here that I have never done calamari, octopus, or scallops. I've always been afraid of spending all that money (landlocked state) and overcooking/ruining it.

I want to try it now that my grill is back in action.

I have not tried the parchment paper. Guessing there are no grill marks? (I could be dead wrong. Interested in learning.)

@LMichaels I also choose skin-on when I can, but sometimes, the best salmon I can get is skinless (sashimi grade here...in Kentucky...which is flash frozen yes, but still....I dunno if I'd eat it raw.)

We actually eat the skin sometimes. (Husband likes it, and likes the Omega-3 goodies in it--he has a cardiac stent).

Salmon is one of our 2x per week meals, usually. I'm always looking for new ways.

Do you use stainless grates? They behave really differently (so far, for me) than the old non-stick Weber grates.
 
John_NJ said:
Hi Cassondra

I am new around here and new to the intricacies of fine grilling, and also recently bought a griddle for my grill.

I don’t have the same history as you relating to seasoning cast iron, but I own a few Lodge skillets.

I did a quick search and found something that seemed reasonable:

TLDR:

1. Wash the new unseasoned griddle with soap and water, and let dry

2. Wipe down all surfaces with canola or corn oil, probably other high heat oils are good too, probably not olive oil though.

3. Remove as much oil as possible from all surfaces

4. Put it on the grill and fire it up- maintain 450 degrees for 30 minutes and turn off the grill and let the griddle cool down.

Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4 at least two more times, three is probably better.

Done and ready to cook. Each time you use the griddle it will get more seasoned.

I wouldn’t use soap on the seasoned griddle though. I have a Lodge bristle brush that does a good job of getting and food residue off the surface, so that’s what I use.

I would bet there are people on the forum who know way more about this than me, so…bump

Cheers
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I have that Lodge brush! Its' the one with the brass bristles in the middle, right?

No, no soap on the seasoned surface.

I like this and these steps. They are fundamentally the same as the seasoning process for the big standalone griddle, which is just plain old rolled steel. Not cast iron.

Even with the old, slick-finish skillets, the more coats you put on it, the better. But the quality of those coats seems to matter a lot. Too thick is not good, etc.
 
THyde said:
I'll copy and paste from a grill grate seasoning post I made recently:

When I was a teenager, I worked at an italian deli in NJ and the old man had these two iron frying pans that we made home fries in. I think he had been using them for over 20 years by the time he showed me his technique. If I ever used anything but a wooden spoon in the pan I think I would have been buried under Giants Stadium, and even the wooden spoon was hardly ever used because it was so non-stick that you could flip the potatoes without a utensil and nothing ever stuck. The pans were completely blackened. But, they were cleaned every day. Never with soap, and never scraped, but cleaned out mechanically with a rag to get all of the potato particles out. The blackening of that pan was a hundred times better than any teflon frying pan I've ever used, there was no stick at all. That's what seasoning a pan does.

Now, these particular pans were just iron frying pans, not cast iron, but over the course of 20 years with daily heavy use they got pretty seasoned. For the deli, we didn't want cast iron because we wanted to be able to flip the potatoes using only the pan. But I'd say the key is to clean any blackened pan without soap and with little water. You're just trying to physically brush off any food particles. Burned on oils and such are what build up that blackened finish, and it becomes a perfect non stick surface. I'm sure after some heavy use the blackened surface on a non-smooth cast iron pan would even out and become about as slick as a greased watermelon.
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I love this story! And yes.

I have a similar story I heard (not first-hand experience) about an "old black skillet" that was not cast iron.

After a life of watching and learning, it is my sense that you can season anything to nonstick, if you have enough patience.

As I grow older, I'm hoping to increase the patience, and decrease the sticking. :)
💖
 
As an update on the grill..

I thought for a day that I was going to have to order igniters after all.

The first (leftmost) burner would not light when I pushed the button. The other two would.

Then I found that if I push REALLY HARD, that ignitor clicks and lights too.

So....I think I see the whole shebang in my future. But maybe not till fall.

And fall ain't here yet. Don't y'all be sayin that it's almost fall. IN MY BOOK we got two more months! (I don't like winter any more. I'm olde. )😣
 
Re, grill marks with parchment. No "real" marks take place. Though there are some. But, it would be on the bottom of the fish (skinned side) and I serve it that side down. If I roast something (fish or otherwise) grill marks are a non starter. Besides I'm not into all that
I only gave stainless grates. Would not use anything else. I have Dave Santana (AKA RCPlanebuyer) custom grates on my Wolf, and Weber stainless rod grates on my Genesis. (the older good ones 9mm, good spacing and 304SS).
I love salmon (if cooked correctly) though I have been known to make a mistake, slightly over cook it and feed it to the garbage bin. Yeah I am THAT fussy :D .
I only use the parchment trick for certain types of prep. It's not an every time thing for me. I like the parchment because it does allow all the heat through, the smoke I add as well.
I may try the stainless steel toppers I found for cheap at Costco though for the salmon some time (the skinless only). But the parchment trick is a good substitute for skin
 
I apologize that life has kept me awol. Will catch up on posts.

Got a quick thing to ask...

Completely Raw Sausage brats...

How long and how hot?

I've never had these before.raw sausage brats.jpg
 
Cassondra said:
I apologize that life has kept me awol. Will catch up on posts.

Got a quick thing to ask...

Completely Raw Sausage brats...

How long and how hot?

I've never had these before.View attachment 57991
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Brats? I cook those on the grill all the time and honestly can't tell you how long I leave them on. Is "until they are done" an answer? I do know I cook them on medium heat and not directly over a lit burner. I guess I would leave them alone for at least ten minutes before I flipped them/checked them.
 
Steve Hoch said:
Brats? I cook those on the grill all the time and honestly can't tell you how long I leave them on. Is "until they are done" an answer? I do know I cook them on medium heat and not directly over a lit burner. I guess I would leave them alone for at least ten minutes before I flipped them/checked them.
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Thank you. I need to turn the heat down I think.
 
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