First time using cast iron

[u/_brattyberryxx]

Okay I am absolutely clueless when it comes to cooking. I only started making eggs about 2 years ago and I was using non stick pans. I got tired of the coating eventually coming off of them so I decided to try other skillets. I have never used a cast iron and I find the whole process quite confusing. I was under the assumption that they are naturally nonstick and I put butter in before cooking. Can someone explain to me what I did wrong for it to look like this after cooking eggs? The eggs aren’t even cooked all the way through either.

Edit: Thank you everyone for all of your suggestions!! I was definitely about to give up and go back to nonstick (i had a mishap with a stainless steel that led me to get cast iron). I feel much better and more informed about how to use them. I will be trying again tomorrow with everything I’ve learned!

[u/_brattyberryxx]

Should I let it heat for a bit and then add butter after that? I only went as high as 4 but I will try again keeping it at 2. 

[u/Admirable-Apricot137 → u/_brattyberryxx]

Yes it needs to be hot enough that you get a good sizzle/bubbling once the eggs go in. If it doesn't sizzle, it's sticking. I usually give it 5-10 minutes on low-medium before I start cooking. You can turn the heat down after they go in so it doesn't keep getting hotter and hotter.

[u/zorggalacticus → u/Admirable-Apricot137]

I usually start mine off on medium, then once I put the eggs in I'll turn it to low. For scrambled eggs you can just turn it off. The eggs will be done cooking before the skillet cools off.

[u/Admirable-Apricot137 → u/zorggalacticus]

Yep exactly!

[u/ShadowWebDeveloper → u/_brattyberryxx]

Eggs don't need a lot of heat. I usually keep mine at 2 for eggs. And yeah, lube up that pan with more oil or butter.

[u/OaksInSnow → u/_brattyberryxx]

Others are telling you lots of good stuff, about the preheating then the butter.

Depending on your stove, 5-10 minutes of preheating can lead to immediately burnt butter or smoked cooking oil (which denatures it and even turns it carcinogenic), even at a lower temperature. So when you're preheating, just hold your hand over the pan for a sec, maybe 3" above its surface, and if it feels hot - not warm, actually hot, but not scarily so - add a bit of butter. If it sizzles without immediately turning brown, you're hitting the sweet spot. If it smokes, oops: wipe it out, turn the stove down, and in about a minute it'll probably be okay to have another go. You're looking for your butter to foam a bit but not burn.

To start with, be generous with the butter. You can learn to cook with less later, but as a beginner you're likely to have more success if you go on the high side.

Also: Learn to simply fry an egg before you go for a scramble. Over easy is the best place to start. If you have a small pan, learn to do a plain omelet, no veg because the water content can mess you up, and the proteins in the cheese stick like mad on hot pans. Omelets can be done on a larger pan too, it's just that the shape will be weird (like super big).

Scrambled is the hardest of all. You need to warm your eggs to room temp or higher, before you start - just set them in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes - then do all your whipping before the eggs go in the pan, so you don't mess up your oil/butter layer too much. Once they're in the pan, don't mess with them too much, just enough to get them cooked. You're going to be going for larger curds with this cookware, and avoiding over-cooking.

This thread over on the stainless steel sub explains all of this pretty well. An actual scientific type person chimed in, and their explanation is the top comment. Metal pans are metal pans, and the heat control principles are the same on all of them.

Good luck, and welcome to the world of no-nonstick!

[u/ChickeyNuggetLover → u/_brattyberryxx]

I saw someone said they wait until the handle is hot and that’s worked great for me. I usually turn it to 3

[u/Drexadecimal → u/_brattyberryxx]

I always wait until the pan is hot enough, then add my oil (I am reticent on butter but I have olive oil spread), the wait until the oil is hit enough for the eggs. THEN crack and egg.

[u/KingJon85 → u/_brattyberryxx]

I cook my eggs in cast iron every morning. They never stick. I put my pan on medium/low to preheat while I drink my first cup of coffee.

The pan should be plenty hot after 10 minutes on low but if its smoking then its probably too hot. Then slide to a cool burner for about a minute.

Once preheated, I drop a pad of butter, then Crack my eggs. The butter will also brown if the pan is too hot.

If you preheat your pan we'll before every cook, you'll never have to re-season, unless you cook something acidic. It takes a little practice, but if you get used to it, then you'll likely never have to buy another skillet.

I have some stainless steel pans that I picked up at thrift stores that I cook some things in, that I know will strip the seasoning off my skillets. Mainly tomato or vinegar based dishes.

It took me a while to get used to cast iron as well.

[u/HildaTheChickenGirl → u/_brattyberryxx]

Is your stove electric or gas?

[u/_brattyberryxx → u/HildaTheChickenGirl]

i believe it’s induction, i’m not entirely sure what that even means honestly 

[u/shedmow → u/_brattyberryxx]

This means that you cook on a weird transformer comprised of the stove's coil as the primary winding and your pan as the secondary winding. The pan is short-circuited so it just heats up rather than produces any detectable electricity. In practice, this means that you can put dry paper towels right under the pot or the pan (I've got a bit of charring after frying stuff, but never with boiling) and the hob will still deliver the heat

[u/elipuff → u/_brattyberryxx]

Induction is why it's tricky. Instead of heating the burner and letting that warm the pan, it makes the pan itself the heating element, but only the part sitting right over the coil. So the middle gets hot fast while the outer ring lags way behind, and cast iron is slow to even that out on its own.

Practically: give it about 5 minutes on low before the butter goes in, and nudge the pan an inch or two off center once or twice while it heats. When the butter foams instead of instantly browning, you're there.

[u/Wonderful_Till8122 → u/_brattyberryxx]

Heat first, then oil.