Should You Wash Your Cast Iron Skillet?
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This, this, this, this is Mythical.

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This is A Hot Dog is a Sandwich. Ketchup is a smoothie. Yeah, I put ice in my cereal, so what? That makes no sense. A hot dog is a sandwich. A hot dog is a sandwich. What? Welcome to our podcast, A Hot Dog is a Sandwich, the show we break down the world's biggest food debates. I'm your host, Josh Ayer. And I'm your host, Nicole Inayati. And today we are here to sell you on, it's an incredible partnership that we just signed. It is with AJ and Big Justice. We're calling it BafumaCoin, and that's five big BafumaCoin.

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It's maybe the fastest rise and fall of any milkshake duck. She got milkshake. She was the most clear case of milkshake to have ever happened. I shook her hand at a Spotify event once. She seemed nice. But there's a part of me that, you know, I don't mean to be like the dad bootstrap. You know, you got to have personal accountability guy. But if you paid for Hawk to a coin, I don't believe that you were ever going to do anything good with that money.

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Another controversy on the internet. Should you wash your cast iron skillet? Should you wash your cast iron skillet? Well, I was always raised by the internet, you know, to not wash your cast iron skillet. That washing your cast iron skillet is a shonda. You should never, ever, ever, water should never touch your cast iron skillet. If it ever gets dirty or if it gets crusty, you just got to use a paper towel or something just to pick up.

all the schmutz and all of the stuff and the gristle that's stuck there, empty out the oil, and you reuse it again. That's how I was always taught. But ever since I watched that one BuzzFeed video, the hands and pans one, remember? During BuzzFeed Renaissance when they were making the best...

overhead videos of all time. Oh my goodness. So many crescent rolls stuffed with so many things. I watched it today. This video came out eight years ago and it has 25 million views on YouTube alone. I can only imagine how many other views it has in like other places. The details of this person and how they explained how to wash a cast iron was so...

like enigmatic and attractive and cool that I washed my cast iron skillet. I have not seen this video. I think your BuzzFeed video is my Serious Eats article by Kenji Lopez. Okay. I think so. I think so. But those are the things that changed our minds on it. Does it talk about flaxseed oil in the Kenji Lopez? They might talk about it. I more took the broad strokes away from it. It's a polymerization and how it talks about very nerdy terms. I read that too and skimmed it, I should say. Before I guess,

I grew up with the same right knowledge that like there would be memes where they'd show it was like girlfriend wash the dishes tonight and there'd be a cast iron in a dishwasher which you shouldn't do that. You should never do that. But also I accidentally wash pants that I'm not supposed to wash all the time and now my nice Banana Republic pants are ruined. What do you mean?

I put them in the dishwasher. I meant washing machine. I don't know what you do. Anyways, dry clean your dry clean on the pants and don't put your cast iron in the dishwasher. But there was I've always been fascinated with the weird gender component of it.

Cast iron is boy? Do you see a gender component? Yes, cast iron is boy. It's not, but... Really? Because to me, that was like the memes, right? It was like, I'm a dude and I cook with cast iron and my stupid girlfriend put it in the dishwasher. Those are the memes that I grew up consuming. It's messed up and I don't agree with it, Nicole. I think it's trad wife adjacent. You think it's trad wife adjacent? I think the rise of the content creating trad wife is newer than my thoughts on cast irons because my thoughts on cast irons have been solidified for maybe six years.

Before that, it was entirely different. I think it's shifted a little bit because everyone's like, don't use Teflon anymore. So it's all cast iron this, cast iron that, stainless steel this. So that's what I'm picking up from the gender breakdown of cookware. Yeah, we, gosh, I don't know enough about the cancer risks of Teflon. Neither do I. Probably don't scratch it up, though. Probably, I don't know. I cook with nonstick. I really enjoy it. So do I. I also cook a lot with...

Cast iron. I think we should just get into like why you maybe would buy a cast iron pan and what you would use it for. When was the first time you got a cast iron pan? Gosh, the first time I bought a cast iron was one year out of culinary school. I got a large one from like Amazon and I loved it because it was already seasoned and I could just use it and whatever. You didn't season it extra yourself? I didn't season it extra, but that was a mistake because I will always now season a pre-seasoned

or whatever brand cast iron skillet. Season your damn food, season your damn pans. And then I basically used it and because I'm...

I like, I washed it and it was rusted. And I was like, oh no. I was like, oh no, I ruined it. I rusted my first cast iron too. I mean, everybody rusts their first one, I feel like. Unless like you're raised by someone who, because my family never ever used cast iron. We're just a nonstick Teflon family. We always have been, always will be. Probably why I have hormone issues. But, yeah.

This is not a medical advice podcast. No, it's really not. I have naturally low testosterone. Go ahead. You were saying? I have naturally high testosterone. Hey! Nice to meet you. Strong handshake. Thank you. It's all the testosterone. It's all the tea in my body. But like I was saying, the first time I got one, I completely screwed it up. I rusted it because, dumb old me, I did not know that cast iron was so porous and the water...

you have to get your cast iron bone dry, not only by like a towel or like a handkerchief, making sure it's dry. You literally have to put it on like a flame, an open flame to dry it out, to make sure that there's absolutely no water in there. So it cannot rust.

So my first experience was like everyone else's, a little bit clumsy, you know, a learning experience. First time's all is a little bit clumsy. It is always a little bit clumsy. You know what I mean? Teeth knocking together. I'm glad I had the experience, right? Of course. Otherwise, how would you know how to please your next cast iron? I think everybody goes through roughly that same journey with their cast irons. Same thing. It would have been like probably junior of college. I moved into a new apartment and like I went to Target and I got the $29.99 Lodge preseason cast iron. Didn't season it. Did the same thing. Cooked with it.

I knew not to put soap on it at that point. We'll get to the soap thing later. I didn't soap mine either. Yeah. But so you thought you were safe. Yeah. Because I'm like, oh, yeah, just water. Same. And then I put it in the dish rack like a normal person and then it rusted or I just put it back on the stove but didn't eat it. And so then, you know, that one rusted. I probably just ate a lot of rust. You ate rust? Is that why you're orange? I think so. No, I'm actually very curious why I tan so orangely. Maybe I eat a lot of beta carotene. Um.

But then, then, then, then, the next cast iron I got, I was like, I'm going to season this myself. And that was a game changer. So when you talk about seasoning a cast iron, what does that mean? You take some sort of neutral oil and you superheat it onto your cast iron. You can do it on a stove. I get nervous on that ever since I, do you remember that time I spontaneously ignited oil in the Mythical Kitchen? I do. I think about it.

all the time actually. Never have me. So oil, right, there's a smoke point which is like 400 degrees for some. You want it to go over the smoke.

Generally between 320 and 400. However, there's also an ignition point or a combustion point to oil. And I believe for like a neutral oil, it's like 1500. How did you get it that hot? Well, you see like grease fire, like just like a grease fire, right? A pot of oil can just catch on fire. It's like if you're in a restaurant and you put a pot of oil on, you forget about it. Oh, yeah. It takes a long ass time for it to get up to 1500 degrees. But you can do that. How did you do that in the Mythical Kitchen? I don't know.

I don't know. And people were warning me about it. I was going to sear a steak. I remember. I was yelling at you. I said, turn it off. You're like, yeah, it's fine. Anyway, so to season a cast iron, you don't even need to superheat the oil on the stove. You can do it in an oven. Yes. You can put it in a 400-degree oven for an hour. Right, right, right. And then you can pour that oil out, wipe it around with a paper towel, repeat that process five, six times. Make a day of it. My...

Wait until the next NFL regular season, and then on a Sunday when you're just parked on the couch for like nine hours straight watching football, repeat the seasoning process five times with your cast iron pan. And then if somebody's like, hey, do you want to leave the house? Go, no, no, no. I'm not just a bum watching football. I'm seasoning my cast iron. I'm investing in our future.

What happens when you do that? That's more a note for me. What happens when you do that, the oil creates a polymer. Right. Like a coating. Like a coating on it, yeah, but it's not just a coating of oil, right? The oil, the chemical structure of it physically changes. And this is important to understand when you talk about washing as well. Sure, sure, sure. So the chemical structure, Maggie, you're a science person, right?

Computer science, not cast iron science. Oh, they got polymers on computers? They have polymers on computers, right? Because it gets so hot. Probs. A polymer is, okay, from what I understand, made up of many monomers. I'm going to Google, hey, Megan,

Google Polymer and then I'll explain it and we'll see how close I get. Okay, cool. This is like almost mansplaining. Thank you. This is Dunning-Kruger effect at its finest. A polymer, I believe, and this is coming from my D- and AP chem, is when you have...

multiple singular parts called monomers. Yes. And you induce some sort of chemical change in them to make them bond to each other to create one larger unified structure that tends to, I believe, have stronger chemical bonds. And that's the heat. And the heat is what's allowing that chemical change to happen. It's allowing the bonding and the chemical change to happen. Stronger bonds to form. Maggie, can we go ahead and get a review on that?

Okay, can you make it bigger? Because, yeah. Okay, polymer, a substance that has a molecular structure consisting chiefly of or entirely of large number of similar units bonded together. Josh, I think you did it. Yeah, so like a lot of plastics are polymers, right? And that's why they're like strong. Polymer clay. Polymer clay. Is that a thing? Josh, I...

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I have a question. Did you ever rust a cast iron past the point of no return that you threw it in the garbage? I will not perjure myself on this stand. Yeah, I have. I'm not a good person. I threw it away too. I'm really bad about it. Wait, did you also though then YouTube search how to restore cast iron? And then you watched a video and you went, I ain't doing all that. I'm sorry. Oh, really? No, I took mine out of the trash and I tried. I've tried too, yeah. But then I was like...

I don't want to. I don't have the elbow grease for this. But now that I know how to treat and take care of a cast iron skillet, I've had one for like seven years. Same. Yeah. And I take really good care of it to this day. I haven't used it in like six months though. Really? I should probably use it. Yeah. What do you mostly use a cast iron for? Because I'm still not at the point where the seasoning on mine is pretty good, but I've seen some people, I got really jealous of their super slick cast irons. I was thinking it was the other way around, like you were like disgusted by what

I've also seen that where it's just like, dude, the iron is physically chipping off into your food because this isn't seasoned properly. Uh-huh. You know, and there's like, they're trying to fry eggs and they're scraping at it and then there's little black chips on the eggs. Anyways, but no, people who have like really worn seasoned cast irons to where they're cooking like fried eggs in there. It's like nonstick. It's nonstick. It's better than nonstick. Yeah, yeah, yeah. At some point, right? Because nonstick degrades over time. And so if you get that perfect cast iron, but I'm still not at the point where I'm like,

oh, I'm going to make a fried egg. I'm going to bust out the cast iron. Cast irons for me are for like, I'm making cornbread, mac and cheese. I'm like, I want to sear a steak and get a really hot pan. I sear my steaks in cast iron skillets. Always have and always will. What are the advantages to cast iron? Like if somebody out there, one of y'all, has never bought a cast iron pan, has never cooked with it, maybe you're intimidated because there are so many rules about it.

It is so intimidating. That's what stopped me when people were talking about how it's a cardinal sin and you're a bad person to wash a cast iron with soap. Right, right, right. But what is your advice to people who are trying to buy a cast iron? Why they should use it? Well,

I was always told that the iron goes into the food more. That is, I believe, true. Which I do believe is true, which is fine. But for me, it's just, it gets this beautiful heat. It's not an even heat. It's not even. Was it even when you do it? I think so. I wouldn't say it's an even heat, but it is a- More even than my other pans, yeah. More even than your nonstick pans? Yeah. Really?

Really? I disagree with you. Maybe mine's just not that great. But it retains so much heat that I think it can sear things really, really well. So if you're the kind of person that loves a really well-seared chicken, if you're a person that really wants a well-seared piece of steak or a protein like that, I think it does a great job. Also, whenever cooking vegetables, it makes this beautiful caramelization that I think is very unique to cast iron cooking. Yeah.

I mean, it's very easy to bake into. Like I've made, like you said, cornbread. I've done like apple upside down, like an apple crumble situation. And I just think the edges get so crispy and delightful that you just can't really get with any other tool. I mean, you could potentially like, you could take a casserole dish and you could oil it and you could butter it and you could...

could but there's something about that like latent extreme heat that's just held in the cast iron that I don't think you can get elsewhere I think held is the operative point there it stays hot so the handle's hot you gotta use like a little towel or a little do you use that little

comes with? Never. Never, never. That goes in the bottom drawer that I never open. But then I'm like, where's the cooking twine? And then I finally find it in the drawer with all my tiny little things that I never use. Right, right, right. No, the cast iron retaining heat is really interesting. Like, I cook on electric burners at home, which isn't ideal. I would love a gas burner. I have a gas burner. I have a gas burner.

Thanks, Gavin Newsom. You can dine at the French Laundry, but I can't have a gas stove. He took away your gas stove? I don't know. California passed some law, but I think most places... I have a gas stove. I'm a little bit... I think places can get grandfathered in. I think most of America is banning gas stoves, and also I think they probably really do cause negative health effects. Okay. Whatever. Electric sucks to cook on. It does? Yeah.

But I can't have like a wok, right? And I love to make little stir fries. The key to a wok is that it gets really, really hot because you have it on a big burner and there's a lot of surface area and you keep the food moving so it never steams. Is a wok typically made out of stainless steel?

Yeah, carbon steel, stainless steel. I don't really know what that means. But I can basically use my cast iron like I would a wok because of the heat retention. So basically, if you keep things moving consistently in a wok and it's hot enough, they kind of don't steam. So everything stays nice, fresh, crispy. A lot of Chinese cookery is based off of that. You know what I mean? You pre-blanch your vegetables so it can all get wok cooked in 30 seconds. Yeah.

If I try and make a stir-fry at home in a nonstick pan, and I'm putting in a pound and a half of chicken, and then all the veggies, whatever. How big is your pan if you're adding a pound and a half of chicken? Okay, so if I'm cooking a dinner for two, I budget a pound of chicken.

Per person? No, no, no. Half a pound of chicken per person. Because to me, that gets you... If it's chicken breast, that's about 60 grams of protein. So I'll actually go six ounces on breast. Okay, that's what I was thinking. But if it's thigh, I go eight ounces because that's about 45 grams of protein. And then I do another portion of Julia for Julia for lunch. Oh, that's so sweet. So if I'm cooking at home, I'm doing a pound and a half of chicken. You do that in a nonstick pan. It sizzles really, really hot when you put it in. But...

the pan isn't going to be as thick and retain as much heat as a cast iron. Right, right, right. So eventually that sizzle dies and it starts steaming. And then you just have the steamed, overcooked, wet veg in your Kung Pao chicken. Totally. Right? Been there. Cast iron is so unique in that it holds the heat so well that you can just...

keep it moving and it keeps sizzling in your form. Right, right. So, like, cast iron, it is really versatile and I would recommend that, yeah, I think everyone have one. Everyone should have one. How do you feel about the people that are, like, diehards that are like, I am never going to wash this. I'm going to make fried fish one day and then I'm going to make a strawberry rhubarb crumble the next. Like, how do you feel about that kind of...

that kind of cast iron cookery because for me, I don't want my cast iron when I'm making like a dessert to taste like fried fish. I just don't. Like that doesn't appeal to me. It doesn't. You don't want the fried fish flavored cobbler? No, I don't. Why'd you order it?

No, so like we said, cast iron is also porous. So porous. People will say a restaurant might have a cast iron pan or even a cast iron griddle top that they've cooked the burgers on for 100 years. And they say that this is the reason our burgers taste so good. It's because all that burger flavor is soaked up into the pores, which is awful.

A little bit true. Their burgers are probably good because they use a lot of butter and lard. But, you know, for your home cast iron, the flavors are going to stay in there a little bit, similar with like a molcajete made out of volcanic rock, right? Okay. You grind one spice in there and no matter how much you sort of wipe it out and clean it out, you're still going to taste that. But you cook other things and it

changes over time. I've never personally had an issue with that. I've had issues. Have you really? What's the last thing? Not personal issues, but I've been to people's houses. Well, have one sweet cast iron and one savory cast iron. I was going to say, no. I mean, like, who's going to do that, though? Who's going to do that? This is the fish cast iron. No, people don't do that. I mean, there's cookbooks dedicated to cast iron cookery, and there's a dessert section. You think people are going to go and get a separate cast iron for that? No. It pisses me off because it's like,

The people that do that and then they take care of their cast iron, that's one thing. If it's properly seasoned and it has that nonstick, that really beautiful sheen that you're talking about. Yeah, the polymer won't sit. If the polymer has been made, if the, what is it? What's it? Patina. Patina. If the patina has been constructed, sure. But do you think the average Joe is out there building a patina?

No, they're not out. Average Joe, the construction worker who is on the reality show trying to woo women because they think he's a millionaire. Oh, I loved Joe Millionaire. Joe Millionaire. That was that. Joe Millionaire was hot. Hey, Joe Millionaire, come on the podcast. Just call. I just want to know. What's his name, Evan? I don't know. He was so hot. Can you Google who Joe Millionaire is? He probably cooks cast iron food. He seems like a cast iron guy. Joe Millionaire was a babe.

I think his name was like Evan something or other. His name isn't Joe Millionaire? No, that was a good name for each other. Evan Marriott. The original Joe Millionaire. Did they say he was the Marriott owner? Oh, that'd be funny. No, I don't think so. I think they changed his name to Joe Millionaire on the show. And they said, Joe Millionaire, he's the inventor of millionaires. Like your name is Mythical Chef Josh? Correct. When are you getting that legally changed, by the way? Pretty soon, man. Julia's going to be Mrs. Julia.

Mrs. Julia, Chef Josh. Mrs. Josh! Okay, so if you're talking about the hardos who insist on never putting water or soap in their cast iron, because these are two different things. We should eventually tell people if they should wash their damn cast irons, because that's the biggest debate. But

Washing means different things. One is should you ever put water in it? I've always been a, sure, water it. Just dry it. Yeah, and then make sure it's dry. But there are people who go, no, you should only, one, you can superheat it until it turns to sort of carbon. Then just scrape it off. Scrape it off and then wipe it down with oil again. There's people like that. You're probably going to get a lot more aromas in your cast iron that way. However, I look at those people...

like a romantic right like i look at them as like oh this is a bygone time where life was simpler and i love that your cornbread tastes like fish you know i think that's really sweet that they're so proud of their pan they want to leave all the history in it okay i don't personally do that myself it freaks me out a little bit despite knowing that all bacteria is killed if you superheat that pan especially to 1500 degrees that stuff's turned to straight carbon what about the hardos that you salt

How does it use salt? What does the salt do? I don't... I think it's because it's an abrasive. Oh, so you're... Like, it helps pick up all this... Yeah, it's interesting. But I've seen, like, people use, like, kosher salt with, like, oil, and then they...

Gather it all up and then they get rid of it. Does that? Okay, so when you... I feel like I season more mocha jetes than I have cast iron pans. But you use salt in the mocha jete too. Well, what I do first is I submerge it for like a day and then I remove it. Then I use rice first. Yeah, you grind the rice into it. I use grind the rice. Like I do multiple passes until it's no longer gray. And then I do salt. And then I do like garlic. Yeah.

Yeah. Is that normal? I think so. That's what I do. That's how I was taught. Maybe it's the same thing with cast iron. The biggest debate, though, in cast iron, the thing that gets people the most worked up is when soap touches it. I want to use soap!

Why do you want to use soap? I don't know. Soap equals clean to me. Soap equates clean. Maybe this is disgusting. I don't use soap kind of for a lot of my pans sometimes. What do you mean? If there's schmutz on the outside. Do you ever put it in the dishwasher? Do you ever put it in the pans? No. Never? No. Don't be serious. No, I don't. I don't like to use dishwashers in general. Oh, okay. I would never use a dishwasher if it wasn't for Julia insisting that we do it because she's like, sometimes you clean dishes and they're not clean. Oh my gosh, I'm sick. And I'm like, you're correct. You're right.

Yeah, sometimes I put him in the dishwasher and then I don't take all the stuff off. And then David goes, he just looks and he touches it. He doesn't even verbalize it. He just touches the bowl and I'm like, speak, boy, speak. What is it? And he's like, dirty. I'm like, sorry. What do you want me to do? I love that me and you have similar roles in our house. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so funny to me. We're the same person. We've just got that.

That said, the Lodge Cast Iron CEO has said before. What has he said? That he washes his cast irons with a little bit of soap. He's like, don't soak it. Don't scrub it too, too hard. But gently washing it with soap will not do anything to degrade the polymerization on that pan. What is this person's name? What is their name? Can we Google it? Lodge Cast Iron CEO.

Mike Otterman. Don't come after him, Luigi. This might have been before. That might have been an old CEO. Mike Otterman, wash, cast, iron with soap. You made a really funny joke, I think. It was funny. I said, don't come after him, Luigi. Oh, you're making a joke about murder. Do you want me to stop? No, I think it's funny. You think murder's funny? In the right context, yeah, it's so funny.

Okay, so here's what Mike Otterman has had to say about his cast iron usage. Okay, tell us what the CEO says. Cast iron CEO lodge. After dinner, I'll scrape it out in hot water. I will use soap and rub it down in the interior, particularly if I do salmon or something like that. Fish! Then I put it back on the burner on low, straighten up the rest of the kitchen. When it gets to a nice warm temperature, I spray it with oil, turn off the burner, wipe it down with a paper towel, leave it on the burner until it cools, and then I obviously never put it away. It looks better when I'm done cooking with it than when I started it.

Cute. Cute. Also, I love having a cast iron sitting on me.

the stove at all times. Me too. Until my mom came over and she said, what are you doing? Your house is a mess. So I had to put it away. I always keep... Wait, this is the thing. I always keep a frying pan on the stove. I generally use my Ninja Never Stick. I cook with Ninja Never Stick pans at home. They are very, very affordable. They heat to a very, very high degree. I can get up to 1500 degrees without degrading the nonstick, which is really neat. Listen, as nonstick technology is...

continues to progress. It will get safer. It will get better. This is all to say I'm never sticking this. I'm never going to stainless steel. You know, I think I will reach self-actualization when I do use all-clad stainless steel. I think as a person, once I have that set, let me tell you, it doesn't need to be all-clad, but I need a stainless steel set and then I need a Le Creuset set. And once I get those two things... Le Creuset, huh? Is it Le Creuset? Le Creuset? Am I saying it wrong? Le Creuset?

I've been LeCruset-ing it the whole time. You've been LeCruset-ing it? I don't know. It's like LaCroix, you know, LaCroix. I feel stupid. How do you pronounce it? I don't know, but let me tell you. Let me tell you. So I need to have my stainless steel pots and pans and then one cast iron skillet or two and then LeCruset for Josh. Oh, it's LeCruset. Okay. So it's LeCruset. LeCruset with a soft Z sound. LeCruset. There you go.

My La Cruze set. All the red ones, though. I only want red ones. Don't give me any other color than the red ones, okay? And then I'm going to have a red Vitamix. I already have a red Vitamix. And then a red KitchenAid. And I feel like I'll reach self-actualization. Don't you feel that way?

Do I feel if you get all of your red cookware appliances and pans that you will reach self-actualization? And the stainless steel. I know what you mean. It's like that can fix me. All my personality flaws will suddenly go away if I have the right cooking tools. It's like me when I finally get my meat grinder and ice cream maker. I'm like, that will fix me. Yeah, but it won't. It won't. No, you have to do the internal work. I don't want to.

It's a very restaurant-y chef thing to only cook in stainless steel, right? Yeah. A lot of restaurants operate on stainless steel. My problem with stainless steel is you do have to use a lot of oil in it. That's true. Right? And my dietary goals, my fitness goals, right? I'm already getting so much fat from eating a half a pound of chicken thighs, you know, that I'm like, I don't want that extra oil just to fry an egg. I'm fine just eating this egg and I'd like a quick fried egg.

Give me a nonstick pan. I'm down to do that. Fine. I would love to be a pure cast iron boy. Oh. You know what I mean? One of those people who busts out his cast iron just to fry an egg. I guess that to me is self-actualization. Okay, I was going to ask. That's gender affirming for me. You know, and that's what I want. It's just to cook everything in a cast iron.

You know, steak, egg, salmon, cobbler. Cobbler. Yeah. Okay. You ever see the hot wilderness guys? They're cooking out and like there's like a frozen river bank. I do know those hot wilderness guys. And they just brought a sack of like jalapenos and onions and cilantro out into the snowy woods and they're cutting a steak with their Bowie knife. They're probably in like Azerbaijan or something doing it. They're throwing a cast iron onto a fire. So hot. That's hot. I want to be that hot.

I'm not. I'm a city boy at the heart. Cooking on my little electric stove. Have you ever thought about just like moving to like a compound? It's almost all I think about these days. Are you serious? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Have you ever thought about just like leaving Los Angeles and then like getting like a little compound and inviting like five of your friends? I don't need to be one of the five if you don't want me to, but I think it'd be cool if I was. I don't think we'd. Oh, okay. We should be in separate compounds. You don't want to be in a compound? No, it's not that I don't want to. I just think we both have. Separate friends. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, I'm sorry. No, now I feel terrible. Did you think that we would be compound friends? I can't say Le Creuset. I don't want to be in the same compound as you. What's going on? What happened to what we've built the past five and a half years? So you don't want me to come on your compound, but whatever. But Josh, tell the people, should you wash your cast iron skillet?

You should do whatever the heck you want with your cast iron skillet. You can wash your cast iron skillet with soap. The Lodge cast iron CEO literally says that he does that. It won't reduce the polymerization on your seasoning that you have. However, if you don't want to wash your cast iron, that is also perfectly fine. If you want to use...

water or soap or just wipe it out with a paper towel. That's all cool. The most important thing you can do for a cast iron is in the preparation, is in the actual seasoning of it. Like anything in life with knives, the best knife is a sharp knife. With cars, right? The car that runs the longest is the one that's been the most well-maintained. I literally need to get an oil change right now, but that's totally fine. I follow my advice on cast irons. The biggest thing

people shouldn't like freak out a cast iron pan is just a pan if you see somebody putting a cast iron into soapy water don't freak out it's similar with washing chicken it's fine you can wash chicken safely you don't have to wash your chicken you can wash a cast iron efficaciously you don't have to wash cast iron it's a pan and it's a good pan and I think everyone should have one wash it don't wash it as long as you maintain it and cook delicious food in it that's all that matters

Nicole, what do you think? Should you wash your cast iron pan? I think you should wash your cast iron pans. There's been all of this hullabaloo about not doing it, doing it. I think having a clean dish that will allow you to do whatever you want with it, as long as you maintain it the right way, you can do whatever you want. But I'm going to wash mine, and I hope you're going to wash yours. Clean pan, clean mind, clean soul. That's what they say. I'm still not washing my legs. Oh.

The soap drips down. You really need to scrub your legs. It's upsetting how little parts of my body I truly wash when I shower. You need to scrub. I almost don't wash anything. Do you have a loofah? No, I shower at the gym. I'm buying you a freaking loofah. What, am I going to bring the loofah to the gym every day? Yes. Absolutely not. Yes. I could use... What do you need? Well, I could use one of their small towels that you use to wipe down equipment as a wash rag. The eucalyptus ones? Yeah. Don't put that in your... Oh, no, in my hoo-ha?

Where'd you get those shoes? Easy, they're from DSW. Because DSW has the exact right shoes for whatever you're into right now. You know, like the sneakers that make office hours feel like happy hour. The boots that turn grocery aisles into runways. And all the styles that show off the many sides of you, from daydreamer to multitasker and everything in between. Because you do it all in really great shoes.

Find a shoe for every you at your DSW store or DSW.com. Yeah, sure thing.

Hey, you sold that car yet? Yeah, sold it to Carvana. Oh, I thought you were selling to that guy. The guy who wanted to pay me in foreign currency, no interest over 36 months? Yeah, no. Carvana gave me an offer in minutes, picked it up and paid me on the spot. It was so convenient. Just like that? Yeah. No hassle? None. That is super convenient. Sell your car to Carvana and swap hassle for convenience. Pick up fees may apply.

All righty, Nicole. We've heard what you and I have to say. Now it's time to find out what other wacky opinions are rattling out there in the universe. It's time for a little segment we call... Opinions Are Like Casseroles!

Josh, you have given me so many abandonment issues today. You don't want me on your compound. You didn't sing with me. Oh, I'm sorry. I was trying to like drum a beat while you sang. I was trying to support your rhythm section. Well, you're supposed to tell me. You can't just do it. You were David Letterman and I was the bald guy with glasses. What was his name? Phil? Philzy? You know what I mean? I'm sorry. I'm trying to support you. I just will listen to an opinion. Don't support me in a way that is unsupportive.

Now that's a real life lesson for people out there. Hi, I'm Ryan. I've never done this before. You're doing great, Ryan. I think that if you put bananas near bread, any kind of bread, it tastes really gross. It tastes like bananas. No one I've ever met has ever felt this way before except me, but I feel really strongly about it. Thank you. I love your podcast. Thanks, Ryan. Wow.

Wow. Polyethylene. Tell me, talk to me about polyethylene. Is it polyethylene or just ethylene? I don't know. Something, what does poly mean? Multiple. Poly is when you have multiple. Poly equals multi. So poly, lots of ethylenes. Well, yeah, I don't know. Anyways, I just know the one ethylene, but there's the ethylene that bananas emit, which is maybe what you're talking about. So bananas...

I don't know if there's a way to quantify this, but I think they emit a lot more ethylene, which is the gas that naturally ripens fruit. So I believe if you put other fruits next to bananas, they are literally absorbing the ethylene and they'll ripen faster. Yeah. Like you put avocado in a bag with a banana. There's like graphs out there that'll tell you like, put this with that for ripening. Don't put that with that to make sure everything stays nice and neutral. So yeah. But you know what they say, you don't like the ripeness of your banana? Wait 10 minutes. Yeah.

Bananas ripen really fast is what I'm saying. And so it would make sense that if you put some sort of food next to a banana, especially something as porous as bread that absorbs so many odors, like if you have exposed bread next to a banana, yeah, it's probably going to absorb the ethylene. I wonder if anybody's done a, what's that thing called? A research paper on this. Of bread near nanners? Yeah. What do you mean? Nanner adjacent breads? Yeah. I wonder if anyone's done like, I don't know, like a, what's that? A thesis paper?

I'll do a home experiment tonight. I have the perfect crappy bread heel that I was already dreading using. You know what I mean? The thing is, the heel probably won't collect as much. No, it's got a good enough face. Sorry, it's got a good enough face, though. It does? Okay. It's got a good enough face. But it's not... Okay, okay. It's not just... Because, yeah, the crust might... Yeah, but I have three bananas, one crappy bread heel. I'll let you know, but you're not crazy. I believe you. I think you're right here. And I think ethylene does kind of smell like bananas because that's...

you know, bananas emit so much of it that I think we associate that smell. Like I smell gasoline. I smell bananas. I smell gasoline. I think, Ooh, what's gasoline made out of? I don't get the next opinion. I'll Google, I'll Google. Yeah, but there's other things in it. I'll Google a gasoline, but also the smell. Oh, gasoline's odorless. Gasoline ingredients. Gasoline's odorless, right?

And they add a smell. They add a... There's a term for it. And to let people know if there's a gas leak. Is it yum-yum juice? Because I love the smell of gasoline so much. If I could just, like, stand, like, next to a gas station and just, like, breathe in the fumes, I think I'd be happy. I'd reach self-actualization.

Hello, this is Kat from Raleigh, North Carolina, but I'm originally from Vermont. Go Catamounts. And I want more savory granola bars. No, you don't. Cajun nuts and seeds and things like that. Okay. I don't know why it has to be sugary when last time I did that, salt was also a preservative. I'll tell you why. Let me know.

Tell them. Tell them, Josh. It's not the preservation that you need the sugar for. It's to turn it into a bar. The sugar is what holds the bar together. You ever wonder why like chewy granola bars are just like so kind of wet? It's because the sugar is providing that structure. And I'm sure there's a way to make like a savory nut oat bar or whatever without that much sugar. But I will tell you, this is a product that now exists on the market. I've had it before.

Savory granola bars? Kind, savory, roasted nut and grain bars or whatever. So Kind Bars, which I think did a great job of like, we grew up on chewy granola bars or kudos bars or whatever. Quaker. Nature Valley, Quaker. And they're like, they're sugary. They're basically candy. And Kind comes in and they're like, hey, this is dark chocolate. There's whole nuts on there that you can see. I have a lot of respect for what Kind did in the industry. And now they're making savory. I had their rosemary nuts and sea salt. And.

And it's good. They taste the rosemary, love a good salty, herby nut. The problem for me with them is there's so much sugar because that's what's holding – or I think they use brown rice syrup or invert sugar. Yes. That's what's holding the bar together. You are right. And so I was eating this thing and I was kind of like, this is just so sweet and so savory at the same time.

And I was like, why the sweet? And then I noticed the kind of caramelly pull from my teeth. And so I think that's an actual chemical reason why it can't be purely savory. Well, you could do a savory sweet one. Well, yeah, that's exactly what Kind did. And it's a pretty good product. It's just not something that I... Have you ever heard of a handful of nuts?

Hear me out. What you do is you buy nuts and you grab them in a handful and you go. You're so passive aggressive. And you just go. And you go. And you slam a handful of nuts. The CEO of kind, Mexican Jew. Big fan of him. Mexican. Why did I not expect you to say Mexican Jew? I don't know. I don't know. But I've seen him on Shark Tank. I thought you were going to say Persian. Oh, no. And I thought you were going to say, you know, I went to school with his daughter. I know everybody. Her sweet 16, crazy. I do know everybody.

Hi, Hot Dog is a Sandwich. My name is Sophia and I'm from Northern California. My question for you is, does a churrascarilla count as a buffet? Oh, well, I have another question. I have another question. Can I ask it? I love that they love churrascarillas. Are you eating the buffet option as well as just going to the churrascarilla? Because whenever you go to churrascarillas, you get the option. You either get

the buffet, you could get the buffet and the meat or you can just get the meat. So that's my question to you, Sofia. Well, well, talking about me being basket-less. Sofia, have you ever been to a place called The Sizzler? Because I will say The Sizzler has a similar structure to most churrascarias. Yes, I'm using the Brazilian pronunciation of churrasco.

At most churrascarias, they will have the meat portion where they're generally going table to table. I don't know if that's all churrascarias, but it's like... That's the one that I like. Yeah, the ones that we go to. That's not true. I like the ones where... No, I like... No. They come around, the meat are on giant swords and they slice them off directly on your table and

And then there's like a separate buffet set up that you go, you get your salad, your heart's a palm. Sometimes they'll have beef stroganoff. Yeah, they do. Fried fish. Yeah. Fun little treats like that.

Is a churrascaria more akin to a steakhouse or a buffet to you? It's the perfect medium. It's the perfect medium. But if you had to put it into a category, because I think this is an astute question. Well, whenever you go, what is it called on the door? It's a Brazilian steakhouse, right? They say steakhouse. They say steakhouse. But in terms of like the American steakhouse concept, right, you wouldn't go to Korean barbecue and say like I'm going to a steakhouse despite the fact that you're probably there for cuts of steak that are cooked. That's true.

That's true. Well, you're doing the cooking yourself. So it's a completely different action than a steakhouse. But I'd say a steakhouse is also like pretty different from a churrascaria where they're coming around table side. Churrascaria is dim sum. Yeah. Table side carts, you're just choosing. And is dim sum a buffet? No. No.

I would, okay, here's my official take here. I do love this question. Me too. I really, really do. I think a chuhaskeria is its own separate experience. They do have a buffet inside a chuhaskeria, but that's like calling a McDonald's with a ball pit a playground. Yeah.

Don't trust anybody if they go to McDonald's and go to the playground. That's a weird thing. It has a playground. It's not a playground. I was that kid. But I would say once churrascarillas get more popular, which I hope they do because God, I love them. South American grilled meats are incredible. I think it's going to be more recognized as its own thing. Like KBBQ. Like Korean barbecue. Fair. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and lean more so towards that it is a type of steakhouse. Okay.

instead of a type of buffet or a type of anything else, I am going to say that a Brazilian barbecue experience is a steakhouse experience. It is a different experience, but it is a steakhouse nonetheless. I think it's the funnest steakhouse you can go to. Sophia, I dream of a future where you don't have to put these things into categories. That's the future that I dream of. Great question, great opinion. A decentralized, talking about cryptocurrency, decentralized steakhouses. Meet Emporium.

Hi, this is Marina from Ohio, and I just have a complaint. Every time somebody talks about difficulty swallowing, Nicole is quick to jump in and say, oh, phagia. No, phagia is just swallowing in general. I'm sorry. This phagia is difficulty swallowing. Aphasia.

is absence of swallowing so inability to swallow all right thank you for letting me rant i'm so sorry wait what did you do i don't know i did something where i said aphasia was dysphagia and aphasia i i've been talking for a long time on this thing they just put a microphone in front of

and they said speak and I said, okay, mistakes are going to be made. What if you're wrong? How many podcasts do you have? Don't you talk crap of my friend, Nicole. She's a nice lady. Am I being supportive in the way that you feel supportive? Yeah, yeah. Don't you ever call in again. Do it again. No, you can call back. Ohio sucks. Hey, hey, hey. I like Ohio. Go Buckeyes. I found Columbus a little underwhelming in the city. I've had great times in Cleveland. Buckeyes. That's the name of... A dessert from Ohio.

And a team. It's actually a tree. It's a tree with a lot of roots in indigenous medicine. Isn't it also a team? It is also the name of the Ohio State football team. And it's peanut butter balls. It's also peanut butter balls that look like the nut on the tree. I'm going to tell you right now, I will make mistakes and I will never stop making mistakes because I'm a human being and I appreciate you for calling me out because sometimes...

It feels good to get called out a little bit. Do it again. If you ever hear me do anything wrong again, just call and say, Nicole did this wrong. I love it. Maggie, can you Google? I'm not looking this up. Can you Google what the seventh track on Lamb of God's self-titled first album is? I think it's self-titled. But Lamb of God's first studio album, seventh track. Dang. Wait, scroll down. Ninth track. What are you doing? Dang. Look up Lamb of God Buckeye.

Damn, I thought I had this right. Lamb of God has a song called Buckeye as well. What album is this on? That's not important anymore. But wait, wait, no. Scroll down, scroll down. Maggie, what album? Oh my God, this was, ugh. It wasn't Lamb of God. It was on Burn the Priest when they were going by the name Burn the Priest. So this is before they were even Lamb of God. Well, I feel stupid now. I apparently said the wrong word for the wrong problem. You've ruined Nicole's day. No, actually, I feel so much more invigorated to make more mistakes and get called out again.

I don't want to draw any conclusions from that. Hey, guys. This is Ethan from Chicago. I don't believe you. I'm here with my daughter making homemade munchie mix. Oh, fun. And I had an opinion that Fritos make a better ingredient than they do chips. I agree. You know, like, Fritos, like, just on the side of a sandwich kind of sucks. Mm-hmm. But if you had to, like, it's a chili. Yep. Spicy. Aw.

If you had the chili, great. Burrito, amazing. Just the chip kind of sucks. What do you think? I want to make a burrito and put Fritos in it. I'm curious. Okay, so let's break this down. Fritos, right? Plain flavored Fritos. Intense corn flavor. Great crunch. But why do you think it would fail as a standalone chip? I kind of agree with him. Instinctively, I agreed with him. I will always, always stand corn flavor. I think just pure corny corn flavor is really good.

But would you say the same thing about like a ruffle plain chip? Because I would never eat a plain flavored potato chip over like a barbecue or a flame and hot or a honey mustard. Plain chips, I have no, unless I'm dipping it in something. What about salt and pepper chips? No. Oh my God, I love. I'm going to straight pass them. Oh my God, oh my God, I love plain chips. No, give me more black pepper on there maybe, but like they're never peppery enough. What? What?

I love a plain chip. I love a pure chip. I like the corniness of Fritos. I like the potatoiness of Lay's and saltiness. So I don't really necessarily agree with this because I love corn a lot.

I think the interesting thing with that is the flavor of a Frito is so strong, but the flavor is ultimately something that comes from nature, which is interesting. And I like that. Right? Whereas like a Flamin' Hot Taki is also a strongly flavored chip. Not in nature. Don't find that in nature. None of those things are found in nature.

So I think that's interesting. I think that's maybe why it might play really well with other foods, especially, talk about chili and burritos, like, especially with Mexican foods. Right. Because you're getting, it's a punch of very strongly toasted corn flavor. And if you have, the best corn tortilla you ever have should have a strong corn flavor. But, oh, there's one mega corporation that owns, like,

89% of the world's tortilla production. It's called Gruma. The Gruma group. They own like Guerrero and all those brands. Mission? Yeah, I think they own Mission. No, Mission might be an American company. But anyways, like all their corn tortillas, they're very processed. They don't taste that much like corn. You know what I mean? So you're adding a Frito to that. You're like getting this big corn punch. It's an astute observation. I think it's both. I think I'm not going to be in the middle for this. I'm just going to go ahead and say it's a good standalone chip and I disagree with you.

How does that feel, huh? Now I'm craving a side of plain Fritos with just like a ham mayonnaise and American cheese sandwich. Right, right. Can we do that? You can do whatever you want. Yeah, free will, buddy. I already ate a big fistful of ham for breakfast. Oh yeah, fistfuls of ham. It's my new metal band. Well, on that note, thank you so much for stopping by the podcast. If you liked it,

That's great. That's what we shoot for every time. Yeah, if you want to leave an opinion, call us at 833-DOGPOD1. The number again is 833-DOGPOD1. New audio episodes out every Wednesday. New videos out on Sunday over YouTube. And we make a lot of other YouTube videos on Mythical Kitchen. You should watch that. See you next time. Bye. Bye.