Seasoning a cast iron skillet....Tips please

[TomSeller]

No tomatoes or soap have been in the skillet. I have noticed an improvement when I cook at lower temps, so you are right on with that tip. I think a big problem is the "Lodge" brand. The bottom of the skillet (inside) is kinda rough and it takes more seasoning to fill the voids. I read of the issue in other reviews.

Oh, mainly I'm cooking meats and breakfast foods in the skillet. Eggs, bacon, sausage, chicken , pork etc. Eggs are the toughest

Eggs slide off mine like you wouldn't believe. The Griswold is smooth, smooth. I never have used Lodge. Pork and chicken do stick a little the way I use mine. But like I said, I take mine down to smooth metal every time. Some people let a little buildup occur, I don't. I never cook past half way on the temp setting on my induction cooktop.

 

[wedge40]

Getting cast iron to an "almost" non-stick state can take some time and patients. If the bottom and sides still have that rough look it's not seasoned enough. I use high heat oil in mine (peanut, canola etc) placed in a 300* oven for at least 30 minutes. Let it cool, take it out, wipe it down and repeat a couple of times. When doing eggs I still use some non-stick spray. I never fry bacon, I always bake my bacon.
After each use of the pan I clean it with hot water, place back on the stove on a high heat burner and wait till it just starts to smoke again, then turn the heat off. They get touched up with oil every now and again when I see spots that are getting bare. If there are things stuck to the pan use plastic or something non metal to scrape it off. I treat cast iron like teflon and try not to use to may steel utensils with it.

Is this the correct way to deal with cast iron cook ware. I dont know, but it seems to work for me.

Wedge

 

[schmism]

I belive lodge brand are rough sand cast and not finished. The older castiron was ground to a finish on the inside to leave it much smoother.

Lodge can be significantly improved if you take a flap disk sanding wheel (4.5" grinder) to it and smooth out all those sand cast bumps.

Then season well in the oven.

Ive heard you can really bake in a lot of grease if you deep fry chicken in them the way gran used to.

 

[Gunny]

I've still got one of the old high sided chicken fryers that belonged to my Mom and it does one heck of a job frying chicken, that's the only thing I allow to be cooked in it. I treat that thing like it was made of gold!

I've also got 3 wagners and 2 griswolds that get used pretty regularly, no soap to clean, warm water, salt and a paper towel is all the need, but I re-season them every spring.
You'll find that there are many different opinions on how to season cast iron, but this one has always worked for me:

I had an old mess Sergeant tell me that when he seasoned his cast iron grills in the Army, he always used lard. He'd heat the grill up and smear on a good coating of lard, liberally sprinkle salt over it, then start rubbing the salt and lard into the cast iron with a grill stone, or cleaning block. He swore that there was something about the salt that helped push the lard into the cast iron. Then when it cooled down, rinse with water and heat until dry. That old fellow has made me a million egg sandwiches out in the field on his cast grills and I never saw an egg even think about sticking!

I do the seasoning outside in the spring on my gas fish cooker unit. I always wear welding gloves because working that grill stone around, it's easy to get burned, but an hour or so of work once a year does the job.

 

[Baby Grand]

The Plant Manager has amassed an impressive collection of pans & skillets from eBay, Goodwill, tag sales, etc. Schism is right about the surface finish on the Lodge brand - they appear to be as-cast from a sand casting process, whereas the Griswold and Wagners are mostly machined or ground to a fine finish. I have been very disapointed with the Lodge cast performance and will try the flap wheel on them to see if i can bring them up a notch.

I use mostly lard collected from baking bacon on a wire grill on top of a low sided sheet in the oven. This provides a much better release than butter and won't burn until a higher temperature.

I'm really interested in trying the salt in the lard, like Gunny mentions. Now I need to research that grill stone some as I've never used one.

Another thing to consider is the spatula you use. We have an old Ecko that's got a thick, springy blade with gently rounded corners and edges that doesn't scrape the seasoned cast iron, even if you use it briskly.

 

[JamesHW]

I use a lodge for eggs all the time with no problem (and a little butter as well). We just season it by putting on a little over medium heat and wipe a bit of canola oil on it until it smokes a bit. repeat this a bunch of times. I will usually do this a few times when prepping the ingredients I am cooking such as asian style stir frys, fried rice, or letting a steak rest a bit prior to pan searing it. If something gets stuck even after rinseing and a light scrub with a brush (like potatoes as mentioned) I simply return it to the heat and add some oil and kosher salt and use the salt to sand away the stuck bits of food with a wadded paper towel pushed around with a wooden paddle. This seems to clean the non-stick surface that has built up without removing it.

Up at our country place all the cast iron is over 100 years old (a mix of Griswold and no name pans) and doesn't need anything to improve the non-stick performance. I've considered sanding the Lodge pans smooth. I have a larger pan that the non-stick surface got damaged (spouses training has not been completed) which I haven't gotten around to renewing and I will likely try smoothing that one out prior to seasoning.

 

[mjarrels]

Go to a old yard sale, old auction and buy some from estates. All ready well seasoned and pennies on the dollar. Great weapons until their outlawed.

mark

 

[dmccarty]

When I use our cast iron, I clean it up usually with just a paper towel, but water if needed. Usually the oven or stove is still hot so I will throw a bit of Canola oil on the cast iron and put it back on the stove top or in the oven to heat back up. This works for me. I cook eggs in a stainless steel skillet not cast iron. If I use plenty of butter, the eggs don't stick at all.

I just bought some Lodge cast iron bread pans and the bread stuck in a few places even though the pans were pre seasoned and I did my own seasoning. It is going to be a PITA to clean up those pans so I might try the hot oil trick and see what happens. The pans will work fine once they are seasoned enough.

Later,
Dan

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I belive lodge brand are rough sand cast and not finished. The older castiron was ground to a finish on the inside to leave it much smoother.

Lodge can be significantly improved if you take a flap disk sanding wheel (4.5" grinder) to it and smooth out all those sand cast bumps.

Then season well in the oven.

Ive heard you can really bake in a lot of grease if you deep fry chicken in them the way gran used to.

Exactly. Quality cast iron is smooth as glass, even before it is seasoned. Once it is seasoned, it is as close to perfect cookware as it's possible to get. Sand cast cookware can be brought up to quality, but it's a lot of work. Use corundum sandpaper, a small pad sander, and be prepared to work on it for hours. It may take several days on and off to buff it down to a smooth condition.

The best way I have found to season cast iron is to make popcorn in it.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Use corundum sandpaper, a small pad sander, and be prepared to work on it for hours. It may take several days on and off to buff it down to a smooth condition.

This may be dumb, but why not a flap wheel on an angle grinder?