Seasoning my cast iron skillet. Washed and scrubbed very thoroughly. To season, I used an animal fat/veg oil shortening. Slightly heated the skillet, rubbed all over with shortening, paper toweled off, put upside-down in the oven (cold), heated to 550, left at 550 for ~1hr, turned oven off and let the temp come down naturally.

I did this 5x...used the skillet this weekend and bacon/eggs still stuck like crazy.

So, where did I go wrong? I'm fine stripping down and starting over...as long as it will work!!

Thanks!

If I am using a cast iron skillet, well seasoned or not, I still use butter or oil to prevent what I am cooking from sticking.

Washed and scrubbed...please explain.
Hopefully you did not use soap.

Cast iron should be cleaned with hot water and steel wool to scrub. Dump the water andburn off the excess then season with oil on heat. Wipe away the excess oil after seasoning.

ditto angry, cook with butter.


[This message has been edited by Pooh Ah (edited 7/7/2012 11:44a).]

1. Is it Lodge?
2. I've never heated to 550!...usually only to 300.
3. If I have a new piece and want to season, I spray with Pam and place in 300 degree oven, and repeat the spray about every 30 mins. Usually 3 times and it's "black".
4. No matter how well you "season" food is going to stick for the first 5-10 meals...especially bacon and eggs! Try frying something in oil or making something with gravy for a few times to help fill the pores.

DS

Soap and water to clear off the old seasoning. Not an issue if you dry promptly. This is DEFINITELY not used for normal cleaning...just the "get the old seasoning off".

It is a Lodge.

I read one place the hotter the better.

Good to know about the meals. I'll try to fry something soon.

Any thoughts about using a different oil?


[This message has been edited by Ol Jock 99 (edited 7/7/2012 12:06p).]

I season mine with olive oil. After every wash, it gets heated until it starts smoking, then I add about a quarter sized pool of oil and rub it all over once or twice with my seasoning rag. Then I flip it over and let it cool. Wipe it once with the rag before cooking and I've got enough oil that nothing wants to stick. I've even flipped eggs with just the pan and no grease.

For full seasoning I basically did the same thing except I kept it in the oven for around an hour between treatments, with the heat turned all the way up.

I would second the frying method. All I used my for was chicken fried and gravy for the first several times. I did not do a true season before first use. Now it is as slick as non-stick.

I use cast iron exclusively & have learned that Lodge is good once you've used it for a looong time. i've taken care of it, seasoned it regularly & it still took a lot of cooking before enough seasoning built up & food quit sticking. My old Griswold & Wagner iron was cast much smoother & they have proven to be much nicer to cook in. it just takes time for the iron to really season up well.

www.panman.com

I always put a bit of butter or oil to prevent sticking even on well seasoned skillets.

Like was said before on newish items do alot of deep frying and gravy making it will help expedite the process.

[This message has been edited by Otto 08 (edited 7/7/2012 1:19p).]

I wouldn't use cast iron for eggs for unless its been used for a LONG time. As in years. There is nothing better to season cast iron than bacon. The initial thing in the oven with crisco is OK, but really just start frying up a ton of bacon. Once you get an initial seasoning on it, use it to fry chicken or CFS. Keep doing that, and use it for things like cornbread.

The $20 small, aluminum non stick pans at the restaurant supply house are better for eggs, anyway.

You're not going to get the desired level of "seasoning" until you cook ALOT of bacon,etc. for along time. Nuture it and cook in it. JUST DO NOT USE SOAP!

flaxseed oil is the best...

My opinion is this: whether it's an overpriced lodge or a dimestore special, it's iron. You cannot season a piece of iron in one go. Season it to start and then use it. Eventually it will be nonstick.

If its dirty after use and it needs cleaning, I take a scrubby sponge and water to it. No soap. Then it goes into the oven for a few mins to dry.

[This message has been edited by Brazosdog02 (edited 7/8/2012 12:59a).]

"Dog02" said it another way.

I agree with Murphy. Flaxseed oil is the best by far. Heat the oven to 200° and leave the cast iron in for 20 minutes or so to open the pores. Turn the oven off so it cools some and coat the cast iron in the oil. Then wipe the cast iron down with a dry paper towel. This will get the excess oil off but leave a light coat on. Put it in the oven and then turn it up to 500° for a hour. Repeat about 5 times and you are good.

Flaxseed oil doesn't cook off at high temps like lard and fat. Instead it bakes on and makes a very nice, shiny, non-stick coating. It can be hard to find, but I get it in the health food section in HEB.

I've got about 8 lodge cast iron skillets.. Some are better than others. I sometimes leave food in them overnight and that is terrible for the seasoning.

Those sometimes need to be reseasoned because the contents can remove the old one. Season in your preferred method, but what I've found is this trick.

Heat to almost the point of smoking on the stove. Drop some seasoning in and slowly rub it in a circle. Eventually you will smooth out the surface of the seasoning and have a better non-stick surface. I guess I should also mention that you should only season with certain types of oil. Some will turn to gum like substances.. The article below explains the right choices.

Polymerized oil surfaces

http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/

[This message has been edited by Signel (edited 7/8/2012 9:48a).]

Even the new Lodge cast iron i have looked at left a lot to be desired in terms of actual finish on the metal. Not the seasoning from the factory, but the actual mill finish on the iron itself - it was rough as hell.

Strip the old seasoning off, then sand the cooking surface with 80, 120, 220 and 400 grit automotive sandpaper until you have a smooth metal surface. Reseason with your preferred method, and cook. Ypu will absolutely love the change in quality once you smooth the surface down.

Honest question guys... What is the appeal of cooking on a cast iron skillet? I've never done it. We've got a myriad of high-quality non-stick skillets in our arsenal. Cast iron sounds like a lot of work to season and maintain. What's the benefit?

Cast iron retains heat far better than stainless or pretty much every other type of cooking material. It also generally has a much more uniform heating pattern versus other materials, which means either no hot/cold spots or smaller hot/cold spots.

It really isnt much work to season or maintain them either.

Great find, and thanks for the link. It's an Interesting read. This quote is from the comments section, where the author responds to a question about cleaning iron pans:

quote:

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I handwash my cast iron cookware with dish soap and a nylon sponge (nothing abrasive). I towel it dry, stick it in the oven, set the temperature to 200 degrees, and leave it in there until it’s bone dry (just a few minutes). Then I take it out and lightly oil it with avocado oil, which is highly monounsaturated and won’t go rancid. Olive oil would work, too.

If you have burned on food that’s stuck really badly, boil water in the pan and it will loosen. I have a cast iron grill that got really badly caked with burned whatever and I got it loose without any scrubbing by boiling washing soda mixed with water. Washing soda is like baking soda, but stronger. It’s next to the clothes soap in the store.

I don’t know where people get the idea that washing with dish soap will remove seasoning. It’s very difficult to remove seasoning – you need oven cleaner with lye. Dish soap doesn’t harm the seasoning at all.

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I also use a little detergent to clean my pans. It's never harmed the seasoning at all. I am, however, very diligent about drying them. They either go into the oven, if it's already hot, or on the stove until dry (I don't think it's necessary to heat up the whole oven to dry a pan).

Agree with sanding a new one. Remember the pan was cast in a sand mold. If the manufacturer didn't mill it smooth, you need to in order to get a good surface.
.

I'll try to post some pics of my cast iron soon so y'all can compare the casting finish of modern Lodge & vintage Griswold & Wagner iron. My MIL uses old Wagner exclusively & never seasons it. She washes it in soapy water all the time. Her skillets were cast so smoothly that even with minimal seasoning she doesn't have trouble with food sticking. She had a marvelous Wagner roasting oven i'm very jealous of.

quote:

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Strip the old seasoning off, then sand the cooking surface with 80, 120, 220 and 400 grit automotive sandpaper until you have a smooth metal surface. Reseason with your preferred method, and cook. Ypu will absolutely love the change in quality once you smooth the surface down.

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Great idea. Thanks!

And thanks all for thoughts, links, etc. Keep it up!

Not worth the hassle. I'll just grab one of my normal pans.

Just used oven cleaner. Previous mistake #1: I left a ton of the lodge pre-season on there.

I use dish soap to clean my pans as well. Dont recall ever having stripped seasoning off in doing so. There is nothing wrong with it, just dont use a highly abrasive sponge (such as SOS) and be sure to rinse all of the soap off and dry thoroughly, and your pans will last 50 plus years like most of mine.

The Lodge preseason is nothing more than vegetable oil spray and a bake in an industrial oven at 450 for a set amount of time. Its good seasoning.

Not using soap is a bit of an old wives tale. Back when people made their own soap, using lye, the pots they made it in would lose their seasoning. Not all lye soaps were completely soap either, so they could still contain enough lye to damage or strip seasoning. So, they associated any soap in a pot/pan to losing the seasoning. Not true with either modern dish soap or fully saponified lye soap. If all you have is oil though (I know a few guys who have practically no seasoning on some pans, just wiped down with oil before being put away) soap will remove that.

Cast iron is porous. If you wash it with soap the cast iron will absorb some soap.

I usually put a coat of Crisco on mine before and after use. I'm not quite to the seasoning level I'd like to be at with mine, but getting close.

With little brother.



Stripped and sanded. About to go to a 500 degree bed to get all the moisture out. Tomorrow the flaxseed fun begins.


[This message has been edited by Ol Jock 99 (edited 7/9/2012 12:31a).]

quote:

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Cast iron is porous. If you wash it with soap the cast iron will absorb some soap.

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It's not porous in the sense that it will actually absorb anything, much less long chain molecules like soap. Additionally, you need to get the metal to a fairly high temperature to open the "pores" in the first place, and that's not something you are doing when you clean the pan.

Even the seasoning isn't "soaking" into the metal - it's filling in the small imperfections in the surface to form a smooth cooking surface (essentially using carbon to fill in the irregularities on the surface).

Seriously, as long as you aren't using real lye soap, a wire brush and a sandblaster, using Dawn or Palmolive isn't going to hurt anything at all.

Round one being prepped.

Didn't have time to grab a picture, but you can already tell that sanding and a better oil are going to do a world of difference.

Tell me more about the sanding. I tried it on one of mine and felt like I got no where but tired. I was using 60 grit. Schmellba mentioned automotive sandpaper. Does that make a difference?