Seasoning Cast Iron WITHOUT Crisco?? [Moved from Home Cooking board]
I want to season some cast iron pans I have because even though I bought them "pre-seasoned", food still does not seem to cook right on the pan, and is sticking. After reading some articles on chowhound I think I know why. The Lodge brand does only part of the work, and I guess expects us to complete the seasoning process.
The Alton Brown site recomends using Crisco or some hydrogenated oil to season the pan with and warns not to use vegetable oil.
Cast iron pans have existed for a very long time and its hard for me to imagine the Old Pioneers in America using Crisco. They cooked on Cast iron pans; so I am sure there is a proper way to season them without using hydrogenated oils.
thanks
Desperately Seeking Seasoning
Madonna
madonna
Aug 22, 2007 10:53AM
The preseasoned pans are great, it just helps the process. Still, you must season after each use. People have lots of different methods. I rinse out the pan (not a lot of scrubbing so as not to wreck the existing seasoning), put on a high flame until the water burns off. Then I spray with a nonstick cooking spray. You could also rub with oil.
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Odd. I inherited an ancient cast-iron frypan and have never had to re-season it.
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Nor did they use refined vegetable oils. Bacon grease and lard would have been the main fat in pioneer days. So frying lots of bacon in your pan is one to build on the preseasoning.
Sometime ago I bought a tub of 'organic' palm oil. It is solid like lard and Crisco, but 'legit' in some way or other. Anyways, it works well as a pan seasoning.
I've used oil in the past, but it does seem to leave a thick sticky coating if used too generously.
paulj
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I second the lard/bacon concept. My grandmother says the best way to season cast iron pans is to fry chicken in them. We fry in a combination of vegetable oil and bacon drippings. I figure two or three batches of chicken would just about do the pans right. And you get to eat the chicken!
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Just as lupaqlupa writes, the Lodge cast iron company recommends frying bacon (or any kind of animal fat) in the pan every at first (even with pre-seasoned pans) and every now and then thereafter to improve the surface patina -- i.e. to make it non-stick. The more you use the pan to cook oily/fatty things, the more non-stick it will become over time.
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Vegetable oils can easily leave a sticky residue instead of seasoning the pan. It's much easier to just use either coconut or palm oil, the latter available as Spectrum brand natural shortening.
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I don't know if this is proper or not, but after whatever seasoning ritual you go through, cook up a batch of pancakes in plenty of butter. The pan will be perfectly seasoned (and you'll have breakfast, too).
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I am in the lard and bacon camp. Fried chicken is good too. I just never use oils, they can leave a really sticky residue. Oh and GASP! I wash my well seasoned pans with deteregent and water and dry over a low flame. If I think it could use a little help after washing I might add a little bacon grease swiped on lightly with a paper towel while it heats.
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Making a batch of fried chicken is, for me, the best way by far to re-season my favorite cast iron pans.
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thank you for all your helpful advice. Lard or bacon fat is not really option for me. But I will try cocunut or palm oil. Does anyone have a preference? Or do they work equally well? Should I just follow Alton's Brown's advice and use the exact same process but with the Cocunut oil vs. Crisco?
What is the deal with the pancakes? Does the butter have enough fat to really coat the pan?
I know Alton Brown warns against vegetable oils and I believe butter saying that it ruins the seasoning.
thanks
Madonna
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Seasoning cast iron is a continual process. Some cooking and cleaning reduces the coating. Sometimes cooking itself is enough to build up the coating. Sometimes you need to take special steps.
At the least, after cleaning and drying the pan should get a thin coating of fat. For this I think oil is ok. I put a bit of fat in the pan (best warm) and spread it around with a paper towel, till the surface is uniformly shiny.
Heavier duty maintenance involves get the pan hot enough so the fat starts smoking. The melted solid fat is probably better for this.
Buildup of the coating during cooking can be uneven. If making pancakes, the corners that don't get any batter are more likely to develop a sticky coating. Frying bacon leaves charred meat bits that have to be soaked and washed off, partially offsetting the fat build up (but maybe my bacon is too lean).
paulj
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I would go for the palm oil over the coconut myself, unless you happen to already have coconut oil. The palm oil is less likely to leave flavors, and the leftovers will be more widely applicable to cooking and baking. Yeah, follow the usual procedures.
I wash my pans only with hot water and a detergent free scrubbie, then dry them in a low oven, and reseason if necessary. I find it takes several months to develop a good seasoning, and it's a continual thing. A well cared for cast iron pan is a pleasure though, and worth the small amount of trouble.
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Madonna,
I'm about to re-season my cast-iron grill grates, and I'm going to use Crisco. I never use the stuff, but if it is effective, I'm going to use the tried and true. Since we don't actually eat the Crisco, it's not going to do any harm. It seems to me that it's a practicle, legitimate use for something that's not really part of a healthy diet.
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I have never had a problem with the pre-seasoned pans. However, what you do cook in them needs to have some fat in it. You cannot cook an egg white alone in a cast iron pan and expect it not to stick. If the food has no fat, then you must put a little on the surface of the pan.
Having said that, you CAN use vegetable oil to season a cast iron pan. However, you cannot use corn or canola oil as they will leave a residue. I am not sure what is wrong with Crisco. The new formulation has no trans fats ....
Lard or bacon grease only works if they are PERECTLY clear.
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I'm answering a number of posts in this reply.
You may want to get an 80 grit sand paper and scour the pot if it's new and unpolished, if you want to be 100% natural - use kosher salt. Your arms will appreciate the sand paper--much faster and less work. Unpolished is common with the brands you mentioned. Some brands also use a form of food wax for the initial season, nasty -- scrub it off. If you don't, you will notice over time that small chips appear that will be back filled with new carbon, giving a mottled texture. Think Waxed Paper (non stick), it doesn't adhere to metal, on the other hand, we've all scrubbed that brown goo from the bottom of pans (carbonized oil); and we know how well that adheres.
Once you are ready to season, wash the pan well with soap, dry it on a burner.
I've used cast iron for more almost 40 years, some of my cookware is twice as old as I am :)
There is contention all over the web about what to use for seasoning, truth is just about anything. Vegetable Oils, corn in particular aren't the greatest since they take much longer to fully carbonize. They will work just as good as any other, but need near double the time in the oven to develop. Don't worry about sticky residues, explained below. Any Oil you have on-hand will work, I'm partial to Olive Oil or Crisco/Animal Fats, in that order. Olive Oil is natural and has been around longer than cast iron cookware, it predates by 1200-1400 years. Olive oil is also naturally antibiotic. Do NOT use cooking sprays for this purpose.
Three reasons why pots come out sticky, and only three:
1. Oven temp too low.
2. Pan was not turned upside down so that puddles formed.
3. Not enough time was allowed for lubricant to complete the conversion to carbon.
Things you need:
1. Take your pick from, Natural Bristle Pastry Brush, Paper Towel, Cloth Towel/Rag
2. Cookie Sheet lined with foil placed on Bottom Rack of Oven or an Oven Liner
3. Open windows if your oven doesn't vent outside. Seasoning Cast Iron does generate smoke similar to a cooking in a dirty oven.
Turn on your oven to bake @ 500-550F
Lightly coat your cast iron with your selection of lubricant. Do not allow any puddles to remain. Place the pan(s) on the top rack (not on the foil) for a few hours upside down until no more odor/smoke comes off the pan when you check on it. This takes a few hours. Repeat process until you have a nice black carbon layer.
My usual on new or reseasoned cookware is 3-4 coats. Just until the pan turns carbon black or very near. If you can see a lot of color (grey, orange to brown etc), then the carbon layers aren't thick enough, reapply and bake it again. I just slide the rack out and brush on a new layer. Once you are satisfied, bake for an additional 3-4 hours to set the finish. Your cookware should be black or very near, glossy and not sticky or slimy. Your new seasoning can't be washed off, with the exception of using Lye. Avoid scrub pads of any kind for 3 months, use a vegetable brush if needed; at this point your cast iron will outlast your great-grand children.
You can test your new carbon layer by toasting bread with your pan. If it doesn't stick, nothing will. You can even try this with high end non-stick cookware and find that the cast iron fares much better with this test.
More about sticky pans: Your pan won't be sticky if the burn is complete. Sticky pots come from an incomplete burn of the oil layers. Rather than convert the oil to carbon, it's been rendered to tar. This is why some advocate not using vegetable oils (corn oil). Those oils have a high smoking point, and take longer to develop the carbon layer we are looking for. This can be fixed by baking your pan for several hours as described above. Dust, Lint, Food and all sorts of things will stick to your pans inside and out. Over time as the incomplete layers do carbonize; this debris will become part of your cookware's finish. I'm sure you've seen cast iron with bumpy areas, inside and/or out. Now you know what it is. Also, since this debris does settle into the glue like tarry oil, rinsing with water before use won't rinse it off. The only way to contend with this is to scrub down below where the offending material was introduced.
Lubricating cold cookware before you put it away: Not a good idea, never has been, never will be. Lubricants do evaporate, they become tarlike. Debris and food will stick to the pan over time and result in a finish that is not smooth. For those people that will disagree with me on this, ever notice what the pan feels like after it's sat for a few days? Sticky? The cookware gets quite enough oil to maintain the carbon layer from simple use. Once your base layer is on, the maintenance is a continual process as another user stated.
If you do a lot of no-fat cooking and the finish starts to turn grey, once it's dried on the burner, put two or three drops of oil in the pan and wipe it around with a paper towel/cloth. Let the pan heat up until it begins to smoke then remove from the heat.
Care - there's many opinions on this one as well. If you use the high-heat method to season, no amount of dish soap is going to wash it off. It will however remove the oils from the surface, and your seasoning will wear down over time; since there is no maintenance.
Water Only or Dish Soap is your personal choice, but if you do use soap, when the finish begins to grey just add a few drops of oil and smear it around, heat the pan and let it begin smoking, remove from heat.
Avoid using cooking sprays for cast iron maintenance. These evaporate very fast and will result in the cookware having a gummy texture; attracting all sorts of debris that will become permanent in the carbon layer once enough heat is used.
As for commentary about cooking eggs with no oil in cast iron, I do it all the time :) When that puppy's done, just slides right onto that toast!!
It does take 8-16 hours to season a new piece. The lower the smoking point of the lubricant, the shorter the time. Any method that doesn't result in your cookware turning black, will result in foods that stick and an overall displeasure with cast iron.
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wow.... of the dozens of posts on cast iron that has to be the best/most complete I have read. thanks for the thorough treatment.
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I think the key sentence in this whole detailed post is
<I've used cast iron for more almost 40 years, some of my cookware is twice as old as I am >
I'm spoiled by having my great aunt's and grandmother's pans. Nothing beats the finish you get from many years of steady use. All the techniques in the world can't duplicate it.
I have only one new pan - a two burner sized griddle. I never did anything special to season it (gasp!). I just oil it lightly each time I use it (for pancakes mostly) and then wipe all the excess oil off with a paper towel right away. It is beginning to get a very nice surface after ten years.
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"Nothing beats the finish you get from many years of steady use. All the techniques in the world can't duplicate it."
True.
The original poster hasn't that luxury since the cookware is new.
You can't duplicate years of use, BUT you also don't have to wait ten years either. Bottom line, you can wait 10 years like you have done for a piece that is "beginning to get a very nice surface" or you can season it and have a rock hard non-stick surface which requires very little if any oil. The benefit of doing so is that the peice is protected and durable. Waiting 10 years for a finish to develop is also allowing 10 years of the elements to work on the metal.
It just so happens a certain grandson brought me a piece for his camping trip next weekend. It's a Lodge that was preseasoned, new in the box. I did give a pre-soak in Lye to remove the pre-season, then scrubbed for maybe 5 minutes with 80 grit down to bare metal since there was some rust present.
Photo attached of finished piece. It's a two sided grill/griddle combo; and he won't need to oil it to make his pancakes :)
The glossy finish is how the piece will look by doing what I outlined above. It's enamel hard and not oily or greasy. This one was done with Olive Oil.
I may have him bring me one of these. The combo is interesting, and one I don't have.
For limited use items such as yours "for pancakes mostly" users choice. The original poster is obviously cooking more than that in his/her cast iron and came here seeking help. It certainly doesn't look like he/she wanted to wait ten years for the food sticking problem to resolve.
Please don't shoot down what you haven't tried. In your own words, you have one single piece, the rest of which other people did all the work on; you maintain the work they already did for you.
I think you help prove the point however, 10 hours of time to get the finish I posted is much better than waiting ten years and still needing to use oil for something like pancakes.
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So sorry you took my post as an affront - it certainly wasn't intended that way. One reason I love cast iron is how wonderful it is after it ages and, as I said, I recognize that I'm spoiled not to have to season my pans. I did not suggest that your post be ignored (my "detailed" comment was meant to be a compliment - obviously a bit too subtle) and I did not suggest that my own experience with my pathetic pancake only pan be used as a model. There was no need for you to defend yourself or trash me.
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Your pancake pan may get it's feelings hurt if you call it pathetic :)
They have emotions too you know.
I did not take offense at your post, I replied to:
"All the techniques in the world can't duplicate it."
"I never did anything special to season it (gasp!)."
We have managed to produce the most insightful thread on cast iron I have read to date :-)
I did want to post a photo of the finish so that cast iron newbies can see what they should look like after carbonizing as described earlier. Your reply did provide the appropriate venue for doing so.
You weren't trashed. Re-read the post, I only quoted words.
Back to the topic, putting down a solid carbon layer is what the original poster needs in order to have the cookware perform as expected. Baking on the carbon has slowly been dying off as more commercially prepared items become available. It is my opinion that these items aren't altogether helpful to cast iron's image.
Again to quote you "One reason I love cast iron is how wonderful it is after it ages" in comparison to the original posters problem with preseasoned cookware goes to show that sometimes the old way is better.
I agree with you, I also feel that the inadequate preseasoning is doing a disservice to cast iron. People expect them to perform like a 100 year old pan. Baking on the carbon gets the performance they desire.
I'm pleased with the dialogue, it's important for readers to see that there just isn't one single way to season cast iron.
I think one other trend being bolstered by the manufacturers is the overall downward spiral in temperatures used for the initial season. I have seen these as low as 275F. No food grade lubricant smokes at that temperature, and precludes the formation of the carbon. What we end up with is a grey pan with a dehydrated oil layer, which will rehydrate when cooked on; no carbon will ever build up, not in this lifetime anyway.
Now we are presented with preseasoned pans affording the buyer a way to avoid it altogether?
The item I just did, new from the box with rust under the "preseasoning" further bolsters the argument of it being inadequate to begin with.
Compliants about food sticking on preseasoned cookware are many, I've tried to cook on it even with excess amounts of oil, I'd at best describe the performance as horrid.
Baking on the carbon as described is the only way to have new/reseasoned cast iron perform like older counterparts.
No amount of cooking oil will replace this, which after reviewing the many threads on cast iron -- is the one thing they have in common. That is not an attack on your post, it's a widespread misconception anywhere you see discussions on cast iron. As you can see, mentioned earlier just in this thread -- frying pancakes in butter, copius amounts of oil to fry chicken, fry in a combination of vegetable oil and bacon drippings.
It's just not necessary if we season correctly to begin with. My long posts address misconception and misinformation about the cookware and it's use, not the people behind the post.
-Annabelle
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Thanks for your detailed post on seasoning cast iron! Very helpful! I sometimes find really nasty pieces of cast iron second- hand. Any help in getting them ino shape would be great!
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If you have a few of these pieces you want to restore, make a new thread and I'll post my method of using Lye to strip them.
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New thread @ http://www.chowhound.com/topics/434986
awaiting your expertise!
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acmorris,
i found this blog from last year. i learned a few things from your post that i did not know - thanks. but why does it seem that bacon tends to have a tendency to stick more and leave more residue in even a well seasoned pan as compared to beef, hamburger, etc.
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Annabelle, your grill/griddle is gorgeous! Thanks for the photo. It definately helps to see what I should expect if done correctly. I'm preparing myself for this task. Too bad there's no place I can buy pans truly seasoned like yours are.
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The finish on that griddle looks great! I can see why you don't have anything stick to it.
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So for the sticky or gummy pan. Am I cleaning the gumminess off with steel wool or a vegtable brush? And then re-applying the crisco and baking? Or do you bake off the gumminess and then start the seasoning process again?
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Wow.
Thank you all for helping to develop this topic - most especially Annabelle, whose method I used to season a couple of new cast iron pans I'd bought over the weekend just for experimentation. Of course, changed it up by using sesame oil, just because it was available to me. I've managed to develop 4 wonderfully stick-resistant layers of seasoning on the pans, and I've just about fallen in love with that rich, glossy black coating. I'm going to give one away, to my younger brother, as a present when I see him this weekend. I have no doubt he'll love it.
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What a great post. Well, It's been a good six months or so since you wrote that, so I'm not sure what the chances are that you'll see my reply--but you obviously have the dope on cast iron, so I've gotta try. :)
My wife and I are neophytes to cast iron, but after reading so much wonderful stuff about it, we decided it was time to add some to our kitchen. We've bought several pieces in the store and ordered some online, and today I started the seasoning process of our new Lodge Logic 12" skillet (before discovering your post).
We decided to use coconut butter (which advertises a lower smoke point that most oils), applying it with our hands/fingers to the cast iron utensils after warming them up in the oven a bit first (thus the butter turned to coconut oil as soon as it touched the iron). For the first layer, we put the skillet (and two other pieces we're seasoning simultaneously) in the oven, turned it up to 500 degrees, and let it smoke up the house (and we actually managed to do a surprisingly good job of ventilating the house during this time). Once I couldn't see any more smoke emanating from the oven, I turned it off to let it cool.
That was earlier today. We're baking the second layer on in the exact same manner as the first while I type this. Now, when I took the cast iron out of the oven to apply the second layer, it felt just the slightest bit sticky to me. Maybe not so much sticky as the warm metal didn't want to let my fingers go as easily, as if there were an increase in friction. As I mentioned earlier, I cooked it until the smoke disappeared (which didn't take even an hour with coconut butter); however, I couldn't tell if the smell had gone away, because there was still some hanging around in the air from all the cooking. The iron looks fairly black. Do you think I didn't let it cook long enough?
Also, you mentioned that "maintenance seasoning" is usually unnecessary as long as you are cooking foods in the skillet with some amount of fat/oil. What about for the outside of the cast iron (where food doesn't touch)? Is there any need to continuously season that?
Thanks for all this wonderful info!
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I found this post a few months ago and followed it on my lodge pans and my seasoning totally flaked off during cooking and washing the first time. I stripped the pans and tried again following it to the T. I'm sure it works for some people, but for whatever reason, my seasoning just all flaked off again. I think that I overheated it to the point where it was coming close to ashes?
I went back to a 350 1 hour seasoning (about 3 coats) and it is working alright for me. I'm trying to cook with them with oil as much as possible now to build up the seasoning.
As far as the outside of the skillet, i wouldn't worry about that. As long as there is no iron showing (which would soon turn to rust) - that's all the seasoning you need.
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Warneral,
Thanks for the feedback. That's really too bad that the above method didn't work for you!
There are one or two other ways I deviated from the above method: I didn't sand my cast iron down (read in another post on another site that a guy who usually sands his tried a very similar sans sanding (forgive the near pun), and beyond the bumps had the same results--non-stick, black and shiny), and I also didn't strip off the preseasoning Lodge put on. Because of this, I opted not to wash with soap, and instead just washed with hot water (as is recommended in Lodge's instructions).
Because of the variations in my method, I suppose anything is possible (although hopefully no flakiness :)
I'm about to put my fourth layer on. We'll probably bake it one last time for 3 - 4 hours (to set it) tomorrow.
I did my first 2 layers at 500 degrees, turning off the oven shortly after smoke stopped (say, within ten minutes after smoke). It felt the tiniest bit sticky to me each time (as I mentioned in my previous post), so for the third layer I baked it at 525 for probably around twice the usual amount of cooking time. It felt just as sticky (which is to say, almost not at all), so I figure this must be the way it's supposed to feel.
It looks pretty black at this stage, and minus a couple of imperfections (nicks, small smears of Lodge preseasoning, etc. from when we got the pan), looks fairly uniform. I'll post back to let you know how it turns out (and how well it cooks) after we're done. Some how I just don't think it will look anywhere near as good as Annabelle's grill (she must have the magic touch). As long as it works well, though, I'll be happy!
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My experience has, unfortunately, been similar to yours. After the four layers and the four hour baking at 525 degrees to set, the cast ironware looked nice and black with a tiny bit of a shine (difficult to make out on such a rough surface, though). In actuality, though, it looked just like some other cast ironware I'd used as guinea pigs, and I'd only given them one coat. Anyway, cooking seemed okay at first, and although I didn't much care for the rough surface, with a little olive oil the onions easily slid around the pan. Once I added the roasted garlic, though, the illusion ended. It began to stick everywhere. I added some thin, sliced cheese steak type meat, and that began picking up the stuck portions of garlic (which looked brown, not burned). Upon cleaning it, though, the skillet started turning VERY grey, revealing the cast iron beneath. Toweling it dry turned the towel black.
Now it's back to the drawing board. I think I'll strip them down and sand them this time. I'll also try lard instead of coconut butter/oil. This might take awhile, but I'll be sure to report back once I get some results.
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Oh man what a bummer! I was hoping it had worked for you b/c I know what a PITB it was to do (and what a stink it made in my house for weeks of trying different methods!).
That is exactly what happened when I cooked with it. I literally wiped away all of that work when I washed it after cooking.
I would suggest putting it/them in the self cleaning cycle and it will cook all off. That way you don't re-season over a bad coating which could keep flaking off.
Here is the thread I had started after my problems occurred. In the end I followed the lard/350 suggestion and did 2 or 3 coats. Now I just try to cook as much bacon and oil dishes as possible. I am on a diet (I've lost 28 pounds - 2 to go!) so I don't eat much fattening foods, so when I cook for the kids, I make the low fat sausages cooked in oil LOL. They could use a little fattening. Anyways, the last thing I've been doing which helps is after it is cleaned up I put it on the hot burner to dry off. Then I apply a thin coating of oil (safflower usually b/c I have expellar pressed safflower I've been cooking with) and cook it for a while right on the stove top. I'm REALLY loving my lodge cast iron pans :)
FYI I also have a few griswold/wagners that I bought on ebay in my search for a nonstick replacement. They have nice seasoning layers but they still stick too. I'm actually happier with my lodge which is not the usual review from cast iron users.
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/476802
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Yeah, it was a lot of work that we wiped away there. On the other hand, I'll probably take this opportunity to make them even better by sanding them first (of course, they'll only REALLY be better if the seasoning actually takes! :)
I'm very tempted to try the oven self-cleaning method. Lye just doesn't sound like a good idea with a little one running around (and I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable placing the trash can/bag of ironware and lye outside, either). However, there are a couple of potential issues that have been holding them up. Maybe you could give me some insight:
1) I'm pretty sure our manual says to remove the oven racks when setting the oven to self-clean. The problem is that our electric oven has a heating element on the bottom, so removing the racks would mean putting the cast iron directly on the heating element. I've got to assume that's a big no-no. Now, I've read that leaving the racks in is fine--that it just darkens them. Any idea if this is true?
2) This one also involves the heating element being on the bottom. I'm guessing that if the seasoning turns to ash, then a good deal of ash might fall upon the heating element. Would that be a problem? I'd hesitate to line one of the racks with foil because it might end up fusing to the rack or even bursting into flame.
One of the most frustrating parts about all this is that we need to redo at least 3 seasoning jobs from the ground up (and possibly as many as 5 if the "guinea pig" muffin pans end up ruined as well). I think we'll end up just redoing the 12" skillet until we finally get that one right, and then we'll try to repeat the process with the rest. I might leave one untouched grill pan as is, just to test out the Lodge preseasoning by itself.
I'll be sure to report back once we make some progress (or once we fail again :) First things first, though; gotta strip all the old stuff off!
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Yeah the lye concept concerned me too. Plus we're in wisconsin so it really would be difficult to do it outdoors.
I left the oven racks in. We have a 3yo higher end maytag model but I didn't care as I don't care for the stupid stove LOL. It hasn't hurt the racks at all. They are a little bit duller and perhaps they don't slide as well, but I honestly haven't noticed a change.
My oven doesn't have exposed heating elements so I can't tell you if the ash would cause a problem on the heating elements. I really doubt it though b/c the self cleaning oven creates ash on a dirty oven anyways.
Good luck to you! I think the best advice I received is to just do a simple pre-seasoning, and then do the real seasoning by cooking. When you cook with the muffin cups, make sure you grease them up real good for instance.
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Thanks for easing my mind on the oven cleaning method of stripping down cast iron. We went ahead and did that, washed the pan once it had cooled, sanded the inside of it, washed it again and warmed it up.
As far as approaching seasoning this time, I focused a little more on a [very similar] method I read about on a different site before encountering the web page that I'm posting this message on. On the other site, the guy laid out his method and explained it in a way that really made sense to him.
First, he specifically use lard at the specific temperature of 500 degrees, heating it until after all the smoke went away. There was no particular reason he used lard other than that his grandparents used lard, and it worked wonderfully for them, so that's what he was going to use to. He recommended baking it at 500 degrees (which he's done himself) so you won't get any smoking later while cooking. This made a lot of sense to me--I've already copied down or linked to a number of cast iron recipes I want to try out that require the oven be set to 500 degrees. If the substance I'm using as seasoning turns to ash at that temperature, better to learn it now than in the middle of one of those recipes! If I season at 375 or so now, and everything turns out fine, what happens if it all falls apart the moment I actually COOK at 500?
Annabelle, on this page, also made a lot of sense when she outlined her steps. And, obviously, her method works for her. I think that there might be a couple of crucial differences between what she did and what I did, though. For one, she used olive oil. I used coconut butter. For another, she recommended a RANGE of temperatures (500 - 550, I think), and not a specific temperature. I don't know what temperature she used for her seasoning. 525 for coconut butter, however, seems to have been too hot, as it either turned the seasoning to ash or simply prevented it from fully bonding to the metal, as ThreeGigs described in the thread you linked me to.
This other guy on this other site (I think his name is Bob), however, has had good luck consistently with lard at 500. My oven's interpretation of 500 might not be the exact same as his, but hopefully it's close enough!
I combined Bob's method a bit with ThreeGigs. Bob didn't specify whether I should put the pan in right-side up or upside-down. I liked ThreeGig's rationale on putting it in right-side up, so I went with that. However, I decided against using paper towels as he suggested. Bob suggested applying the lard with your fingers, since fibers from towels/paper towels can get mixed in with the lard while seasoning and cause problems down the road. For the first layer, then, my wife applied the lard with her hands and I wiped the excess off with my clean hands. Note: there was very little excess, since using applying the lard to a warm pan turned the lard into liquid (very few "chunks" of lard were present on the pan, and they didn't start showing up until the pan had cooled a bit).
The second layer is baking right now. At this rate, I should be able to cook on it tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes!
By the way, thanks for sending me to that thread you created. As you can tell by this post, I found some valuable information there. I was surprised, however, at how some of the posters there nearly seemed to attack you just for wanting to season your cast iron! There seemed to be this pervading idea among those posters that you were in search of a "quick fix." These folks probably don't realize that we're getting these "quick fix" methods (quick actually require a bit of work) from pros who've been using cast iron for decades! The only idea here is to get a great initial seasoning--of course it will improve with use over the time. That's one of the reasons I'm so excited to have this cast iron! What other cookware actually gets BETTER with age?
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I definitely want to hear about your results on this method! I am really starting to love my cast iron more and more over the last couple of weeks. I can tell the finish is starting to become more nonstick. (I am still cooking microwaved boca burgers on the skillet almost daily to give it a seared finish and they have been coming out nicer and nicer). Yeah that thread was a bit of a downer but I did get some good advice in it so I'm guess I'm glad I posted it LOL.
Good luck. Hopefully soon you will be happy with your pans and won't have to spend the weekend smoking your house up ;) I think I spent 6 weeks smoking my house up! Bleck.
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>> Yeah the lye concept concerned me too.
No need to worry. Lye + any grease thats on the pan = soap (basically, no pun intended and no lyeing...)
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IIRC Lye is caustic. I'm not concerned about the safety of cooking on the pan, just with dealing with a caustic liquid with 2 little kids running around. The self cleaning oven method is so much easier :)
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Okay! Sorry for the delay, but apart from all this seasoning, I've had a lot of other stuff on my plate (or on my skillet?) this week. First up: the revised method of seasoning at 500 degress with lard yielded the same results as Annabelle's method (it all washed off). I'm still trying to make sense of this. How does anyone cook a seared steak (for example) at 500 degrees if just trying to season my skillet at 500 wrecks the seasoning altogether? I'm thinking now that it's not turning to ash, but maybe it's just heating too QUICKLY. I believe ThreeGigs said something on your thread about heating seasoning too quickly resulting in the grease not bonding to the metal.
Anyhow, the great thing about cast iron is that even if the finish is bad, you can always start over. So, back in the oven cleaner it went! We ended up heating it, scrubbing it, heating it and scrbbing it some more, I think. Stuff kept wiping off of it, and we eventually pulled out the steel wool. Once we were satisifed (and once I was just tired of trying to scrub stuff of of it), we put another layer of lard on and put it in the oven right-side up at 350 for an hour and a half or so. It didn't turn black at all, but the grey did darken, it looked slicker, felt a tiny bit sticky and left a kind of rainbow look in the inside of the pan, much like what a puddle of motor oil collecting beneath a car looks like (without being black--just that colorful top layer).
We did another layer just like that, but put the pan upside down (I forgot to mention that some white spots appeared on the udnerside of the pan before, and we thought turning it upside down might prevent that from happening again (and it looks like that may have worked). The results of the second layer of seasoning were much like the first. Everything was a bit darker (still not close to black), and maybe a bit more rainbowy. It was still slick and a little sticky, but also shiny. We did sand (and use steel wool on) the inside of the inside of the pan pretty thoroughly, and that might partially explain why it looks different than the outside.
Well, after the second layer we decided to put it to the test. This evening I sprayed the inside of the pan with some canola oil and then proceeded to cook some cheesesteak-type meat in it (just what we'd used on an earlier, failed attempt to season the skillet). This