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Cast. Iron. Patina.

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I don't get fussy with mine. I wash with only water, no detergent. Dry it/put in hot oven to dry.

In the rare event it develops a little rust etc, I scrub and and apply a light coating of whatever cooking oil is handy then put it in hot oven for a bit.

For all practical purposes, it's the cooking that seasons it.

Fern
 
I've got one I use for camping that is trashed. I left it in the fire once overnight with nothing in it.

Cooked a bunch of bacon in it and threw it in oven with some oil and it's fine. It's not like our home ones that have been cooked on hundreds of times though. Those are slick and add tons of flavor to food. For cleaning I just use warm water and coarse kosher salt.
 
Update:

I have used cold pressed flaxseed oil for seasoning stints in the oven 3 times over the past 2 weeks, and have to say already the difference it has made is quite evident. That lady from the website that was linked earlier is 100% correct, flaxseed oil is the way to go without a doubt. Works better than the CampChef product I mentioned earlier as well (although for actual camping and cooking outdoors I'd rather use that than others).

I followed her advice. Applied oil to iron with fingers, wiped off excess, inserted it all upside down in oven then cranked the heat. Let it bake for more than an hour, then killed the heat and left the iron in the over to cool. Iron is noticeably darker with more sheen to it, but without the thicker residue the CampChef leaves.


Just fyi...
 
zinfamous said:
you should never season with olive oil or butter--smoke point is way too low on those.
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I should have been more clear. I was using the (pure)olive oil or butter for the post cleaning wipedown because that is what I always had available. The high heat seasoning I would do would usually coincide with me having cooked something with pork fat, and a few times when there was no cooking having been done I used peanut oil.

I am totally sold on flaxseed oil now though, seriously, what a difference!
 
silverpig said:
Animal fat is the only way to go. Lard will season your pan well. Roasting a chicken in the oven will also do.

I have a few cast iron pans and this is all I use (vegetable oil never goes in them), and you could come over and fry an egg right now and it would slide right out after.

Cleanup is a rinse with hot water and maybe some scrubbing (no soap).

I swear on animal fat for cooking and will do so to my grave.

I make sure I have a good jar of pork fat in the fridge that I have rendered from leaf fat I got from the butcher.

I also have a jar of beef fat, and another of duck fat.
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I used to think so too, but like that lady on the website mentioned pigs had a different diet 50 years ago, lots more omega-3 in their diet, i.e. in the drippings from their fat. Not so much the case these days, providing we're talking about mainstream corporate pork.
Beef fat goes rancid, and quickly. No thanks. Not sure about duck fat, but I think that stuff is just too damn tasty to waste on cast iron. I'd rather save that for roasting some fingerling potatoes and root veg!

Try the flaxseed, you won't regret it.
 
SphinxnihpS said:
Why plagiarize bad info? I mean, flax seed oil may be the bee's knees, but the answer to all those queries is Linseed oil, so... yeah.
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Either flaxseed oil or linseed oil will work as long as both are food-grade. The author worries that linseed oil is often not food-grade, so relax.
 
Another vote for flaxseed.

I used to treat my pans with lard but I tried flaxseed and never looked back. Only trick after that was training my roommate how to use and clean the pan, now it's pretty much the only pan we use for frying.
 
Cerpin Taxt said:
http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/
Click to expand...


Those of you that have tried this method described above, I just bought some flaxseed oil and want to attempt it but first.... I literally baked regular canola oil really thick on my lodge cookware, is there a safe method to remove this and start all over with the flaxseed? It was pricey so I don't just want to lather it on there over-top the baked on canola oil without first prepping the surface the best I can.....

Suggestions? Should I just place the cookware in the oven really really high 500+F to melt off all the crap oil that my cookware is covered with now? then once it cools down coat with the flaxseed and repeat per the URL above directions?
 
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Meractik said:
Those of you that have tried this method described above, I just bought some flaxseed oil and want to attempt it but first.... I literally baked regular canola oil really thick on my lodge cookware, is there a safe method to remove this and start all over with the flaxseed?
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wash with soap and hot water, then dry.
 
well im all out of tomatoes so looks like its up to dawn and some hot water, ill use a little scrubber greenie to get off the thick coat of crap. Ill clean em all then do the drill as described in the url with flaxseed 1 item at a time (my oven is small) 🙁 thanks ElFenix!
 
I got another silly question - how many of you actually treat the entire piece of cookware? Inside and out, the guide I used of some old lady on you tube said to do the entire piece and place it in the oven but she said it was okay that i use olive oil or vegetable or whatever I had, I had canola so that is what I used, turned out like complete garbage, now im going to start over and redo everything.... just curious how many of you actually do the entire piece of cookware, do you see any benefit in doing the whole thing?
 
Meractik said:
I got another silly question - how many of you actually treat the entire piece of cookware? Inside and out, the guide I used of some old lady on you tube said to do the entire piece and place it in the oven but she said it was okay that i use olive oil or vegetable or whatever I had, I had canola so that is what I used, turned out like complete garbage, now im going to start over and redo everything.... just curious how many of you actually do the entire piece of cookware, do you see any benefit in doing the whole thing?
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I run the pans through an oven cleaning cycle before starting the seasoning.
I then do 2 coats all over and then an additional 2 or 3 coats on the inside.
Each coat is fairly thin; just apply oil and rub in with a paper towel until there's an all-around wet sheen. Then baked on at 450 - 500

I also find flaxseed oil is great for seasoning. I bought 1 bottle and seasoned 3 pans with it, and still have plenty left.
 
I just cleaned out my cast iron walk, I used a scotch-gard greenie scrubber with dawn soap and hot water, I just wiped it out its dry now (I only did the inside)

My cookware when It shipped from lodge claimed to already have been pre-seasoned....
when I was just scrubbing it clean all sorts of brown dirt and crap was coming off (it smelled of oil, so I am just assuming its the oil I attempted to season with first) Now the Wok is an almost gray color rather then the outside black color, is this normal? Did I scrub to much? I can take a pic, if desired...


Edit: my oven is so old that it doesn't have a cleaning cycle, its a gas oven from the 1950's it goes all the way up to 550 Degree's F though!
 
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Meractik said:
I just cleaned out my cast iron walk, I used a scotch-gard greenie scrubber with dawn soap and hot water, I just wiped it out its dry now (I only did the inside)

My cookware when It shipped from lodge claimed to already have been pre-seasoned....
when I was just scrubbing it clean all sorts of brown dirt and crap was coming off (it smelled of oil, so I am just assuming its the oil I attempted to season with first) Now the Wok is an almost gray color rather then the outside black color, is this normal? Did I scrub to much? I can take a pic, if desired...
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That's normal, gray is the color of raw cast iron. So you basically stripped all the pre-seasoning off. If you have a self-cleaning oven you can stick it in there for a cleaning cycle and it'll scorch off seasoning too.

Also, now would be the time to sand the inside if you want a smoother surface than the sand blasted factory default.

EDIT: Cleaning cycle is usually 600 - 700 degrees if I remember correctly
EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-cleaning_oven 900 - 1000 degrees F
 
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Sand?!?!?! lol seriously, just get out my gritty sandpaper and go at it? I actually would like a softer smoother inside.... time to get the sand-paper! thanks Jaepheth!

Im getting a workout doing all this scrubbing, if this turns out 1000x better than my canola oil crap I might just replace all my oil cooking needs with my lodge to utilize flaxseed!
 
This is turning into a fun project, and to think, this is just the beginning... I have a lodge 18" WOK, 20" griddle, 12" dutch, and a 10" skillet to get through...

starting with the WOK.
 
Meractik said:
Sand?!?!?! lol seriously, just get out my gritty sandpaper and go at it? I actually would like a softer smoother inside.... time to get the sand-paper! thanks Jaepheth!

Im getting a workout doing all this scrubbing, if this turns out 1000x better than my canola oil crap I might just replace all my oil cooking needs with my lodge to utilize flaxseed!
Click to expand...
Borrow a palm sander and do it properly, starting with coarse grit moving to high grit. Keep the surface wet with flaxseed oil and you can guarantee that the metal you go over will have zero rust.

Of course, at the end, you will have to use a copious amount of clean rags to clean off the iron particles.

EDIT: If you have access to a vertical milling machine with a square end mill it would be a cinch to flatten out the inside.
 
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I experimented on some cheap Harbor Freight pans

I used one of these:
solinnflex-cup-brush-twisted.jpg


Then some 1000 grit wet/dry sandpaper and mineral oil to get a near mirror shine. (I gave up long before I got it totally smooth though; since it was a proof of concept project)

After seasoning I think they now work better than an off-the-shelf Lodge pan

If I had a mill I'd have used a fly cutter and rotary table to smooth the bottom.... maybe someday.
 
Howard said:
Borrow a palm sander and do it properly, starting with coarse grit moving to high grit. Keep the surface wet with flaxseed oil and you can guarantee that the metal you go over will have zero rust.

Of course, at the end, you will have to use a copious amount of clean rags to clean off the iron particles.

EDIT: If you have access to a vertical milling machine with a square end mill it would be a cinch to flatten out the inside.
Click to expand...


I only have 50 grit, 60, grit, and 120 grit sand paper.... should I even attempt sanding?
 
Meractik said:
I only have 50 grit, 60, grit, and 120 grit sand paper.... should I even attempt sanding?
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You may want to stop by a store and pick up at least a few 500 grit sheets; but 120 should still be an improvement over the standard surface.
 
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