Here at Slashfood, we've offered a handful of posts on cooking and seasoning your cast iron pans. The popular way is to scrub it, lather it, and bake it upside down. But even if you get that great initial seasoning, do you have a hard time keeping it?
When I seasoned my large cast iron pan, it looked great. However, some things were just darned sticky. My potatoes never failed to stick like mad, and only my eggs (surprisingly enough) seemed immune. I would carefully scrub the pan with salt, rinse it out with water, dry it, and add a thin layer of oil each time, but it never got any more seasoned or perfect. Then something really stuck and removing it removed some of my seasoning.
After re-seasoning, I was determined to do better, and took a note from my friend. After he washes his out (he actually scrubs it with a regular kitchen brush), he dries it off by putting it on the stove. When it's dry, he adds some oil, coats the pan, and lets it cook for a little while before turning it off and letting it cool.
Low and behold, my pan is starting to get that perfect shine, and better yet -- the potatoes didn't rabidly stick this time around!
2-12-2009 @11:51AM noza said... I've found there's absolutely nothing like doing a little deep frying to season the heck out of a faltering cast iron pan. Deep fry, then drain the grease and wipe out as much as you can with a towel. It'll be smooth and non-stick as the best teflon.
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2-12-2009 @12:18PM Pyrofish said... The season on my cast iron isn't as hard to keep as the season on my wok. I started doing just what you describe above, as it seemed appropriate for the bare carbon steel, and the wok has been getting better instead of worse. I'll have to remember to do in my cast iron next time too. Good tip.
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2-12-2009 @1:41PM laceration said... People have all kinds of odd ideas about cast iron pans. In my experience(and I use them 98% of the time and cook a lot) seasoning them is not such a big deal. The advice in this post is way too much trouble. In addition I use soap to clean mine, which you not supposed to do. Washing out grease w/o soap is very unsatisfactory. I cook everything w/ olive or canola oil, so is the pan not seasoning itself continuously? It doesn't even take that much oil and the oils are actually very healthy for you. Cast iron pans today can be purchased pre-seasoned, are very cheap, work great and easy to maintain if you do not follow all the stupid conventional wisdom.
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2-13-2009 @8:48AM Gayle said... My grandmother taught me to put a good glug of oil (she used bacon grease)in the pan, wipe it around with a paper towel, and put it in the oven for about 20 minutes while you're cooking something else, about once a week. Works great for me. And frankly, she used soap, too. Soap and hot water is not as abrasive as salt.
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2-13-2009 @12:30AM Monika said... Gayle -- From what I've read, people usually avoid the soap because it can taint stick to the seasoning and end up flavoring the food.
laceration -- You're very lucky then. As I said, mine has stuck, now with this tip, it's not. I've also used pre-seasoned pans, and it depends on the pan. Some seem to have been pre-seasoned well, others not so much.
As for too much trouble, it's actually quicker than other methods I've used. It takes maybe 30-60 seconds to quickly scrub and rinse, then I throw it on the burner while I clean up my dinner mess, stopping only briefly to wipe a little oil in it (another few seconds) when it's dry.
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2-13-2009 @2:58AM don said... Soap is a big no no. The whole idea of seasoning your pan is to create a super thin layer of oils and whatnot in your pan so the surface becomes less rough and easier to cook on, and non-stick-ish.
After cooking, scrub with a brush and hot water. Give it a quick wipe down, put it back on the stove top to dry out any moisture, and give it a quick drop of vegatable oil (not olive) and wipe it out.
Pre-seasoned pans are smoother and be used pretty much right away. Un-seasoned ones have a rougher surface, and will take longer to get that well-seasoned smooth sheen.
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2-13-2009 @8:15AM Dean said... I agree with don's comment. I've been using cast iron for 25 years. To clean the pan I get it very hot on the range, quickly scrub it under hot running water using a plastic brush, shake off the water, give it a quick wipe to get rid of excess water, and return to the range for a few seconds to dry further. I put on a few drops of oil and let it cool on the range.
This method is very easy and my cast iron pans are extremely slick.
A friend used soap on one of my skillets once and it ruined the seasoning. But it was easy to recover using the standard heat-the-pan-add-some-oil-let-it-cool approach.
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2-13-2009 @5:41PM Jessica said... Thank you for the article! I just recently seasoned a neglected cast iron pot (http://yumorama.blogspot.com/2009/01/tis-season-to-reseason.html), and of course the hubs went and boiled water in it, ruining the seasoning.
I'll have to reseason, hope the fire alarm doesn't go off again!
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