"treating cast iron" news and stories

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!