Amanda, the pan should have come with seasoning instructions. If it didn't, here's the way my grandmother seasoned hers:
1. Coat the pan with bacon grease or lard. She said to never use vegetable oil because it would just make a mess of the pan.
2. Put the pan in a pre-heated 275 degree oven.
3. After 15 minutes, pour off any excess grease, then put the pan back in the oven for three hours. Let the pan cool.
4. Repeat once a week for three weeks. Also, for the first two or three weeks, use the pan only for cooking foods that are low acid and use a lot of fat (like frying chicken or cooking bacon.)

Hi Amanda

BTDT gave good tips. Preseason it before initial use. Never use oil as it will get sticky.

I have a collection of about 12 skillets, a couple of griddles, 2 dutch ovens, muffin pans and half a dozen bread pans as well as other misc. cast items and use them extensively. Theyre great. The best non-stick pans youÂll ever own if you care for them properly.

It will help start the process if you do as BTDT suggested by cooking only fried foods not acid foods like tomato products the first several weeks or so of use. It doesnÂt matter if you have electric or gas. Once you have used them for several weeks, you can use soap on them if you feel itÂs something that needs soap. If IÂm grilling cheese sandwiches a lot of times IÂll just wipe them down. If itÂs something that wonÂt carry a high bacteria count you can clean them with hot water.

I may depart from some peoples advice but IÂve been using my cast for over 35 years and also have some of my grandmothers thatÂs over 70 years old and itÂs still smooth as glass and totally non stick. So hereÂs what I do.

First I do use soap and wash it thoroughly, but never, never in the dishwasher.
Put the wet pan on the stove and turn it on high and heat until all the water has evaporated.
Next while itÂs still very hot, using plain Crisco and a round stencil brush (you can get them at in the hardware store) put just a little Crisco in the pan to coat the bottom and up the sides inside the pan only. DonÂt use too much or it will just get gummy and rancid if the pan sits at all without being used.
Let the pan cool and itÂs ready for the next use. Do this every time you use them.

I store mine vertically in a stainless lid rack I got at LoweÂs so I donÂt have to lift 5 skillets out to get to the one I want. It also allows air between them.
If they start to get too much of a buildup on the sides I sometimes use a stainless scrub with the soap.

I have reclaimed old really nasty cast by putting it in a camp fire for several hours until it burns down to the original cast and then started with the initial seasoning process all over again.

Hope you enjoy it. IÂm sure with time youÂll want even more pans too.

Mike

Amanda:
This is the way I have been Seasoning, Pizza Pans and Cast Iron,for years.

I use a light coating of Vegetable Oil and bake them in a hot oven 500 deg.for about 3 hours.
Place them in upside down and put a piece of alluminum foil on the shelf under ,to catch drippings.
Also, have a way to vent out smoke.
If you can, do this a couple of times.

Many believe that the oil will turn rancid, this is not true, it Carbonizes

A black Patina will be the result.

A lower temp will not Carbonize the Oil
If it is not baked enough, it might turn rancid,after a while.

Animal fat results in a softer finish, than the vegetable oil.
LOU

Sorry:
Didn't mean to go against anyones way of Seasoning .

Just telling how I do it and what I've learned.
Lou

Now I'm stumped.. When I read the first two posts from BTDT and Mike, I thought I'd solved the delimma that I had on two attempts over the years. But then I read Lou's and it doesn't make sense.

Lou does what I tried years ago but I got a very stinky rancid pan that you could scrape your fingernail across and drag up yuck. I finally gave up!

Maybe I can find a small skillet that's not too pricey and try it again, with the bacon grease/lard.

Mike, I do have a little griddle (think that's what it is) that I picked up at a junk store one day. It was such an unusual item - almost totally flat except for the handle, about 8 or 9 inches round. But it was in terrible shape. The camp fire idea sounds like a try too.

Beth

Another way to clean a well-seasoned pan is to just wipe it out well with a dry towel or paper napkin, then use a very grainy kosher salt and scrub with the salt. Wipe out the salt and it's clean. No water at all.

Thanks to all. I feel less worried now that I've read BTDT's post that the need to re-season is normal with a new skillet. We've been doing what y'all suggested (except that I guess I need to stop sauteing peas in olive oil in the pan) so I guess we'll just keep doing it and the seasoning will build up with time so I don't have to do it as often.

Thanks!

~Amanda

Amanda, it's just going to take time and a few dinners of BLT sandwiches. :)

The good news is, as Mike said, they will eventually become non-stick. The more you use it, the better it will get.

What a great tip!!! Thanks~

I store mine vertically in a stainless lid rack I got at Lowes so I dont have to lift 5 skillets out to get to the one I want. It also allows air between them.

Yes, BTDT is right - new pans do need more than one seasoning session. Another thing I have always heard: make a batch of french fried potatoes in the pan with deep frying in oil once in a while to further promote a good seasoned coating on your cast iron pan.

I always - ALWAYS - put my CI pans back on a low burner or in a low oven or toaster oven to really dry it completely after washing it out. Storing vertically is a good tip!

Teresa

I have to agree with Lou on the high temp seasoning. Low temp won't build the black patina as hard. I use solid veg. fat rather then oil, it just works better for me. You just have to keep trying until you hit what works for you I guess.

Lard is what they use to use because it's what was used for everything. But they also probably only had a few pans that were used every day and didn't have time to get rancid. Cast iron was designed to use on wood heat, campfires, hearth fires etc.

One thing I think everyone agrees on is to keep using it a lot and it gets better so don't give up. The sauted peas in olive oil are fine.

It only took me about 32 years to figure out the rack storage. Guess that's how I built my "muskels" all those years. But I'm getting to old to lift half a dozen pans to get to the 18" skillet LOL

Hi Mike:
Here is an article I found, that is similar to what I have been saying.
I only use Vegetable Oil now, because it can be brought to a higher temp.and produces a harder Patina, than animal fat, without burning.

Every time I use a Skillet, I rinse it, put it on a meduim heat burner and
lay on a very light coat of Oil. Then let it cook for about 15 minutes.
There is no need to wait for ages to Season iron.
I season Pizza pans in one day.

I got away from my Grandmothers way of Seasoning about 55 years ago, after I learned the difference between Oil and Fat for seasoning.

If you Google " Seasoning Cast Iron " you will find many articles on this.
You will also find some that get technical about using Oil or Fat and
the temperatures at which you can bring each one without burning.
I've already done this many years ago and learned a lot.
It made for some Common Sense.

Amanda:
The reason you you never had luck with Oil, is because you didn't bring it up to the higher temp.

If you ever find an old Griswold and want to restore it,
just put it in the oven on Clean Cycle.

Then season it. Speaking of Seasons !

Happy New Year, everyone !!!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Seasoning, Using, and Caring For Your Cast Iron Pans and Skillets
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
How To Use Cast Iron Cookware:

The first most common mistake of why people do not like cast iron is that they say everything sticks. If food sticks to your cast iron pan, your pan is NOT seasoned right and you need to re-season it. Cast iron is a natural non-stick surface and if your pan is seasoned correctly it WILL NOT stick!

Always preheat your cast iron frying pan before fry in them.

Water droplets should sizzle, then roll and hop around the pan, when dropped onto the heated surface. If the water disappears immediately after being dropped, the pan is too hot. If water only rests and bubbles in the pan, it is not quite hot enough.

NOTE: Do not pour large amounts of cold liquid into your hot cast iron frying pan. This can cause the cast iron to break. Never forget your potholders! Cast iron pan handles get HOT when cooking!

There is a trick to maintaining cast-iron cookware and that trick is known as "seasoning" or "curing." Your food will never stick to the bottom of the skillet or pot and the iron will not rust if it is properly seasoned. Plus the cast iron cookware cleans up easily as well. Seasoning or curing cast iron cookware means filling the pores and voids in the metal with grease of some sort, which subsequently gets cooked in. This provides a smooth, non-stick surface on both the inside and outside of the cast-iron pan.

If the cast iron pan was not seasoned properly or a portion of the seasoning wore off and food sticks to the surface or there is rust, then it should be properly cleaned and re-seasoned. Seasoning a cast iron pan is a natural way of creating non-stick cookware. And, like you cook and clean the modern non-stick cookware with special care to avoid scratching the surface, your cast-iron cookware wants some special attention too.

NOTE: All new (not old cast iron cookware) cast iron pans and skillets have a protective coating on them, which must be removed. American companies use a special food-safe wax; imports are covered with a water-soluble shellac. In either case, scrub the item with a stainless steel scouring pads (steel wool), using soap and the hottest tap water you can stand.

How To Season Cast Iron Pans and Cookware:

You season a cast iron pan by rubbing it with a relatively thin coat of neutral oil (I stress a light coat of oil).

NOTE: Use vegetable oils (canola, sunflower, etc.), shortening (like Crisco shortening) or lard for seasoning your cast iron pans. I recently experimented and found out that food-grade coconut oil/butter also works great.

Place the cast iron pan, upside down, in the oven, with a sheet of aluminum foil on the bottom to catch any drips. Heat the pan for 30 to 60 minutes in a 300 to 500 degree oven. Once done, let the pan cool to room temperature. Repeating this process several times is recommended as it will help create a stronger "seasoning" bond.

The oil fills the cavities and becomes entrenched in them, as well as rounding off the peaks. By seasoning a new pan, the cooking surface develops a nonstick quality because the formerly jagged and pitted surface becomes smooth. Also, because the pores are permeated with oil, water cannot seep in and create rust that would give food an off-flavor.

Your ironware will be slightly discolored at this stage, but a couple of frying jobs will help complete the cure, and turn the iron into the rich, black color that is the sign of a well-seasoned, well-used skillet or pot.

Never put cold liquid into a very hot cast iron pan or oven. They will crack on the spot!

Be careful when cooking with your cast iron pots on an electric range, because the burners create hot spots that can warp cast iron or even cause it to crack. Be sure to preheat the iron very slowly when using an electric range and keep the settings to medium or even medium-low.

Important:
Unless you use your cast-iron pans daily, they should be washed briefly with a little soapy water and then rinsed and thoroughly dried in order to rid them of excess surface oil. If you do not do this, the surplus oil will become rancid within a couple of days.

Remember - Every time you cook in your cast iron frying pan, you are actually seasoning it again by filling in the microscopic pores and valleys that are part of the cast-iron surface. The more you cook, the smoother the surface becomes!

How To Maintain Cast Iron Pans and Cookware:

Every time, after I use my cast iron pans, I do the following:

Let the cast iron frying pan cool.

Wash it with dishwashing soap and water. Never soak or let soapy water sit in the pan for any length of time - just briefly wash it out. Rinse thoroughly, then dry with paper towels. NEVER put cast iron cookware in the dishwasher.

A lot of people disagree with using dishwashing soap and water to wash cast iron pans. A chef told me that if a health inspector ever found a pan that had not been washed with soap and water in his kitchen, he would be in trouble. Plus the grease that is left behind will eventually become rancid. You do not want rancid oil in your foods and body.

Place the cleaned cast iron frying pan on the heated burner of your stove for a minute or two to make sure that it is bone dry. While the pan is still hot and on the stove burner, lightly oil inside of pan (I mean a light coat) with a neutral cooking oil. I use a paper towel to spread the oil lightly over the pan.

Neutral Oils - Use vegetable oils (canola, sunflower, etc.), shortening (like Crisco shortening) or lard for seasoning your cast iron pans. I recently experimented and found out that food-grade coconut oil/butter also works great.

Leave frying pan on the hot burner of stove for a few minutes. Remove from hot burner and wipe excess oil off the pan with a paper towel.

Store your cast iron cookware with the lids off (especially in humid weather, because if covered, moisture can build up and cause rust). Be sure that you place a couple paper towels inside your cast-iron pan when storing to make sure that any moisture that forms will be absorbed by the paper towel. Never put the utensil in the dishwasher or store it away without drying it thoroughly.

How To Cook in Cast Iron Cookware:

Cast iron is a great alternative to non-stick cooking surfaces. Cast iron can be pre-heated to temperatures that will brown meat and will withstand oven temperatures well above what is considered safe for non-stick pans. You can cook almost any food in cast iron cookware.

One of the reasons cast iron is so highly valued is for its cooking properties. Heat is evenly distributed and held, making it ideal for deep frying, searing, and even baking. The versatility of the cast-iron frying pan or skillet is unrivaled; use it on the stove top, on your barbecue grill, and/or in your oven.

You can also bake food in your oven using your cast iron cookware. Instead of using that casserole dish, try using your cast iron cookware. Your can bake your cakes, pies, biscuits in cast-iron cookware. Be creative!

Always preheat your cast iron frying pan before frying in it (see above).

Acidic items like tomato sauces will be darker from iron leaching out, but many people with iron deficiencies do this for extra iron in their diet.

Never store acidic products in cast iron cookware. In fact, never ever use your cast iron pots for storing any foods.

It is not recommended that you use your cast iron as a pot for boiling water. Some people say that the hot water will remove small bits of oil from the surface which will then be found floating around. Water breaks down the seasoning and can cause your cast iron to rust.

Check out the large selection of Cast Iron Cooking Recipes.

Misc. Cast-Iron Questions:

Metallic Taste - If your food gets a metallic taste, or turns "black", it means one of two things are wrong. Either your pot has not been sufficiently seasoned, or you are leaving the food in the pot after it has been cooked.

Never store food in the cast iron pan as the acid in the food will breakdown the seasoning and take on a metallic flavor.

Rust Spots - If your old or new cast iron pans gets light rust spots, scour the rusty areas with steel wool, until all traces of rust are gone. Wash, dry, and repeat seasoning process.

Goo or Guck in Pan - If too much oil or shortening is applied to a cast-iron pan in the seasoning process, it will pool and "gum up" when the pan is heated. In this case, the goo can be scraped off and some more grease rubbed over the spot, or the pan can be re-scrubbed and reseasoned.

Heating the pan upside-down may help prevent gumming but protect your oven by using a foiled-lined baking sheet or aluminum foil to catch the grease. Seasoning at higher temperatures, approaching the smoking point, of the oil used will result in darker seasoned coatings in less time that aren't sticky or gummy.

Like Lou said, the oil/fat/lard is going to actually carbonize so it can be useful to use a fat with a low smoke point. I have used vegetable, olive oil sucessfully but you really have to bake it on to the pan. The pan is going to smoke like the devil if you're doing it right. A good testto see if you have a sufficient patina is that you should be able to cook an egg without oil and it won't stick.

Here is what your pan should look like when you're done.

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Here is a fantastic post on seasoning cast iron"

" acmorris Aug 23, 2007 02:30PM
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."

Kandm:
My pan won't never look like that ! It's round.
LOU

lol you could always take it to a blacksmith!

THANKS! This just gets better and better.

Kandm, the egg tip is especially helpful. I thought I might get away with just using it, but I still can't make eggs in it. It's going in the oven tonight.

My DH will be delighted that I am going to allow some deep frying occasionally the next couple of months. ;)

~Amanda

Amanda, I've got 3 cast iron skillets that I got as a wedding present in 1974 and they are the best non-stick pans I own, but it took a few years for me to get them right.

My cast iron dutch oven is the best seasoned pan I have because I use it to make french fries, that oil just soaks right in.

I have an old Griswold that I bought at a yard sale, I'm still working on that, but it's coming along.

I don't use oil for seasoning because Grandma always told me not to, LOL, but I have used vegetable shortening in a pinch. I lightly coat the pan, put it into the oven at 400 for a couple of hours. I put the pan upside down with a piece of tinfoil under it to catch the drips and I rub the inside and the outside of the pan. A freshly seasoned pan will be caramel brown but a well seasoned one will eventually take on that black patina. My old cast iron skillet is so slick that an egg slides around in it, better than teflon.

The Lodge people, who make cast iron, say to fry french fries in a dutch oven at least 6 times before you make something acidic like beans or tomato products in it, so if you can use it a couple of times to deep fry something, it'll only make it better.

It's interesting to note that my old doc told me that my iron level was never low, because I cooked with cast iron. Especially acidic products leach the iron out of the pan and into the food, making everything you cook "iron rich".

I will use soap on my cast iron occasionally, but usually I can just wipe it out and stuff comes right off. I've used a plastic scrubbie in a pinch and I wash the pan, put it on my (gas) stove on low to dry, then very lightly rub or brush with a bit more shortening.

When those babies get seasoned, you're gonna LOVE cast iron!

Annie

Well said Lou. I think we were saying basically the same thing. The only differences between you and me are that I use a stencil brush to apply a light coat (I got tired of burning the heck out of my fingers) I keep a brush in the cupboard in a plastic bag with a rubberband tied around the tip of the handle to keep it and my cupboard clean just for that purpose. And I stack mine vertically now in a rack so I don't have to mess with the paper towel. And the acid cooking for low iron really works. My doctor couldn't figure out why I wasn't totally anemic when I was dealing with some health issues and we finally figured out that it was because of the cast iron I use so much.

I thought about restoring some old mistreated cast in the self cleaning oven but my gas oven says not to clean it with racks in the oven. So Im not sure how to get past that one unless I buy the expensive porcelain ones they sell for that purpose. Any tips on that??
Mike

I think there are as many ways to maintain a seasoned CI pan as there are grandmothers. The one I'm married to scrubs the pan with a stainless scrubber pad under running hot water - no soap - dries it with a paper towel, adds two or three drops of peanut oil - no more - wipes the oil around the inside of the pan with a small piece of clean paper towel, and hangs the pan on the wall behind the stove. No sticking, no rust, no fuss, no bother.

To get the CI to the point where it can be maintained that way I season it with Crisco in the Big Green Egg, but that's for another post.

Mike, you can get all the old stuff off a pan with oven cleaner. It makes sense--the black stuff you remove from the oven with EZ-Off is the same carbonized crud on a seasoned pan (which is why dish soap won't hurt the seasoning if it's on right). Spray it and stuff it in a garbage bag for a few days.

I forgot the beans sizzling in my old cast iron skillet on the stove. Now,I can't get the black gunk off the bottom, even using steel wood pads, etc. How do I get the gunk off so that I can re-season the skillet?

Check out this recent discussion on the forum. You might get some good ideas and inspiration.