sorry you had an unreasonable skillet before, but glad you were able to reason with this one.

LOL!

Glenda, I need to season mine but forgot what to do. Can you fill me in?

I'm not Glenda, but I've got a collection of about 3 dozen pieces of cast iron.

If you need to clean the piece before seasoning, the easiest way is to put it on your grill out back, close the lid and cook it over high heat until all the old seasoning (and any crud, if any) burns off, and the pan is gray. Alternatively, you can put the pan in the oven when you run the self-cleaning cycle.

To season, wipe the pan lightly with solid shortening like Crisco (never use oil--it just gets brown and sticky, not black and slick). Now you have to heat the pan until it turns black. You can do this over your grill out back (which keeps the smoke and smell out of the house--my preferred method), you can put the pan in the oven, upside down, with a cookie sheet on the shelf below to catch any possible drips of fat; or you can put it on a hot burner and cook it that way. What you're doing is turning the fat into varnish--kind of the same thing that happens on the bottom of your stainless steel skillets, that's so difficult to remove. The hardened shortening is what protects the pan from rusting, and gives it that slick, non-stick finish. You may want to repeat the process a few times, to make sure you have a really good coating.

You can also check the www.lodgemfg.com website for tips and hints.

Nothing fries chicken like a well seasoned iron skillet.

I had to season my CIS several times, but so far, all reason hasn't helped my cooking. LOL

Moni

Thanks for the great instructions, azzalea. Now I'm ready to season my one iron skillet as soon as it warms up.

I've tried using cast iron skillets a half dozen times over my lifetime, and always seasoned them exactly as azzalea described, but my whole family could still taste the awful metalic flavor. I tasted it on my friend's skillet, too, which was slick black with 20 years' use, and which he claimed produced the best corn bread ever eaten. I figure we must be overly-sensitive, because no one else seemed to notice the taste on my friend's food.

It's too bad, because everyone always says how well cast iron cooks. Now, I used porcelain-covered cast iron, like Le Creuset, but I'd rather pay a lot less and use Lodge.

OMG! Nothing like Cast Iron Skillet Cornbread.

Gayle

Joann--Lodge is now making porcelain-coated cast iron. It's still pricey, but much less than Le Creuset. I've got some of each (Lodge and LC)--I like the LC a little better, but the Lodge isn't bad, and I use it a lot, too. Keep an eye on Amazon--I got my Lodge apple for HALF what Lodge was charging for the same piece, and much, much less than what I'd have paid for a comparably sized piece of LC.

Like Gayle, I love cornbread in the cast iron skillet! I use my cast iron skillets all the time--I have them in every size.

Azzalea, thanks for the good instructions! Some of mine are ready to be seasoned again.

Here's a really stupid question!

I bought a grill pan that has a griddle on one side and grill on the other. I seasoned it according to directions.....but wrong, according to Azzalia's instructions. I used liquid oil. It is tacky to the touch. Yuck.

Anyway, I'm "afraid" to use it on my stove which has the coil burners.
Will the tacky, sticky parts of oil catch fire??? That is my fear.

Please be kind with your comments... LOL

Sherry

When you put the pan in the oven upside down what temp do you put it on, and for how long?

Sherry, I would scrub it clean, or burn the oil off in the grill outdoors. Then season it all over again.

It really should not be sticky.

Moni

Thanks, Azzalea. I actually think I saw them on the Lodge site once, but forgot all about them. You're right - much less expensive! They're on sale now, too.

Do you know, are the ones that have black on the inside still porcelain insides, or that cast iron? I didn't see anything about that in the descriptions.

Oh, sorry, Azzalea. I read another page, and it turns out that the pans are black porcelain on the inside. I think I'm going to get a big skillet while the sale is on. Thanks for the suggestion!

Now you all have me hungry for cornbread!

"never use oil--it just gets brown and sticky, not black and slick"

Alton Brown gave a rather compelling, and quite different, description of the seasoning procedure.

The aim isn't, as I had always thought, to build up a layer of polymerized oil (yes, you can use oil) or grease on the surface of the pan.

It's to actually cook the oil long enough and hard enough that you go past polymerization and actually drive the hydrogen atoms away in the form of smoke, leaving only a layer of carbon atoms.

I seasoned a number of pieces of cast iron according to his process, and it is, BY FAR, better than anything I have ever done before, which was stopping far short of the "burning the hydrogen off."

Michael, could you post the procedure here?

Moni