Cast Iron Seasoning --- Veg Oil or Lard?

[Fay Jai]

OK....(hope this is the right board for this question), have consulted a couple of different websites, (Including Lodge's). Got a huge ole' brand new cast iron skillet in preparation for my annual New Years pigout of Hoppin' John...still need to season it though! Seems like everyone has a (very) strong opinion on just what the best method is for seasoning and caring for cast iron. (For instance, I have a friend who absolutely insist that soap will NOT damage their pan.) Is there a consensus on this?

Thanks so much!!!

[picaman]

I haven't seasoned a cast iron pan in about 15 years, but I used vegetable oil the last time I did it.

NO SOAP!! Good god. Hot water followed by an immediate drying. If you need more abrasive cleaning, use salt. I keep my cast iron in the oven so it stays perfectly dry.

Quick story--my mom had her grandmother's cast iron skillet, which was probably 100+ years old. How's that for seasoning? She got remarried, and her new husband, to surprise her, had it sandblasted to "clean it off." My mom actually cried when he handed her the shiny polished remnant.

Jamie

[picaman]

Oh--and welcome to eGullet!

Jamie

[Dave the Cook]

A good bit of the accumulated cast-iron wisdom of eGullet can be found here. Scroll about halfway down the page and you'll see my post with several other links.

I would be personally remiss if I didn't also point you here.

[dls]

Check out the following link

http://www.jfolse.com/fr_seasoniron.htm

[Lone Star]

I have my great-grandmothers #12 skillet that I have used for over 20 years. It is over 100 years old, and I wash it with soap and hot water, just the way she did.

I also have my grandfathers huge cast-iron kettle that he got from his grandfather. It has been used over many, many campfires and I will not fry fish in anything else. I also clean with mild soap and dry, just the way he did.

I never knew there were so many different opinions and methods regarding the humble cast iron!

[picaman]

I never knew there were so many different opinions and methods regarding the humble cast iron!

Indeed. If I had washed my mother's or grandmother's cast iron skillet with soap they probably would have hit me in the head with it.

Jamie

[AzRaeL]

i prefer using Peanut oil because it has the highest smoking point. But initially i used crisco cuz that is what the Lodge booklet said to use.

[AuntieEm]

Ditto on peanut oil...I think I used generic veg oil when I got my first skillets, many years ago, but recently got a new iron comal and chose peanut as I heat it dry and considered the smoking point issue. NEVER soap, just hot water and a brush..nothing EVER sticks to my skillets.

[Chad]

In addition to Dave the Cook's excellent linkages, there are a couple of points to keep in mind. As other folks have said, keep your skillet in the oven. Not only will that help keep it dry, but the sheer thermal mass of the cast iron will help even out temperature fluctuations in the average home electric oven.

And one of the folks on the Good Eats Fan Page called Lodge. In the conversation they admitted that the 350 degree seasoning temperature in their literature is way too low. Think 450-500 instead. With that in mind, you'll need a fat that has a smoke point higher than 450 or so. And your first couple of dishes should be fat/oil heavy -- fried chicken is good, but bacon works, too. Just wipe the surface clean afterwards and put the pan back in the oven. If it gets really nasty, put about half a cup of kosher salt and a couple of tablespoons of canola or peanut oil in the pan, heat it and swab/scrub with a wad of paper towels (shop towels are even better) held with tongs.

Chad

edit: spellig

[jo-mel]

Story: When My DH and I first married, aeons ago, I bought a cast iron skillet and seasoned it. DH wanted to show me how a good seasoned skillet should look, so next time we were at his parents, he showed his Mom's iron frying pan. He said: "See? Nice and cruddy!" -------Well, his Mother was in the kitchen and she very indignantly said: "It is NOT cruddy!!!!

LOL!

[EdS]

A little detergent (different from "soap") to remove a particularly greasy mess isn't going to hurt anything despite the panic that idea seems to instill. The seasoning certainly isn't going to just come right off unless there's little there to begin with. Just don't go scrubbing away more than necessary with the detergent and refrain from using it unless you need it. Also, the amount of seasoning will increase *and* decrease, ebb and flow, over time just from cooking. In any case, you only need enough seasoning to fill in the "pores" and just cover the exposed surface. I wouldn't use any detergent until the pan reaches this point.

[picaman]

A little detergent (different from "soap") to remove a particularly greasy mess isn't going to hurt anything despite the panic that idea seems to instill. The seasoning certainly isn't going to just come right off unless there's little there to begin with. Just don't go scrubbing away more than necessary with the detergent and refrain from using it unless you need it. Also, the amount of seasoning will increase *and* decrease, ebb and flow, over time just from cooking. In any case, you only need enough seasoning to fill in the "pores" and just cover the exposed surface. I wouldn't use any detergent until the pan reaches this point.

Logically this makes perfect sense. However, with all due respect, you don't have my grandmother's glare forever in your mind's eye.

Jamie

[Mabelline]

I'll probably be the only one to vote for lard, but that is probably a deep-seated need to play with animal fat. But by the same token, do you reckon you could use schmaltz ?

Edited December 17, 2003 by Mabelline (log)

[Chad]

Oh, and open a window or two while you season your pan. Otherwise your house will smell like a foundry.

Chad

[fresco]

Oh, and open a window or two while you season your pan. Otherwise your house will smell like a foundry.

Chad

If you have an outdoor gas grill with a lid, it's perfect for smokey jobs like this.

[MsRamsey]

A little detergent (different from "soap")

This is just like when people say "grease" and "oil" are two different things.

[elivesay]

I don't know if Lodge recently introduced a new line of pre-seasoned cookware, or if the particular piece I just bought is the only piece they are selling pre-seasoned. But I'd been wanting one of those reversible grill/griddles for a while, so I finally ordered it from chefscatalog.com (free shipping right now) last week. When it got here (actually it is sitting in my office until I decide to take a cab home because the thing's heavy as hell and there's no way I'll make it home otherwise), I noticed it says "pre-seasoned." We'll see how it works.

[fifi]

There is a thread here somewhere that gave the Lodge pre-seasoned line very high marks. They have most if not all of their pieces available pre-seasoned.

Lodge Cast Iron here.

[elivesay]

There is a thread here somewhere that gave the Lodge pre-seasoned line very high marks. They have most if not all of their pieces available pre-seasoned.

Lodge Cast Iron here.

Thanks. I did look for a thread, but I'm new here so I must have missed it. I'll look again. I must say I wasn't looking forward to getting those grooves on the grill side properly seasoned.

[fifi]

I couldn't find it either.

BTW, welcome to eGullet.

[Dave the Cook]

Or could have used the link(s) in the fourth post of this thread.

[fifi]

[elivesay]

Thanks, Fifi. I'm happy to be here.

Thanks, Dave. Now I feel like a ding dong. But I'm a eGullet virgin, so I'll use that as an excuse, for now.

[Dave the Cook]

Well, I did have an unfair advantage, having written the article, and I'm addicted to the endorphin-like ego boost.

Welcome.