Cast Iron Seasoning

Cast Iron Myths

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.

Sorry to take so long to answer :) I got carted off by relatives for the holiday. Use lye, the high heat method is something new to this century, and not that good on cast iron. Ignore any suggested use of the “cleaning cycle” in modern day ovens, temperatures vary. Not to mention, any uneven rapid heating will warp or crack your iron. In the old days, contrary to what's posted elsewhere – high heat was not used. A self cleaning oven heats to 900-1200F; back in the days of no air conditioning, no one in their right mind would fire up a wood stove to that temperature and leave it there for several hours for a piece of cookware. Lye was the standard, and also the main ingredient in homemade soap of the era.

• Large Plastic Washtub or Trash Can - Do not use metal! Back in the day metal was used, but the lye can eat thru it. If they had a leak with the tub outside in the dirt, no issue. But we have problems with property damage, domestic pets etc. Use plastic.
• Can of Lye, you can get this at the grocery, it's likely found in the drain cleaner isle.
• Plastic or wooden spoon/dowel/broom handle etc.
• String, Goggles & Rubber Gloves. Back in the day, the pieces were just fished out of the mixture with bare hands or sticks.
• Wear old clothes, lye may eat fabric resulting in holes where any splashes occur.
• Fill plastic container with 4-5 gallons of COLD water, put on goggles & gloves.
• Add Lye powder and stir with spoon/stick etc.
• Tie string to handle of piece or place in mixture using gloves, do not get mixture on your skin. Secure string so that you can remove piece in a day or two when it's done.
• Let stand until food particles are gone, remove from mixture. Be very careful removing the piece, if you used any natural fiber string; the lye will eat anything organic. This can result in the piece dropping and creating splash!
• Rinse piece in COLD water progressing to warm and wash it several times to remove lye residue.
• Dispose of lye mixture safely.
• (Using warm/hot water or adding water to the Lye will result in a strong chemical reaction (boiling). Always add lye to water, never the other way around. Warm water can expedite the process, but can boil over creating excessive mess and/or property damange. Never use hot water.)

• Plastic Garbage Bag
• Oven Cleaner, Gloves, Goggles if you feel the need.
• Spray cleaner on piece, place in bag for a few days until food can be removed with little effort.
• Wash piece with cold water progressing to warm until all residue is gone.
• Disgard plastic bag in trash.

With either method, take exceptional care if you have children/pets around, or where children/pets might have access to either chemical, or your tub/plastic bag.

Will remove the rust faster than Vinegar and leave more of the metal behind.
Just wipe on and you can use steel wool/salt/sandpaper as an abrasive if needed.

Soak in 50/50 Water/Vinegar solution until rust is gone. This will address any white residues also, they are mineral deposits from water.

With either method, make sure to wash the piece well then dry using stovetop or warm oven.

Plan to begin seasoning as soon as your piece is dry! The bare metal will rust quickly just from environmental moisture (humidity). As long as the first coat of
lubricant is applied and piece has been heated, it should be good enough if you want to resume seasoning the next day.

-Annabelle

Anyone who's ever cooked anything in a new cast-iron skillet or other utensil has probably figured out real quickly that the iron skillet needed something done to it before it was fit to use. If nothing IS done to it, two things will happen. One, the food will take on a metallic taste, and two, the skillet will surely rust no matter how carefully you dry it after washing. What that skillet needs is called seasoning.

There is really only one successful way to season a cast-iron cooking utensil, and that is to use it, use it, use it. But until the months and years have passed that are needed to properly do the job through use, the iron must be coated with layer of something to protect it from rust and prevent that metallic taste from transferring to the food.

Most manufacturers suggest ways to apply that layer of protection - always a fat of some kind - but most of their instructions seem designed to make the job seem easy and not scare off the buyer, rather than to do the job right. What is really required is a relatively thin layer of pure and simple carbon. Yes, carbonized fat or oil. Carbonized to a hard, smooth surface that seals the utensil from rusting and prevents the iron from exuding that metallic taste, which, by the way, is not harmful just a bit unpleasant. Contrary to some manufacturer's instructions, that layer of carbon just simply cannot be formed at 250 to 350 degrees of heat. The carbonization of that layer of oil takes HIGH heat. Like 500 or 550 degrees.

This is how Cast Iron Jack McGrew treats a brand new cast-iron skillet or other cast-iron cooking utensil:
Remove any labels, and if the manufacturer has included some printed instructions on how to season the piece, throw it away quick before you read it. Wash the piece well by hand with regular hand-type dishwashing detergent. Dry it thoroughly. NEVER put cast-iron cookware in the dishwasher.
Rub a relatively thin coat of oil all over the piece with the fingertips. Animal fats are not really suitable, as the carbon formed is usually quite soft, not nearly as hard as vegetable oils. One cooking-lady-about-town has always recommended using mineral oil, but since Ol' Jack doesn't fry his eggs in mineral oil, he doesn't use it to season skillets either. Jack himself uses almost any kind of vegetable oil, even bottom-grade olive oil, but generally likes regular Mazola or Wesson oil types the best.
Such oils as Wesson oil or Mazola will become tacky as they air dry, and the piece should be allowed to air dry for perhaps two to four days, turned upside down on a newspaper to absorb drips. If an oven with a pilot light is available, its temperature should be about 110 to 120 degrees, and drying in such an oven will speed the process. Once the piece has become tacky to the touch, handling it very carefully so as not to leave fingerprints on the tacky surface, carefully BLOT (don't wipe) any drips that are not tacky. If the piece has shiny areas that are very tacky, the oil was too thick. If it has almost no tacky feel at all, the oil was too thin. In either case, it can be recoated. The application of new oil will dissolve or thin the oil on those shiny spots and it can then be wiped to a thinner coating. If the coating seems too thin, just add another thin layer.
All that remains to be done is to burn that oil coating to a layer of carbon. Put the piece upside down in the oven, with a sheet of aluminum foil on the bottom to catch any drips and turn up the heat. Ol' Jack, like a lot of other heavy-duty cooks won't let an electric oven or cooktop through the kitchen door, so his oven is gas. He sets it at 500 degrees and burns that pan for one hour.
Yes, you'll want the exhaust fan on, and all the ventilation you can get. It's always nice to do a few pieces at once, as the process does smoke up the kitchen, and who wants to do that every week? Let the cast-iron ware cool slowly in the oven for an hour or two after you turn off the heat, and voila! It's ready to use. If the carbon coating seems a little thin, the process can be repeated immediately.

No account of Cast Iron Jack McGrew's Ultimate Method would be complete without some instructions on washing, cleaning, and caring for the cookware after you've seasoned it, so take Ol' Jack's instructions to heart:

• Rule #1 is NEVER cook at higher heat than is necessary to do the job.
• Rule #2 is always try to remember to clean the piece while it's still hot. If it cools before you get around to cleaning it, it can be reheated. Sometimes a quick shot of a pan coating like PAM and 30 seconds on the burner will work wonders. Other times, just blistering hot water from the sink faucet will suffice.
• Rule #3 is NEVER do any more cleaning than is necessary. If you've just fried a couple of eggs with a squirt of pan spray, at low heat, a quick wipe with a paper towel is probably going to be all that's necessary.
• If a quick wipe with a paper towel won't do the job, hold it under that blistering hot water from the faucet and scrub it briskly with a stiff fiber brush; stiff enough to loosen any bits and pieces off carbonized food sticking to the pan. Remember, what you want that coating to be is carbonized oil, not carbonized groceries.
• If there are still bits and pieces of carbonized food sticking to the pan, give it a quick swipe with an old, dull copper or stainless steel Chore-Girl. Don't use a new, sharp one; it'll scrape off your nice new seasoning. Avoid wire brushes like the plague. Don't even think about those nice yellow fabric things that have metal particles imbedded in them, and never, never use those space-age plastic scouring pads.
• If it really becomes necessary to wash the thing in soap and water, go ahead and do it. That age old admonishment to never use soap has been handed down through the generations since “soap” was a home-made commodity consisting of lye and bear grease, and the lye alone was enough to strip the seasoning from a skillet. Modern detergents are about as much wetting agents as anything and have no relationship to what people meant when they said “soap” a hundred years ago. Just wash it in the sink, using your regular hand dishwashing detergent and a stiff bristle brush – or even that old, dull Chore-Girl - dry it carefully, and when you're done put a few drops of vegetable oil in it and wipe it around with a paper towel until it's dry. Yes, the paper towel will be black. No, it isn't dirt. The black is carbon.
• Eventually, after enough use and proper cleaning, that surface in your skillet will get to be just like Teflon or Silverstone type surfaces. It will require very, very little oil for most cooking.

*Naturally, I can't leave well enough alone (this is Melinda writing now) so I will add that I do use (the previously maligned) mineral oil for one step of this process. After drying the piece in Step 6, I rub it with mineral oil instead of vegetable oil before putting it away. That's because mineral oil will not become tacky or rancid, but vegetable oil will - and I like the mineral oil result better for that reason.

Cast Iron Jack McGrew's Priceless Pearls of Wisdom on the Cleaning of Ancient Cast Iron Cookware

If you're collecting old cast-iron cookware - or just have a few pieces around the kitchen - you may wonder if it spent the last fifty years getting coated with the same stuff the roof man used when it leaked around the fireplace. What that stuff is, my friend, is carbon, carbonized fat and food particles. It can be removed and a new, “base coat” applied. The result is worth the effort. How to do it? Well, you have several choices.

First, no amount of rubbing and scrubbing with steel wool or a Chore-girl will take it off. It can be scraped off, but it's a primitive and tedious method. Scrapers that utilize single-edge razor blades are the most useful. Sandpaper will cut the carbon, but also the base metal. Best of all, use a lye solution. Get a plastic container (like a new trash can) big enough to submerge the item. Make sure (with water first) that it doesn't leak. Get a can of lye at about any supermarket. It's nearly always right next to the Drain-o on the shelf. Lye is a highly caustic chemical and it is absolutely imperative that you wear rubber gloves and protective goggles and to work in a very well ventilated area. With the cast-iron piece submerged in just enough water to cover it, dissolve some or all of the lye in the water. A good strong working solution is a can of lye to 2 or 3 gallons of water. Put your plastic container somewhere the kids and pets can't get into it and wait it out. How long? Oh, anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks, depending on how thick and hard the carbon buildup is, how strong the lye solution and the temperature. The lye works faster when it's warmer. If you're so inclined, you can help it along a little with a scraper from time to time; but stay in a well-ventilated area, wear those rubber gloves and avoid eye contact by keeping those goggles on.

Once that carbon build-up is removed, the next thing you're certain to find is a layer of rust. It too must be removed. The lye won't dissolve it, but you'll find that it's a lot easier to remove before it dries out after the lye-bath soaking. A brand new, sharp stainless steel or copper Chore-girl, used with a lot of elbow grease under running water will take off a lot of rust. There are two or three kitchen cleansers on the market made especially for aluminum and stainless steel – available in most supermarkets - which do help the Chore-girl considerably. Regular kitchen cleansers, like Comet, Babb-O or Dutch Cleanser are probably better than nothing but don't seem nearly as effective. Barkeepers Friend or Kleen King are better for this purpose.

Without any doubt, the most effective way to remove that rust is with a motor driven wire brush mounted on a workbench. If you have access to one you're in luck. Hand brushing with a wire brush is a slow, tedious and ineffective process; so much so that one would almost stay with the Chore-girl and metal cleanser and forget the wire brushing. With a rotary brush, one can keep going over it and over it and it and it looks better all the time. When enough is enough is up to you, but a final process before giving up on the brushing can be an overnight soaking in a fairly strong solution of Lime-Away. Lime-Away is an acid and about the strongest acid that Ol' Jack would recommend, because any strong acids are very dangerous to use and will, of course, attack the base metal as well as the rust. Once you've done your final wire brushing, wash the piece thoroughly with regular detergent, rinse and dry it well and season it the same as you would a new piece as described in Ol' Cast Iron Jack's famous bulletin “Cast Iron Jack McGraw's Ultimate Method for Seasoning Cast Iron Cookware” (above).

Now that Teflon-coated pans are officially suspect, it’s about time we professed our love for the original nonstick cookware—cast iron. Sometimes it’s in, sometimes it’s out, but to us it’s always a great tool. These heavy, durable pans are inexpensive and conduct heat evenly and dependably. They can go from stovetop to oven, are totally nonstick, and will last forever with the right care. You just need to know how to season and clean your pan correctly.

Cast iron in its natural state is not nonstick. It gets that way through a process called seasoning. These days, cast iron cookware is sold preseasoned, so you can start using it immediately. But you’ll still need to re-season it from time to time, by oiling and baking it, which gives cast iron its signature shiny black patina. If the bottom of the pan starts looking crusty, rusty, or uneven, it’s time to re-season. Ditto if you burn something in it badly and have to really scour it to get it clean, or if you neglect to dry it and it rusts, or if you buy a used piece of cast iron you want to rehabilitate.

Here’s how.
Heat the oven to 350ºF, and position the oven rack in the top third of the oven.
Open your windows—there’s going to be some smoke.
Rub a thin layer of shortening (like Crisco) or oil—bacon grease works great, too—all over the inner bottom and sides of the pan with a paper towel.
Place your pan upside down on the top oven rack with a rimmed baking sheet or a roasting pan underneath to catch the drippings.
Bake the pan this way for 1 hour. Then turn off the oven and allow it to cool with the pan inside.
When the pan is correctly seasoned, the cooking surface should be smooth and shiny. (CHOW’s test-kitchen pan came out a little sticky, but once we used it to cook, the surface became smooth and shiny, the way it’s supposed to be.) It helps if the first few things you cook with your newly seasoned pan involve oil—try frying or sautéing something.

Word of caution: Don’t cook tomatoes or other highly acidic foods in cast iron, as that will destroy the pan’s finish.

To maintain the finish on your cast iron pan, you must abide by the following rules:
When you’re finished cooking, scrape out your pan with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula while it’s still hot, and wipe it down with a little oil on a rag or paper towel to preserve the finish. Cottonseed oil works well.
If gentle scraping doesn’t suffice, a little mild, well-diluted soap and a soft sponge or stiff nylon brush are OK, but don’t scrub the pan. Avoid using soap or harsh abrasives on it—and don’t use scouring pads or steel wool. If necessary, you can soak it. After cleaning the pan, put it upside down in a 150°F oven until it is bone dry to prevent rust.
Don’t ever put your pan in water while it’s still smoking hot—it could crack.
After washing your pan, dry it well with a clean, dry dishtowel so that it won’t rust.
If your pan needs re-seasoning, first use a nylon scouring pad or kosher salt and hot water to clean it. Dry it well and follow the seasoning directions as outlined above.

Seasoned Cast Iron can be considered the “grandfather” to today's “non-stick” cookware.
Cast Iron Cookware must be seasoned properly and it will last a life-time. ( I still use my Grandmother's cast iron skillets on a regular basis and they must be at least 60-70+ years old.)

New Pans

1. Heat the oven to 250° - 300°
2. Coat the pan with lard or bacon grease. Don't use a liquid vegetable oil because it will leave a sticky surface and the pan will not be properly seasoned.
3. Put the pan in the oven. In 15 minutes, remove the pan & pour out any excess grease. Place the pan back in the oven and bake for 2 hours.
4. Repeating this process several times is recommended as it will help create a stronger “seasoning” bond.
5. Also, when you put the pan into service, it is recommended to use it initially for foods high in fat, such as bacon or foods cooked with fat, because the grease from these foods will help strengthen the seasoning.

Pans needing Re-Seasoning

1. If the 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.
2. Remove any food residue by cleaning the pan thoroughly with hot water and a scouring pad. I understand that heating the pan first to a temperature that is still safe to touch helps open the pores of the metal and makes it easier to clean.
3. Dry the pan immediately with dish towel or paper towel.
4. Season the pan as outlined above.

Caring for Cast Iron Cookware

• 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.
• Clean the cookware while it is still hot by rinsing with hot water and scraping when necessary. Do not use a scouring pad or soap (detergent) as they will break down the pan's seasoning.
• Never store food in the cast iron pan as the acid in the food will breakdown the seasoning and the food will take on a metallic flavor.
• Store your cast iron cookware with the lids off, especially in humid weather, because if covered, moisture can build up and cause rust. Should rust appear, the pan should be re-seasoned.
• When you purchase cast iron cookware, they are medium gray in color, but after usage, they start turning darker. (My pans are very black in color.) This is normal and should be expected.

Routine Maintenance
If you buy a preseasoned pan (and you should), you can use the pan with little fuss.
Don't wash the pan with soap or leave it in the sink to soak. Rinse it out under hot running water, scrubbing with a brush to remove traces of food. (This is easiest if done while the pan is still warm.)
(Dry the pan thoroughly and put it back on the burner on low heat until all traces of moisture disappear (this keeps rusting at bay). Put a few drops of vegetable oil in the warm, dry pan and wipe the interior with a wad of paper towels until it is lightly covered with oil. Then, using fresh paper towels, rub more firmly to burnish the surface and remove all excess oil. The pan shouldn't look or feel oily to the touch. Turn off the heat and allow the pan to cool before putting it away.

Heavy-Duty Cleaning
If you have stuck-on food or you've inherited a pan that is rusty or gummy, scrub it with kosher salt.
Pour in vegetable oil to a depth of 1/4 inch, then place the pan on a stove set to medium-low for 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat and add 1/4 cup kosher salt. Using potholder to grip hot handle, use thick cushion of paper towels to scrub pan. Warm oil will loosen food or rust, and kosher salt will have abrading effect. Rinse pan under hot running water, dry well, and repeat, if necessary.