skillet ?

Suggestions on how to season a new skillet appreciated (cast Iron).

thanks

Dave Wooten said:

Suggestions on how to season a new skillet appreciated (cast Iron).

thanks

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Cooking Oil Wiped on with a paper towel in a 250 f oven for about 90 minutes. I let mine cool then redo it again. This both inside and out. You can place a cookie sheet on the rack below to catch any stray drips. Just make sure you do not get it sopping wet with oil, just wipe it on.

Thanks,

Ok, so both sides, good for dutch oven stuff also I presume?

I've found that seasoning with cooking oil sometimes leads to a gummy film. Lately I've been using Crisco. Same technique as Aggie describes. I often let it sit for a couple of hours in heat, then let it cool and repeat. A very light coat is all that is needed. Try to avoid the drips!

Oh... and then use it often, heating the pan well before putting the meat into it After a few months you'll have that really nice, even black coating.

And don't wash it in a dishwasher but heat it and wipe it out.

Any cast iron that I use gets wiped out and that's IT after cooking. It's reseasoned in a way every time I cook something. Keeps things tasting good. The stuff I'm collecting now, Calphalon one, just doesn't give me the same taste when it comes to frying chicken and such...I still use cast iron for that.

Curt said:

And don't wash it in a dishwasher but heat it and wipe it out.

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If Dave is going to do Dutch oven cooking, the best way to clean it afterwards is to burn it our over a open fire. Then to reoil it lightly and then wipe off the excess to store it.

Dave want to borow a few 16" dutch ovens? I have several in sizes down to 8" I've been ducth oven cooking since I was 19. Want recipes, I have a killer sour dough biscuit recipe.

Aggie said:

Want recipes, I have a killer sour dough biscuit recipe.

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Post here please!

Dave - Our 6" and 12" casties are now about 19 years old, have never had a soap wash and you CAN'T get a "burn" to stick, EVER. Not a non-stick out there comes close to the way these babies don't stick! A very sparse, light wipe of olive oil (or whatever) to the cooking surface after wipe/rinse/dry (or before heating the next use) has worked for us since break-in, the pans taking a couple of years to get up to full bragging speed. As mentioned, pour your serious cooking oil to the surface only after the skillet is hot, not before. You can do unmessy, under-the-lid, chops, steaks and burgers to die for by oiling the meat rather than skillet.

What a wonderful un-invention is the cast iron skillet ... and who'd have thunk this would be discussed on the LF forum!

Enjoy

flip, flop and fry

Thanks all,

Actually I hav nt been happy with the skillets that I do have and i have some old ones I bought new quite a few years back. So will take the suggesions for those. Recently i got a set of Dutch oven stuff and haven t used it yet so will now prepare it properly...

Also I like food with extra grease, I appreciate really thick bacon and I like lots of gravy

Dave Wooten said:

Thanks all,


Also I like food with extra grease, I appreciate really thick bacon and I like lots of gravy

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Old stand by...while you peel about 8 large red potatoes, (this for a 8" dutch oven) put some cut up pieces of half pound of bacon (thick cut is good, more if you like bacon a lot) inot the bottom onf a heating dutch oven. Add one sliced up yellow onion, some smashed garluic cloves to taste, one small can of hatch green chilies, Once all cooked to transprant, add the potatoes sliced thin. Mix well, and put the dutch oven lid on and start adding the coals on top. Every 5 minutes check contents to make sure they are not buring on the bottom (in other words stir the mess) takes about 20 minutes to 1/2 hour until done. Oh and add salt as you cook. Potatoes take a lot of salt.

bruce terry said:

............

...What a wonderful un-invention is the cast iron skillet ... and who'd have thunk this would be discussed on the LF forum!

Enjoy

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I was a bit hesitant to publicly air my insecurities concerning the proper seasoning of the skillet. It can be a very personal matter and for some a well guarded family secret. After reviewing Sean's description of the Misc. forum area "other equipment not covered above" etc. I decided to go ahead and post my insecurity here among so many friends.

Thanks again. and additional suggestions and recipes are encouraged. Your answers could be a blessing to others considering going the teflon way after struggling and suffering so with an old crusty oxidized heirloom skillet.

speaking of "heirloom skillets"... I'm cooking on with my Grandmother's cast iron. Gram gave them to my Mom many years ago, then my Mom got to the point where they were too heavy for her, so she gave them to me. One of the nicest presents my Mom ever gave me... aside from life itself!

Only recently did I buy a new one... a 14" skillet that will cook up enough fried potatoes (oozing with bacon grease, of course) to feed a family of six.

There is a whole web site on seasoning cast iron cooking implements.

I suggest Crisco rather than cooking oil though.

PE

no bacon grease in this one:
quick cooking oats, two genrous handsful. one large handful of brown sugar, two handsful of bisquick mix, extra soft stick ofbutter. Mix well in a bowl. Place half the mixture on bottom of a cake pan the size just smaller than the dutch overn it will be cooked in. Add sweetened and a dash of vanilla to fruit. Use either fresh, or canned fruit. My favorite is to use fresh berries and sliced bananas. Top with the last of the oat mixture. Put 5 nickles in the bottom edges of the dutch oven. Place the cake pan on top of them, and cover. place coals on the lid,and let cook for about 30 minutes checking once at 15 minutes to see how it is cooking so you can guage the finish. If you're industrious, you can hand crank ice cream and have it ready for the fruit cobbler.

I have seasoned a lot of cast iron skillets over the years.

There is no "quick" method per se.

First off, yes, in the oven, do the peanut (or better yet, canola) oil as a start as Aggie suggests. Do it as many times as you are patient to do. But do it in iterations - you want to build a basic "foundation" of layers.

But then, use it two or three times to cook bacon at a very low heat - I'm talking making your bacon slow cook very slowly - like taking a half an hour at the lowest heat setting possible (I love our newest stove because it fires at the high heat and you can turn it all the way down and still have flame - why did it take the industry 100 years to figure this out?).

This will get you to the basic "seasoned" level.

An alternative (or additional) method is to do a very slow cook (or two or three etc.) of a very fatty cut of pork roast (e.g. butt or shoulder) on a rack that fits inside your skillet such that the fat drips off and slowly bakes on.

Also critical is to NEVER, NEVER, NEVER scrub the pan such that you ruin the "patina" you are constucting.

Once it is truly "seasoned" a cast iron pan will rarely require anything more than a quick sponge cleaning. You should not have to "scrub" it with a metal pad etc. except because of some kind of cooking error.

Oh, and I always dry wipe my cast iron so that they do not "air dry" (rust is your constant enemy with cast iron - particularly if it is not fully seasoned). Also, you should hand clean it - sorry, no dishwasher for my cast iron!

My favorite cast iron skillet is probably almost 60 years old. I got it from my parents when they were clearing house for retirement some 25 years ago. They first seasoned it after they go married in 1948.

It is my "hallmark" cast iron skillet to which all of the others (skillets and dutch ovens etc.) I've acquired seek to emulate.

Remember this, no cast iron cookware is ever fully "seasoned" - it is a lifetime endeavor (and beyond that because they never wear out!).

Go to tag sales and flea markets and buy someone's (non rusty) discards if you can. Because, quick seasoning aside, it takes years to make a cast iron skillet a REAL cast iron skillet!

Oh, and I do not believe that you can effectively truly season one of those skillets that have the grooves built in to make nice marks on hamburgers! Stupid gimmick to my way of thinking. But, BTW, slow frying fatty burgers will always add "seasoning" to your skillet.

The best old cast iron skillets were made by Warner in Sidney, New York. They went out of business a while ago. Old Forge in Indiana makes the best ones I've found lately. There may be some good ones coming out of India and China now - so long as they are heavy gauge.

As you might have gathered, I am a cast iron cookware afficiando!

I once had a girlfriend whose parents were German immigrants. Her Mother used ancient well seasoned cast iron pans exclusively.
I noticed that to clean them she would never, ever let water touch them. She would scrub them clean on the stove using course salt as an abrasive then wipe them out and re-season them with a little oil on the heat before wiping them thouroughly and putting them away.
I've never done this, but I though that it was interesting in the context of the thread.

I can't believe I'm posting this, but....

The best and fastest way I've found to season new cast iron is to cook something on the Weber and once the food is cooked, oil the pan/dutch oven with vegetable oil or shortening and leave it upside down on the grate until the coals burn out.

It works much more effectively than the oven method and doesn't require any additional energy. A cooking grate over a campfire works almost as well.

The process can be repeated any time you cook on the grill to improve on the seasoning.

Next thing I expect to see is someone posting how to season their skillet using a NuArc

Moderators - shouldn't this thread be moved to the Alternative Processes forum?

lessons lost

Wow thanks as always for the global wisdom of Apug!

Also, I am sure many lurkers, ashamed and living with feelings of guilt over the deplorable condition of their family skillets, (often entrusted to them and now encrusted and oxidized), can now right their ways and become proud full curators of their family heirlooms.

It is true that so many wonderul folk skills of the past become lost through negligence and the lack of understanding that technology is not in all ways a step forward, and often denys us some very rewarding and ever so simple life experiences and pleasures.

Now would someone kindly pass that gravy?

Flotsam said:

I once had a girlfriend whose parents were German immigrants. Her Mother used ancient well seasoned cast iron pans exclusively.
I noticed that to clean them she would never, ever let water touch them...

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Yeah, often just a Bounty Towel (the best wiper-outer in the world) is all you need. It's also nice that all that vintage seasoning lets you speed up the cleaning process with running hot water. Heck, all the skillet's black junk doesn't care, just stays where it is and appreciates the drop or two of olive oil you give it for desert.

The one bad thing about casties is you really can't leave whats cooked in them for long. Cornbread to die for of course, but leave that leftover bread in the pan overnight and you'll have the complete uncensored history of your ex-girlfriend's German mother's life, or what one's parents were up to back in 1948! ;•)

Bruce

Never ever cook anything with a mustard based marinade in a cast iron skillet. Trust me on this one.

The Crisco Files

Thanks all,

Already the skillet is looking better after receiving two suggested seasoning treatments. I will have to get to work on the new D. Oven set up....Also, as the skillet in question will be available for viewing and use at a future Per Volquartz outdoor workshop, I have chosen not to post photos at this time. Look for it to be featured in an upcoming still life platinum series to be announced exclusively on this thread.

Dave Wooten said:

Thanks all,

Already the skillet is looking better after receiving two suggested seasoning treatments. I will have to get to work on the new D. Oven set up....Also, as the skillet in question will be available for viewing and use at a future Per Volquartz outdoor workshop, I have chosen not to post photos at this time. Look for it to be featured in an upcoming still life platinum series to be announced exclusively on this thread.

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Now that you have done the Crisco thing. Run a slab of bacon in it and leave the grease to cool in the pan. Heat it up, and pour the the excess off. Wipe the rest out, and let it cool again. You will be very happy.