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Yep...just keep using it as much as possible. Properly preheat it, cook stuff, let cool, clean (I even use soap and and a sponge, but mine are well seasoned), dry it on the burner, and wipe some more oil in it while its still hot. Repeat, repeat, repeat...you'll get there.
I could try that.
I was cooking the eggs first because there was still a light film of the bacon grease from the day before, and then I'd add the butter. After the eggs were done and had soaked up all the slippery stuff, I'd cook the bacon, in effect reasoning the pan and then wiping out when done or just leaving it till the next morning when I'd heat it up and wipe before cooking the eggs again.
That was my train of thought, anyway.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hot pocket
Yep...just keep using it as much as possible. Properly preheat it, cook stuff, let cool, clean (I even use soap and and a sponge, but mine are well seasoned), dry it on the burner, and wipe some more oil in it while its still hot. Repeat, repeat, repeat...you'll get there.
In this case though, is it ok to do what I describe above? Just wiping and leaving a thin layer of the bacon grease? Rather than cleaning, drying, and applying oil?
Sorry, don't mean to be over thinking things, just want to make sure that something simple/easily missed doesn't screw things up.
The main ingredient of seasoning is heat. I season and unseason a flat top griddle almost daily at work. I turn on the flame, cover the surface with fat (oil, cooking spray, bacon grease, doesn't matter), and after 40 mins or so, the surface turns from raw metal to a mostly black, seasoned flat top. If you have ever seen a restaurant skillet or fry pan, the outsides are sometimes as black as a cast iron. That's all the oils carbonizing, essentially seasoning the outside of the pan. We have sheet trays that are the same way.
If you've ever left a pan on the heat too long, with oil in it, you've probably seen some brown starting to form on the surface, that's the beginning of the seasoning process. If you would spread out the oil, and keep heating it, it would keep darkening. Its just harder to see on a cast iron, because its already black. The reason most people use an oven, is its a more even source of heat, rather than a burner. All burners create a ring of heat, as opposed to all over heat in an oven. But more often than not, the higher the heat, the faster the season will take.
That was a very long answer to your simple question, but the last thing I would do, regardless of what happens prior, is heat it up on the burner. If there is fat left in it, wipe out as much as you can, leaving only enough to shine the surface. If there is no fat (i.e. you just cleaned it), pour a small amount of oil, and wipe it all over, leaving only enough to shine the surface.
The main ingredient of seasoning is heat. I season and unseason a flat top griddle almost daily at work. I turn on the flame, cover the surface with fat (oil, cooking spray, bacon grease, doesn't matter), and after 40 mins or so, the surface turns from raw metal to a mostly black, seasoned flat top. If you have ever seen a restaurant skillet or fry pan, the outsides are sometimes as black as a cast iron. That's all the oils carbonizing, essentially seasoning the outside of the pan. We have sheet trays that are the same way.
If you've ever left a pan on the heat too long, with oil in it, you've probably seen some brown starting to form on the surface, that's the beginning of the seasoning process. If you would spread out the oil, and keep heating it, it would keep darkening. Its just harder to see on a cast iron, because its already black. The reason most people use an oven, is its a more even source of heat, rather than a burner. All burners create a ring of heat, as opposed to all over heat in an oven. But more often than not, the higher the heat, the faster the season will take.
That was a very long answer to your simple question, but the last thing I would do, regardless of what happens prior, is heat it up on the burner. If there is fat left in it, wipe out as much as you can, leaving only enough to shine the surface. If there is no fat (i.e. you just cleaned it), pour a small amount of oil, and wipe it all over, leaving only enough to shine the surface.
Ok, wait a sec.
In your first statement you say you turn on the flame and cover the surface in fat.
Then in your last statement you seem to say not to do that?
Sorry, I'm really not trying to be dense. It just happens sometimes.
I cook mainly with cast iron as did my mom and dad and grandparents. I'll share this with you.
Lodge cast is about as inconsistent as you can get with quality.
I have many iron skillets, two of my larger are a 25 year old Wagner Ware chicken fryer pan and a newr Lodge 12". The Wagner is seasoned perfectly- smooth, no stick bottom and sides. The Lodge, however, simply will not get that smooth texture seasoning no matter what I do (and I consider myself an expert when it comes to cast cooking). What I found is that the cast is too poor a quality to really get a smooth carbon finish. I've tried to get it to perfection for years- no luck. Food sticks, things burn- it just sucked.
I sold the 12" pan this spring- finally.
I went out and found an old Wagner 12" skillet at a sale. I brushed it clean, re-seasoned it with lard and voila! Perfection.
I also have a Lodge cast dutch oven, and one really old no-name Dutch oven. Same deal- the newer lodge will not season. I only use that one for cobblers or stews. My older one is for breads, biscuits, chicken and other type foods.
I will never buy a Lodge again. Every Wagner has been great, every no-name has been great. Lodge has totally sucked.
Tried spray-on oven cleaner for 30 minutes and it still left a lot of a sticky film on the pan.
I would not do that (although I know you already have). There are some awful chemicals in oven cleaner and, as has already been mentioned, cast iron is porous. I don't know that I would use that one ever again.
Botulism, for example, is a bacteria (extreme example), that I believe cooking heat can't completely eliminate.
Botulism, if I recall correctly, needs an anaerobic environment to grow, and so would not be growing on cast iron. That is why it is found in canned foods. (But I believe you are correct that it is not killed by cooking.)
My cast iron was given to me 30 years ago as wedding presents. The two pans I use most often are nicely seasoned from use. I use hot water to clean them out (just from the tap) and wipe dry, then put on a low-heat burner to completely dry. (As I've grown older, I've had to resort to setting the timer to remind me to turn the burner off!) If I've only cooked cornbread I just wipe out the crumbs and excess oil and put it up. We've never had any trouble with bacteria.
If there isn't enough oil left on it from whatever I cooked I wipe a thin, thin layer on it. I used to use canola, but since reading about it in this forum I have switched to peanut oil. I also have some coconut oil that I bought for another use and have been using it some.
The old timers used lard. I don't think it really matters much (with some exceptions, I'm sure) what kind of oil is used, as long as the layer is not too thick....I made that mistake at first with my skillets and had to burn the seasoning off and start again. If it's sticky, you've left too much oil.
I'm glad I decided not to ditch my 30-year-old skillets and get new, preseasoned Lodge. I have fibromyalgia and my old skillets don't have the little extra handles on the opposite sides of the regular handles like the new ones do. I thought I might need those, as it hurts my wrists to pick up my large skillet. But in the end my cheapskate nature won out, and since reading the posts about it not being good quality, I'm glad.
After you're done cooking, whether you clean it or not, heat it up a bit on the burner, and either wipe out most of the oil if you didn't clean it, or add a small amount if you did clean it. Which ever you do, the goal is to have a small (very) amount of fat left in the skillet as it cools. That fat, when heated next time you use it, will start to break down-basically burn. That's what the smooth carbon stuff in your picture is...carbonized fat, and its a good thing.
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