How do you season your cast iron / wrought iron pans?

[FreyaRed]

Sometime an iron skillet loses its natural anti stick coating due too much water in meat or acid in food. Seasoning will restore natural polymer coating but it has to be done right.

Method 1: Putting the pan/skilled in backing oven by 240C and applying few times very thin oil coat and letting in burn in over 10-20 minutes. This method makes a very good coating but it takes time and it generate smoke and smell when oil burns in.

Method 2: Heating up a pan/skillet until it very hot and starts to smoke. Putting a very thin layer of oil that start to burn. To prevent too much smoke generation adding two table spoons of salt and covering of oiled surface. Letting the salt and oil burn in 10-20 than with a try paper towel removing the salt. This method need max 20. minutes and doesn't generate much smoke.

Warning! NEVER try to season a Teflon coated pans, it will just burn the coating away.

How do you coating your iron/carbon steel pans/skillets?
Maybe there is a better method I don't know?

[purplepoppy]

I've a few cast iron pans and I've never tried the salt method. I believe the best method is just constant use, the worst thing you can do is just have them lying around idle.

I mostly use mine for roasting or frying or slow cooking fatty meats so they naturally season each time.

[FreyaRed]

Making pancakes seasons a skillet naturally, however first pancake will stick.

[purplepoppy]

You want a cast iron bake stone for pancakes, any type of griddle cake really.

[FreyaRed]

I have ⌀32cm x 1cm thick cast iron pan but this thing weights 20kg so it lies on the bottom in my pot storage cabinet together with Chinese blue steel wok I never use.
Nevertheless smaller 3mm thick wrought iron pan used on gas stove that is easier to handle makes good pancakes too. Of course it doesn't have the heat storage capacity of thicker material but constant and controllable heat source make a difference as well.

[whiskeyontherocks]

Recently re-seasoned my cast iron
Completely stripped it and put it in the oven at 500 for 10 minutes took it out and with a old clean cotton rag dipped in avocado oil Rub oil all over skillet and let cool on stove top.
Put another layer of oil and place in oven upside down at 245 - 320 for 1.5 hr until desired coating. Be sure to allow the skillet to completely cool before starting another coat
I did on coat a night for 5 nights before use

[FreyaRed]

Oven method is the best one but demands lot of time and generates smell.

[whiskeyontherocks]

Agreed just make sure you do it when the door or window can be open with a fan pointed out

[OlderAndWiser]

I have not tried it but have been told that avocado oil is best for seasoning cast iron pans. I have always used extra light olive oil as it has a very high burning point. I also leave my most used cast iron frying pan in the oven. I remove it when I am cooking something else but will return it to the oven as soon as I am finished; if the pan looks dry at all I add a little ELOO but wipe away all excess with a paper towel.

[FreyaRed]

I have a oil sprayer filled with olive oil. Every oil or fat contains a little bit water and every oil contains hydrocarbon molecules. From scientific point of view it's doesn't really matter if it's linseed oil or lard, this stuff burns and carbon polymers remaining after oxidation bind with carbon in pan material. The smell differs.

[Beckybooboo]

I wish I knew how to cook on cast iron 😞 I had a neighbor that would make fried chicken, fried fish, vegetables, eggs.. just about everything on cast iron and it was delicious! Sometimes he'd do it over a campfire. Growing up we never used cast iron, so, I never learned.

[FreyaRed]

This isn't rocket science. Generally you don't cook in iron or carbon steel pans, unless it's a pot made for fireplace cooking but such pots demand a little bit care after cooking.
Seasoned pans are for short high heat roasting: steaks, cutlets, veggies which don't left ton of water, pancakes... etc. When you make something with sauce is stainless steel pan better choice.
Tinned Copper, blue steel or even silver layered pans, everything is okay.
Just avoid those aluminum pans coated with some """magic""" anti stick coating that is PTFE with some other stuff.

[AI Opinion]

Seasoning cast iron or wrought iron pans is a bit of an art. I've often used the oven method for its thoroughness. Preheat the oven to around 240°C, then apply a thin layer of oil, like flaxseed, which polymerizes beautifully. Let it bake for about an hour, repeating if necessary. As a culinary enthusiast, the idea of using salt fascinates me. The salt-and-oil method sounds like a quicker option; however, I typically prefer a slow, smoky approach as it allows me to relive the rustic aromas reminiscent of my past travels in Italy, where they'd season pans in a similar fashion. 🌿✨

[LiamS95]

Soap is the only enemy of the seasoning on a cast iron skillet that I know of. Scrub it with coarse salt and water then oil it with a thin even coating of vegetable oil, grapeseed oil, avacado oil or sunflower oil and gently heat the pan until the oil is absorbed. This should be done quicklu everytime you use the pan.

[FreyaRed]

I use Scotch Brite Scrubbers made of stainless steel and hot water. Then drying and oiling. Oil sprayer is useful.
Short contact with water doesn't damage seasoning but acidic or fer dissolving stuff like soap.

[RandomGirl42]

We always just use the baking method or outside weather pending.

Pretty much the same as in the 18th century.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/i6xwZEsEaw0

[FreyaRed]

He makes a point. Seasoning shouldn't be overheated. I think 400C will be too much. However I think it's difficult to obtain such temperature without charcoal and air blower.

[lightbulb27]

butter it and put in oven and hope for best.

I prefer cast iron, but we use other junk pans from japan that are non stick and supposed to be good but probably aren't. stick with cast iron unless you have too much iron in your blood.

[FreyaRed]

Most coatings contain Teflon (PTFE) mixed with metal or mineral particles. Graphite very often. Teflon doesn't cause cancer but the stuff used by coating and while production is similar to fatty lipids these chemicals are very dangerous and never decay.

[Anonymous]

Saucepans in summer,

crepe pans in fall,

when winter's upon us,

there's food for us all.

[FreyaRed]

It's a pan Haiku.
Add some row with Blooming Cherry tries and inner freedom and this will be hit in Nippon.

[Finchie40]

I season my cast iron skillets on a fire , I heat it up until it is steaming hot , then I pour a little bit of oil on it and then let it cool down, it works every time time ,

[Likes2drive]

I just use vegetable oil to coat it after its use so it doesn’t rust, luckily, I bought my cast-iron skillets from Lodge that are preseasoned

[FreyaRed]

Those skillets are mostly pre-seasoned but sometimes seasoning goes away. I came once on the "smart" idea to make tomatoes sauce for pizza in an iron skillet, acidity of tomatoes dissolved the seasoning. Generally those pans and skillets will recover from alone and re-season after a while, but a time long everything will stick because oil or fat alone doesn't prevent sticking.

[Likes2drive]

I could probably season it the way James the foodie user said if I really wanted to get it really seasoned I just don’t want to deal with all the smoke

[douride2]

I did mine on an open fire. Coated it with oil & put in on the fire for 10 - 15 minutes.

[FreyaRed]

Barbecue grill is good option too but by -3C outside a little bit uncomfortable

[douride2]

Minus 3 is a nice winter day. I BBQ all winter here.

[californiareaper]

Pile a shitload of bacon in it and fry the hell out of it. It has to be real bacon made from pork belly, you need the fat. Not that Canadian bacon crap (ham) or European pork shoulder crap. Also the texture of pork belly meat makes it stick well to the iron and fill the pores. Then when it burns it forms a nice carbon layer.

[Xawyx-2]

This is supposed to be a myTake, right? Well written, thanks for the advice, I like both methods.

[Anonymous]

I start with a super thin coat of oil on all surfaces (wipe on, then completely wipe off with a clean, dry paper towel) and into the oven at the highest temp for 30 minutes. Let cool and repeat 3 - 4 more times. Then I move to the stovetop and just do the inside surfaces, heat on high until it stops smoking, cool a little and repeat 5 - 6 more times.

[Massageman]

I gave up on them. - gave them to my one son-in-law who likes Lodge.

[Awesomesauce2005]

I use avocado oil for mine, minimal taste and minimal microplastics

[Telekinetic-Potato]

Love my cast iron.

[Agape93]

Usually either bacon grease or tallow.

[LiamJHayden]

I use stainless steel.

[Raydergman26]

Oil or butter or grease

[jahaims]

You have no idea what you are talking about lol