How do you season your Cast Iron Skillets?

Never wash them.
I use mine to saute onions, cook bacon, toast grilled sandwiches, pan-fry steak, that sort of thing. And immediately after use, while the pan is still hot I run it under hot water, use a soap-free scrubby, rinse until clear, and let dry on the hot/turned off burner. Use mine almost every day, love them!

Jan in VA

I have the one my mother used, and do what Jan does to keep it seasoned.

I had one that was new and needed seasoning. I did it this way:

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recip...519/index.html

Same here. i found one at a garage sale, took it home and ran hot water over it and dried it with a papertowel. Then rubbed crisco on it and placed it in a 350 oven for about an hour. let it cool and wiped off the excess crisco. The bit of rust that was on it was gone. It's now just as shiny and nice as the one I've used for 33+ yrs.

I season mine on the stove top. I let it heat dry, then add a drop or so of vegetable oil and wipe around the bottom and sides. Continue to let it heat with the oil in it for 15 - 20 minutes.

When I wash mine...yes I do too...I wash with dish soap and hot water. To dry it I place it back on the burner and let it get hot until the water evaporates, then I wipe it with oil on a paper towel again. I've had the same set of skillets for over 30 years and still counting.

After washing with hot water and green scrubby, I dry and then add a tad of oil and wipe with paper towel. I keep mine out on stove top for use every day. Here's a link you might like even though it is for dutch ovens- great recipes and care tips.

http://papadutch.home.comcast.net/~papadutch/

The key to keeping the cast iron skillet seasoned is never use an abrasive cleaner. I use the method described by bakermom but at 475 degrees to season. Along time ago, I read that you should heat your skillet first, then add oil
or spray for cooking. I have one skillet that I use for bacon or any other food that has a lot of salt. Salty food wil cause food to stick.

I've tried twice and ended up throwing them away. My Dh's grandmother had several for over 50 years and could not believe I could cook without cast iron. My Magnalite works beautifully and needs no cuddling.

If I season after the pan is clean I use mineral oil because it doesn't go rancid and it's edible.

I also use mineral oil on my wood cutting boards.

What a good idea about the mineral oil on skillets, never thought of that..I do use it for my cutting boards...
The last cast iron skillets I bought were already seasoned and made in USA, the clerk told me she kept hers in brown paper
bag, so I have been doing that too....so far so good...

I don't cuddle my cast iron! lol I seasoned it when I first bought it, smear with oil stick it in the oven - done. I don't use soap on it, just really hot water and a rag- if something does stick I run a metal spatula around the pan to scrape it off. Then I plop it back on the stove for the next time.
My mom never did care for cast iron either - always had trouble with stuff sticking. I like the fact that I dont have to worry about scratching a nonstick skillet.

I have my grams cast iron round griddle. I do what Jan does but every now and them when my oven needs cleaned I will put my pan in there to bake. My gram always used to put it in the coals of the fire when she cooked outside. She also kept it well greased with Crisco.

I have my mother's set of cast irons. From a tiny one to a very large one. I season them the way you all do. It does well, but my fried potatoes ALWAYS stick no matter how much oil or butter I put in. It's a mess to clean up. Any suggestions?

**PERK** I collect cast iron cookware and trivets!! I also use them all...love, love, love my cast iron, and won't have any teflon in the house!!

Jan is ever so right...NEVER wash with soap or an abrasive. Just hot water, and guess what? You can use a "Chore Boy" metal scrubbie on them!! :D

To season? Clean the pan, and it's the only time it's ok to use hot soapy water...if the pan is old and has a build up of old grease, spray it down with oven cleaner and seal it into a black trash bag, set it out on the porch for a few days. Wash in the hot soapy water and pop it into your oven for about 20 minutes at 250. When the pan is dry and hot, (wear your Ov-glove) spray it with Pam, inside and out, and then do your best to wipe ALL of the Pam off! (It won't happen, trust me! You want a VERY thin coating of Pam on the pan. Pop it back in that 250 - 350 degree oven for about an hour. All done...all that's left is to fry some taters in the pan...not too many, cuz you're going to all but burn them and toss them.
Rinse in hot water, stove top burner to dry, and you should be ready to cook, old fashioned non-stick style! :)

Yep! Leave those potatoes alone!! :lol: Make sure that your pan and oil are HOT before you add the taters, and then leave them alone to cook completely on one side before you try to turn them. You want the sugars in the taters to carmelize and seal before you try to turn, or they're gonna stick. :)

Brings back memories as I had a set of 3 frying pans and a dutch oven (4qt) pot when I was first married and used them for many, many years. After cleaning I would put them into the oven which had a pilot light that gave off enough heat to dry the cast iron. Dutch oven was wonderful for pot roast and stews. Did make a mistake once and made tomato sauce in the dutch oven, sauce had a metallic taste to it. Eventually I must have ignored proper cleaning and they got rusty or didn't cook was well as they used to. Replaced them with lighter pans with telfon coatings but it was never the same.

My mom has a full set of Magnalite- she's been using it for 60 yrs! I have the big roaster. My main cookwear is Club Aluminum & I have been using that for 30 yrs! I do have one cast iron skillet that I use regularly but I gotta say I don't think I could use it for all of my cooking because it is so heavy! Around here that LeCreuset (enamel coated cast iron) is pretty popular but I can hardly lift some of it up!

"I do have one cast iron skillet that I use regularly but I gotta say I don't think I could use it for all of my cooking because it is so heavy! Around here that LeCreuset (enamel coated cast iron) is pretty popular but I can hardly lift some of it up!"

Think that's why I was happy to switch to the lighter telfon coated pans, cast iron is just too heavy.

I wash with dish soap and hot water. Put on the stove to dry, then wipe with canola oil and put in a 250 oven for about an hour.

I never use soap. and pretty much do what everyone else has been posting. We have a fireplace with and arm to hold pots and in the winter use my cast iron on there alot.

I also do the same i use steel wool to clean mine good. then put crisco in the pan and around the bottom. i put in the over at 475 for 2 hours comes out beautiful. oh also i put the pan in the middle rack up side down.

thanks so much. I will do that.

:thumbup: :thumbup: :D

I wash them but I never use a scratcher on them, then I dry them and put oil in them with a paper towel and let them sit in my oven even when I'm baking something this cooks the oil into them

Bacon grease!

I swear by my cast iron but since I bought my wife the new stove (glass top) I cant use them on it at all. I had to go out and buy the ceramic coated cast iron and I like them but I had a time trying to season the skillet. I use bacon grease also but for the life of me everything I cook in that one skillet sticks. Maybe in a few months of use it will figure out its place in life and all will be good but in the meantime my favorite skillet is delegated to cooking cornbread in the oven. :|

Billy

Clean the pan & dry it rub it all over with canola cooking oil & put it upside down in a 325* oven & bake it for 1 hour.
Just looked this up on the internet to do a cast iron fry pan my husband bought at the last Flea market here.

I rub mine down with bacon grease then put into the oven. Now say you have a bonfire going on outside, you could then rub it down and put it into the fire, just on the outside of huge fire you have going. When I was small my mom would throw it into a trash can outside and start a fire.

To season an old skillet, you just rub cooking oil in it and let it set. Then follow a lot of the washing instructions already posted after use. If it is one you have just purchased, check the label. The one I just bought my daughter at Wallyworld was already seasoned and ready for use!!

I always took care of mine the same way. And they just opened a "CAST IRON COOKWARE" store in Prescott, AZ. Really a great store.

I don't cuddle any cooking wear. I seasoned it the first time and that was it. I use one of my many varying sized cast iron pans everyday, spray it with non-stick spray cook, clean in hot sudsy water and have never had a problem. I do leave them out to air dry. Love my cast iron.

Most of the new ones are "pre-seasoned" but if you buy a used one at a thrift shp, etc. here's what you do. Wash it (this is the last time you will do it), dry it really well, you can put it in a warm oven for a few minutes to get it really dry, Then get some LARD, NOT OIL, NOT SHORTENING, NOT BUTTER, and ESPECIALLY NOT PAM. Start smearing lard in a thin coat all over the inside and outside of the pan. Plave the pan in a pre-heated, 350 degree oven. I put mine on a cookie sheet to keep the lard from dripping into the oven. Leave it in there for about an hour. Remove the pan. don't turn the oven off. Wipe off the pan with a paper towel. It will be hot, so be careful. let it cool for a few minutes then smear another thin coat of lard all over the inside of the pan only. Back in the oven for about 30 min. Turn off the oven and leave the pan in there till it cools. When the oven and the pan are cool, take it out an wipe it again with paper towel. Store it in the oven. After you actually use the pan, you should just be able to wash it out with plain water. Dry it thoroughly, and using a paper towel, smear a little lard in it, wipe it out with a clean paper towel and store the pan in the oven. After a few times of doing this, you will only have to wipe the lard on again very rarely. Never use soap, NEVER, NEVER, put it in the dishwasher. There's nothing like cooking with cast iron, you're going to love it!

I have quite a few Grizwald skillets, all sizes. we cook in them everyday. I guess you could say I have a collection. I also have many odd shaped ones and specilty ones. any brand will do if they are odd. I used to have them hanging on the kitchen walls but here in this prefab home we don't hang anything, not even pictures because the walls are so thin. BTW if your skillets get rusty, clean them really well, then recoat and heat in the oven, good as new.

Billy, you CAN use cast iron on your glass or ceramic top stove! I know LOTS of people that do. The rule is, however, that you NEVER twist or turn the pan ON the burner, you always lift it to turn it so it doesn't scratch the top.

Have your fans going...cuz this method works well, but it's gonna smoke and smell up the house! ;)

Just for the record, LODGE is the ONLY cast iron cookware still made in the US. Anything else is China/Taiwan...

This is the way I've always done it.

This is my predicament also. Bought the new glass top stove a couple of years ago when we moved in to the current house. We were going to buy a gas stove but somehow got turned around and bought the glass top. Well, yes, it is easy to clean but I would not buy one again. Scratches too easily even when using the "cleaner" on the top. You cannot shake the pans on top of it when cooking. And of course I cannot use my cast iron pans. Big bummer!

Edit: Just read Charlee's post about being able to use the cast iron on the glass tops. Maybe you can if you are careful but I just know I would end up moving the pan and really scratch that top up worse than it is now. Plus for the glass tops you are suppose to use pans that sit completely flat on the surface. My old iron pans have a slight ridge around the edge so they wouldn't sit flat. Cast iron is heavy and it's easier to "shake" than pick completely up and carefully turn ... at least for me.

Years ago when we lived in Colorado, we’d wash our cast iron skillets like this:

After supper has been eaten and the campfire is dying down, tie your rope into the hole in the end of the pan handle, throw the pan into the creek, and tie the other end of the rope to a willow bush.

Next morning, after catching and cleaning a few trout for breakfast, pull the clean pan back to shore with your rope, untie and stow the rope, and get ready to make breakfast.

CD in Oklahoma

Yeah, that's how to do it!!!!
Yummy fresh fried trout!!!!

:thumbup: :-P