Cast iron skillets

[MaryB]

I have a newer Lodge 8" fry pan I use a LOT(great for making burgers, get a good crust). I used bacon fat to season it and after I clean it I take a dab of bacon fat, heat the pan and wipe it down, then heat it hot until I see the oil start to come out of the pores, remove from heat then wipe once more with a dry towel. Getting as close to non-stick as you can get! Made bacon in it and no sticking! But I start with a dab of bacon fat, heat it so the pan is coated and hot then add the bacon! Medium heat only!

[Tom W.]

Dougguy, that's like my Lodge griddle, but it's a 90G. Mine looks like it was painted on the frying side, altho I know it wasn't. The black "chips" sometimes come off and embed themselves in my pancakes, but haven't hurt me any...

[DougGuy]

Hmmmm "chips" coming off? That don't sound right. Nothing should come off and get in your food. I would probably want to soak that one in a lye bath for a week or two then reseason it by the method I use.

[Moonie]

I also use flaxseed oil like DougGuy but between seasonings, after cleaning I use cooking spray and heat it on the stovetop (gas) till it just starts to smoke and turn the heat off.

[Tom W.]

Lori can season them much better than I ever could...

[Chill Wills]

I've sanded a skillet or two. Had a new cheap one that was rough as a rasp on the bottom. I put the 5" random orbit sander to use and smoothed it mostly out, then reseasoned it and started using it. Looked horrible for a while, but finally darkened up and cooks good now.

BINGO
Bazoo, I am with you.
I got a medium sized castiron pan a few years ago from the food store on sale.
It was a China special I guess. A rougher bottom you have never seen! A sand casting by the look of it.

After cooking in it once and it being a joke I took the 5" random orbit sander with 60 grit on it and had at it. That took the top half off in no time flat. The next 25% of the topography took about 15 minutes to remove and I quit.
I put some cooking oil in it, about 1/8" and set it on the outdoor grill and let burn.
Cleaned that out, tried cooking in it again and it shaped up and has been a very good bacon and egg pan for when it is just me in the mornings.

That seasoning is just carbon in the pores.

I would do that again in a heartbeat. After all, it is just iron and Lodge nor Griswold did not have supernatural powers.
Don't be afraid to fix a problem. It is about the most low-tech item in my life at this point

[jonp]

I followed this guys method https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6bFWVB2BRY

Worked fine. He does recommend Flax Oil like others on here but I don't have any so used something else. I also tried cleaning the rust off and found the best was to use an angle grinder for the worst then electrolysis.

[snowwolfe]

Some of this is starting to make sense. I think one of the biggest mistakes I made in the past is using to much oil when seasoning. This time around going to make sure it is a light coat followed by a good wiping before it goes into the oven.

[jonp]

Some of this is starting to make sense. I think one of the biggest mistakes I made in the past is using to much oil when seasoning. This time around going to make sure it is a light coat followed by a good wiping before it goes into the oven.

Do it several times with light coats until you get the seasoning where you want it. If I remember right, it took 3 cycles with my 12in Lodge to look right to me and a few more wouldn't have hurt it.

[waksupi]

A tip to help prevent sticking. Always have the pan up to heat before dropping in your meat or whatever. The oil should be hot enough to just start smoking. You want that initial sear to seal in juices, and make a surface on the meat that doesn't want to stick.

[fiberoptik]

Canola and Flax are in entirely different families. Canola is in the Brassicaceae Family, Brassica sp. and Flax/Linseed is in the Linaceae Family, Linum sp.

The two are entirely different. I don't know where you got your information but your conspiracy theory is entirely incorrect.

Okay, bad memory. Rapeseed, not linseed. Still poisonous.
https://breathing.com/blogs/nutritio...ola-oil-danger


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[DougGuy]

Here are some estate sale finds, 3 notch Lodge #6, BSR 5, BSR3, just pulled them from the lye bath and ran them 6 passes of Lard at 450F. I washed the pans in hot water, while they were still wet I smeared them with Lard, wiped it off as much as possible, stuck them in the oven at 450. After 20mins, I used welding gloves, pulled them from the oven and wiped them down with Lard while they were really hot, wiped it off as much as possible, stuck it back in the oven for 20mins, repeated this until I had 6 coats of seasoning. With every coat it was easier to wipe on Lard, and by the last two, I only had to wipe them with the same blue shop towel (no lint!) I had been using to wipe the Lard off. They are fully seasoned now and ready for cooking..





By the way, there is no need to fully dry the iron once you get it from the last water rinse, oil it as quick as you can all over, what water is left will evaporate right through the oil, and the iron will never flash rust if you oil it while it is still wet. It don't hurt NOTHING.

[Cloverdale]

Nice find and treatment.

[zymguy]

Some of this is starting to make sense. I think one of the biggest mistakes I made in the past is using to much oil when seasoning. This time around going to make sure it is a light coat followed by a good wiping before it goes into the oven.

me too

[beemer]

I have several CI pans including one my Grandmother started house keeping with. I fix my Mother breakfast almost every mourning and fry eggs in a small pan, no name but old and made in the USA and finished very nice inside. She used it a couple others to bake cornbread for many years so I guess they are seasoned.

I give it a shot of spray oil and fry two eggs sort of omelet style, rinse and dry while still hot and give a small shot of oil. The eggs never stick and it easily wipes out, I don't use it for anything else. I find that maintaining the condition is just as important as getting there. I have put in my claim for that pan.

I am not an avid cast iron collector so I have a question. Some pans have a ring on the bottom and some don't, what is the reason if there is one ? Dad preferred the flat ones, said they made better contact with the wood cookstove surface.

[Char-Gar]

I have several CI pans including one my Grandmother started house keeping with. I fix my Mother breakfast almost every mourning and fry eggs in a small pan, no name but old and made in the USA and finished very nice inside. She used it a couple others to bake cornbread for many years so I guess they are seasoned.

I give it a shot of spray oil and fry two eggs sort of omelet style, rinse and dry while still hot and give a small shot of oil. The eggs never stick and it easily wipes out, I don't use it for anything else. I find that maintaining the condition is just as important as getting there. I have put in my claim for that pan.

I am not an avid cast iron collector so I have a question. Some pans have a ring on the bottom and some don't, what is the reason if there is one ? Dad preferred the flat ones, said they made better contact with the wood cookstove surface.

I don't swear this is correct, but I have been told the ring on the bottom helped it fit into the stove eye of a wood cooking stove.

[DougGuy]

Char-Gar is correct. The heat ring fits down into the recess in the wood stove where the eye cover was removed. Without it, there is no seal and smoke would fill the kitchen.

I have several CI pans including one my Grandmother started house keeping with. I fix my Mother breakfast almost every mourning and fry eggs in a small pan, no name but old and made in the USA and finished very nice inside. She used it a couple others to bake cornbread for many years so I guess they are seasoned.

I give it a shot of spray oil and fry two eggs sort of omelet style, rinse and dry while still hot and give a small shot of oil. The eggs never stick and it easily wipes out, I don't use it for anything else. I find that maintaining the condition is just as important as getting there. I have put in my claim for that pan.

You have to "float" eggs in cast iron, with butter or cooking spray, they will stick on even the most glossy black seasoned pans so you are doing this right. My egg skillet only gets eggs as well, cooked in a puddle of butter. It's an old no name that I found hanging in a roadside antique store in the mountains of Virginia.

I actually committed the equivalent of a felony in cast iron circles, by taking a wire wheel on a grinder to the outsides of it, but I wanted to preserve the decades of seasoning cooked onto the inside while the outside was SO gunked up it was pitiful. It was a no name, no collector value skillet. DO NOT do this to your Grandmother's iron okay?

[beemer]

Char-Gar, might be correct with some pans. I do know some kettle bottoms fit in the eye of a stove. I know the ring on some pans will not fit the eye.

Thinking about it a bit, I know that's dangerous, could it be that the ring will help it sit flat if the bottom is warped outward a bit.

I was given a rather large dutch oven, it has a handle like a frying pan and nothing on the other side. Makes it rather useless in my opinion as it is would be hard to handle. I have been looking at the lodge dutch ovens, can't say I really need one but would like to have one. My step-daughter and her husband have a camper and use frequently. He likes to do most of the outdoor cooking. I watched him make an apple pie in a dutch oven, I was surprised, a small charcoal bed under it and several on top did the trick.

[DougGuy]

could it be that the ring will help it sit flat if the bottom is warped outward a bit

It works well if you have to use it on a glass cooktop. The glass has to go somewhere when it gets hot, so the portion that heats actually pushes upward into an arch that makes any pan spin and makes it cook hotter in the middle where it's touching the pan. I hate those things. Most inefficient heating method ever invented.

[beemer]

DougGuy, we do have a glass cooktop, only thing I like about is it is easy to keep clean. I used gas for 40 years and I really liked it but our supplier went to over $4.15 a gallon pus tank rent unless you bought into a locked in price. There service got to be a joke.

I dug out my Grandmother's pan and looked it over, it is a cheep pan with a very uneven castings on the bottom. I do know it came in a set with a No. 8 cook stove. Still it was my Grandmother's pan, I guess my Dad ate a lot of fried squirrel from that pan. She passed in "89 when Hugo came through at 94 years, she was one tough old gal.