Waaaay OT: Question about seasoning Cast Iron

I bought a cheap chinese cast iron skillet for about $5. It was incredibly rough...as far as I could tell it was straight out of the casting sand. It definately needed smoothing down before seasoning.

Of course you did say "quality", and this was anything but.

Works just fine now though...

Chris

surface of a quality cast-iron skillet before seasoning it

JAMAIS!! NEVER!!

(okay.. that's it for the histrionics)

You NEVER, EVER put soap on a C.I. utensil. It phosphatizes the surface and makes food stick like a tick!. The phosphates in the soap bond to the iron and anything that touches it. This is the process they use to bond paint to metals. Just keep it clean with a scouring pad and hot water, oil with vegetable or olive oil and it will develop that rich patina that is so famous. Bugs

And one more thing: don't cook anything containing tomatoes in it, either, unless you enjoy reseasoning your cookware.

I think a lot of that sh*t was produced to be used for decorative purposes only, the one I have seems to have a heavy coating of varnish on it.

Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Okay, question about that process. I've been told to use lard, which I did. I found that as it heated up and lost viscosity, the surface tension of the lard cause it to bead up. Was I using too much, or too little? Would vegetable shortening respond any differently?

The only thing I use for cooking is cast iron. I've got 5 skillets, two other pots and 3 dutch ovens (all Lodge, wouldn't have anything else). They are all well seasoned and scrambled and fried eggs come out like it was non-stick. I've always used hot soap and water with a copper or plastic scouring pad. Make sure you dry it good on the stove after it's washed. Yeah, I've heard all the don't wash opinions but this works for me.

Fred

Too little. Slather it on like an albino putting on SPF-80 sunblock, then put some more on, and when you think you've got too much, add a little more and you'll be just about right.

Same thing if you choose to go with crisco or olive oil - Put it on until you think it's too much, and you're getting close to "just right".

Dammit, Don, you owe me half a coffee, and quite possibly, a new keyboard. Hot coffee stings the sinuses, for the record.

If I had had some on hand, I would have used it. I had Crisco, so used that. I agree with the lard idea, though. I did my 12" skillet with bacon drippings and it worked well.

-Phil Crow

Of course it did -

When you get right down to it, bacon drippings = "smoked/cured lard".

Do it just right, and you can "re-render" bacon drippings back to "straight lard" state, but it's not real practical to bother - just possible.

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In this case, that's pretty much right :)

Having a standing pool of oil/melted lard (or crisco) covering the entire bottom of the pan while it's "cooking in" is absolutely perfect.

I'll go with that if it's fresh (as in, start the chicken then go pick the tarragon).

Bill