How to season a cast iron skillet

[Brian Kent]

I just covered our cast iron skillets with vegetable oil and put them in the oven to season. My wife says that vegetable oil will not work. I am only going on my own experience and a couple of websites that say you can use shortening or oil. One website said shortening only - no oil.

What are your expert opinions?

[David Weaver]

I also like animal fats for it.

But I'd prefer to get the seasoning through use of the pan.

I think if you put the oven high enough, you'll smoke most of the vegetable oil, but you'll get enough rust protection on the pans for now and be able to get seasoning by use as you go along.

That is just my opinion from my own use, though, and people with a lot more experience might know better.

[Gary Hodgin]

I recently seasoned what I think is called a dutch oven. It's a caste iron pan with a caste iron lid. I used canola oil. Lightly coated and left in an oven preheated to 350 for about an hour. I did this twice and it seems to have turned out fine. With use it will only get better. This was something of my mom's and I'd had it in storage for about 12 years. Some rust which I removed with camellia oil and a white scotch pad.

I also have one of mom's caste iron skillets which we use every now and then. It's well-seasoned and I'm sure it was done through use, not the oil treatment. Caste iron is a bit inconvenient to clean and maintain but worth it.

P.S. I have no experience on this, just what I did.

[Belinda Barfield]

Brian, I have to side with your wife on this one. Vegetable oils, particularly the lighter ones, burn off to quickly to adequately "season" a pan. I prefer good old fashioned lard, with shortening as a second choice. For shortening I like Snowdrift but can't find it locally anymore. You aren't doing anything "wrong" by using vegetable oil, it just doesn't work as well. It can also tack up on the pan and cause sticking.

[Rod Sheridan]

Brian, my wife being English grew up with cast iron pans and continues to use them.

We haven't found a difference between lard, vegetable shortening and Virgin Olive Oil in use.

In fact the olive is more convenient as we tend to have it in a pump spray bottle on the counter.

The trick of course is to maintain the seasoning, and not to put them in dishwasher as my eldest daughter did once when we were away on vacation.........Rod.

[Rob Damon]

We seasoned ours outside on the gas grill. Turn all the burners on high, coat the skillet and leave it. That way the cast iron gets nice and hot and you don't have to worry about the smoke inside the house in the kitchen. Also after you cook with it and wash it, don't just dry it with a towel or let it air.

My grandmother would put it on the old wood stove for a few minutes to remove all of the moisture. We just put on the stove for a few minutes. We have ones that are great even after over 30 years of use. Rob

[Jim Rimmer]

Here's a link to some good info on cast iron cookware care:
http://www.lodgemfg.com/use-care-sea...ast-iron.asp#3

[John Lohmann]

After seasoning fry a lot of bacon, it helps to season & it's tasty

[Jay Maiers]

My wife used vegetable oil the last time she seasoned out dutch oven. It was a sticky mess less than a week later. Bleh. I had to strip it down and start over with peanut oil.

[ray hampton]

I season my skillet in the oven at 400 degrees with as many strips of salt that will fit in the skillet until the bacon are crisp

[Ben Hatcher]

You may be surprised to learn that the oil recommended by this scientist is the food grade equivelent of good old BLO! Flaxseed oil!

http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/20...ing-cast-iron/

[Ryan Mooney]

One of the main things I've found with reseasoning is - don't use to much grease! If the grease is excessively thick (especially with vegetable) the polymer layer will be rather to thick and end up in lumps (which is probably what Jay saw actually). The actual science behind all this is moderately interesting (and closely related to traditional rust bluing techniques used for steel/gun parts). Searching for "vegetable oil polymerization" I found a rather good explanation at:
http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/
She recommends flax seed, but there is a very good discussion of alternatives and why in the comments section (actually the comments section there is quite an interesting read).
Perhaps even more interesting is her follow on discussion of what is effectively rust bluing (which I had never thought to apply to cast iron, but the principal is certainly sound and well understood)
http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/20...ron-seasoning/

[Ryan Mooney]

You may be surprised to learn that the oil recommended by this scientist is the food grade equivelent of good old BLO! Flaxseed oil!

http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/20...ing-cast-iron/

Hahah, I spent to much time reading the comments and you beat me to it

[Ben Hatcher]

Hahah, I spent to much time reading the comments and you beat me to it

That's one thing I love about people asking questions that they could just as easilly google themselves...I research them and learn a bunch of things about completely random topics.

[john lampros]

My experience with cast iron in the last 20 years is no mater which oil you use if it gets sticky you didnt bake it long enough. the oil has to " dry" thoroughly to season well. they never see soap and get rinsed immediately after use and dried. And I have to keep the DW away from them. I once found a pan "soaking " in the sink and she was banned from the kitchen for months. But most of the other cast iron in my house gets waxed so wood slides across it in a smooth sensual manner. She isnt allowed near them either.