Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What Are You Using To Season Your Cast Iron?

I too have had great, long lasting success with flaxseed oil. Got a friend that takes the easy way out. He carries his cast iron to his favorite Chinese restaurant and gets them to season them. Gives them $5 per cast iron ware. Didn’t remember the oil they used, maybe sesame seed oil. What ever they use on their woks. Durable and takes like 5 minutes per item.

Love my cast iron especially Mama Lou’s 8” Griswold I inherited. Make cornbread generally every other day in it. Recently made chicken and dressing and cooked it in the Griswold instead of a Pyrex dish. Multiple pieces picked up at yard sales and junk shops and restored.

But, but, cowboy Kent says it’s too brittle!

Curious?

I have never seasoned my Dutch ovens, which are another essential cooking tool, FO SURE!

How many of you guys season your Dutch Ovens, and why does ceramic need seasoning?

Thanks!

KB

Crisco. It’s what my grandmother always used and works fine. I still have hers and my great grandmother’s frying pans.

Ceramic does not. Also the ceramic coating can crack if heated on stove top while empty.

Cook with them.

Yep,doing some hot wings in one today.

This is it ^ ^ ^
There's no special oils or pastes needed, or no
elaborate procedures or voodoo.
After it's sanded down smooth, wash the hooey
out of it and use it.
And there's no special imported exotic wood
utensils needed. Use whatever you regularly
use in the kitchen.
I can assure you that my ancestors that used
cast iron and stamped steel cooking vessels
never bought any special preparations or
cooking utensils to "season " their pots and
pans. First and foremost, they didn't have the
money to buy special stuff, and bought what
they did because it was cheap and durable.
My grandma would probably laugh at a bunch
of these people who insist that you need some
special grease or oil, or an exotic imported
hardwood spoon or spatula. She used the
old crap she had since the early 1900's
that she probably trader the peddler a
hen and some eggs, or a couple of pounds
of butter for.
The "seasoning " myth is a recent yuppie
cooking show phenomenon that everybody's
latched on to. Just use what you have and
take care of it, and it'll last for more than
100 years like a few of the C.I. and steel
cook vessels I use.

Canola oil, lard.

My grandmother used nothing but cast iron and went to great lengths to maintain the seasoning. I remember that from when I was a kid in the 1960s (I remember thinking how backwards grandma was for using that old, black, heavy, stuff to cook with). My mother remembered grandma carefully maintaining it, too, when she was little in the 1930 and 1940s, and even then grandma's cookware was old, and had been in her family for many years.

I inherited one of her skillets, but gave it to my nephew's wife, who had a great interest in it.

I do agree with you about cooking utensils. I use whatever I want, without concern for damaging the seasoning, since each time you cook, you're reapplying it anyway.

Best thing I ever found for seasoning a skillet was bear fat. Render down the fat from a black bear into lard and you will never have a problem with things sticking. Bear makes the best lard I have ever used.

Slight tangent:

When you oil your CI, do you wipe the outside/bottom of the pan?

Initially, I do, but after that just the interior.

I've heard that as well.

Do you have a gas range? It seems the blue flame erodes the bottom seasoning, then they can get some rust.

You can fry bacon, and eggs in a cast skillet using an arctiine torch.

Mine usually get hit with the SS scrubby under running water.
No harder than necessary.

You can buy olive oil in aerosol cans(Pam).
Expensive but convenient to give it a toot, wipe.
Set it back on the hot stove.

It is cast iron, after all.

I should have also added that many have the
impression that "seasoning " is like a coat of
paint or powder coat.
"Seasoning " is down inside the pores of the
cast iron, and can't be scraped off.
If you're able to scrape anything off, that's just
burned gunk, and needs to come off anyway
before it gets hot and pops off in little flakes in
your food and on the stove. Might even start a
fire if it lands on the wrong thing.

Use it like he posted earlier and enjoy it.
With minimal care your descendants will
be using it and talking about it in the next
century
Good Luck

C’mon man!