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

Using stick Crisco now. I used to use lard for my skillets and Dutch ovens, but if I didn't use the ovens for awhile, they would smell like a skunks rear end when I went to use them.

I just use vegetable oil.

A batch of cornbread with lotsa bacon grease.

Bacon grease and vegetable oil.

video posted to YouTube on Jan 2, 2022
YouTube channel: Cowboy Kent Rollins [2.4M subscribers]

Cowboy Kent is fun to watch!

Ron

I have grapeseed oil laying around, I'll start using that

You mean initial seasoning? That was a long time ago. I think lard.

I don't apply anything, generally speaking, to maintain the season on my cast iron. Generally, whatever oil or grease was in it from cooking is what gets added to the season. After rinsing it out with hot water and a brush, followed by a cold water rinse, I wipe it with a paper towel and place it on the stove on high till it smokes. Then I take it off. Done. The smoking is the residual oils (from the last time you cooked, left on the surface after rinsing and brushing) polymerizing on the surface (and carbonizing), which adds to the season, or replaces lost season.

If properly done, there's no oil becoming rancid, because it's been polymerized onto the surface.

I use bacon grease if available and vegetable oil if I have no bacon grease.

Yep, if there's not enough oil on it from the last cook, I tend to use bacon grease. Just a tiny bit on a paper towel, and wipe it on, then onto the hot stove top till it smokes.

same here

Grape seed oil

I have been cooking in cast iron using olive oil. It has given my cast iron the best non stick surface I have found. All I can say, is give it a try.

I had always used bacon grease or vegetable oil. Olive oil was an upgrade.

West Texas Intermediate, sparingly.

Flax seed is what the wife has used.

Bore Butter ..

Cowboy Ken is entertaining, but he gets a lot of stuff wrong...also, he's just "clickbait". That said, I would agree that flaxseed oil is expensive overkill and it flakes.

I also agree, smoking oil is extra oil on the surface of the pan, not polymerized oil...two different things.

I've used leaf lard for cooking, baking, and CI seasoning for years. Season new CI 1-2 times and start cooking with it...cooking builds seasoning, don't waste time "re-seasoning"

One of the best maintenance things you can do for seasoned CI is to scramble eggs in them...don't know why, but it puts a real nice black sheen back on the skillet.

Salted butter, just heat it till it melts, wipe it off and store the pan. Oh,and don't let your wife anywhere near them!

What ever is handy. I even scrub the cast iron (gasp!) every so often with a SS scrubby. Re season on the stove.