How to best season the surface of a new cast iron griddle?

Question

When you cook on a "new, casy iron" cooking pan, grill or griddle, etc. the stuff cooked sticks on the surface very easily. I heard somewhere the sticking may be avoided or reduced by "seasoning" the cast iron surface. I'd like to know what is the best way to do this.

Answer 1

turn your oven up to 350
take some crisco liberally apply it to the cast iron you can also use vegetable oil
stick in oven let bake for an hour or so
allow to cool wipe off any extra crisco
Never use soap and water to clean it with
whats going on is that cast iron has all these little pores in it. seasoning fills up those pores with oil .

Answer 2

Cast Iron Seasoning
See that label on your Lodge cast iron? It says that you should bake your piece at 350* for one hour. Tear that label off and throw it away! 350* is for wussies!
I called and talked to the fine people at Lodge, and they said that your should really cure cast iron at 450-500*. They said that they list 350* on their packaging because they don't want people to wig out if their piece started to smoke at 500*.
So, with that in mind, here is how you should cure your cast iron. ~~NOTE~~ If you are using Lodge Logic, which is pre-seasoned, you do NOT need to cure your piece before you use it. It's already been done for you.

Wash and rinse thoroughly. Make sure the skillet is bone dry before trying to cure.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place cold skillet in oven while it is preheating. Check on it every couple of minutes. You want to pull it out when it is very warm, but not too hot to handle comfortably.

Remove skillet from oven, put 1 tablespoon of Crisco (solid, not the liquid kind) in the center of the pan. Let it melt most of the way.

Smear the Crisco over every surface and into every nook and cranny. You want an ultra-thin coating. You want to be able to feel it on the iron, but not see it.

~Tip~ If you're curing a skillet lid, don't use a paper towel,
because the "basting spikes" on the underside of the lid will
destroy it in no time. Use a sacrificial terry towel. I bought
a 10-pack of terry "bar towels" at Wal-Mart for $3.


Place into a 500 degree oven and let it bake for 2 hours. Turn on your vent, it may smoke a little bit as the Crisco breaks down.

Leave the skillet in the oven until it is completely cool. For some reason, the iron reacts better to a long, slow cool down time.
If your cure should come out a little spotty or uneven, don't panic. Just store the skillet in the oven and leave it in while you bake other things. After each heating, take it out and wipe it down with pure canola oil and return it to the oven. Eventually the skillet will turn jet black.

Repeat this process at least one more time before using the skillet for the first time.

For the first actual use, brown ground beef, fry bacon, or best of all fry a chicken. After cooking, wipe out the accumulated fat and bits until a paper towel comes out reasonably clean.

~TIP~ If you need to scrub the skillet, don't use water. Pour
some kosher salt in the bottom of the pan, pour in enough
oil to make a paste, and then scrub with a paper towel.
Wipe out all of the oil and the salt and wipe down with
fresh oil and you're all set.


Wipe down with pure canola oil while the skillet is still hot. Again, you want the thinnest possible coating of oil.
Don't use Pam or anything other than pure canola oil. I've found that several canola oil sprays leave a nasty residue on the metal if it reaches a certain temperature, but pure canola oil doesn't. Repeat this step after every single use as maintenance.


DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT cure the cast iron with ordinary canola, peanut, or vegetable oil. Using these will result in a sticky, brown, uneven cure.

Answer 3

first of all, never wash your cast iron skillet with soap/detergent. always just wash out with a scrubber and hot water. pat dry. put a little bit of cooking oil on the pan and spread it all around the pain with a paper towel. each time you cook with the skillet, the oils from the foods "season" the pan. additionally, adding oil to it helps keep foods from sticking the next time you use it. the more it is used, the quicker it will become "seasoned".

Answer 4

Put a healthy portion of vegeteble oil and 1/4 cup salt put on high heat till smoking. that will season for a time but if you use any metal utensils it will need to be done everytime you cook. Most importantly wash with oil and paper towl after use, no soap and water.

Answer 5

anny fatty meat ; chiken legs ,pork , lamb. crisco works well
never use soap and watter to wash a cast iron pan ect. instead coat the bottom with about 4 tbs salt and use a paper towl to wipe salt around pan after losse greese or oil has ben removed. never use spray on oils to greese the pan as it will cause it to rust
it will take several weeks of steady use to get your pan well seasoned
do not cook sauces in castiron as they will lift oils out of them

Answer 6

In this case, Mr. Danger has answered the question correctly. Coat with shortening, "bake" in the oven for an hour or so, let it cool, then wipe off the excess. Process may be repeated as needed, should you put your cast ironware in water.

Answer 7

When you buy one put a teaspoon oil in it...than put in the oven for 30Min's at 300 degrees that's call seasoning the pan....after clean over with a paper towel ready to go..never wash it with soapy water use some salt and little oil and clean and rise it

Answer 8

Coat with oil (peanut is the best because of the high burn temperature then put over low heat for 1/2 hour. Wipe out and do this again.

Answer 9

Wash it before you use it and use seasoning on the griddle the first few times of use.

Answer 10

You have to rub it all over and bake it in the oven for an hour.

I did that every week for a year, and nothing happened...it didn't turn black.

My little pan that I make bacon in turned black.

So season your pan by making bacon.