How do you season an iron skillet?

Answer 1

Seasoning Cast Iron

Cast Iron Cookware must be seasoned properly and it will last a life-time. ( I still use my Grandmother's cast iron skillets on a regular basis and they must be at least 60-70+ years old.)

New Pans
Heat the oven to 250o - 300o
Coat the pan with lard or bacon grease. Don't use a liquid vegetable oil because it will leave a sticky surface and the pan will not be properly seasoned.
Put the pan in the oven. In 15 minutes, remove the pan & pour out any excess grease. Place the pan back in the oven and bake for 2 hours.
Repeating this process several times is recommended as it will help create a stronger "seasoning" bond.

Also, when you put the pan into service, it is recommended to use it initially for foods high in fat, such as bacon or foods cooked with fat, because the grease from these foods will help strengthen the seasoning.

Pans needing Re-Seasoning
If the pan was not seasoned properly or a portion of the seasoning wore off and food sticks to the surface or there is rust, then it should be properly cleaned and re-seasoned.

Remove any food residue by cleaning the pan thoroughly with hot water and a scouring pad. I understand that heating the pan first to a temperature that is still safe to touch helps open the pores of the metal and makes it easier to clean.
Dry the pan immediately with dish towel or paper towel.
Season the pan as outlined above.
Caring for Cast Iron Cookware
Seasoning a cast iron pan is a natural way of creating non-stick cookware. And, like you cook and clean the modern non-stick cookware with special care to avoid scratching the surface, your cast iron cookware wants some special attention too.

Clean the cookware while it is still hot by rinsing with hot water and scraping when necessary. Do not use a scouring pad or soap (detergent) as they will break down the pan's seasoning.
Never store food in the cast iron pan as the acid in the food will breakdown the seasoning and the food will take on a metallic flavor.
Store your cast iron cookware with the lids off, especially in humid weather, because if covered, moisture can build up and cause rust. Should rust appear, the pan should be re-seasoned.
When you purchase cast iron cookware, they are medium gray in color, but after usage, they start turning darker. (My pans are very black in color.) This is normal and should be expected.

Answer 2

STEP 1: Scrub a new skillet with steel wool to remove its protective coating, and wash with mild, soapy water. (If reseasoning an old skillet, just scrub with hot water and a brush.) STEP 2: Use a paper towel to coat the skillet with vegetable oil. STEP 3: Heat, uncovered, for 2 hours in an oven at 250 degrees F. STEP 4: Let cool before use. Tips & Warnings
Once you've seasoned a skillet, avoid washing it with soap whenever possible. Clean instead by wiping with a damp cloth after each use. If you must wash it, clean with mild soap, avoiding detergents and scouring pads; rinse and wipe dry immediately after washing, then oil lightly with vegetable oil.
If food sticks to the skillet after cooking, rub with a paper towel and an abrasive such as salt, then reapply vegetable oil. Store uncovered.
If food starts sticking to the skillet during cooking, reseason it.

Answer 3

Best if u can put it into an open fire and let it burn off any residue. Cool, then wash with warm water with a tiny bit of dish detergent. Dry well and use lard or crisco and grease it inside and out. My mother used to put it into a cotton pillow case that was used only for that purpose and let it set for a day, then take it out and heat it slightly and wipe all the grease off with a soft cloth. Store until ready to use again.

Answer 4

1) Scrub off the protective coating
2) wipe the inside & Outside really well with Vege oil or crisco
3) bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour
4) repeat steps 2 & 3 as many times as you want Generally 2 or 3 times.

***WARNING!!! Expect to see smoke coming from your oven Because the oil smokes as it bakes in to the cast Iron

Answer 5

You heat up some sort of oil in the skillet. I don't know if butter or vegetable or peanut is better. Maybe just a good old batch of bacon.

Here's a bunch of info though.

http://huntsville.about.com/cs/food/ht/Cast_Iron.htm

Answer 6

1. Remove any labels, and if the manufacturer has included some printed instructions on how to season the piece, throw it away quick before you read it. Wash the piece well by hand with regular hand-type dishwashing detergent. Dry it thoroughly. NEVER put cast-iron cookware in the dishwasher.

2. Rub a relatively thin coat of oil all over the piece with the fingertips. Animal fats are not really suitable, as the carbon formed is usually quite soft, not nearly as hard as vegetable oils. One cooking-lady-about-town has always recommended using mineral oil, but since Ol' Jack doesn't fry his eggs in mineral oil, he doesn't use it to season skillets either. Jack himself uses almost any kind of vegetable oil, even bottom-grade olive oil, but generally likes regular Mazola or Wesson oil types the best.

3. Such oils as Wesson oil or Mazola will become tacky as they air dry, and the piece should be allowed to air dry for perhaps two to four days, turned upside down on a newspaper to absorb drips. If an oven with a pilot light is available, its temperature should be about 110 to 120 degrees, and drying in such an oven will speed the process. Once the piece has become tacky to the touch, handling it very carefully so as not to leave fingerprints on the tacky surface, carefully BLOT (don't wipe) any drips that are not tacky. If the piece has shiny areas that are very tacky, the oil was too thick. If it has almost no tacky feel at all, the oil was too thin. In either case, it can be recoated. The application of new oil will dissolve or thin the oil on those shiny spots and it can then be wiped to a thinner coating. If the coating seems too thin, just add another thin layer.

4. All that remains to be done is to burn that oil coating to a layer of carbon. Put the piece upside down in the oven, with a sheet of aluminum foil on the bottom to catch any drips and turn up the heat. Ol' Jack, like a lot of other heavy-duty cooks won't let an electric oven or cooktop through the kitchen door, so his oven is gas. He sets it at 500 degrees and burns that pan for one hour.

5. Yes, you'll want the exhaust fan on, and all the ventilation you can get. It's always nice to do a few pieces at once, as the process does smoke up the kitchen, and who wants to do that every week? Let the cast-iron ware cool slowly in the oven for an hour or two after you turn off the heat, and voila! It's ready to use. If the carbon coating seems a little thin, the process can be repeated immediately.

No account of Cast Iron Jack McGrew's Ultimate Method would be complete without some instructions on washing, cleaning, and caring for the cookware after you've seasoned it, so take Ol' Jack's instructions to heart:

1. Rule #1 is NEVER cook at higher heat than is necessary to do the job.

2. Rule #2 is always try to remember to clean the piece while it's still hot. If it cools before you get around to cleaning it, it can be reheated. Sometimes a quick shot of a pan coating like PAM and 30 seconds on the burner will work wonders. Other times, just blistering hot water from the sink faucet will suffice.

3. Rule #3 is NEVER do any more cleaning than is necessary. If you've just fried a couple of eggs with a squirt of pan spray, at low heat, a quick wipe with a paper towel is probably going to be all that's necessary.

4. If a quick wipe with a paper towel won't do the job, hold it under that blistering hot water from the faucet and scrub it briskly with a stiff fiber brush; stiff enough to loosen any bits and pieces off carbonized food sticking to the pan. Remember, what you want that coating to be is carbonized oil, not carbonized groceries.

5. If there are still bits and pieces of carbonized food sticking to the pan, give it a quick swipe with an old, dull copper or stainless steel Chore-Girl. Don't use a new, sharp one; it'll scrape off your nice new seasoning. Avoid wire brushes like the plague. Don't even think about those nice yellow fabric things that have metal particles imbedded in them, and never, never use those space-age plastic scouring pads.


6. If it really becomes necessary to wash the thing in soap and water, go ahead and do it. That age old admonishment to never use soap has been handed down through the generations since "soap" was a home-made commodity consisting of lye and bear grease, and the lye alone was enough to strip the seasoning from a skillet. Modern detergents are about as much wetting agents as anything and have no relationship to what people meant when they said "soap" a hundred years ago. Just wash it in the sink, using your regular hand dishwashing detergent and a stiff bristle brush -- or even that old, dull Chore-Girl - dry it carefully, and when you're done put a few drops of vegetable oil in it and wipe it around with a paper towel until it's dry. Yes, the paper towel will be black. No, it isn't dirt. The black is carbon.


7. Eventually, after enough use and proper cleaning, that surface in your skillet will get to be just like Teflon or Silverstone type surfaces. It will require very, very little oil for most cooking.

Answer 7

Go with jo jo bab. It's the best answer and it's correct.

Answer 8

theonly page you need to learn how to season it.

jan