Posted on 08/27/2017 5:07:42 PM PDT by djf
Hello!
I bought a large (12 in diameter) cast iron pan at a garage sale today.
It has been only very lightly used, the manufacturers name LODGE is plainly visible on the bottom. Little or no burned grease or discoloration evident.
So I did wash it once very lightly with mostly water but just a hint of soap and am now trying to season it.
I put in about a tablespoon of unscented coconut oil and let that melt and worked it in with a paper towel, then turned off the heat.
So I am wondering about the best approach to season it. I know that means NEVER washing it with soap again... but what else should I do? Rub it down with salt or a salt/oil mix? Heat it till it starts smoking? I guess all these years I've used good quality teflon and never had to worry about it!
TIA!
One #10 GRISWOLD, one GRISWOLD pancake cooker, an unlabeled #8 LODGE. These three mom bought before I was born 71 years ago. Cooked biscuits last week in it. Wife cooked corn bread in it two weeks ago.
Cooked potatoes and eggs and a roast a not long ago.
I also have several Wagners to go along with them.
You can tell the unlabeled LODGE because of the stove “ring” on the bottom with three gaps in it.
Early ones are better because they were very smooth on the inside, not rough like today’s LODGE or Very Rough like those made in China today.
Then there are the dutch ovens, but that is another story.
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Guck!!!
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I have a cast-iron skillet. I use it to cook my Friday fish dinners in. A Lodge. And I sure as Hell didn’t season it with crappy vegetable oil.
But .... I do not like the taste of eggs fried in a teflon or ceramic pan. And my cast iron is as slick as any teflon ...
We just checked ours, which belonged to my husband’s grandmother. It’s a Martin Stove and Range, which produced from 1917 to 1953; ours is probably quite old, as it belonged originally to the Great Grandma.
ES, what would you suggest to use in a cake recipe that calls for ‘vegetable oil’ - I assume something like Wesson? I have a carrot cake recipe that originally called for that, and I don’t know what to use now that I’m trying to use better oils.
Could be ... The good thing is, today we have a wider variety of tools. Some folks like the teflon, ceramic, etc. I like stainless steel for acidic foods.
I do the same. No way I’m leaving something unwashed sitting around, much less making food in it.
I wash mine every night with Dawn and a scrubbie, dry it with a paper towel. Good as new, and will last forever.
I know this makes the “seasoning” crowd grind their teeth in horror - but it works for me.
I wouldn’t even want a fried egg that wasn’t fried in bacon fat.
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Do a little more research. Wagner goes back to the late 1800s.
***why are so many manufacturers have gone out of business?***
Because the old ones, if you take care of them, last forever. and “modern” moms want non stick teflon which will scratch and scrape off.
I rarely see a good quality cast iron skillet at a junk store. In the last thirty years I have bought three old nasty looking ones cheap. Cleaned them up and when I burned off the hardened grease they turned out to be very old good quality cast iron.
I’ve heard that a person who eats food cooked in cast iron never will have an iron deficiency.
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Wire cup brush on a welder’s grinder is the best way to clear a pot.
6” to 8” work best.
De gustibus ... I like ‘em fried in bacon fat, but also in olive oil. Totally different taste.
I have an old ERIE Griswold someone abused. There is a large crack in the side of it. I am trying to talk myself into making something like a clock out of it,
BI JUST CAN’T!
That’s how I seasoned my cast iron skillet.
My husband is fond of cast-iron cooking, but I am not.
Pinto beans festival in Pittsburgh. Great beans and cornbread and bluegrass music!
Well good for you
You probably bought one that was pre seasoned.
If you look up videos by Jeff Rogers on YouTube, he is the Iron master.
My mom bought a two stage porcellan on steel skillet about twenty years ago. You cooked with the upper, and a small depression caught the grease below.
First try with eggs, the eggs stuck so bad, she took the skillet and dropped it in the trash.
My experience is thin teflon skillets warp something terrible.
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