Pan? Do you mean a skillet?
Bacon.
Light coating of cooking oil and heat in the oven for while.
And don’t worry about soap later, just avoid scrub pads.
You just said you oiled it, heated it and let it cool. You did season it.
BTW, I have grandma’s iron skillet and it’s been put in hot soapy water and scrubbed with a metal scrubby a couple times a week for the past 100 years. It works just fine.
It is gonna stick no matter what is done. Unless yu have the food swimming in lard.
Lodge, best cookware anywhere.S. Pittsburg, Tn. Lasts a lifetime.
Use vegetable oil. Use a paper towel and rub no more than a tbl of vegetable oil on the inside.....all around. Place in an oven that has been preheated to 250 F for 45 min. Remove allow to cool. Place a til or two of salt in a paper towel. Hold firmly and rub down inside of pan. Repeat oil and salt once more. Finish with one last oil.
Should be good to go
Put it in the oven for 1 hour at 350, upside down. Lay it on the rack and put something like a cookie sheet on the next rack underneath it to catch possible drips from the oil. Let it cool after baking and remove. There are YouTube videos on seasoning. I used flax seed oil based on recommendations.
No soap. Bacon advice is good. Are you sure it wasn’t already seasoned?
It turned out a beautiful glossy black. It could probably use another go at it.
I just put some hot water in mine, loosen food, dump out the water, wipe with a wet paper towel, and put in the oven upsidedown just until it is dry. Then put it away when cool.
There are tons of different tricks for restoring them on youtube.
Wipe a light coat of bacon grease inside and out. Put a cookie sheet on the lower oven rack to catch any drips. Put the cast iron on the upper rack. Crank the oven to 500 degrees and go watch an old movie on TCM. After 2-3 hours, turn off the heat and when the pan cools sufficiently wipe off any excess. You’re looking for the grease to cook into the metal and fill all the mini craters in the metal. Most times you can simply wipe out the pan after cooking. If you have to wash it, just use water and dry the pan immediately. Water left to dry results in rust. If you screw up the seasoning, just repeat the process.
start cooking with it - you’re ready to go.
It will turn black soon enough
Lodge is the best. I have one skillet that’s probably 40 years old and another one 20 years.
I usually clean mine with a paper towel and always keep it oiled down with vegtable or canola oil. Spray entire skillet and wipe down with a paper towel.
They can last a thousand years if properly kept.
I actually have recipes (about 700) and cooking notes on my phone that I can access anytime.
Here is my note on seasoning cast iron (I prefer to cook on cast iron or carbon steel):
How Do I Season My Cast Iron
To season, first you scrub off the shipping grease and any bit of metal filings left over from the manufacturing process. Do this with hot water and a sponge. Then follow the instructions that come with the pan for proper seasoning or research your own desired method. Some people recommend cooking the peels of potatoes in heaps of salt and oil in the pan. For some, it involves heating the pan with salt. For most people, though, seasoning simply requires heating the pan in a 500-degree F oven for an hour or so after rubbing a few drops of high-temperature resistant oil into it. Repeat this process a few times and you’ll be good to go.
Here’s what I did step by step:
1. I put the pan upside down on a jelly roll pan lined with aluminum foil. This was to get the beeswax off. I turned the oven to 250 degrees for 20 min. then wiped off the beeswax with a paper towel. I put it back in the oven for about 5-8 minutes more then wiped the pan with the paper towel again.
2. I washed the pan by hand in warm soapy dish water.
3. I covered the pan with Crisco shortening (solid Crisco that comes in a can). I didn’t have flaxseed oil as most people had recommended so I went with what I did have. I covered the entire inside and outside of the pan with Crisco using a paper towel. I put it back on the jelly roll pan, without the aluminum foil. I baked it at 400 degrees for an hour then let it sit in the oven until it was completely cold, then I did this process all over again once more. It came out with a nice, black patina on the bottom of the pan.
4. I took it out of the oven and applied Olive oil all over the inside with a paper towel.
2) This process is a little lengthy, but well worth the effort—especially since re-seasoning pans is a giant pain.
1) Obtain flaxseed oil, either from Amazon (which we’ve linked to) or in the vitamins and supplements section of your grocery store.
2) Make sure your pan is either new or stripped of its seasoning (if you leave the pan in your oven during a self-cleaning cycle, this will do the trick).
3) Heat the pan in an oven at 200°F for 15 minutes to open up the pores in the pan itself.
4) Remove the pan from the oven and add 1 Tbsp. of flaxseed oil to the pan, then rub the oil thoroughly into the pan using tongs and a paper towel.
5) The pan should be cool enough to touch at this point; if so, then completely remove the oil from the pan by rubbing it dry with clean paper towels. If it’s still too hot to touch, wait a few minutes, then rub the pan dry. The pan should be completely matte again, with no sign of glistening oil.
6) Place the pan face-down in a cool oven, then set the oven to 500°F (or whatever your highest setting is) and bake for one hour.
7) Turn off the oven and allow the pan to cool for two hours while still in the oven.
8) Repeat the process five more times, or until the pan develops a dark, semi-matte surface.
Cambria from The Kitchn states that this method took her over 18 hours from start to finish, but left her with a pan that had an excellent preliminary seasoning; as she continued to cook with the new surface, she found that not only did the pan become even more nonstick with each use, but that it was an absolute snap to clean.
Use it. A lot. Fry bacon in it. Don't overheat it, don't underheat it. I cook bacon at a 6 or 7 out of 10 setting on my electric stove.
I use one all the time. There is no secret to it. Every time I use it, I wash it with dish washing detergent just like everything else.
I don’t scrub the outside, just rinse it. I then put it on the burner for a short time and spray the inside with Pam. That leaves too heavy a coat so I take a paper towel and wipe it as dry as the towel allows.
I have never had even the slightest hint of rust.
My Mother cooked on one for nearly 70 years. I think it was the same pan too. She once wondered out loud, how many thousands of meals it had cooked.
Lodge is good stuff. I’ve got a couple other cast-iron skillets that haven’t been used yet. One has a slight amount of rust so I’ll have to re-season it.
I used this method:
https://www.cooksillustrated.com/how_tos/5820-the-ultimate-way-to-season-cast-iron
I used this oil:
http://www.seitenbacher.com/Seitenbacher_Oil/seitenbacher_flax_oil.htm
I was very happy with the results. I wipe it with another thin layer of oil after each use/cleaning (avocado, olive, or refined coconut oil).
Still don’t own one. Can’t lift it.