[Aracelis]

Throwing in my 0.02 as an advocate of butter to season cast iron cookware. I have a lovely small skillet that I use only to prepare eggs, and nothing but butter ever touches it.

[Fracas]

After the seasoning, you can clean the skillet by pouring in a generous amount of salt and scrubbing with paper towels. I have one skillet designated for cornbread, and this cleaning method works very well.

For the readers here, Robert Parker's 'Spenser' character uses this method on his cast iron skillets.

[RonF]

The methods cited here look good; clean it well, dry it so there's no rust, coat it with oil/lard, heat it up good.

However, one important caveat: DO NOT USE CORN OIL!!!! It leaves a gummy residue that doesn't season to the proper surface you want. It stays sticky. I did this once and had to re-clean and re-season the pan. My personal preference is lard, followed by Crisco. If you go with oil, peanut oil is the way to go.

[RonF]

I thought Scouts-L was bad. This comes up about once every 6 months there, and usually about a dozen people weigh in. How many of you folks are Scouters?

[duckln]

Eggs work great in my little vintage cast iron skillet. I put my electric burner on high and nothing sticks to it. If it does, I put back on the burner, and when hot again, pour in 1/4 cup of water. It zizzles up in steam and I wipe it dry wet paper towel.

Often I add olive oil to the butter when frying an egg, this always really shines up the skillet.

The trick is, hot and olive oil.

[S.O.S121.500]

Click on:http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=976&item=748378363&rd=1 and see a real good reason to take GOOD care of your cast iron ware.

[gnarledmaw]

Excellent resources for questions on all old timey methods of everything...

http://www.homesteadingtoday.com

BTW, I always use lard. Non-salted animal fats produce a better finish faster.

[boris]

Find a Democrat. CLAAAANG!

[mhking]

Bump for later care and feeding...

[Ditter]

Sorry I meant to include your name on post #78.

[Professional]

It's the season to reseason cast iron skillets, fall la la la la la lah.

[1Old Pro]

OIL

[strela]

I got rid of my cast-iron skillets long ago (too labor-intensive for lazy me - my Calphalon stuff works a lot better). However, I did keep the cast-iron cornbread molds my mother used. I've found nothing better to make great cornbread.