Thread: Cast Iron Skillet Advice

Buy the best used on take it home and wash good with soap and water Yes with soap and water. Rinse very good heat oven to highest temp 500 let oven heat up. Wipe with oil inside and out. Turn upside down or up on a piece of heavy duty foil or pan below rack allow cast iron to cook at high temp for 4 hours then let cool in oven for 4 hours. You will have a glazed cured ready to cook Cast
Iron Pot or Skillet that will last you a life time. Even if you buy a new one If you follow this procedure you will pass on to next generation. Some Old timers would build a hot fire with wood and place pot on coals and fill up with oil and let burn.

To clean after using if frying Bacon etc just wipe out if you decide to clean can use a light soapy water rinse good then put on stove burner on low heat for about 15 to 20 minutes. then wipe lightly with oil . the more you do this the more glaze you will have. I ave on from grandparents and is well over 100 years old. Looks like a well cured cast iron pot. I use for frying fish in or Black Pot Chicken or what ever. It sits on display in out kitchen. If you cure your self and do it right you will never be disappointed and can use and will enjoy.
There will be smoke at first for a while but pick a day open your windows, I put a little Rosemary and Thyme in mine when I do this it has a pleasant smell

lester is giving good advice. Most of the time people in the know about cast iron will recommend you never use soap on a well seasoned piece. Soap and water is fine..to do a quick wash...as long as you reseason it like Lester is telling you. Remember also, that unless something is stuck, you can just wipe it out and store it in your oven. Nothing is going to be in the pan to hurt you...with the tempetures you use to cook with anyways.

I have a little different method of seasoning..but both works. I don't run them in for 4 hours. Once the cast iron quits smoking in the oven, you pretty much have everything burnt off and cured. Its important to let the piece cool in the oven. Remember seasoning cast iron is like painting a board. Each time you use cast iron, its like putting another coat of paint on the board, it only gets smoother and better.

The only thing that I do recommend is you don't cook anything containing tomatos in the pot or skillet until you have at least 8 seasoning sessions behind you. The acid will eat the seasoning up.

Poppop that is starting to make sense. My wife makes buffalo chile in one of our cast iron pan. It comes out real bad the pan not the chile. Now I understand that it is the acid that makes the cast iron hard to clean and reseason. Guess we wil have to find another pot for chile.

Thank for the advice.

Redman

Redman...if you use the pan for frying 7 or 8 times, or another good way is to make a few pones of corn bread in it first...either one before you make the chili and it will be okay...never let a tomato based meal sit in the cast iron for more than a few minutes. If you can't get the cast iron back the way it should be...send it to me....and I will fix it for you.