Recovering Gun Store Commando. My Blog: The Clue Meter
“It doesn’t matter what the problem is, the solution is always for us to give the government more money and power, while we eat less meat.”
Glenn Reynolds
I have been googling how to season a pan. The modern technique comes from Sheryl Canter And is approved by instructables.com
The basic idea is
1) use FlaxSeed oil
2) Heat the pan in a 200°F oven to be sure it’s bone dry and to open the pores of the iron
I'm going to third the sanding idea. I've done it a time or two to rusty old pans and get them in good shape. I also think the new ones are not smooth enough.
How are you cleaning them? What seems to work best for me is to let it cool after use then stick it in the oven where I keep them (not washing it or anything, just stick it in there oily and dirty). When I need it again, I run some hot tap water in it, let it set a couple minutes, then wipe it out with a scrubber sponge with no soap, then put it on the stove and heat it up to use it. Soap hurts the seasoning. Once in a while I'll run a little hot water in it and let it sit while I eat, then rinse and scrub with no soap before putting them away. Leaving them oily/dirty seems to work best though.
Seconded. When it comes to skillets, I only use cast iron for the most part. The key to getting them really nice is continual use and then not using soap to clean. I generally boil water after cooking, then pour that out while using a stiff plastic brush to lightly scrub the pan clean. Then I dry with a paper towel, and then lightly put a coat of oil on the pan and put it away when it's cool. YMMV, but this regimen has worked very well for us. The versatility of cast iron pans is pretty hard to beat in my opinion.
This is a thread where I built a boat I designed and which I very occasionally update with accounts of using it, which is really fun as long as I'm not driving over logs and blowing up the outboard.
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ilding-a-skiff
I still use enameled cast Fe for a lot of stuff but lodge pans are BS -- way more work than they're worth. I converted to Scanpans a long time ago for frying.
Ignore Alien Orders
How hot is the burner? Cast iron does best on low to med heat. They hold the heat so well that it's easy to overheat, which will stick.
It never hurts to hit the skillet with a some Pam or a little olive oil before you stat to use it. Convincing my wife to use low to med heat solved her sticking problem.
I've tried a few different lodge pans the only one left in the house is the griddle and thats only because I havent found a replacement yet. Now I use either inharited or ebay finds, the new cast iron is just inferior to the old stuff.
Another tip I've heard of an do is to use metel utensils over time using a metel spatula is said to help burnish in the surface. Havent been doing it long enough to say if its true or not but I figurd made what the heck cant hurt.