Seasoning vs. Maintaining Cast Iron

yesterday -- in the thread "cast iron cooking" -- i described how i season my cast iron "from scratch" ... once i have my iron seasoned and cook on it, this is how i "maintain" my iron after every single cook (NOTE: i do not do this process after baking cornbread or deep frying & pouring/straining the oil out; i just wipe the skillet down of excess oil w/a lint free cloth & let them cool down)

1) rinse cast iron pan WHILE HOT in HOT WATER; never put hot iron under cold water, that *could* crack it ... sometimes i use a very, very small drop of Dawn (blue) & use a $1 nylon bristle brush to scrub the iron, inside & out, but when done, rinse good AND DRY IMMEDIATELY

2) turn the skillet, inside facing down, and put it on an eye on your oven on med/med-low heat & heat the pan up (see below)



3) once the skillet is pretty warm to the touch, wipe a thin coat of Crisco on the inside & outside of the pan; return it to the eye & turn it to med-hi heat

4) once the skillet starts to smoke, remove it from the heat, wipe excess Crisco off with a lint free cloth, and set aside to cool down; it should start looking like the below pic after only just a few cooks



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Cowboy Kent Rollins said cast iron's like a good woman; the better you maintain/treat her, the better she gets!! i do this maintenance cycle EVERY SINGLE TIME; don't be lazy with your iron ... about the only time that i will ever re-season inside my oven is if i feel like the iron needs it ... but rarely do i do a full seasoning cycle w/my iron, once i have it well-maintained like the above

i know some folks are gonna argue with me about rinsing cast iron; i'm not saying put it in your dishwasher nor keep it under water a prolonged period of time; emphasis on the words RINSE and DRY ... however you decide to get your iron cleaned up after a cook -- make sure you get all the food particles off your iron somehow before maintaining it with the steps above ... the hot rinse method works for me, and usually breaks loose any stuck-on particles of food (RARE for me); sometimes if a pan has something stuck on badly, i'll boil water in it on my stovetop & then transfer it to my sink & scrub w/that bristle brush & that usually knocks it in the head & gets it cleaned up nicely ...

i bought & restored this exact pan in August 2019 & it's been my primary user since that time; as you can see, the glass like, nice black patina is well on its way in just a few months of use

using the exact method above, this is what my previous main user looked like after about a year & a half of cooking, baking, and maintaining it; this is a new Lodge Pro-Logic 12" skillet i got off Amazon



this is how it looked right after i stripped off the Lodge factory seasoning & before i seasoned it up using Crisco

This is good info

Good Stuff 👍🏼 Thanks

I know very little about cast iron, other than how to clean it between uses. Why use crisco? Wouldn't lard work as well or better?

hey Fur, lard is certainly A-Ok; i like Crisco b/c its cheap & widely available (ie Dollar General) ... & the paste in the blue can is easy to work with

Just posted [cast iron] two pictures can you enlighten on them thanks birdcarver

Great job. I just deep fry something in mine when they need seasoning. Works great on the cooking surface doesn't do anything to the outside.

hey Semo, deep frying is also a great way to maintain iron 👍🏻 baking too

I only make cornbread for dressing about 3 times a year in my 2 skillets. They'd probably maintain better if I used them for lots of other stuff. We try to avoid fried food and do it in an air fryer when we do have it, so frying is pretty much out. Maybe start using them for fried fish when we have it.

You will find it much easier to fry fish using cast iron. It just maintains the temp so much better.

I do about 90% of my cooking in cast iron. I have maybe about 20 pieces from my dad and grandmother. Never thought they were worth much and last year gave some big Wagner skillets to a friend that said he collects and loves cast iron. That might not have been to smart after I found out what some of those prices are.

I have 5 dutch ovens of various sizes and tend to do most of my cooking with the smaller ones. But for bigger frying I use a large one with about 2 gallons of oil. That is getting expensive these days.

I will also add that I have never done as good of job as BamaGuitarDude does at taking care of his.