I started using a lodge cast iron pan about a year ago. I purchased the pan probably five years ago, but it didn’t see much use. I decided to try to move away from cooking with non-stick skillets and it took a while to get comfortable, but now I use it routinely. I have some questions about care.
The photo shows where the finish looks like it is missing. I’m guessing it is the oil coating that should build up, but I would like a second opinion. What should I do about it? Just start seasoning it until it all looks good?
I bake eggs in my oven (on a cookie sheet in ramekins) nearly every morning for family breakfast. I’m thinking I could just integrate seasoning into that existing ritual. My tentative plan is to apply a thin coat of oil to the cast iron pan and put it in the oven while it preheats to 375 (about 15 minutes), the eggs cook (another 15 minutes) and then turn off the oven and let the pan sit in the oven while it cools down. Will that be enough heat to get the oil to do what I want? I’m trying to not waste a lot of electricity and have something I can do basically every day until I am happy with the seasoning on the pan. Can I just use the cheap canola oil I already have?
I would love any feedback or thoughts.
What I am about to say is controversial I know but there is a lot of misinformation out there about seasoning, cleaning and more. I hope you’ll hear me out because I recently changed my rutine completely and are getting way better pans out of it.
Now to it!
What i see on the picture is NOT seasoning breaking off! It is charred on food. Proper seasoning is microscopic thin and smooth and quite resistant to a lot of things. But fear not! It should be easy to rectify.
I would clean the gunk I see off with a steel sponge but with light pressure and I would use soap. Yes normal dish soap! If it comes off with dish soap and
lightbrushing with a scrub (not steel) it is NOT proper seasoning and it deserves to come off. I only suggest steel now because you seem to have quite a lot of charred build up that I would takke off. On a daily basis i only use steel if i ever see a tiny spot of charred on food that is stuck. Any food left on the pan will inhibit a proper seasoning to build up so really do clean it. Modern dish soap does NOT destroy seasoning, that is only old style soap.But here is the important bit. Now the pan has absolutely no protection if there are tiny gaps in your seasoning and it will rust really easily ( especially because the sesoning is maybe not super good and if you used a steel sponge here the first time you might actually damage the seasoning a bit but that is not really a problem because we’ll repair it immediately).
Always dry the pan with a teatowel. Make sure it is completely dry. (Note if the teatowel get dirty when drying it is not clean and it’s back to washing with soap and brush)
Now use a drop of oil (basically anything will do but not olive oil I think) and use a paper towel to spread a super thin layer of oil. Take a clean paper towel (or flip it over) and wipe any excess oil off. You want barely any oil left. Only a subtle shine.
You can now do one of two things
One: If you trust your pan to have good undamaged seasoning you can just put it away.
Two: put it on the stove and heat it up for 10-15 min on medium-hig heat. The oil starts smoking and this is where the seasoning is being created. The super thin layer of oil burns and creates a microscopic smooth surface of polymerized oils that binds to the steel. You can ONLY do this on a proper clean pan with no charred on food.
Since I started cleaning with dish soap to get proper clean pans and a fresh layer of oil, I have pans that are so much more consistent and non stick than ever before because the seasoning can be created properly on a smooth and clean surface every single time.
My pan is already in the oven on self clean, but I appreciate your advice. I do think the black crud is some sort of buildup as I could feel it with my fingertips. It’s the more silver part that I think is a complete lack of seasoning.
But I don’t really know!
I wouldn’t say it’s completely without seasoning. It still has a light brow color which is already the first layer of seasoning. You don’t really need hundreds of layers for good performance. My carbon steel pan i just bought I started using after just 2-3 layers and it is working really well already. They key is to stop worrying so much and just use it, and don’t forget to clean it really well so the layers don’t get too think. It is when the layers get too think or if too much food gets charred stuck it can flake off like that. So just clean/scrub it well, and give it a suuuuper thin layer of oil afterwards. Then when you preheat the pan next time you use it that thin layer of oil will be you next layer of seasoning.
Canola oil works very well for seasoning, but you need to reach a higher temp for it to get it past the smoke point. I usually do canola at 450 for an hour and then shut the oven off. Going under the smoke point could result in a sticky pan as the oil doesn’t quite reach emulsion. Here is a handy chart from the lodge website you can use as a guide for different oils, though everyone has different opinions about them.
Cooks County/America’s Test Kitchen turned me on to using flax seed oil. Wow, what a difference. Worth the $10 bottle - I’ve redone all my cast, and it’s damn near non stick.
I’ve even used it on aluminum sheet pans. Those are so slick they feel oily when clean and dry.
Isn’t that Lodge chart about cooking with those oils? I wonder what the implications are for seasoning - ATK recommends using saturated fats, as there’s more carbon available, which is what you’re trying to do - carbonise the surface (sounds like something from Star Wars, lol).
The chart covers what the oils are good for but also outlines the smoke point of each one which is more the point I was trying to make. No matter the oil you choose, you need to cook it on the pan at a higher temp than the smoke point.
I’m going to be the dissenter here and say that you probably don’t need to do anything unless it starts to get worse. If you want to make it pretty then yeah, re-season it. But functionally it’s probably fine.
The seasoning on a cast iron pan is there for two basic reasons:
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Inhibit rust
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Make the surface less sticky
If you start to see rust, or it’s annoying because food keeps getting stuck - then think about re-seasoning. Maybe if you semi regularly use it to cook acidic food like tomato sauces. If it doesn’t bother you when you’re cooking it’s fine. Especially if you leave them in the oven all the time, where they might get stuff dripped on and then baked on.
Unfortunately you aren’t really cooking your eggs hot enough to season the pan. Feel free to try though. Probably putting oil on it does nothing. Best case it works, and worst case a meteor hits the earth killing all life and your pan is mildly sticky.
If you do decide to re-season I recently discovered that Dawn Powerwash (the real one not the weird recipe you can get online) does surprisingly well at stripping old seasoning.
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You need to reseason. Canola oil is fine.
I managed to scorch off the seasoning on mine in a big circle by overheating it on the stove. I applied a few coats of flaxseed oil (lodge doesn’t like it, but other people suggest it, it worked fine but I’d just use canola or avocado in the future) and then made a roux in it which together seemed to completely fix the seasoning, even without stripping the old off entirely.
But yeah, I think the other commenters are correct: you’ve got damaged seasoning that could do with a strip and reseason. I would go all the way since it looks like you’re flaking and won’t want any newly added coats to come loose.
I’m happy to see the cast iron community here getting some activity too! Another little step towards a Reddit-free world!
I’ll give it a try and post the results!
What should I do about it? Just start seasoning it until it all looks good?
Looks like you lost some of your seasoning in certain spots. At this point nothing you do is going to even out your bald spots. You’re going to have to strip the seasoning and then reseason your pan.
I’m guessing the original seasoning is prob from the factory? I’ve never had luck with getting the factory seasoning to stick very long and will usually strip it to do my own if possible.
I would just leave the pan in the oven and set the oven to your ovens self clean cycle. It should get hot enough to bake off any residue or seasoning. Then you can build it back up from scratch using canola oil. 375 is too low a temp for canola, you want it just over the smoke temp which is around 425 for canola. 450 would be a better temp for polymerization.
I didn’t know how to reseason, but running it through the self clean seems like a pretty easy method! Thanks.
It’s by far the easiest method, everything else is a bunch of scrubbing no matter what they try to tell you. Polymerized oils are pretty tough stuff.
