seasoned a old cast iron skillet

Been going to do this for awhile so it would be in shape to sear and bake on my Big green Egg. Their is a cast iron apple pie recipe I will be trying very soon.

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Looks very nice.

process used ?

I followed this and seasoned 3 times like he suggested.

So…was this a show and tell or did you have a question about it?

I season my regularity…

…Because I forget about it in the grill and it gets rusty. Then it steel wool, seasoning and ready for the next time I leave it out there.

show and tell

Looks good Richard! Please report back on the apple pie results. There are several of us on here that like old cast iron for cooking!

looks great Richard,that brought back memories of my mother and grandmother seasoning an old skillet.
they would either use hog lard or bacon grease when they did it.

and about that apple pie,you are going to have to post pics of that !!
too bad we dont have smell-0-vision for when its done.

I’ve watched that video before, good info to follow.

I have 1 small skillet and 3 dutch ovens that separately nearly equal my age, and then IU have 2 skillets that are less than 10 +/- years old.

Proper care and attention to their neede are essential to how they may be the tool for your cooking needs.

Good stuff . Thanks for posting

Good work.
And thanks for the reminder. I need to redo on a small skillet this spring. Maybe I’ll work on it a bit tomorrow.

I’ve got an old Griswold, some newer Lodge stuff, and I am constantly on the lookout at garage sales. I love cooking on cast iron. I also have a “seasoned steel” skillet that I love. Great pancakes!

If time is short, after washing and drying a quick wipe with Canola oil works well to do a quick “mini-seasoning” and to keep the skillet from rusting.

I use it to fry fish on the grill. Keeps the house from stinking up and there is no messy splatter to wipe up.

My wife and I use cast iron almost exclusively at home on the gas stove. Never understood why some don’t like it. We bought a set after our wedding and I cant see going back to anything else. Great temp control, east to clean and maintain. Ours keep getting better – the more you use them and care for them properly, the better they get. We received a small one when her grandma passed that has to be 50 years old and it is the best egg pan I have ever used.

I much prefer to cook with cast iron. It’s hard to find good ones, though. The new stuff (Lodge, for example) isn’t the same as the old stuff.

I’ve found some good pieces at garage sales, Goodwill, and second hand stores. Sometimes they’re really caked up and take a lot of work to get back down to bare metal. What I’ve done in the past is to spray a liberal amount of oven cleaner all over the piece, put it in a trash bag, and use a rubber band to close it up (like air-bagged minnows). Then I let it sit around for a couple of weeks. Oven cleaner will dry up in the open air fairly quickly and stop working. Inside the bag it will stay wet for weeks. In extreme cases I’ve had to use a putty knife and wire brushes to get the old burnt-on gunk off. After I get down to base metal, I soak the pan in a 50/50 solution of vinegar and water for an hour or so to stop the oven cleaner. Then rinse it off well and season it. My daughter found an old cast iron Dutch Oven in a barn that was rusted and in bad shape. This procedure didn’t make it look like brand-new, but it certainly looked good and was very serviceable.

SR

Here, let me nerd it up a touch for all of you…..

I cleaned an old rusted up griddle using the electrolysis method. It cleaned up incredibly well. Google it – all yu need is a container, washing soda, a nail and a battery charger. Yrs of rust and buildup flaked right off. Easy peasy.

For those complaining about the newer cast iron pans not being as good as the older the problem is the surface texture is much rougher. You want a smooth surface. Take an abrasive pad you can chuck up in a drill and go to town. Reseason a few times and they should be better than ever.

There are a couple manufacturers that actually make machined and polished cast iron pans that are supposed to be amazing. However you also pay for that quality as well. One is Finex and the other is Stargazer. I’ve been thinking of ordering a Stargazer as I really like the design, but I dont need one for $90 bad.

I am always seasoning my cast iron. If I’m home and have the time I will turn on the oven and spend 8-10 hours seasoning while doing other things, putting a light oil coat on ever 30 minutes or so. And after that man do those skillets feel nice!

Mrs. Grouse has those Le Creuset enameled cast iron pots that are for both stovetop and oven. These things cost a bloody fortune, but man now that I figured out you can fry in them… Yes, I’m slow…

All the benefits of cast iron, none of the cleanup or seasoning hassles. The deeper casserole versions are nice for stovetop frying because they contain the spatter better. Much neater.

Like cast iron pans, I can’t see how these would ever wear out. The larger casserole has probably been used 1000 times so far. I guess this is the French version of our Griswald pans, our friends over there tell me it’s not uncommon to find 100+ year old cast iron enamel wear at flea markets in France, take it home, clean it up, and it’s good to go.

Worth a try if you have them.

Grouse

“For those complaining about the newer cast iron pans not being as good as the older the problem is the surface texture is much rougher.”

I think there might be more to it. What I see with the newer cast iron is un-even heating. There are cold spots and hot spots in the pan, more like aluminum. My son-in-law actually worked down the surface of a Lodge pan until it was very smooth, and it got worse for some reason.

Maybe some spooky metallurgy thing?

SR

Ah yes the best cooking pan out there, Love cast iron going to start looking this summer at garage sales for cast iron. Nothing beats them.

We cook chicken, pork, eggs, steak, salmon, walleye, veggies, potatoes, etc. in it. It goes on the stove or grill almost nightly.

I’ve yet to find a pan or cooking surface that matches it for temperature control, flexibility, and flavor.

So is the manufacture name always on the bottom of the pan? Besides Griswold & Lodge are there other brands that are good? Any to stay away from?

Dutchboy wrote:

So is the manufacture name always on the bottom of the pan? Besides Griswold & Lodge are there other brands that are good? Any to stay away from?

old Wagnerware is good stuff, and a lot cheaper than griswold. I have several grisold and a few Wagnerware and I find them to be equal. I have found pretty much any old pre-1950 USA stuff, regardless of maker, to be really good for use.

Basically, any old smooth bottomed stuff that isn’t warped is usually worth picking up.

Dutchboy wrote:

So is the manufacture name always on the bottom of the pan? Besides Griswold & Lodge are there other brands that are good? Any to stay away from?

Jethro’s saying…stay away from this one!

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can they actually warp?

We also grill our burgers in it. You get a better sear and crust keeping the burgers juicy.

Or if you mix the meat with cheese or make juicy lucys, it keeps the cheese from dropping out.

oldrat wrote:

can they actually warp?

Putting too much heat or shocking a hot pan under cold water with any metal type will warp it. So yes, and it is typically in the bottom where it will either dome up or cup down. Making cooking evenly difficult.

Here is a fellow that goes into the subject fairly well into the identifying subject on vintage cast iron. The video is about 28 minutes.

Yes, I’ve watched all of it on a couple of occasions.