Reseasoned another cast iron skillet

[Benjo75]

I used avacado. It has a 520 smoke point. I like Flax seed oil but didn't have any. I used to use regular cooking oil. I really can't tell much of a difference in any of it. Olive works good but it will put an olive oil flaver in your food for a while. Which I don't really mind. They say lard will go rancid if you don't wipe it clean and especially if you put the lid on and don't let it breathe. They've used lard for hundreds of years though. But they were cooking in them everday too and not letting them sit for months between uses.

 

[flushcut]

 

[Benjo75]

Makes me hungry.

 

[Burnham]

Canola for seasoning cast iron, here.

 

[Altissimus]

Not sure if everybody does this but when seasoning I put cleaned dry oiled piece into hot hot oven (sometimes upside down) ... bake at high heat for fourty five minutes to an hour. My thing is turning off the oven after , leave cast in until the oven is completely cool then remove. Seems like the season layer is better.

 

[lxskllr]

That's how I do it too, but it's not so much for improved seasoning as laziness. My thinking is a long cool down hurts nothing, and I keep my iron in the oven anyway, so it's just done when it's done. Nothing else required from me.

 

[treebilly]

I’ve got a few that have been neglected. I need to clean them up a bit and re-season. My Dutch oven will be getting used again for the 4th of July weekend and I’m hoping to find a second one before then. Someone borrowed my second and then disappeared from my range of hunting them down. Aside from the principle of it, I’m not about to go half way across the country to get it back. The one I have now has a domed lid. I want one with the rimmed lid to stack coals on top.
Back on topic. I love cooking on cast. Prolly because I hate washing dishes. Just wipe them clean and they’re good to go

 

[Tree09]

I have a cheap ozark trail (Walmart) one i got for the truck, it has both the rimmed lid and the feet for a campfire. I have only used it on stoves so far, but i just let the feet hang through the grate (gas stoves, especially my little Coleman one). We have another one we use inside. I used to try to concern myself with insane seasoning methods, but I've found that if you just put some oil on it, wipe it around with a paper towel, and heat it up smoking hot on the stove a few times it's usually pretty close to being good to go. Cook some bacon in it, even better. Them just use it frequently enough, oiling every time, and it soon will be completely seasoned without any effort. Using oil/ bacon fat isn't the end of the world with these, in fact I think that the pan absorbs most of it if you are cooking hot enough.

I also have a flat bottomed carbon steel wok, another cheapo from Walmart. Since it's just carbon steel, you season it just like cast, after burning and scrubbing the varnish off to protect it while they ship it. It's completely smooth on the inside, but after i got it seasoned, it's by far my favorite cooking implement. It's thin, so heat adjustments actually work, it's wide and sloped so you almost have to try to spill stuff, it's light enough to flip the food using just the pan to spread/ control heat and mix ingredients, and it's small on the bottom so you can easily control cooking even with the burners on wot. The small bottom also keeps all the oil right where you need it, and basically allows it to drain away from the food.

I'm planning on building a burner thingie that will allow me to use a weed burner for the burner, because since i got used to it the regular stove simply doesn't have the btu to fully utilize it to its potential With doing the prep work before hand (a necessity cooking on full heat/a volcano of death), i should be able to cook lunch at work quicker than i could go pick it up. Made the gravy for biscuits and gravy tonight for dinner, after using it as a mixing bowl to make the biscuits, and will use it tomorrow to make fajitas at my father in laws, and will likely use it for dinner tomorrow too, maybe fried fish. I completely understand why the entire continent of Asia uses them for almost every dish, because it's so stupidly easy to use, and since it's a seasoned dish, cleanup takes maybe a minute tops.

 

[flushcut]

The rimmed cast iron dutch ovens are the golden ticket. Lodge or Macca, if you can find them, the Macca ovens go up to 165 quarts and about 200lbs empty. I had their 17" deep and could roast a 25lb turkey in it.

 

[Al Smith]

Peanut oil works good ..I've got a 12" Lodge I use on a regular basis .I've also got I think an 18" I forgot where I hid it .Had a glass top cook top unit and couldn't use cast iron it .Replaced it with a Amana resistance unit,can do now .
Funny thing about the 18" is you don't see them that often..Found it at the Williamsburg pottery plant in Williamsburg Va .Found the lid two years later at the French market Columbus Ohio ,Both lodge

 

[Al Smith]

Forgot a picture

 

[FireFighterZero]

Our 1972 General Electric stove is showing a bit of age.


They sell a full grate cook top.....gas.


And its a double oven.



I love cast iron and a flame.



A guy can dream.

 

[Burnham]

I'm with you there, Jim. Propane or natural gas is the only proper cooktop.

 

[frans]

I'm with you there, Jim. Propane or natural gas is the only proper cooktop.

You both are shameful relics of an wasteful past! Dontcha know that electric is the way to go? It is clean because of the source is NIMBY? Jeez 🤪

 

[FireFighterZero]

Our 1972 GE is electric. A old relic from when Grandpa was trying to move Grandma back home. Probably should have let her be...........


I cook outside on gas with a Camp Chef 3 burner stove, and in the camper too.


No idea why you would want to cook with electric.


Besides....the new coil electric stoves have an energy efficient coil that does not get hot.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

I cooked some marinated pork tender loin over an oak fire in a bbq the other night for Fathers day. The look of amazement that they came out tender, moist and not burnt almost cracked me up... Don't you pre cook those? Why not just a charcoal fire? I have a propane grill in the truck.....

 

[Al Smith]

That talk of gas .My wife Dar was scared to death of it ..She lived in Waterloo Iowa for a short period and had a gas range that came over on the Mayflower ,no pilot safety valve .She got blown right out of the oven lighting the pilot light ..

 

[FireFighterZero]

Understandable.

My old boss would not have an oil burner stove in his shop.

 

[flushcut]

I cooked some marinated pork tender loin over an oak fire in a bbq the other night for Fathers day. The look of amazement that they came out tender, moist and not burnt almost cracked me up... Don't you pre cook those? Why not just a charcoal fire? I have a propane grill in the truck.....

That's right! Steaks over an oak fire is a joy and a skill few have ever dare to master. I use to rotisserie turkeys over oak fire and coals, and I don't like turkey but damn are they good.

 

[Burnham]

A tangent...I fear . But one that might instigate a trial or two out there in the hinterlands.

I learned many a decade ago to cook flank steaks on a natural fire without a grill. Backcountry skill, backpacking in a few miles, sheparding a dozen or so summer camp kids.

Build a campfire, using small diameter sticks...nothing over 3 or 4 inches, max. Width of the fire no less than twice that of the steaks you want to cook. Let the fire get down to hot coals. Deep bed of coals works mo bettah .

Lay the steaks down directly on the hot coals of one half of the fire. Keep the off side hot with additions of little sticks. After the right amount of time (totally dependent on how hot the coal bed is, and how rare to well done you want your beef), flip the steaks over and on to the other side of the coal bed. Same same on time per the first side. If you want to hedge your bets, add some little wood to the first side to heat it up and coal it, in case you want to flip it over and cook the meat some more.

I was amazed to find (as I was told would be the case...I didn't invent this method, duh; an elderly backcountry hunting guide I befriended in a New Hampshire bar was my mentor) that the fat in the beef basically kept any serious grime from the coaled fire from fouling the meat. Just rake the rough stuff clean with your cooking fork, slice thin, serve, and eat.

Flank steaks are good for this, being so very lean, and thus less apt to flame flare up...but I have used the same method since with everything from lean hamburger patties to rib eyes. As with any direct over-fire cookery...pay attention and mind the fire closely.


And Stig, old son ...you can do the same with zucchini sliced in half, dolloped with butter and covered with garlic powder. Delicious.

I also have tried it with jalapenos stuffed with cheese. It worked well, just do them pepper side down and don't flip...that way leads to sadness . After I realized how dumb it was to even think about flipping them, this method worked a treat.

Perhaps a smidge too much scotch in my mug that time .

Be that as it may...meat cooked direct on the coals does have a special flavor. Good stuff.

 

[stig]

I'll have to try that when we go camping, sometime.
Sounds delicious.

 

[FireFighterZero]

Oh my shitting goodness.

Had some lamb chops tonight.

Marinated in Lawreys Korean BBQ.

Grilled on the Weber kettle.

Hellfire they were good.

 

[FireFighterZero]

Sorry....wrong thread.

Should have been in the Dinner Thread....obviously.

 

[Benjo75]

This would be a good thread for lamb chops.