Here's the original video we made about this. Do I Need To Season A New Lodge Cast Iron Skillet?ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-W3wVlL0PxjU.html.
I've been using my dad's old 70+ year old Griswold pan for quite awhile with the usual expected stellar results. Just today I was passing a local hardware store and picked up a new Lodge 8-inch pan just to see how it compared to the vintage stuff. After washing and drying it I decided to fry an egg right off the bat. I added just a little bit of avocado oil to the pan while it heated up on a low-medium heat (about 1/4+ the way up the scale on my electric stovetop). I then melted a pat of butter, dropped in the egg, added a little water to steam it and put a lid on the pan. In a couple of minutes the egg came out perfectly over easy, had no new seasoning residue on the bottom, and didn't stick at all. Afterwards I just wiped out the pan with a cloth and that was it. I was pleasantly surprised that the rougher surface on the bottom of the Lodge made absolutely no difference when it came to food not sticking.
When I bought my pre seasoned Lodge I just put about dime size drop of oil and spread it all around and let the cast iron start smoking. Turned it off and let sit about 5 minutes and cooked 2 over easy eggs to perfection. No sticking at all. I use the skillet every morning for breakfast.
I'm 69 years old, been cooking in cast iron 60+ years, the people I learned by watching had cooked in cast iron decades before I came along and I've never "seasoned" or seen anybody season a cast iron skillet. I more than average cooking in cast iron once a day. I have a lot of cast iron from a The Favorite pan made 1882 to 1902 to some Lodge pans. I can cook in one about as well as another. Heat the pan, put oil in the pan, give the oil a little time to heat up and add your food. The trickiest part is managing the heat and I pay a little extra attention to that on a skillet I have any doubt about. RU-vid occasionally suggests I watch some cast iron videos and 10 times out of 9 they're about seasoning. I can see why newbies give up on cast iron and go to Teflon. I read the sad comments. Seasoned 20 times with some obscure oil and stuck my first food, seasoning is sticky, seasoning is flaking off, seasoning chipped off, rust under seasoning, the list goes on. I realize nobody can say not to season, too many people cling to that like it's as necessary as air. Just notice the comments and how always seasoning is right there with a problem.
About 3/4 of my Lodge stuff has come from the factory store. I always wash and do a seasoning on it as you don't know who or what has touched that piece of cast iron. The Lodge factory seasoning is soybean (vegetable) oil, but the seasoning spray can they sell says it is canola oil. I usually use grapeseed oil or one of the tins of beeswax/oil mix I got with my Field skillets.
The factory seasoning is usually a bit sticky, and i just don’t like to think about what might have gotten into it. I scrub it out with steel wool and start over with a grapeseed oil base. Then use whatever. Avocado oil is my regular cooking oil, but i do use a lot of bacon grease. Sometimes lard, tallow, vegetable oil, butter. Whatever strikes my fancy, but grapeseed oil is my basic foundation. BTW my most used pan is a 10 inch camp chef that i only gave a couple of bucks for.
Got a new skillet. Washed it, dried with lint free towel. Heated on stove top to evaporate any moisture. Light coat of grapeseed oil all over and baked in a 450 oven for an hour. Repeated the process 2 more times. First cook was potatoes with onion and peppers. Heated to medium, added grapeseed oil. Potatoes stuck. Had to heat up the pan, hot, and added very hot water to get the heavy stuff off. A lot of the seasoning flaked off. What did I do incorrectly? I appreciate any help! New subscriber, really like your content!
I’m new to cast iron and new to the channel but after watching several videos and reading through some comments on different ones, it appears Mike only responds to comments on his most current videos and shortly after he posts them. You could try asking on a new video if you’re still looking for help.
Hey Mike! I bought a new Lodge LCC3 Combo Cooker today. I plan to only use it for baking round hearth loaves of bread. When I took it out of the box I notice a few small chips around the edges in the factory seasoning, so I washed it, dried it, warmed it in the oven to 200F then applied a very thin coating of avocado oil over the entire cooker. It's in the oven now taking a heat bath at 450F for an hour. I only did this to seal the surface. Since I will only be using it for bread, and the bread will never touch the cast iron surface, I am pretty sure that I will never have to repeat this process. What does this have to do with the question in this video??? Well, adding another layer of seasoning couldn't hurt! Thanks for these videos, Mike!
I'd give mine a good washing & heating dry then throw a good layer on it all over & cook something greasy like deep fried porkchops or chicken. So that it'll be on da heat a lil longer to get that outside started real good. Just (ME) but who am i???🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Still learning myself. Thank you Mr. C.I.
@@MrCastIron Whoever came up with putting water and/or sugar in pork needs to be severely punished. Life was so much easier when I was killing hogs...and the rest of my meat for that matter.
New to cast iron got a lodge set says is seasoned what do i do never used or seasoned a cast iron before please be nice and explain the process of how to...thanks 👍
Hi Joanna! We are always nice on this channel! Congratulations on your new cast iron! We have several videos to show how to take care of your skillet. If you ever need help or have questions, please feel free to contact me, and I’ll do my best to help you, ok!?
I think a quick clean and season wouldn't be a bad idea. I suspect the manufacturers preseason for 2 reasons. 1) For those that can't wait to use it, and it will work. 2) As to prevent it from rusting between being made and the time you bring it home. If your serious about diving into CI then an extra up front clean and season might insure ones purchase wasn't for naught and make it's future use more enjoyable. Clean it anyway. That apple you just bought. How many people juggled it, sneezed or coughed on it, put on a conveyer belt, handled by the check out clerk and bagger that put it into that pristine reusable bag you brought in to take it home and BITE right into that glorious orb of delight. I'm not a germaphobe. I just don't trust 100% of my fellow Earthlings. The look on the face of the person that just bit into an Apple while reading this, PRICELESS! I'd at least give that CI a quick rinse, as soon as I quit laughing! Carry on Cooking my Commenting CI Commando's and Creators TYFS Mike
If you do not fully and completely know everything about the oil used to preseason the cast iron you have purchased you must if you have any respect for your body strip that seasoning by way of phenomenal heat only (such as self cleaning oven or throwing it in a monstrous camp fire of safe wood coals) Why? Because if you have no idea wether the oil used in the seasoning process contains GMO’s or glyphosates or other contaminants, you will be allowing those contaminants entry to your body. Do you honestly believe that a company like lodge is using the highest quality oil available to season their cast iron… I can tell you for a fact the answer is NO …they use a FAIR oil at best. I can also tell you that other companies use even worse …one company I found on Amazon uses shoe polish …that’s right they advertise preseasoned but in fact in trying to reduce manufacturing cost to heat up the cast iron for seasoning chose just to use black shoe polish to give their cast iron a beautiful black luster. 😱
