Cast iron skillet care

[dragfish]

How often do you need to "re-season" (or whatever the right term is) a cast iron skillet or Dutch Oven?
And for some of the heavy "scaling" on the out side-is sand blasting too drastic? And that's actually a serious question.

 

[SMA]

If you treat a cast iron skillet gently, you should never have to reseason it. When it is new, coat it inside and out with a thin coat of oil, put it UPSIDE down in the oven with aluminum foil to catch the drippings and bake at 350 for at least 2 hours.

If you have a pan that is rusty or the seasoning is messed up, clean it thoroughly and reseason. I have used steel wool with a handful of sand as an abrasive for a really bad looking pan, but if you have a sandblaster go for it. Others use lye or oven cleaner spray (never done it myself). Get the grunge and rust off of it and then reseason it.

Rules for cast iron care:
Never use soap - use hot water and a scrub pad. Or for dried on crud, a handful of salt and scrub like mad. (It really works)
Never put food into it until it is oiled and is hot.
Never soak in water for prolonged periods of time.
Always clean up right after you use it.
Never put it away wet.
Don't cook strongly acidic foods like tomato sauce in it.

If you follow those rules, you can pass your pan down to your great grand kids and it'll be as good as ever.

 

[dragfish]

Great advise-thanks! I've never heard the rule on not using acidic foods (like I did tonight) making Adobo.
Thanks again!

 

[Rollcast]

SMA, I might disagree a bit here. I don't recommend steel wool or steel scrubbing pads. Tiny particles can get imbedded in the cast iron and rust; same thing with stainless steel. My wife uses cast iron exclusively for frying/sauteing/etc. The Mrs. won't make cornbread in anything but CI. She seasons her cast iron at least once a year just to be on the safe side. A couple of her skillets belonged to her mother. Never heard of tomato sauce in cast iron. How did the Italians get by before aluminum and stainless steel cookware? We use soap and hot water with a Scotchbrite pad. No problems.
Actually acidic foods might be helpful. I read where people don't get enough iron in their systems since most people use aluminum and SS. BTW, people with Alzhiemer's were found to have high levels of AL in their brian tissue. Hmmmm.
Stop in at the Lodge outlet store in South PIttsburg, TN. All kinds of cast iron cookware, cooking items and cookbooks for cast iron.

 

[SpurHunter]

Here is a great article on it.


http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/

 

[Rollcast]

spurhunter, good article. I'm going to show it to the Mrs. According to that, her great-grandmother, grandmothers, her mother and she have been doing it wrong for the last 150 years.

 

[dragfish]

Thanks Spur-man, she wore my dictionary out! But, that did make me re-think my seasoning technique!