First of all a properly seasoned cast iron pan can and should be washed with modern dishwashing liquid. If the seasoning comes off with 'hand friendly ’ soap it was garbage seasoning anyway.
Second, this looks perfectly ready for seasoning. Nothing wrong with that. Just get the outdoor grill going grab some short chain oil and get to work.
Short chain oil!? At first I thought you were bs’ing about seasoning a pan with gear oil.
That sent me down a novel rabbit hole. Thanks for your input!
Relevent XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1905/
coat that sucker with avocado oil and bring it up to 200°C for a few minutes. Allow it to cool, repeat until the sides don’t hold any oil, then switch to crisco solid shortening for a few rounds.
I love that everyone is showing up to give real advice to this post.
What does the avocado oil base do? I’ve never seasoned a cast iron pan from scratch before.
There’s a lot of answers here, but I don’t think anyone said the magic words. To reseason cast iron, you need an oil high in poly-unsaturated fatty acids. Those are the kind that can chain together, and form a good polymer coating.
The thing that trips me up most about this subject is that 140 years ago, pork fat was very good for seasoning cast iron. Today, it isn’t, because the composition of the fat has changed significantly.
The best seasoning coats will be thin, not appear or feel oily, give the pan a dark color slightly more glossy than an eggshell, and resist mild detergents, metal spatulas, and heat high enough to sear a steak on. If you have a layer of loose stuff in the pan, that’s just a layer of gunk, and is probably adding some weird flavors to anything you cook.
The thing that trips me up most about this subject is that 140 years ago, pork fat was very good for seasoning cast iron. Today, it isn’t, because the composition of the fat has changed significantly.
That sounds very interesting! Is it because of the way pigs are raised now compared to back then? They eat way fewer babies now, I bet.
I don’t know what causes the difference, I just compared the first nutrition breakdown of rendered pork fat I could find to a recent USDA publication. I’m under the impression that we mostly grow different breeds of pork, on bigger farms, using a more consistent food blend, so pretty much everything has changed in that time.
Don’t know of the given info about the pans is correct. But animals nowadays are defintly way more “optimized” than they used to be. Both genetically and the stuff they eat.
What changed about pork fat?
I bet she was so grateful. It takes a ton of scrubbing.
You mean “ex-wife”…😵
The amount of disgusting freaks that don’t know you need to wash this and reapply the seasoning with oil in the oven is insane to me.
Dude, you’re not supposed to scrape off the seasoning every time you wash the pan. I reapply a bit of oil maybe once or twice a year. I normally just wash it some soap and water after cooking.
I don’t use soap, I just use a bit of hot water with the kitchen faucet sprayer and I have a flat metal spatula to scrape off any stuck on bits… wipe with paper towel and that’s it.
That’s perfectly fine, I use soap because I eat meat and my gf is vegetarian so I don’t want to leave any grease. Also I find soap just makes it a bit easier to clean.
So how’s the divorce going?
He’s dead
I love my cast iron pan, but I really cannot get the perfect sheen that everyone else seems to get. The bottom of mine is non-stick now, and I season regularly, but the sides always seem to chip away eventually. Once the chipping starts, I have no idea how to stop other than to strip it entirely and start again.
I think you need to resurface it when that happens.
The best thing to season a cast iron pan with is blood.
I’ve got one that I need someone to do this to so I can start over. It’s older than I am and was poorly taken care of for several years before I got it.
The cast iron I bought for myself is all in good condition. That one means a lot because of where it comes from but I don’t have the patience to scrape all that shit off. I wish someone would do it for me so I could enjoy the pan my grandaddy cooked me bacon in.
Just put it in the oven on cleaning mode if you have a self cleaning oven
Drill with an abrasive scubbing pad on it will sort it out real quick.
Follow guides on using the yellow lid can of oven cleaner in a trash bag. Works perfectly fine and reduces the scraping to almost nothing.
