Description
This article is from the Cooking
and Conversions FAQ, by with numerous contributions by Victor
Sack cooking.faq@mac.com others.
5.2 Cast Iron
(thank you to Tom Rankin)
Summary:
Make sure your cast iron is clean down to bare metal.
Coat with fat, heat, repeat.
Look after by never washing in soapy water and scrubbing as little as
possible.
Details:
Initial cleaning: get off all the packaging oil, burnt food or
whatever the pan has on it. Some suggestions for achieving this are
- Wash in hot soapy water, dry thoroughly
- Boil undiluted white vinegar in the pan for while
- Commercial beadblasting (not sandblasting)
- Steel wool
- Hot embers
- Kosher salt baked in the pan at 500°F (260°C) for 4 hours and
scraped out again
- Put in self-cleaning oven and turn on clean cycle
Fats to use: a solid vegetable fat, or lard. Oil is not as suitable.
Seasoning process: Wipe pot inside and out with melted fat. Do the lid
too (if it's cast iron). At this point, authorities seem to diverge.
The common theme is "get it hot and keep it hot for considerably more
than an hour" (optionally followed by "re-coat it with fat during the
process"). Two hours at 350°F (175°C), re-wiping with fat every
30 minutes, seems sensible.
When this has been done, the seasoning process has been begun but not
yet completed. The first few times the pan is used, it should be for
fairly fatty foods. Fried eggs rather than tomato soup, for example.
Each time the pan is used, rinse with hot water and scrub if necessary.
Don't scour or use detergent - otherwise you will need to re-season.
Some people coat their cast iron very lightly with oil after washing,
then wipe out after an initial heating next time they use it.
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food, cooking, conversion, substitution, equivalent, measure, glossary, culinary
