Seasoning Cast iron skillets?

[Conure & Macaw Mom]

I threw out my teflon pots & pans a long ago & bought all stainless steel ones. I even got stainless steel spatulas & stuff cause my room mates like to burn the plastic ones. Cooking eggs in these things can be tricky. So I order a cast iron skillet today. It says its already been seasoned, so do I still need to season it or do I trust that it has been? My grandma had a monsterous collection of cast iron skillets, pots & pans but when we moved 3 yrs ago, we gave them all away. Now I'm kicking myself for not keeping them. Thanks, Crystal

[homebird]

I always wash whatever i get & end up seasoning it myself. I trust few manufacturers.

Seasoning a cast iron pan - well I've had to season mine many times due to *sigh* some over cooking, shall I say. This is not official stuff but I put it in the oven at about 250 for about 20 min. - just some olive or grape seed oil, lightly all over. Sometimes I just scrub with a wire brush & then brush some oil on & warm it on the stove.

Sauces that have a lot of tomato in them will often unseason an iron pan, so afterwards it might be a good idea to oil it a little & heat it again, before storage.

You have to find your way - hot hot hot is not always the best with iron. I usually cook at medium - letting it get hot for about 5 min.

To get really badly stuck on food off, I use lots of baking soda & my wire brush. Or salt.

Oh & lift weights - if you have chicken wrists like me.

[Irish]

homebird's advice is good, and how we season our cast iron pans and pots, except that we tend to leave them in the oven for about 45 minutes.

Tomato is acidic, which explains why it can unseason a pan.

[The Outlaw]

The way I did mine was to first wash in hot soapy water, and then coat the entire pan, inside and out including the handles, and putting it in an oven set to 300 degrees F for 2 hours. I followed the manufacturers guidelines. You will have to do this a few times until the pores fully fill.

Its hard to resist washing these pans in soapy water at first, but try to avoid cooking acid foods until you get a good black going. Once you've accomplished this, then and only then can you give them a good wash.

In the meantime, you need to wipe them down with a wet paper towel and re-coat the inside with some cooking oil. I delegated mine to specific tasks until they were seasoned. I kept my medium one for eggs, my larger one for pancakes and my small one for sauteeing. Didn't take long to get 3 well-seasoned black fry pans.

I now do all kinds of sauces in all of them without any problems. Sometime, I do get a bit of stickiness and then I know I need to re-season them in the oven.

[kp_in_scott]

I love my cast iron, but I too and "chicken wristed". lol It takes both hands for me to get it out of the oven and if some one else is around, I will let them move the pan off the stove for me. I try not to use soap on my cast iron. Good hot water does just fine. I use the same tool that I use to scrap my cooking stones(Pampered Chef). My stones are used so much that they are both a nice toasty brown.

[Conure & Macaw Mom]

I figured I should season it anyway. Thanks for the advice everyone. Crystal