Lodge Cast Iron Skillet - about ready to give it up!


 
Some metals I used to work with were bathed in hot oil (can't remember the name of this product), but when I put a torch to it, you could see oil bubbling up. Would it be possible to bathe a cast iron skillet in a deep fryer?

On second thought, it might be best to immerse the skillet in cold oil and bring both up to temp to prevent cracking, and I would do it outside in a turkey cooker if I tried this.
 
Bob Correll said:
The best seasoning of cast iron for me is repeated use.
Sure some stuff sticks and gets gunky along the way, but I don't think you can expect to do a pre-seasoning to where you immediately get a non-stick surface.
Maybe some folks can, but I can't.
Frying foods in an ample amount of oil helps too.
Grandma's slick bottomed CI skillet comes from the many, many meals cooked in it.
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The last several breakfast cooks have required me applying *HARD* pressure with the putty knife to get the sticky tar off the bottom.

The nylon brush was an exercise in futility and waste of time trying to clean.

The tar 'thang' just doesn't seem right and indicative of a seasoning gone wrong someplace along the way.
 
upon further reflection... I do remember a pan I once had that had a heavy build up like you describe, not tar exactly, but a heavy burnt buildup.
It was the result of too much oil when I seasoned it, I made the mistake of leaving the pan upright, and the oil pooled and became sorta like you said.

Try getting it cleaned to bare metal, lightly! season with oil, lard, crisco, put in oven upside down, OR, get it hot on the stove top, lightly wipe said oils, and let cool. Further treatments probably will be necessary, but always just a wipe down of oil. Time will build the good, mostly non stick surface you want. Oh and use more oil or grease then a couple drops.
 
timothy said:
That's weird, I don't go overboard on mine, just a simple cleaning,drying then a coat of whatever oil I have handy.
They ain't no super non-stick copper (whatever) like you see on TV, but they do OK.
Certain foods like Hash Browns I like to break out the lectric nonstick griddle, but my Son prefers the CI one.
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I have a newer Lodge CI pan. It came with the really rough texture they all seem to have these days. Couldn't stand it so I took an angle grinder with a flap wheel and smoothed it out as much as possible then re-seasoned it.

Had to try and season it a couple of times because no matter what I did, I never got that deep shiny black look I see others get when they re-season stuff? That was a couple of years ago and it still does not have a smooth black appearance but I figured it doesn't matter what it looks like as long as it works?

It works OK meaning I can cook eggs and bacon in it. Bacon doesn't usually stick (maybe a spot on a piece here or there) but eggs have been iffy at best. I stick with the non-stick skillet for eggs but the one thing my pan rocks at strangely enough is hash browns! They come out perfect and never stick but I do cook them in a good amount of bacon fat or oil.

I really wish Lodge would go back to finishing their stuff better before seasoning. I for one would gladly pay a little more if they would take the time to produce a better finished product.
 
ChrisV said:
Had to try and season it a couple of times because no matter what I did, I never got that deep shiny black look I see others get when they re-season stuff? That was a couple of years ago and it still does not have a smooth black appearance but I figured it doesn't matter what it looks like as long as it works?
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It's my understanding that deep shiny black look comes from decades of careful use and proper maintenance. The ones we have that look like that were handed down from my great-grandmother and have been in use for 75 years or more.
 
The saga continues...

I spent two days during the week re-seasoning my Lodge.

2 hr self-cleaning cycle in the oven, upside down to strip off the old seasoning.

A long scrubbing session with hot water (no soap) with steel wool to remove any residue, then a furious wiping with paper towel to get up any other residue (the paper towels were getting some steel/grey residue).

Then the seasoning.

After more on-line surfing, I found *the scientific* use of flaxseed oil for re-seasoning. The supposed difference here was that the flaxseed oil had to be pure with no other additives. Apparently, the other organic flaxseed oil I was using did have some 'other' additives. Ok, Amazon Prime here we come.

Started the re-seasoning process on Wednesday.

Pre-heat oven to 200F and put the pan in to open for 15 minutes to 'open the pores'. Remove pan and liberally wipe flaxseed oil all over the pan. Then repeated wiping to remove any excess to leave only a thin thin coat. Check, and double check.

Back into the oven upside down and bake at the highest setting of 500F for 1 hr. Let cool in oven.

Repeat this **6** times!

That took two days with 'real life' in the way.

Pan was done and had a nice dark patina look and the bottom felt slick and smooth. Yeah man - this is gonna be great!

Saturday morning breakfast here we come!

Cased breakfast sausage links - heat the pan slowly on 2.5 (which is medium low). Hot pan cool canola oil and in go the sausage links.

Instant stick. I was able to turn the pan 90 degrees sideways and the links stuck.

Awesome.

Continue to cook until browned. Then had to break out the stiff putty knife again to scrape the tar from the bottom of the pan. w+f?

Got the tar scraped off, some butter in the pan for the hash browns. And those cooked ok - not much stick at all. Hmmm.

Last go in the eggs with a bit more butter.

Instant stick. Had to use the spatula to try and free the eggs for a flip - broke two yokes. Arg.

After flipping the eggs came out w/o too much trouble. Huh?

I'm dumbfounded at this.
 
After reading about your trials and tribulations, I'm really at a loss to provide any help. You've done everything (and more) that I would have done.

You have my sincerest condolences :(

Edit--》have you tried contacting lodge customer service? Relate your saga and see what they'll do for you. Worth a shot even if they can't/won't.
 
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Len Dennis said:
Edit--》have you tried contacting lodge customer service? Relate your saga and see what they'll do for you. Worth a shot even if they can't/won't.
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You took the words right out of my mouth, Len.

I, too, would call them and see what they say. It may be very possible that Eric has a bum pan that cannot be fixed. Doesn't Lodge stuff come with a lifetime guarantee?
 
I'll consider contacting Lodge customer service.

IF they ship me a new pan for free with no return needed at my cost.

The cost of shipping a heavy pan back would be as much as just buying a new pan off of the internet. No thanks.

I got a 20% off coupon at Bed Bath and Beyond and got a Food Network 12" teflon pan for $20 otd. Done.
 
Erik, that is really strange. I've got 8 different cast iron fry pans, a griddle and a Dutch oven, all seasoned with the flaxseed oil method. While I might not cook eggs on cast iron frequently, practically everything else does, and nothing sticks.

Another vote for contacting Lodge customer service. You've gone well above anything that I'd try.
 
Maybe I missed something but I keep reading medium-low heat and my understanding is that a HOT skillet prevents meat from sticking.
 
Me too Phil, when the protein has developed sufficient maillard effect, meats should release pretty easily, too cool and the reaction doesn't occur quickly and things stick.
At least that's my understanding.
 
Before the meat has browned sufficiently it's going to stick in most any pan. I don't think it depends on the temperature other than hotter temps cook faster. With something like sausage, if it sticks, just leave it alone for a while longer. It should break free when it's brown. You can end up with a real mess if you're too insistent about turning it before it's ready. Same with chicken and beef. If it's sticking and doesn't appear to be approaching the point of charcoal, let it go a while longer and it should release.

Also, the cooking shows I watch all almost always put the oil in the cold pan and let them heat together. Most of the time you're looking for shimmering on the surface of the oil or light wisps of smoke to let you know the oil is sufficiently hot. There are some exceptions in specific recipes, but I'd guess 99% of the time waiting for shimmering oil is the right approach.
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
Me too Phil, when the protein has developed sufficient maillard effect, meats should release pretty easily, too cool and the reaction doesn't occur quickly and things stick.
At least that's my understanding.
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Scrambled eggs used to stick to our pans (cooked on a 4 setting - which is equivalent to medium-low on our electric range) until we started using avocado oil. So far, it's the best oil we've used to prevent sticking, although, we've never tried flaxseed oil yet.
 
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I've been following this thread since I posted on it 8/6 and I like others I am at a loss as to why you're still having problems. I certainty think you gone way beyond what should have been a cure for the problem. I agree with the others give Lodge a call and see what they might suggest.
 
The pan isn't the problem. As noted above, sticking is often the result of the particular food or the technique. Sugar in bacon contributes to sticking. Starting it in a cold pan seems to alleviate that. Another consideration is the fact that CI stores heat so well. A pan heated to medium high and left there will continue to get hotter, not maintain at medium high; backing it off to medium or a little lower as the cook progresses will help in that regard.

Flaxseed oil isn't the answer. It isn't suitable for heated cooking, and just IMO, there's no reason to use an oil/fat you wouldn't cook with to season CI. It's not very well-regarded in the CI collecting community. It looks good, but has a poor track record for durability. YMMV.

Scrubbing lightly (or a little firmly) with a plastic scrubber or soft nylon brush, even with a little dish soap will not remove seasoning. Seasoning is a matrix of polymerized oil and carbon residue which needs something far stronger chemically, like lye, to dissolve it. You can scrape it off, yes, but you can't wash it off. Best practice in cooking with a newer pan is to use a little more oil until the seasoning layer becomes more established. Use plastic or wood utensils to minimize scraping off what you're trying to build until it becomes well-established. Also, as noted above, don't have too high of expectations; don't expect Teflon. Food is just going to stick a little from time to time, even when you think you have the process down. A half inch of water simmered a minute or two (or even hot tap water) will soften stuck-on residue enough to let it be gently scrubbed off with a plastic scrubber, and with no harm to previously polymerized layers. Drying well and heating over a low burner for a minute (just to evaporate all residual moisture; iron doesn't have pores to open and close) then rubbing with a small amount of oil restores a cosmetic sheen and, if a semi-drying oil like canola, can also actually contribute to the seasoning layer.
 
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Doug D said:
...Another consideration is the fact that CI stores heat so well. A pan heated to medium high and left there will continue to get hotter, not maintain at medium high; backing it off to medium or a little lower as the cook progresses will help in that regard.
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I can vouch for that. I set my electric burner on 4 (medium low), and the pan will continue to heat up - to the point of smoking.
Covering the bottom of the pan with tap water will quickly bring the temp under control, or you can add a little water before heating the pan up. I wouldn't add water on high setting, though, for fear of cracking the pan.

One negative side effect of this is pan will lose some of its non-stick properties, but adding oil before the cook will alleviate that.


EDIT: Someone mentioned earlier that Lodge pans are not as smooth as they once were. I picked one up at Walmart, and it had a rougher finish than the one's in my house. Could be a moot point though.
 
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Rusty James said:
EDIT: Someone mentioned earlier that Lodge pans are not as smooth as they once were. I picked one up at Walmart, and it had a rougher finish than the one's in my house. Could be a moot point though.
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Just got off the phone with Lodge, and they said the rougher surface texture is due to a change in the way their molten metal is poured. In the older days, it was all done by hand, and it caused imperfections that had to manually smoothed out.

Now-a-days, pouring molten metal is done by machine, and it eliminated the need for removing imperfections. I was also told that pans with rougher textures will season quicker than smoother pans, and the seasoning procedure itself is a "years long" process. And it is entirely possible to render a cast iron pan unseasonable if one tries to "polish" the finish themselves with a power tool. At least that is what I was told.
 
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Rusty James said:
I was also told that pans with rougher textures will season quicker than smoother pans, and the seasoning procedure itself is a "years long" process. And it is entirely possible to render a cast iron pan unseasonable if one tries to "polish" the finish themselves with a power tool. At least that is what I was told.
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OK. You've received a ton of opinions from a lot of people as to what works for them.

As we all know: opinions are like XXX XXXX's: everyone's got one. Take the four pages here and proceed based on what you feel is right.
 
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