My wife - yes, really my wife - burned ALL of the pre-seasoning off of my favorite Lodge pan in the oven. This happened over a month ago. I have put the pan in the oven every time we use it, seasoning it and wiping excess oil off. What I have after probably 15 oven seasoning attempts is a bit of lumpiness and still discoloration in parts. It ends up sticky even after taking in out and wiping it down. I used the last of my flax to begin the process and have been using olive oil ever since. How will I get it back?
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I would strip it down to metal too and reseason it with a Larbee puck. And a bit of advice, don't ever use olive oil. The smoke point is too low and most likely why you have the sticky residue.
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I think you are using too much oil - that's why it gets sticky. You really want the thinnest coat possible.
Strip down - er - I mean strip the pan down and start over...Comment
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Yep, strip it down and reseason. There's no reason to add a seasoning layer after every use, that's overkill.
What I do if I'm only reasoning a single piece is use heavy-duty Easy-Off, soak that puppy down and stick it in a garbage bag in the sun. You might need to do that a couple of times. And wear safety gear, long rubber gloves and safety glasses at a minimum, caustic soda ain't no joke. Then wash with hot water and dish soap and scrub the crap out of it. Then rinse with cold water for way longer than you think you need to, you want to make sure all that caustic is off. Dry with a towel and toss in a 200F oven until it's completely dry. Then season with the oil of your choice, I like grapeseed, avocado, canola, or crisco and have never had any luck with flaxseed. Put on 3-4 layers and then start cooking.
As far as maintenance, I just wash the pan under hot water and if it looks like it needs it throw it on the stove, put a layer of oil or Crisbee on all let it smoke. Let it cool, put a thin layer of oil on and hang it up.Comment
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Haha, there's no shortage of opinions on seasoning cast iron. I've been experimenting with what works for me for over two years. I don't know why, but I get bad results from olive oil. What I've been doing is applying three thin coats of canola oil each followed by an hour and a half at 350F. The last coat is 25% flaxseed oil and 75% canola oil. It is set by a two hour stay in the oven at 500F followed by an all night cool down in the oven. I get the beautiful black that flaxseed offers with a very durable seasoning. My latest experiment is using used fryer oil. So far it is the best thing I've tried. It has already had some of the volatiles cooked off and has a higher carbon content. The local chicken restaurant will give me a quart anytime I need it.Comment
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Thank you all. RonB - I laughed like heck because as I have been failing and my wife has been angry at my grumbling I have felt like telling her "well help me start over, you know how" That skillet handle is a bit too long for her to miss my head with my best avoidance techniques.Comment
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