Virtually Non stick cast iron cookware

[Frank S]

My younger sister wound up with grandma's 60" 6 burner O'keefe&Merrit stove and my youngest sister has the old oil and coal 4 pot 20" oven stove it is in their hunting cabin up in Colorado she uses it to this day when they go up there.

[C-Bag]

So the charcoal is necessary? The only BBQ we have is propane.

It's funny, I always wondered why that griddle I found seemed to work better than the skillet I have. I know the folks who left it didn't douse the fire, they just left the griddle in the coals. Only one handle was sticking out of the ash and thats what caught my eye. Couldn't believe it when I pulled a perfectly good griddle out of the pit. Wonder if they tried to cook their pancakes on it and they came out scrambled so they left it in the pit?

[Frank S]

Sorry C-bag I don't have any faith in propane grills might as well the the stove top but then again I've never owned a gas or propane fired grill either. But from all of the ones I have ever seen in the stores only have a long tube shaped burner with a heat deflector to attempt at spreading the heat over the surface of the grill.
You could do the same treatment in your oven if it can get up to 500° but at those temps any oil in a skillet will not only burn but will create enough vapors to act like a bomb
Most gas stove tops have too small of a burner diameter to effectively heat evenly
Why not find an old steel pick up rim like about 16" in diameter lay it dish down raised off the ground a few inches and supported on 3 or 4 bricks so the air can circulate from underneath. fill it with match light charcoal lay a grill over it and use that.
baring that you can just polish the inside of the slkillet and try using your grill or stove top if you have an electric use the large burners. you can still make the oil burn into the skillet or just keep it just under the flash point until the oil is consumed. Remember doing this in the house can be dangerous should the oil flash over .
If you keep the heat just below the flash point for a couple of hours it will season up as well.
One other note I see adds all the time for new cast iron skillets grills and such to all of those I say nuts because no manufacture can afford to take the required amount of time to truly season their product properly and for sure they are not going to spend the effort to sand and polish the inside then get their product hot enough to open the pores of the metal allowing the sluff from sanding to burn off
And one thing I failed to mention the first heating should be done dry allow it to cool down some then add in the oil but it needs to be preheated to around 350° before pouring it in the skillet this will help to prevent a sudden flash over. Then heat it up until the oil burns
Good luck.

[NortonDommi]

If anyone comes across rusty cast iron, degrease any oil fat etc with an alkaline cleaner like Caustic Soda then plonk into a container of Water & Molasses at 1:40 - 1:60 and soak as long as you like. This will remove rust and convert the surface to inert Ferrous Magnetite. Once cleaned off,(rinse and scrub), and dried oil. The Magnetite filling the pores will hold oil that will oxidise with the heat of seasoning and give you that 'glass' surface when buffed.

[C-Bag]

Thanks for the tips guys. Turns out my next door neighbor has a wood BBQ and also has cast iron skillets and only knew about the usual myths about seasoning cast iron. I think we might do a run and do both our pans as both of us were both familiar with a good seasoned pan. Then the trick will to be extremely careful with leaving them to let our SO's to use them as they only know Teflon and both believe cast iron is worthless and never used a good seasoned pan. For me it won't be hard as my wife doesn't cook so I only have to make sure I don't leave the pan out after use.

[Frank S]

Never put one in an automatic dish washer, but if you find that one simply must be washed with soap and water place it on the stove and smear it with lard then heat it until the lard has burned away just wipe clean and put it away. You can ask my first wife what happened after she left one in the dishwasher for 2 weeks after it was washed while we were gone. Current wife of 28 years has never used an automatic dishwasher in her life so we get along fine. since for the past 10 years I have done all the cooking and she does the dishes

[Haroun]

Try using Flax seed oil,(raw Linseed),you don't need food grade. After cleaning scrub with detergent to clean, warm slightly before coating and let soak for a while before heating to smoke point.
A well seasoned cast iron pan beats hi-tech coatings hands down and the extra mass provides even heat.
I use salt to clean the hard stuff like residue from fried beans. Cove pan, heat, scrub with wadded paper towel and rinse. a wipe with a bit of cooking oil on a paper towel is all that is needed to keep perfect.

You need food grade, or one that is certain not to contain dryers, which are lead in the old days, cadmium today. Raw linseed likely won't have dryers but going to a health food store & getting flax oil is safest. The process is putting a linseed oil finish on the metal. Coat it, warm it to under smoke point to polymerize, cool & coat, warm to polymerize....
VERY important to not use "boiled" linseed oil as it just about always has dryers

[NortonDommi]

That was the reason I put RAW Linseed in brackets.

[hoffie]

Being a lifelong believer in cast iron cookware i thought I could tell what I learned over the years..
Back when in 1970s Colorado 2 older fellows that had cooked all their lives for other people
decided to open their own little 9 table diner. They swore by cast iron to cook with. When I went
in I usually set at the counter where I could chat with them and watch them cook.
The tip I learned from them is as follows. When they were finished cooking they cleaned with a mixture
of coarse salt and baking soda about 50-50 they kept in a container above the sink. They scrubbed this
mixture around and ONLY used water to rinse. They kept an old heavy cotton sock with this same
mixture in it tied at the top. This was used to clean up the pan and sort of preserve the finish.
i imagine today or even then it wouldn't pass muster with most inspectors but they cooked the best
food I ever ate on that iron ware. I still use the process today but still can't cook like them. lol
I had wondered about polishing some of my cast iron today especially the more modern stuff.
So Thanks for the posts and helpful reply's.

As an after thought ever wonder why so many people take vitamins or iron supplements but our
ancestors didn't... maybe the cast iron cookware.
Makes one wonder what we are getting from aluminum cookware, something to think about.

[blkadder]

I have always used raw linseed oil on the stock of my M1 Garand. It does have a peculiar smell to it, but I have learned to love it.