Seasoning Cast Iron 04/16/23
----------------------------------------------------------------------
We were supposed to help clean up Fulton today, but lightning storms
rolled through and the event was canceled. That's OK, Fulton is
actually a pretty clean town already. Instead, we cleaned our garage,
which is not pretty clean, and during the skirmish I unearthed an old
cast iron pan.
I picked this pan up years ago, I think, probably at a thrift store or
garage sale. It's small, and I intended to use it to melt pennies on
the campfire (my kids like to play with the zinc, and it's fun to
watch the copper bubble... it's a long story, but my brothers and I
did this as kids, and so I do it with my kids from time to time; don't
tell Uncle Sam). However, as the kids are getting older now, I
figured maybe that wasn't going to happen anymore, so I decided to
rehabilitate it instead. Lightning storm, stuck inside with most
things unplugged.
It's a small pan, perfect for attaching to a backpack perhaps. I don't
have one this size in the kitchen, so I'm excited about that. It's
older, from back when they used to make them with a polished cooking
surface, not the rough cast surface you see on today's cast iron.
Well, that's the surface on the handle and outside still. On the back
is stamped "Made in Colombia".
No one has ever bothered to season it, it appears to me. Some of the
iron is quite clean, considering it's been out in my garage for a long
time. Still, there's some light rust. I have some 000 (or 00 or 0000?
I can't recall, and I don't want to go look) steel wool, and a metal
brush. Those do quite well. I rinse and dry it, and it doesn't look
half bad.
I regularly season my cast iron wares, but I've never actually started
with no patina at all. I use unrefined coconut oil, because I like the
way it works and we generally have it on hand. It has a low smoke
point, but I don't care. I open up the windows and go for it.
Oil, superheat, cool, repeat. About three or four coats in, I remember
that I have some high smoke point almond oil, and I switch to that for
a coat. Then some odd part of my brain says that one day, someone with
a nut allergy might use this thing, and I switch back to coconut oil.
Would that even matter? Who knows.
Five or six coats, and it's lookin' hot. I mean, it looks really good,
nice and black, even, just good. Inner surface is still nice and
smooth too. Time to throw it in a campfire, just for fun. There was
rain in the AM, but sun from about noon to two. Time for a fire in the
pit out back, where it got one coat and some ash. Wiped it clean with
tinfoil and did a couple more coats inside.
There were other fun things about today, but that was one simple,
relaxing thing that happened.
