Season Your Cast Iron with Flaxseed Oil, I Really Really Mean It

I know what you're thinking: I haven't written in forever and my big comeback is a scintillating post on cast iron pans. Elizabeth is a big lame-o. My kids would agree, but for vastly different reasons. Mainly involving my strict requirement of pants every time we leave the house, but also at times due to my overbearing rules about flushing the toilet. NOBODY HAS ANY FUN AROUND HERE.

But back to talking about food. (Motherhood is full of such extremes, amiright? Start dinner, POOP EVERYWHERE, finish the cheese sauce. Or so I've heard.)

I thought I'd post because this has come up a few times recently. I solicited input on how to clean my beloved cast iron pan that grew rust during its five months in storage, and a few friends have asked here and there (not me directly, but I've added my two cents) about seasoning and re-seasoning cast iron. Maybe this link and testimonial will help you. And yes, I am just now seasoning my cast iron that I de-rusted back in early October. Life comes at you fast.

A Science Based Technique for Seasoning Cast Iron

This was written by a chemist who provides helpful details on the seasoning process, and the rationale for using flaxseed oil. It's been at least a decade since I last meaningfully studied chemistry, but polymers and smoking point and yadda yadda yadda. Spring for the flaxseed oil. It's pricier than olive oil, but it has a higher smoking point or something and that means seasoning it at 500 degrees will make it polymerize and harden, and then cooking at lower temperatures it'll just be that smooth, glossy, non-stick surface you've fantasized about. Seriously, anything factual from this paragraph was plagiarized from the link above, so read there for more details. Any errors up to this point are straight out of my own brain, no extra charge.

Now for the testimonial part. I forgot to take a "before" picture because I don't sleep at night and at the time I decided to finally start the seasoning process this morning, I was also emptying the dishwasher, making fudge, and trying to block out a (well-fed) fussy baby. So, surprise of surprises, I forgot to snap a photo. This actually shouldn't surprise you because Oliver's monthly photo updates tend to come two weeks late. (I got out his teddy bear two days ago because he had turned seven months; the bear has been mercilessly beaten and kicked around the living room by little people but no photo has yet been taken. So much for visual cues. And yes I am posting about a skillet before writing my son's seven month update.)

The skillet, fresh from storage, looked kind of like this, but with the thin layer of rust over the entire bottom of the pan: (photo credit www.macheesmo.com)

I scoured it with steel wool (three and a half months ago) to remove the rust and, sadly, the seasoning, so that it looked more like the pan on the right here (ish). No rust, but also not a smooth black finish AT ALL. Still kind of brown and dry looking: (photo credit www.tommcmahon.com)

At this point, I had added a layer of olive oil, put it in a warm oven, and tried to use it for scrambled eggs but they stuck SO BAD. It was like trying to remove wall paper with water and my fingernails. Not good. Enter the tutorial linked above.

Here's the basic process:
1. Purchase flaxseed oil. Cringe at the price, but tell yourself it will be worth it. It was $11 and change for 8 oz at my grocery store which isn't like caviar or truffles, but more than I'd usually spend on a small bottle of oil.

2. Heat your (clean, unrusted) cast iron in a 200 degree oven briefly, enough to make sure it is dry and to open the pores a bit. (Cast iron has pores? Who knew we had so much in common!) You might have to wait a little bit til you can pick it up and do the next step.

3. Put a roll of paper towels next to you on the counter (trust me). Shake the bottle of flaxseed oil. Pour a little (about a tablespoon and a half was good for me) onto your palm and rub between your hands. Pick up your cast iron pan and rub the good stuff all over it, working into every nook and cranny, inside and out. You will feel very oily and possibly very emotionally close with your cast iron, but this is normal. I think. This is actually not mentioned on in the tutorial but I've never been up to my wrists in oil with my favorite cookware before.

4. The paper towels in close proximity should be making sense about now. Grab one and try to wipe off all the oil you just meticulously and lovingly rubbed into your pan. You want to leave the thinnest layer ever, and you don't want any drips in your oven when you heat it. It's also a nice way to wipe off some of the oil on your hands as you turn it over and wipe all around.

5. Place pan upside down in oven, and turn it on to 500 degrees. You can put a sheet of foil on the rack below to catch any drips, if you would like. But if you did it right, you shouldn't have drips. Leave it in there for an hour. It might smell a little smokey. It's either the oil or last night's dinner that cooked over, I'm not sure, but it shouldn't be an issue.

6. After an hour, turn off the oven and leave for a couple hours til it's cool enough to handle again. Pro tip: cast iron hangs onto heat (wait, what?), especially 500 degrees of it. Mine looked like this after just once through this process:

That is my skillet. It is beautiful and shiny and one color all over. I CANNOT BELIEVE IT. It was at this point that I decided to obviously take a picture, and then tell the world, or at least the six people who read my blog. I have never, ever seen this kind of transformation with any other kind of oil or other method for seasoning.

The tutorial calls for six total coats, so this will take you 18 hours (not necessarily in a row) to complete if you go whole-hog. I plan to do all six and will let you know how it goes. It's in the oven on round two right now, and I should be able to do another once or twice today/this evening.

*Due to unforeseen circumstances, i.e. wildly fluctuating emotional states in our home, I was not able to publish this right away. As a result, I now have a photo of the skillet with two coats of flaxseed oil. Note the slight sheen; it is still quite warm from the oven. As an experiment, I ran a paper towel over the inside surface to see if it was damp-oily like it appears, but I got no residue on the paper towel AT ALL. It is a hard dry surface as promised, but appears very oily and non-stick. Win!

You are welcome. Just four coats to go and then I will invite you all over for scrambled eggs and yorkshire pudding, my two favorite things to make in this bad boy.