One of the hindrances to cast iron ownership is the need to maintain it. Most folks just want zero-maintainence cookware. Phooey on them, I say. Phooey. As
discussed previously, you really should be cooking in cast iron when possible.
See, you just can't go out and get some cast iron and start cooking with it. No, that would be too easy. It needs to be seasoned, or cured. They're synonymous. But I like to say season. You'll get varying suggestions on how to do this properly. I asked a coworker, who is a Griswold fanatic, for suggestions, and he mentioned cleaning methods that seemed to get increasingly more dangerous. One involved an industrial strength trash can, used outdoors, a car battery, jumper cables, and a soapy water bath. Another involved heavy-duty rubber gloves up to your shoulders and pure lye.
Don't worry, it needn't be that crazy... instructions and the story of Rusty Griswold, a #5 skillet who had been misused and ignored over his life after the jump....
I recently acquired a Griswold Scotch Bowl, which needed to be seasoned. It was in pretty good shape, having been sitting dry and unused for a few decades as a decorative knick-knack in my parents' house. As Elisa had some cast iron that was in not-so-great shape, and we both had skillets that were due (or overdue) for a yearly seasoning, we felt it was time to have a good ol' fashioned cast iron seasoning par-tay.
When Elisa showed me the skillet which I would quickly and cleverly name Rusty Griswold, my first reason was "Well, we're never going to cook on him."
Covered in caked-on rust, the poor fella had apparently been used to hold potted plants, catching any water that escaped their soil. Up for the challenge of attempting a restoration on the poor guy, I armed myself with two tools: a steel scrubby and steel wool.
The scrubby, a much coarser thingamajig than the steel wool, served to take off the bulk of the iron oxide (that's rust to you country folk reading this). Applying as much pressure as necessary, I used the steel scrubby to take off the rust, moving it in a circular motion around the cooking surface, as pictured below.
Once the majority of the rust was gone, I used the steel wool to get it down to a fine finish. I got it to look like this:
Next step is an easy one. Get to your sink, and run some hot water -- as hot as your hands can bare. Wash the cast iron thoroughly with soap and hot water.
Once you've got it clean, ensuring that no filings from the steel wool are left, dry your skillet. Do this quickly, with paper towels. Don't be shy with the paper towels -- use as many as you need to get it dry quickly.... because you know what you get when mix iron, water, and oxygen? (Hint: It rhymes with bust, must, and lust.)
Now, the next step requires you to get your hands greasy. You're going to apply a very thin coat of fat to the cast iron. We opted for Crisco, and it worked pretty well. I need to stress that this is a very thin coat. Too much and you're going to end up with some sticky cast iron, and nobody wants that. Trust me.
Make sure you cover every bit of the cookware with shortening. Not just the cooking surface, but the sides, bottom, etc etc etc -- everything! I can't stress this enough: you want this to be as thin as possible and even as possible.
Now, place the skillet face down on the rack in a 350 degree oven. Let it cook for an hour. After an hour is up, turn the oven off, crack the door and let it cool. There is liable to be some smoke created during this process, so make sure you have a good ventilation system. We also used a propane grill for a couple pieces, and that worked out well. It keeps the smoke outside.
After cooling, your skillet should look like the formerly rusty Rusty Griswold:
Finally, one note. We had attempted to apply a new coat of seasoning to a couple of our very well-seasoned skillets, just as a matter of maintenance. They needed a bit more time to cook to avoid getting a sticky residue on them -- we let them go for an hour at 350, and took a look -- icky sticky. Another 30 - 45 minutes at 450 did the trick.
Coming soon: Jim's take on Alton Brown's Baked Bean recipe in the freshly-seasoned Scotch Bowl! Be there or be square.
