Seasoning cast iron without smoking? (skillet, gas grill, bbq, cake)

[Sabinerose]

I have this old Dutch oven that I inherited. Some weeks ago, I scrubbed it / stripped it down with the intention of seasoning it correctly. I do not believe it has ever been properly cared for in it's entire life...I would love to be able to revive it.

The picture you see is of the light rust / water stains from it being washed and then left (upside down) on a towel to dry.

I would love to be able to do the linseed oil treatment, BUT the smoking issue is...well, an issue. I don't believe we have enough ventilation in the kitchen to make a heavily smoking oven feasible. I do have a Weber bbq (one idea was using a bbq to season), but not sure how I would regulate the temp on it (it's just the basic round pot-belly model bbq).

I am looking for a way to season this poor Dutch oven without feeling / smelling / looking like I'm setting my kitchen on fire. Is there a low temp / non-smoking method? Or a high temp / non-smoking method? Any good method that doesn't smoke?

[Bulldogdad]

Um NO you DON'T want to use linseed oil.

Plus if its smoking alot your not doing it correctly.

There are several thread son seasoning cast iron already that give a lot of good info, Use the search function.

[JanND]

Originally Posted by Sabinerose

I have this old Dutch oven that I inherited. Some weeks ago, I scrubbed it / stripped it down with the intention of seasoning it correctly. I do not believe it has ever been properly cared for in it's entire life...I would love to be able to revive it.

The picture you see is of the light rust / water stains from it being washed and then left (upside down) on a towel to dry.

I would love to be able to do the linseed oil treatment, BUT the smoking issue is...well, an issue. I don't believe we have enough ventilation in the kitchen to make a heavily smoking oven feasible. I do have a Weber bbq (one idea was using a bbq to season), but not sure how I would regulate the temp on it (it's just the basic round pot-belly model bbq).

I am looking for a way to season this poor Dutch oven without feeling / smelling / looking like I'm setting my kitchen on fire. Is there a low temp / non-smoking method? Or a high temp / non-smoking method? Any good method that doesn't smoke?

I was raised using these....and still love them. I've never heard of linseed oil seasoning. If you want to get the stains out, scrub them. All you do is dry these on top of the stove....turn your burner on...under the pan until the water is all heated off.

Any other seasoning involved vegetable oil, or shortening...wipe inside w/ a paper towel....sort of like when we used to grease a pan for cake batter.

I have several old cast iron skillets. I've even bought some that were rusty. The worst one I used a little comet...rinsed really well....and followed the above oil application after drying.

It is using them that seasons them.

My Mom used to tell a story of her friends husband...newly married...wanting to do something really nice for his bride. He scrubbed all the black off her skillet. Fairly ruining her skillet

Mom and her friend laughed over this for years.

[OpenD]

Yes, the flaxseed oil treatment is amazing (the edible version is called flaxseed oil in the US, not linseed oil, which is used in paints). But you do need a well ventilated kitchen.

Could a gas grill be used? I suppose, but I'd use indirect heat and monitor the temperature carefully. But a charcoal grill would be very challenging.

[Sabinerose]

Thanks Open . Guess I meant Flaxseed - not Linseed . I love the pictures of before and after with this seasoning.

I've tried the search option, but there are so many posts and so many contradicting ideas.

Guess I will figure it out...

[momtothree]

It shouldn't smoke up as others said. I also would re-wash it and heat it to dry (you mentioned putting it air dry, not good)

Let cool and then oil. Place in oven for a bit. Try a really high smoke point oil, that might have been your issue.

Flaxseed is super low at only 225 degrees F. Refined safflower seed oil or avocado oil is a much better choice, it's around 500 degrees F.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by Bulldogdad

Um NO you DON'T want to use linseed oil.

Um YES you DO. It's a fairly new technique that's an improvement on all the old traditional approaches. But as I pointed out earlier, you want to use the edible version of the oil labeled "flaxseed oil" at the supermarket.

Originally Posted by momtothree

Flaxseed is super low at only 225 degrees F. Refined safflower seed oil or avocado oil is a much better choice, it's around 500 degrees F.

Actually, flaxseed oil is required for this update on all the old methods of seasoning a cast iron pan.

Here's the original article that kicked off this new method, from Cook's Illustrated. It's been picked up and duplicated and reviewed in dozens of articles since then.

How To Cook - Cooks Illustrated

Read the article for the details, but basically it involves stripping the pan completely, then wiping the inside with flaxseed oil, placing upside down in a cold oven, heating the oven up to maximum temperature for an hour, turning the oven off and leaving the pan in it to cool down for 2 hours, then repeating 5 more times to build up thin layers.

The result is a really smooth and durable seasoning for cast iron that is tougher than anything you can create with lard or bacon grease or vegetable oils.

The flaxseed oil so effectively bonded to the skillets, forming a sheer, stick-resistant veneer, that even a run through our commercial dishwasher with a squirt of degreaser left them totally unscathed. But the vegetable oil-treated skillets showed rusty spots and patchiness when they emerged from the dishwasher, requiring reseasoning before use.

Why did the new treatment work so well? Flaxseed oil is the food-grade equivalent of linseed oil, used by artists to give their paintings a hard, polished finish, and it boasts six times the amount of omega-3 fatty acids as vegetable oil. Over prolonged exposure to high heat, these fatty acids combine to form a strong, solid matrix that polymerizes to the pan’s surface. ~ Cook's Illustrated

The counterintuitive point about this technique is that generally cooks want to avoid reaching the smoke point with their oils and fats, but this method depends on it, hence the comments about ventilation...

With seasoning, hitting the smoke point and going beyond that is exactly what we want. We want the oil to become so heated that a chemical reaction occurs (polymerization), which changes the oil into a sealant of sorts. So the science of seasoning with oil is the opposite of the science of cooking with oil. We want our flax seed oil to be in the open pours (pores) of our cast iron pans when it changes into a sealant. http://gnowfglins.com/2010/03/12/how...on-cast-iron/#

And finally that polymer carbonizes, leaving you with the hard, tough, non-greasy black coating that is the desired end state for all the traditional seasoning methods. There's much more in lots of other pieces on the internet. Most by serious cooks are rating the technique highly.

[Bulldogdad]

Originally Posted by OpenD

Um YES you DO. It's a fairly new technique that's an improvement on all the old traditional approaches. But as I pointed out earlier, you want to use the edible version of the oil labeled "flaxseed oil" at the supermarket.

Sorry to much potential confusion and hazard.

Flaxseed oil- edible.

Linseed oil- not edible.


This is just common sense as more often than not linseed oil commonly has petroleum distillates because of its regular uses.

FYI I first suggested Flax seed oil for cast iron in the last seasoning thread and provided links.

I have been doing this process for years. Its not new just becoming more popular.

[124c41]

I would wash it out again with salt, and hot water, first. Then, fill it about halfway with peanut oil. Get it hot enough to fry, and fry something, potatoes, or maybe some fish. When you are finished, and pour out the oil, take a handful of paper towels, and simply wipe it out, leaving a good film of oil in it. Then, every time you use it, simply wash it out with hot water, and salt, dry it with a towel, then put a coat of oil back on it. Mine have lasted for decades doing it that way.

[Sabinerose]

The repeated-layers-of-Flaxseed-oil method results are what I want, but without the smoking .

I am going to try something else though. If it doesn't give the results I want...I may suffer through a smoky house .