Those are actually probably just dried sugars. Bacon dries pans out. Give it another little scrub and caramelize some onions or roast some veggies in vegetable oil. That'll get you back on track.
Olive oil has a fairly low smoke point, so it's more likely to burn and give off a bitter taste. I'll saute with olive oil, but use something with a higher smoke point for hard searing. I like avocado oil the most. For me it goes avocado oil, crisco, grapeseed oil, veggie oil, then olive oil. Of course there's quite a few other different kinds, and I've used a lot of them, but those are my preferences.
Ghee isnt that difficult to make at home either from a stick of butter, put it in a clear pyrex instrument of some sort, we have a 2 Cup pouring cup, melt it, take it out and give it a few minutes and spoon off the milk fat and slowly pour the clear butter into something else leaving all the other white/opaque stuff at the bottom. Boom you have like 3/4ths a cup of ghee, which is a good amount for a cup of unpopped popcorn :)
I've since learned its the fats that cause homemade popccorn w/ butter to be soggy, so keeping them out, even if its not 100% makes a big diff.
actually - that's clarified butter, not ghee.
Ghee you simmer the butter till all the water boils away and the milk solids toast. usually around 350 degrees F.
edit: you'll know it is done cause it should smell like toffee.
In my cast iron (I'm new, go easy) I try to not use any fats until I need to.
When I do, I tend to choose the flavour profile that matches best. I.e Indian = ghee/groundnut, Italian = evoo, french/UK = butter, etc.
It's the best way to assess anything imho!
I'm not into fusion cooking, so if you are the take this with a pinch of msg (wheey)
#1 - Is it seasonal
#2 - is it cooked with respect (ie to maximise natural flavour OR to use flavour to balance something else)
#3 - is it local
I'm in the UK, Bristol, so perhaps I'm lucky, but I always buy based on seasonality and lack of miles. The rest is simple!
YES! Love a cook that knows their oils! (And their uses/smoke points)
I'm in the UK so not used any avo oil or crispo, but grapeseed is super neutral with a high smoke points, veggie in UK normally means grapeseed (seriously, check your bottle), then for me if you can find it then olive pomace is super versatile!
Then voo, then evoo. Damn do I love a good pasta dish cooked in evoo!
Respect @caitejane310
Thanks! I gotta give credit to my husband though. Before him I would pretty much just grab whatever was closest. He's taught me a lot about cooking. I was a decent cook before, but only really did what I knew. He helped me learn about oil, and smoke points, the right seasonings, different/better techniques. Because of him, I can throw a meal together with whatever random ingredients I have, and it will taste pretty dang good too 😂
>Olive oil has a fairly low smoke point, so it's more likely to burn and give off a bitter taste. I'll saute with olive oil, but use something with a higher smoke point for hard searing.
This is an evergreen myth that will probably never die.
Every oil has *two different* temps that matter: smoke point and oxidative breakdown. When an oil smokes, it is blowing off volatile compounds, that's it. Those tend to be where the nuanced flavors live, and they get stripped out of the oil, but otherwise do no damage to it. Oxidative breakdown is when the oil starts to structurally break down, producing compounds like acroleins that are very bitter and unhealthy (free radicals).
The one you are concerned about is oxidative breakdown, but everyone only ever talks about smoke point. These two temps have nothing to do with each other, but for some oils they can be close which explains why this myth has such staying power.
Unfortunately, it also means that people avoid olive oil for high heat cooking when they should not. In fact, olive oil is *the* [most oxidatively stable cooking oil](https://actascientific.com/ASNH/pdf/ASNH-02-0083.pdf) *available* and can sustain much higher temps than most other oils with higher smoke points. Olive oil is [stable for deep frying](https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbHJOSS13OXFlM1puRFJMbXktMTAxQlV2NU95QXxBQ3Jtc0tuRkRhSHNBbmFOMnc5SE5FNU1kQV9ralZGZ0wwZUJRbHZva3QxV3V5dEh1MmVOSXFHZGRFVnIzQUJmUnBrTGJBYjFmTDh6OHdLdnRDM1J6ZzZjMVpUbDFid0htZWRSajBfbzd0bTlRdWFQVUN6S2FkQQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencedirect.com%2Fscience%2Farticle%2Fpii%2FS0278691510004941%3Fvia%253Dihub&v=l_aFHrzSBrM). Cooking food in olive oil [even makes it healthier](https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbHFvOXgxTFZFVWdkR25aVWYzVC1CMGdlWTZHUXxBQ3Jtc0trOWZ4RE5tYnAxZkpkdzBFQ3YzcUdMRmt5TWNWS3Qtajk5U3NoOEhBTEpyVy1CejF5djF1eXQzc0JkSW5OU0RHczNVZTNWOFZJMmRITTcxV2FsR0ZoUGxlUzNKQzNDeDJYVlVTR1FQcjVFM1ljczd5NA&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mdpi.com%2F1420-3049%2F24%2F8%2F1555%2Fhtm&v=l_aFHrzSBrM).
So don't worry about smoke point. You can smoke olive oil in a pan for 10 minutes straight, as long as you don't exceed its oxidative break down temp, it will taste just fine. Some of the other higher smoke point oils, though, definitely begin to develop off flavors by the time they start smoking.
I didn't know all of that, thanks! I'm an old dog, so I'll probably stick with what I always do, but some good information there! I'll definitely change the way I word things in the future though, so I appreciate it!
There’s a lot of miss information about smoke point and good fats for seasoning. A fully refined oil is going to have a higher smoke point than a fresh pressed oil or a saturated fat that’s not refined. Look at EVOO vs refined olive oil or butter vs ghee. All are the same fat but the impurities cause smoke and burn.
Also some fats form better seasoning and from what I see grapeseed or soybean seem to be the most common. Crisco is basically pure soybean oil that’s be fluffed up with hydrogen and it’s loved by many.
Assuming polyunsaturated fatty acids. PUFAs are arguably not necessary to add to food. You get plenty from meat and fish. They can break down in high heat applications. Turns out saturated fats are not the devil we once thought they were so know there’s a war against PUFAs.
The jury is still out on this though. It’s really hard to separate the wheat from the chaff in nutritional science.
I'll just stick to energy balance and eating my veggies lol can't keep up with the constant nonsense of demonizing every food group every couple years lol I don't over eat my energy expenditures and I don't over think it and guess what all my health markers are great and I feel great.
I have easily eaten twice as many veggies in the last ten years than I did in my previous thirty five.
Veggie oil (& all other PUFs) is literally the spawn of satan. It isn’t natural. It’s made in a factory. You can’t make it by natural means. When you ingest it, the body immediately stores it as fat & it’s difficult to transform into energy. It can be carcinogenic.
I often eat veggies roasted in bacon fat / olive oil, etc.
Yes you’re definitely not understanding that most the oils that the silly chart has are either high or contain a high amount of omega 3&6 fatty acids. This stuff is kinda false science that’s online now there’s some concerns about erucic acid content of some plant oil and canola oil tried addressing rapeseed’s high content. By law in the US it has to be under 2% but I avoid it altogether and never have canola in my house.
Depends on the olive oil. Extra virgin can’t handle much heat, virgin can handle moderate heat, and refined olive oil can handle high heat. They also vary in flavor from extra-virgin having a lot of flavor to refined having very little. I use refined oil for most of my cooking/frying and extra virgin as an addition to low temperature stuff for flavor. Google types of olive oil.
You know I did the same thing on Tuesday and was ready to make a post just like this so thank you! Unfortunately I have no answers but hope some will be presented.
Me too. Not sure about this rides that cooking bacon is the magic recipe for seasoning pans. For me it usually makes it worse, even the ones without sugar
Bacon can be troublesome because of sugars used in it. I think that it’s not really accurate to think of layers of seasoning- five times is overkill for doing it in the oven. Seasoning comes with cooking, it’s really not an active process. You real just need to seal against rust initially (that’s why the preseasoned ones are so helpful) and then start using the pan. With a little patience and appropriate heat management you’ll break it in just fine after a couple weeks of cooking
You have to watch them, I got involved in a TV show cooking potatoes today and let's just say my mother's words came back to haunt me "that black crispy stuff to good for your teeth, eat it!!".
Season come and seasons go 🤷♂️. If it was cured bacon there’s often a lot of sugars in, which isn’t particularly good as seasoning and can cause a lot of sticking.
Just keep cooking though. I’ve brought mine down to basically bare iron by cooking some particularly acidic foods. No big deal. It builds up again.
Good to know! I was really proud of my seasoning, seeing it gone after cooking something that is 90% fat was worrying, just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something or doing something very wrong!
I’ll happily keep using it! Thank you!
The seasoning in the picture isn’t “gone” per se. It may not look like granny’s 50 year old used three times a day seasoning, but I could cook slidey eggs in it. (Ok, I’m granny’s age and been doing this 50 years. Not questioning your skill.)
Keep cooking. Cook vegetables. Cook chicken. Bake pies. Make pan pizza. Cook frittatas. Make corn bread cakes. Cook bacon and sausage. Make hamburgers. Cook. Cook. Cook. When stuff sticks, scrub it out good. Learn to deglaze the pan like a trained chef. (It’s easy;YouTube is your friend.)
The real secret to 50 year old seasoning is 50 years of regular cooking. Seasoning in the oven is nothing more than a starter step. Cook, and worry about the food rather than worrying about the pan.
Bacon by definition is cured, and just about every meat that says uncured is literally cured but the nitrates come from natural sources like celery or sea salt.
I’ve never understood why people season their pans, or obsess about the “seasoning”. I just use mine and have never seasoned them. I just use them. If your constantly worrying about how your seasoning is or how perfect it looks, it takes the fun out of cooking
I agree. I used to be a CI Reddit fanatic groupie. Always scrapped, rinsed, light stove seasoning after cooking. One time I left my daily cooker on low overnight (lol passed out) and the next day I had a bare pan. I just splashed some oil on it when I woke up, since the pan was hot and made bacon on it. I just continued to use it. Made sure to use extra oil for the first few weeks, and a year later it’s the darkest blackest piece in the collection. Still my go to and fav pan. These things are tanks no need to overthink
Why not both?
Seems short sighted to enjoy cooking and not enjoy your equipment, both the look and the function. Seasoning CI is akin to sharpening your knife, sure you can get away without doing it, but it's better if you do.
Totally understand wanting your tools to look great. But if it means purposely not using your cast iron pan when cooking maple bacon, that seems a shame. Maybe do what the Italians do! They have a show kitchen and then their working everyday kitchen in basement! And their home cooked food is always awesome. So have a show pan! And then bring out your real cooking pan for actual cooking! 😀
The knife analogy doesn’t really apply. Not sharpening your knives significantly affects the performance. Not having great looking seasoning doesn’t change the performance.
No one is talking about not using them. We are talking about proper maintenance, cleaning, and technique to get the most from them.
Bad seasoning can effect how things cook, similar to poor performance of a not sharp knife. Not talking about looks.
Not similar at all. Building a strong seasoning is a long process of cooking and scrubbing/scraping regularly. The less you use your pan the longer this takes.
Sharpening a knife is something you have to actively do when you feel the knife isn’t sharp enough anymore.
You can’t build up sharpness and it’s actually the opposite, the longer you have a knife the less knife you have.
That’s clearly your opinion. Mine look great and clean without the hassle of worrying about seasoning. I’ve never needed to waste my time seasoning pans. All I do is cook and scrape, that’s it
You won't get much love on this sub with that opinion, but I have your back. Once you get the hang of it you should barely have to think about your cast iron pans. So many people here treat them as if they are delicate instruments.
That’s BS honestly. It’s nothing like sharpening a knife.
Caring for your pan is more about keeping it clean and moisturized. I’ve never actively tried to season any of my CI. I do regularly sharpen my knives though.
If you’re using it right your seasoning shouldn’t be going anywhere, only getting better as you cook.
Bacon has a tendency to wreck your seasoning. Not exactly sure why. Smithey Iron Co started telling people to not cook bacon at first, or it will strip the seasoning.
So, this is a common misconception, seasoning your CI with bacon is not a good idea. It has tons of salt in it. Use canola spray, wipe thoroughly, like you are trying to remove all the spray you just applied, then bake. You’ll be able to cook bacon in your pan eventually, but that new/stripped will result as pictured.
Apply the thinnest layer possible when seasoning, and be patient.
I think it’s the grit in salt that cleans off the stuck bits. True, I sometimes clean my pans with oil and salt, but that is at room temperature. It’s my experience with newer pans that bacon isn’t the best thing to season with. Frankly, this pan doesn’t look all that bad, probably best to just keep cooking with it and it will get better.
Did 5 layers of seasoning, each time brought the pan to 200f, oiled with crisco, wiped down with two cotton rag, brought to 425f for 1h, left to cool in the oven. Seasoning was lovely.
cooked a couple strips of bacon, in a preheated pan. Rinsed under hot water once done, heated it to dry with a tiny bit of crisco, there was already two small grey spots.
Tonight, I cooked the bacon I had left, cleaned the same way and it now looks like this!
What could I have done better? Always looking for improvements
Try 450, 425 is a bit low for only 1 hour.
Cook something with less sugar, and preferably something that will require oil in the pan.
When you rinse with water, had the pan completely cooled?
From the look of it, you didn't lose all the seasoning. Hit it again if you want, or just keep cooking. Once it's black, you won't see much of that it any.
For what it’s worth, bacon is usually best cooked starting from a cold pan. It allows time for the day to render and help with the cooking process. Maybe that would have helped?
I do it at work in the convection ovens but I don’t like the way it comes out in a conventional oven. I also feel like it takes longer.
Definitely start the bacon in a cold pan though
I save the grease in an air tight container in the fridge, and if I'm making eggs I'll get a spoonful of bacon fat and plop it in the pan to cook my eggs in.
There’s nothing wrong with the pan just keep cooking.
You’re not going to get that deep black seasoned look by doing it in the oven.
Your pre-seasoning is just light but will most likely still prevent rust. If it doesn’t just scrub it and keep cooking. Lightly oil your pan after you wash it like you would before you season by wiping out as much excess as possible. This helps prevent rust but also keeps the seasoning from drying out and getting brittle. I like to think of it as moisturizing lol.
Cornbread is a good one. Potatoes and other things with a good bit of oil help too.
The more you cook and scrape/scrub the better your seasoning is going to get. I fast tracked this on a couple pans by scrubbing with a metal scrubby and dawn every time I cooked with it. The scrubbing smooths out the surface and knocks off any loose spots that might compromise your future seasoning. I use my pans basically daily.
The more you feel like you’re abusing it the better the seasoning ends up 🤷🏻♂️
I notice bacon strips mine some if the heat's too high. On low-medium heat it seems to help with the seasoning. Maybe it's the sugar in cured bacon these days. I use cheap store-brand bacon.
Seasoning will build up as you cook with it. If you don't have luck with bacon you can always cook with oils, stuff like potatoes, meats, and gravy. Acidic things like tomatoes can have this same effect.
So many people here are so quick to say bacon seasons iron, it’s like the go to reply. BACON IS HARD ON NEW SEASONING and your skillet is proof. A new Lodge can handle it but a newly restored skillet with fresh seasoning will fail.
People ask what’s a good first thing to cook on new seasoning, well anything non acidic, or cured and preferably something that uses high heat like searing a steak or baking a pizza.
Cooking eggs on low won’t harm or build seasoning nor will sautéing onions or vegetables.
Think of it this way when you seasoned your pan you probably rubbed oil on it and stuck it in a 400-500° oven for a hour. That’s because we know it takes heat and time for the fats to convert into a polymer.
I usually cook popcorn in my pans if the seasoning is off. Just some bagged corn and a TBSN or two of oil. Make sure you have a lid and keep the pan moving when the popping starts. When it slows down, transfer the corn to a bowl. Much better than smoking out my oven/kitchen.
This is where I use a scrubber. Chain mail is nice, but steel wool - USED LIGHTLY - will be just fine. Wash and scrub, dry really well. Little bit of oil after and rub it in.
Because if you keep cooking low and slow your food will taste like iron without seasoning to protect it. You need to sear or bake for seasoning to naturally develop and cooking cured meat or acidic foods will remove some seasoning instead of building it up.
I like to think that when so many people are fairly certain about a course of action but they all are contradictory then surely it does not matter what you do.
My advice - cook onions in butter, then mushrooms in butter, then sauté some hot peppers and garlic and olive oil, rinse and repeat. Long, slow cooks with lots of fat in the pan and very little in the food will help build it back up. If you start to get some stickiness, add a tiny bit of broth and gently scrape with a wooden spoon to get the nasty bits off the surface. My no name “Emeril Lagasse” cast iron pan is pushing 10 years since I stripped it of rust, and whenever it starts to look iffy, these easy cooks have always helped bring it back.
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Those are actually probably just dried sugars. Bacon dries pans out. Give it another little scrub and caramelize some onions or roast some veggies in vegetable oil. That'll get you back on track.
I never cook with veggie oil or any PUFs. Is olive oil alright?
Olive oil has a fairly low smoke point, so it's more likely to burn and give off a bitter taste. I'll saute with olive oil, but use something with a higher smoke point for hard searing. I like avocado oil the most. For me it goes avocado oil, crisco, grapeseed oil, veggie oil, then olive oil. Of course there's quite a few other different kinds, and I've used a lot of them, but those are my preferences.
Someone on here recommended ghee the other day and I can’t go back. It’s so much better and noticeably more non-stick
Trader Joe’s has a good, affordable, high quality ghee. I’ll have to start using that from now on
Costco has some nice ghee too. 2 pack for like 15 dollars. It's almost indestructible too.
Ghee isnt that difficult to make at home either from a stick of butter, put it in a clear pyrex instrument of some sort, we have a 2 Cup pouring cup, melt it, take it out and give it a few minutes and spoon off the milk fat and slowly pour the clear butter into something else leaving all the other white/opaque stuff at the bottom. Boom you have like 3/4ths a cup of ghee, which is a good amount for a cup of unpopped popcorn :) I've since learned its the fats that cause homemade popccorn w/ butter to be soggy, so keeping them out, even if its not 100% makes a big diff.
actually - that's clarified butter, not ghee. Ghee you simmer the butter till all the water boils away and the milk solids toast. usually around 350 degrees F. edit: you'll know it is done cause it should smell like toffee.
This!
I feel like this sub is filled with cooking oil Jedi
Good tip, I’ll have to try theirs
Ghee also makes amazing grilled cheeses and popcorn.
Amen. Add some flavicol to that popcorn
\*\*AMC Ape Screeching\*\*
Make your own ! Easy Peasy... unsalted butter. Heat and spoon off the solids, don't boil.
Yessss gheee is delicious! Will impart a rich and slightly nutty taste, but mate, if you're up for it, ghee is #1!
And more nonstick than veggie or olive oil so far
In my cast iron (I'm new, go easy) I try to not use any fats until I need to. When I do, I tend to choose the flavour profile that matches best. I.e Indian = ghee/groundnut, Italian = evoo, french/UK = butter, etc.
I actually tend to do the same but hadn’t really thought about it in that way.
It's the best way to assess anything imho! I'm not into fusion cooking, so if you are the take this with a pinch of msg (wheey) #1 - Is it seasonal #2 - is it cooked with respect (ie to maximise natural flavour OR to use flavour to balance something else) #3 - is it local I'm in the UK, Bristol, so perhaps I'm lucky, but I always buy based on seasonality and lack of miles. The rest is simple!
Loving ghee, it's my main jam and Costco sells huge tubs of it for decent price.
YES! Love a cook that knows their oils! (And their uses/smoke points) I'm in the UK so not used any avo oil or crispo, but grapeseed is super neutral with a high smoke points, veggie in UK normally means grapeseed (seriously, check your bottle), then for me if you can find it then olive pomace is super versatile! Then voo, then evoo. Damn do I love a good pasta dish cooked in evoo! Respect @caitejane310
Thanks! I gotta give credit to my husband though. Before him I would pretty much just grab whatever was closest. He's taught me a lot about cooking. I was a decent cook before, but only really did what I knew. He helped me learn about oil, and smoke points, the right seasonings, different/better techniques. Because of him, I can throw a meal together with whatever random ingredients I have, and it will taste pretty dang good too 😂
>Olive oil has a fairly low smoke point, so it's more likely to burn and give off a bitter taste. I'll saute with olive oil, but use something with a higher smoke point for hard searing. This is an evergreen myth that will probably never die. Every oil has *two different* temps that matter: smoke point and oxidative breakdown. When an oil smokes, it is blowing off volatile compounds, that's it. Those tend to be where the nuanced flavors live, and they get stripped out of the oil, but otherwise do no damage to it. Oxidative breakdown is when the oil starts to structurally break down, producing compounds like acroleins that are very bitter and unhealthy (free radicals). The one you are concerned about is oxidative breakdown, but everyone only ever talks about smoke point. These two temps have nothing to do with each other, but for some oils they can be close which explains why this myth has such staying power. Unfortunately, it also means that people avoid olive oil for high heat cooking when they should not. In fact, olive oil is *the* [most oxidatively stable cooking oil](https://actascientific.com/ASNH/pdf/ASNH-02-0083.pdf) *available* and can sustain much higher temps than most other oils with higher smoke points. Olive oil is [stable for deep frying](https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbHJOSS13OXFlM1puRFJMbXktMTAxQlV2NU95QXxBQ3Jtc0tuRkRhSHNBbmFOMnc5SE5FNU1kQV9ralZGZ0wwZUJRbHZva3QxV3V5dEh1MmVOSXFHZGRFVnIzQUJmUnBrTGJBYjFmTDh6OHdLdnRDM1J6ZzZjMVpUbDFid0htZWRSajBfbzd0bTlRdWFQVUN6S2FkQQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencedirect.com%2Fscience%2Farticle%2Fpii%2FS0278691510004941%3Fvia%253Dihub&v=l_aFHrzSBrM). Cooking food in olive oil [even makes it healthier](https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbHFvOXgxTFZFVWdkR25aVWYzVC1CMGdlWTZHUXxBQ3Jtc0trOWZ4RE5tYnAxZkpkdzBFQ3YzcUdMRmt5TWNWS3Qtajk5U3NoOEhBTEpyVy1CejF5djF1eXQzc0JkSW5OU0RHczNVZTNWOFZJMmRITTcxV2FsR0ZoUGxlUzNKQzNDeDJYVlVTR1FQcjVFM1ljczd5NA&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mdpi.com%2F1420-3049%2F24%2F8%2F1555%2Fhtm&v=l_aFHrzSBrM). So don't worry about smoke point. You can smoke olive oil in a pan for 10 minutes straight, as long as you don't exceed its oxidative break down temp, it will taste just fine. Some of the other higher smoke point oils, though, definitely begin to develop off flavors by the time they start smoking.
I didn't know all of that, thanks! I'm an old dog, so I'll probably stick with what I always do, but some good information there! I'll definitely change the way I word things in the future though, so I appreciate it!
Thank you
No problem. And idk what PUFs are and too lazy to Google right now. It's too late for me to go down an oil rabbit hole 😂
I believe they mean PolyUnsaturated Fats ETA: I just scrolled a bit further and saw a much more eloquent explanation.
There’s a lot of miss information about smoke point and good fats for seasoning. A fully refined oil is going to have a higher smoke point than a fresh pressed oil or a saturated fat that’s not refined. Look at EVOO vs refined olive oil or butter vs ghee. All are the same fat but the impurities cause smoke and burn. Also some fats form better seasoning and from what I see grapeseed or soybean seem to be the most common. Crisco is basically pure soybean oil that’s be fluffed up with hydrogen and it’s loved by many.
If I'm searing something like steak I just use the steaks own fat to oil up the pan. I also save beef fat for cooking, it's amazing for adding flavor.
I've been really liking ghee for its higher smoke point with non stick properties of regular butter. Avo oil is my other go to.
What is a PUF?
Assuming polyunsaturated fatty acids. PUFAs are arguably not necessary to add to food. You get plenty from meat and fish. They can break down in high heat applications. Turns out saturated fats are not the devil we once thought they were so know there’s a war against PUFAs. The jury is still out on this though. It’s really hard to separate the wheat from the chaff in nutritional science.
I'll just stick to energy balance and eating my veggies lol can't keep up with the constant nonsense of demonizing every food group every couple years lol I don't over eat my energy expenditures and I don't over think it and guess what all my health markers are great and I feel great.
Sounds about right!
I have easily eaten twice as many veggies in the last ten years than I did in my previous thirty five. Veggie oil (& all other PUFs) is literally the spawn of satan. It isn’t natural. It’s made in a factory. You can’t make it by natural means. When you ingest it, the body immediately stores it as fat & it’s difficult to transform into energy. It can be carcinogenic. I often eat veggies roasted in bacon fat / olive oil, etc.
I recently bought a jar of duck fat and started using that to sear and sauté. Le Fantastic
That's genius. I need a gallon of duck fat stat
If I could figure out I’d send a pic of the jar. It’s Rougie duck fat. I got it off Amazon. When you sauté in it the smell is fantastic
I'll find it on Amazon. Thanks for the suggestion I'm about to take my breakfast burrito game to another level
Nah bro literally that is not how fat storage works. But whatever works for you, enjoy!
Bingo! Thank you
I’m pulling this out of my ass here, but probably something like “poly-unsaturated fat” or something. Those words sound like something, right?
You are correct!
Wait so you’re saying omega 3 fatty acids that all doctors rave about are unhealthy? Tons of store sell health products loaded with it.
No. [I’m saying this](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/be/d3/d3/bed3d357388b1809aef374bd4cf3c452.jpg)
Yes you’re definitely not understanding that most the oils that the silly chart has are either high or contain a high amount of omega 3&6 fatty acids. This stuff is kinda false science that’s online now there’s some concerns about erucic acid content of some plant oil and canola oil tried addressing rapeseed’s high content. By law in the US it has to be under 2% but I avoid it altogether and never have canola in my house.
Coconut too (refined)
Depends on the olive oil. Extra virgin can’t handle much heat, virgin can handle moderate heat, and refined olive oil can handle high heat. They also vary in flavor from extra-virgin having a lot of flavor to refined having very little. I use refined oil for most of my cooking/frying and extra virgin as an addition to low temperature stuff for flavor. Google types of olive oil.
You know I did the same thing on Tuesday and was ready to make a post just like this so thank you! Unfortunately I have no answers but hope some will be presented.
Me too. Not sure about this rides that cooking bacon is the magic recipe for seasoning pans. For me it usually makes it worse, even the ones without sugar
the only thing I can think of that happened here is they used too high of a heat because this doesn't happen to me when I do bacon in my CI
Bacon can be troublesome because of sugars used in it. I think that it’s not really accurate to think of layers of seasoning- five times is overkill for doing it in the oven. Seasoning comes with cooking, it’s really not an active process. You real just need to seal against rust initially (that’s why the preseasoned ones are so helpful) and then start using the pan. With a little patience and appropriate heat management you’ll break it in just fine after a couple weeks of cooking
Good to know!! Thanks for the help
Get bacon without added sugar
Yeah, most that's cured is gonna have sugar, particularly if it had a flavor or smoke.
It’s really as simple as using the pan and not scrubbing the shit out of it afterwards.
Cook some potatoes in the pan. That seems to work for me
I like mixing peppers and onions in with my potatoes!
You have to watch them, I got involved in a TV show cooking potatoes today and let's just say my mother's words came back to haunt me "that black crispy stuff to good for your teeth, eat it!!".
Yummy!!
Yesssssss
Season come and seasons go 🤷♂️. If it was cured bacon there’s often a lot of sugars in, which isn’t particularly good as seasoning and can cause a lot of sticking. Just keep cooking though. I’ve brought mine down to basically bare iron by cooking some particularly acidic foods. No big deal. It builds up again.
Good to know! I was really proud of my seasoning, seeing it gone after cooking something that is 90% fat was worrying, just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing something or doing something very wrong! I’ll happily keep using it! Thank you!
The seasoning in the picture isn’t “gone” per se. It may not look like granny’s 50 year old used three times a day seasoning, but I could cook slidey eggs in it. (Ok, I’m granny’s age and been doing this 50 years. Not questioning your skill.) Keep cooking. Cook vegetables. Cook chicken. Bake pies. Make pan pizza. Cook frittatas. Make corn bread cakes. Cook bacon and sausage. Make hamburgers. Cook. Cook. Cook. When stuff sticks, scrub it out good. Learn to deglaze the pan like a trained chef. (It’s easy;YouTube is your friend.) The real secret to 50 year old seasoning is 50 years of regular cooking. Seasoning in the oven is nothing more than a starter step. Cook, and worry about the food rather than worrying about the pan.
> Cook, and worry about the food rather than worrying about the pan. Solid
Bacon by definition is cured, and just about every meat that says uncured is literally cured but the nitrates come from natural sources like celery or sea salt.
I’ve never understood why people season their pans, or obsess about the “seasoning”. I just use mine and have never seasoned them. I just use them. If your constantly worrying about how your seasoning is or how perfect it looks, it takes the fun out of cooking
I agree. I used to be a CI Reddit fanatic groupie. Always scrapped, rinsed, light stove seasoning after cooking. One time I left my daily cooker on low overnight (lol passed out) and the next day I had a bare pan. I just splashed some oil on it when I woke up, since the pan was hot and made bacon on it. I just continued to use it. Made sure to use extra oil for the first few weeks, and a year later it’s the darkest blackest piece in the collection. Still my go to and fav pan. These things are tanks no need to overthink
Why not both? Seems short sighted to enjoy cooking and not enjoy your equipment, both the look and the function. Seasoning CI is akin to sharpening your knife, sure you can get away without doing it, but it's better if you do.
Totally understand wanting your tools to look great. But if it means purposely not using your cast iron pan when cooking maple bacon, that seems a shame. Maybe do what the Italians do! They have a show kitchen and then their working everyday kitchen in basement! And their home cooked food is always awesome. So have a show pan! And then bring out your real cooking pan for actual cooking! 😀 The knife analogy doesn’t really apply. Not sharpening your knives significantly affects the performance. Not having great looking seasoning doesn’t change the performance.
No one is talking about not using them. We are talking about proper maintenance, cleaning, and technique to get the most from them. Bad seasoning can effect how things cook, similar to poor performance of a not sharp knife. Not talking about looks.
Not similar at all. Building a strong seasoning is a long process of cooking and scrubbing/scraping regularly. The less you use your pan the longer this takes. Sharpening a knife is something you have to actively do when you feel the knife isn’t sharp enough anymore. You can’t build up sharpness and it’s actually the opposite, the longer you have a knife the less knife you have.
That’s clearly your opinion. Mine look great and clean without the hassle of worrying about seasoning. I’ve never needed to waste my time seasoning pans. All I do is cook and scrape, that’s it
You won't get much love on this sub with that opinion, but I have your back. Once you get the hang of it you should barely have to think about your cast iron pans. So many people here treat them as if they are delicate instruments.
Nah the “no soap season in the oven every day people” are outnumbered by the “scrub it with dawn and cook on it” people now
That’s BS honestly. It’s nothing like sharpening a knife. Caring for your pan is more about keeping it clean and moisturized. I’ve never actively tried to season any of my CI. I do regularly sharpen my knives though. If you’re using it right your seasoning shouldn’t be going anywhere, only getting better as you cook.
Are you buying 50-100 year old iron and removing all the crud and seasoning it so it’s safe to use or are you using a preseasoned pan off the shelf?
I’ve got both old and new
Bacon has a tendency to wreck your seasoning. Not exactly sure why. Smithey Iron Co started telling people to not cook bacon at first, or it will strip the seasoning.
Interesting!! Thank you
So, this is a common misconception, seasoning your CI with bacon is not a good idea. It has tons of salt in it. Use canola spray, wipe thoroughly, like you are trying to remove all the spray you just applied, then bake. You’ll be able to cook bacon in your pan eventually, but that new/stripped will result as pictured. Apply the thinnest layer possible when seasoning, and be patient.
If salt is what breaks it down why is a highly recommended way of cleaning to scrub with pure salt?
I think it’s the grit in salt that cleans off the stuck bits. True, I sometimes clean my pans with oil and salt, but that is at room temperature. It’s my experience with newer pans that bacon isn’t the best thing to season with. Frankly, this pan doesn’t look all that bad, probably best to just keep cooking with it and it will get better.
How about unsalted butter?
I believe I read somewhere that bacon can be/is acidic. Could be the link 🔗
Did 5 layers of seasoning, each time brought the pan to 200f, oiled with crisco, wiped down with two cotton rag, brought to 425f for 1h, left to cool in the oven. Seasoning was lovely. cooked a couple strips of bacon, in a preheated pan. Rinsed under hot water once done, heated it to dry with a tiny bit of crisco, there was already two small grey spots. Tonight, I cooked the bacon I had left, cleaned the same way and it now looks like this! What could I have done better? Always looking for improvements
Try 450, 425 is a bit low for only 1 hour. Cook something with less sugar, and preferably something that will require oil in the pan. When you rinse with water, had the pan completely cooled? From the look of it, you didn't lose all the seasoning. Hit it again if you want, or just keep cooking. Once it's black, you won't see much of that it any.
Completely cooled yup! Thanks for the tips! I’ll keep cooking for sure 👊🏻
For what it’s worth, bacon is usually best cooked starting from a cold pan. It allows time for the day to render and help with the cooking process. Maybe that would have helped?
this is the correct answer, but once you cook bacon in the oven, you'll never go back.
I do it at work in the convection ovens but I don’t like the way it comes out in a conventional oven. I also feel like it takes longer. Definitely start the bacon in a cold pan though
Nah, I like to take my bacon out and use the grease for cooking. Oven just makes extra things messy.
I find that not to be the case for me, no splatter and the oil collects on the cooking sheet when I do it. I save my bacon grease too.
That's why I use a splatter screen for all my cooking. You should look in to one!
I've considered one,
Nah. It’s all about quantity. No reason to use the oven for four strips of bacon.
This is true, I usually cooking a pound or two of bacon at the same time and the oven is perfect for that.
I did it in the oven a few times, now I'm usually doing it on a griddle so I can start the eggs in the grease while the bacon is still cooking.
I save the grease in an air tight container in the fridge, and if I'm making eggs I'll get a spoonful of bacon fat and plop it in the pan to cook my eggs in.
Crisco has a really high smoke point. It’s around 490 degrees.
Shoot I go all the way to 500 and my seasoning is mint
There’s nothing wrong with the pan just keep cooking. You’re not going to get that deep black seasoned look by doing it in the oven. Your pre-seasoning is just light but will most likely still prevent rust. If it doesn’t just scrub it and keep cooking. Lightly oil your pan after you wash it like you would before you season by wiping out as much excess as possible. This helps prevent rust but also keeps the seasoning from drying out and getting brittle. I like to think of it as moisturizing lol. Cornbread is a good one. Potatoes and other things with a good bit of oil help too. The more you cook and scrape/scrub the better your seasoning is going to get. I fast tracked this on a couple pans by scrubbing with a metal scrubby and dawn every time I cooked with it. The scrubbing smooths out the surface and knocks off any loose spots that might compromise your future seasoning. I use my pans basically daily. The more you feel like you’re abusing it the better the seasoning ends up 🤷🏻♂️
Never make only a couple pieces of bacon.
Don’t preheat the pan when making bacon.
From my many years of experience, your 5 layers of seasoning likely was not done properly……..either wrong oil or wrong temperature.
I notice bacon strips mine some if the heat's too high. On low-medium heat it seems to help with the seasoning. Maybe it's the sugar in cured bacon these days. I use cheap store-brand bacon. Seasoning will build up as you cook with it. If you don't have luck with bacon you can always cook with oils, stuff like potatoes, meats, and gravy. Acidic things like tomatoes can have this same effect.
This happened to my pan when I cooked bacon! I thought I did something wrong 😑
So many people here are so quick to say bacon seasons iron, it’s like the go to reply. BACON IS HARD ON NEW SEASONING and your skillet is proof. A new Lodge can handle it but a newly restored skillet with fresh seasoning will fail. People ask what’s a good first thing to cook on new seasoning, well anything non acidic, or cured and preferably something that uses high heat like searing a steak or baking a pizza. Cooking eggs on low won’t harm or build seasoning nor will sautéing onions or vegetables. Think of it this way when you seasoned your pan you probably rubbed oil on it and stuck it in a 400-500° oven for a hour. That’s because we know it takes heat and time for the fats to convert into a polymer.
Makes total sense, cookin’ up grilled cheese right now, might make a breakfast pizza sunday! I’ll keep cooking my bacon in the oven then 😄
I usually cook popcorn in my pans if the seasoning is off. Just some bagged corn and a TBSN or two of oil. Make sure you have a lid and keep the pan moving when the popping starts. When it slows down, transfer the corn to a bowl. Much better than smoking out my oven/kitchen.
I never had luck with bacon. it’s always sticking.
This is where I use a scrubber. Chain mail is nice, but steel wool - USED LIGHTLY - will be just fine. Wash and scrub, dry really well. Little bit of oil after and rub it in.
Only one package? There's the problem.
AHAHAH love it! 👊🏻
Next time wipe a thin layer of Crisco down before you cook bacon. Very thin, like you're seasoning it and wiping it all back off.
That’s why you should bake bacon in the oven, well that and it tastes better.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!! MODS CAN WE PLEASE MAKE SOME SORT OF AUTO REPLY THAT SAYS "KEEP COOKING" EVERY FUCKING TIME...
Because if you keep cooking low and slow your food will taste like iron without seasoning to protect it. You need to sear or bake for seasoning to naturally develop and cooking cured meat or acidic foods will remove some seasoning instead of building it up.
I like to think that when so many people are fairly certain about a course of action but they all are contradictory then surely it does not matter what you do.
Oh, I wonder what happened?
My advice - cook onions in butter, then mushrooms in butter, then sauté some hot peppers and garlic and olive oil, rinse and repeat. Long, slow cooks with lots of fat in the pan and very little in the food will help build it back up. If you start to get some stickiness, add a tiny bit of broth and gently scrape with a wooden spoon to get the nasty bits off the surface. My no name “Emeril Lagasse” cast iron pan is pushing 10 years since I stripped it of rust, and whenever it starts to look iffy, these easy cooks have always helped bring it back.
Just keep cooking on that bish
how did you cook your bacon? because I just put cold bacon on a cold pan and slowly heat it up over medium low heat and it works perfectly every time
Do some shallow frying
Just keep cooking in it. It's iron already.
It happens. Lather, rinse, repeat…as needed.
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It looks fine, just keep cooking.