I recently bought a 15" Lodge skillet to use at our deer lease. I decided to make sure it cooked ok before I took it so I bought a pound of thick sliced bacon to break it in with. It said on the box that the skillet was already seasoned but as a precaution I put some peanut oil in it to make sure it didn't stick. When I put some bacon in it the bacon literally welded itself to the skillet. I had to use a metal spatula to scrape the bacon out and then I fininshed cooking it in a teflon skillet. I used a brass brush to scrub the bacon out and then heated it with some water in it and added some peanut oil in it while it was still hot after I dried it. I'm afraid to use it again. Would it help to actually polish the inside of the skillet smooth and then season it?
You can "instantly season" your cast iron in just a couple hours. Polishing the bottom of the pan first will, of course, make the seasoning more effective.
Scrub the cast iron very well, even with steel wool if needed. Dry it well and then coat it thoroughly inside and out with lard or shortening. Then turn it upside down in an oven and bake at 350 degrees for a couple of hours.
This will leave a thin "paint like" coating all over the pan, almost like teflon, which will resist sticking and keep it from rusting.
It is nothing like real seasoning which comes from years of exposure to cooking oils and saturates the iron. And this temporary seasoning can be scraped away.
But it will make the pan useable when new, because it will never attain real seasoning if you can't use it.
It took years to teach my lovely wife to not abuse my favorite cast iron skillet. But never fear, if some one does wreck your cast iron, it is easy to restore.
Setting a pan down in the coals of a campfire for several hours is the absolute best way to remove all traces of abuse and return the cast iron to "as manufactured" condition. But I usually run mine through a clean cycle in the oven. Then start over with the seasoning process.
After 29 years Momma must be nearly trained. I have not needed to retreat my frying pan in several years.
