Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Lodge seasoning

THIS will work also if you need to re season it and get it smooth again. Done this a couple of times...

I've read so many type oils over the years, & usually use Crisco myself. But when ya get right down to it, the one thing that was used a hundred years ago, 200 maybe, with success, might still be the ticket...lard.

I dont like to use a real high smoke point oil.


The carbon is what you want. Seasoning is nothing more than carbon left behind after an oil burns off.


Seasoning is not supposed to be gummy or sticky.


Vegetable oil or corn oil works fine. So does lard.

If it is sticky, turn up the heat and put it back in.

Food for thought? carbon. Carbon introduced into iron. Carburized iron=steel. Steel, less porous than iron, less stick. Is it that simple yet that scientific? Ain't sayin it's right, just pondering & gettin in over my head.

This does nothing but improve cast iron cookware. Even badly rusted cast iron utensil can be restored using an angle grinder unless it has holes in it. In that case drill some more holes and call it a colendar. I usually start with a wire cup brush. If that doesn't smooth it up a flap disc works well and you can get different grits. I wouldn't use a grinding wheel. A hand sander will work also.

I wondered about that too, used cast all my life, did most of the tips above with lesser or greater success...then about 5 yrs ago I went to a yardsale and saw a vintage US made carbon steel skillet (don't know about the metallurgy, but it rings when tapped). Night and day compared with my cast iron. Use it, abuse it, overheat it, cold wet food in the pan...it just doesn't stick. Savory Spider brand name. I was going to buy another one for the camp box on Ebay, but they are priced through the roof. I gave the lady 5 bucks for mine, but had to dump out the dog food, it wasn't really part of the yardsale, but she was on a roll.

I sanded the factory "seasoning" out and got it smooth, then seasoned it the way I do the rest of my cast iron. I only have one Lodge that had that new "factory seasoning" on it, but that is what I did. Took about 10-15 minutes to sand smooth.

You can burn off the factory seasoning if you like. No great trick to it. Hot oven for an hour or two should do it. Then scrub with hot water and a good brush. Then start from scratch.