Curing Cast Iron

So you bought a new cast iron skillet or Dutch oven. Now what? There are several things you need to do before you use it. In the old days people would cure their cast iron by putting it in the fire, till it was glowing hot. Then they would coat with fat and put it back into the fire till it was black; this method is still used today. Another method is to put it in your oven.

Over the years of camping, hunting and fishing I have found the following method to work best for me and is a real easy process. Be it a Dutch oven or a skillet.

1.      Take cast iron put into your sink with hot water (the hotter the better). Make sure that there is no soap of any kind.

2.      Now take some real fine grit wet sand paper gently scrub inside of cast iron, you don’t need to put a lot of pressure here your goal is to clean the inside of the cast iron and make it as smooth as possible.

3.      Dry pan well

4.      Coat the pan inside and out with shorting.

5.      Take cast iron outside to your gas BBQ grill and lay on grill. Let it cook for about 30 min on medium heat.

6.      Remove and let cool.

7.      Once it has cooled down recoat inside of cast iron and repeat on grill for 1 hour on high heat

When done your cast iron should be black inside and out. The inside of the cast iron should look like your non-stick pans. And make sure when cleaning cast iron you never use any type of soap, or metal scrub brush of any kind. This will cause the inside of pan to loose its non-stick service; I use hot water and one of those plastic pads. Make sure you dry your cast iron well and add a small amount of cooking oil and spread all over the inside of the pan when not in use.

If you have any questions please e-mail me at camping@azod.com

Remember if you pack it in pack it out

R L Gray

Camping/Hiking Editor

Team AZOD