The biggest complaint we hear from folks who are new to cooking with cast iron is that whatever they're cooking is sticking to their cast iron. If food is sticking to cast iron it's either being cooked at too high a temperature or it's not seasoned properly. Oftentimes, it's a combination of the two. When cooking with cast iron, you MUST cook at lower temperatures than when using aluminum or other types of cookware. In addition, cast iron retains its heat so well that you have to continue too cook at lower temperatures. Most home cooks are not used to cooking at such low temperatures. I know that that’s been my own largest problem when cooking with cast iron.
New cast iron is typically a battleship gray color and has a coating of paraffin wax. That wax coating is to protect the cast iron from rusting during shipping. The first thing you have to do is to either melt the wax off (in the oven or grill) or to use very hot water, soap and a wire brush and scrub it off. If you choose to melt the wax off, you're best off doing that outside as it is a smokey process and gives of a lot of odor, which you don't necessary want inside the house.
The following image is of a brand new
cast iron waffle iron with the wax coating still on it.
Next is an image of a cast iron waffle iron that was returned to the
RVing Outpost because the customer had problems with the waffles sticking. As is readily apparent, this waffle iron was not seasoned properly and there are areas of the cast that never even saw any oil. If you have cast iron that food is sticking to and it looks like this, you need to work on properly seasoning your cast iron.
If you have an improper seasoning, such as the one in this image:
Your food is going to stick. There are no ifs, ands or buts, it
will stick. It's obvious from the above picture that the person didn't even attempt to season the waffle iron properly. Whatever oil was used was not applied evenly, and was not allowed to "bake" into the iron. It's no wonder this person was unhappy with the waffle iron!
So you want to know what you're supposed to do? It's really quite simple. Once the wax coating has been removed and the cast iron is completely dry, you need to brush it with a light coating of olive oil. To continue using our waffle iron as an example, I used a small pastry brush, or paint brush (NOT a silicone brush), to brush on the olive oil and make sure the entire waffle iron is completely coated with a LIGHT coating of oil.
The waffle iron was then placed in the oven at 425 degrees for approximately 1-1/2 hours. Once the waffle iron was cool enough to handle, the process was repeated. It's usually best to "season" new cast iron at least two times. However, some pieces make require more seasoning. In our waffle iron example, the photo below shows a properly seasoned waffle iron.
The above waffle iron went through the seasoning process four times. You'll notice that the seasoning is very even and very shiny. This waffle iron is now completely non-stick and will make the best waffles you've ever had!
There's no "secret" to seasoning your cast iron. It just takes time and a willingness to do it properly. Any cast iron that has been properly seasoned will be completely non-stick and best of all, super easy to clean!
