Reply #2: Start with vegetable oil

[Stinky The Clown]

Reseasoning is an identical process to that first seasoning you did many years ago. You did season it many years ago, didn't you?:)

Heat the oven to about 250 degrees. While its heating, put a small amount of oil into the pan and spread it with a paper towel. You'll need enough oil to get the entire interior coated lightly. Now put the pan into the oven and let it go for a while ... maybe an hour or so.

Take it out of the oven. It has probably smoked a good bit and is now nice and hot. Put some salt in it (Kosher salt is best, but any salt will really do). Using a paper towel, scrub the pan with the salt as the only abrasive. The salt and the paper towel will pretty quickly turn dark gray to black - essentially a dirty metallic color.

Now here's where my method differs from the "textbooks". Add some oil back to that sludge that used to be salt, smear it around the pan and put it back into the oven. This time, let it go just until the pan is good and hot again .... maybe 15 or 20 minutes.

Remove it this last time and wipe it clean. No need to scrub. Just remove the sludge with a paper towel. Re-oil the pan while still warm, allow it to cool, and put it away. Its done.

If used and cleaned properly, you should never have to reseason a black iron pan. Never clean it with soap and water. Just use salt and a paper towel or cloth. In extreme cases, use salt and a non-scratch (blue color) scrubbie. Once to pan is well seasoned, you actually can use water in it, but never, ever use soap or scouring powder. If you have stuck food (let's say some sausage fond from making breakfast sausage), take the food from the pan and remove as much grease as you can by pouring it out and then wiping with a paper towel. While the pan is still warm to hot, allow water to run from the tap into the pan and use a brush to remove the stuck stuff, This will usually get the hard stuff off pretty easily. If it is really, really stuck, use a plastic scraper. If that fails, forget it and store as normal. It will eventually cook off.

Using the pan is a good way to keep it seasoned. If you're not washing it, as you should *not* be doing, some carbonized residue will always remain. That carbonized residue is **not** leftover food. It is, in actual fact, carbon. And that's what gets into the pores of cast iron and seasons it. It is to be encouraged, not removed. (By the way, even if it *were* food, nothing pathogenically bad can survive when the pan gets hot.)

So ... season it now, that gets you started. The real key is effective use and care.