I started using a lodge cast iron pan about a year ago. I purchased the pan probably five years ago, but it didn’t see much use. I decided to try to move away from cooking with non-stick skillets and it took a while to get comfortable, but now I use it routinely. I have some questions about care.
The photo shows where the finish looks like it is missing. I’m guessing it is the oil coating that should build up, but I would like a second opinion. What should I do about it? Just start seasoning it until it all looks good?
I bake eggs in my oven (on a cookie sheet in ramekins) nearly every morning for family breakfast. I’m thinking I could just integrate seasoning into that existing ritual. My tentative plan is to apply a thin coat of oil to the cast iron pan and put it in the oven while it preheats to 375 (about 15 minutes), the eggs cook (another 15 minutes) and then turn off the oven and let the pan sit in the oven while it cools down. Will that be enough heat to get the oil to do what I want? I’m trying to not waste a lot of electricity and have something I can do basically every day until I am happy with the seasoning on the pan. Can I just use the cheap canola oil I already have?
I would love any feedback or thoughts.
I'm going to be the dissenter here and say that you probably don't need to do anything unless it starts to get worse. If you want to make it pretty then yeah, re-season it. But functionally it's probably fine.
The seasoning on a cast iron pan is there for two basic reasons:
Inhibit rust
Make the surface less sticky
If you start to see rust, or it's annoying because food keeps getting stuck - then think about re-seasoning. Maybe if you semi regularly use it to cook acidic food like tomato sauces. If it doesn't bother you when you're cooking it's fine. Especially if you leave them in the oven all the time, where they might get stuff dripped on and then baked on.
Unfortunately you aren't really cooking your eggs hot enough to season the pan. Feel free to try though. Probably putting oil on it does nothing. Best case it works, and worst case a meteor hits the earth killing all life and your pan is mildly sticky.
If you do decide to re-season I recently discovered that Dawn Powerwash (the real one not the weird recipe you can get online) does surprisingly well at stripping old seasoning.