Brown Cast Iron

J

JeromeG

New member
Sorry Guys...

I have read that over time your cast iron will turn black with regular use, but I'm not buying it anymore. I see youtube videos of people seasoning BARE cast iron, with crisco, for the first time, straight out of the self clean oven cycle, lye tank or an electrolysis tank. Guess what? their skillets were either grey or black!

Evidence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6Tz3HnnCFs...

Here is my current problem:
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The #6 skillet on the left was done by someone else, used on eBay, and the #8 on the right is the one that i did. Can you see the BIG difference in the color? I can see dark brown being ok, but i don't even have that.

My cast iron will not turn black, even after using it. I purchased my cast iron used, except for the griddle. They were all nasty crudy and black. I used either the easy off oven cleaner method or the self clean oven cycle to strip and clean the skillet. I also use a 50/50 vinegar and water to remove rust if needed. All my pieces after i cleaned them were dull grey or silver.

Here are my steps:
1. Remove crud/ oil build up
2. Scrub with steel wool with soap and water
3. Dry it with paper towel, then put in a preheated oven at 200 to completely dry it (15 minutes).
4. Once dry, Rub on crisco or flaxseed. (buy this time I'm dealing with a lot of surface rust, but some comes off as i rub with oil) -
5. After it is well coated, i wipe off the excess oil and put it back in the oven and turn the temp up to 300. (15 minutes
)6. taken skillets out to wipe more excess oil
7. Return skillet to oven and raise time to 400 for 2 hours.
8. Repeat from step 4.

When i am done with step 2, as I'm drying the skillet, rust is attacking me and skillet, so I'm going as fast as i can to get the thing to dry. The skillets are turning reddish brown at this point. I live in Chicago, humidity in the summer is always above 60 or 70%. Sometimes higher. After repeating the oven seasoning process at least five times the skillets are "jet" brown. See my pictures below. I just purchase another skillet that i have not cleaned yet (small #6), but it was cleaned by someone else, and the thing is jet black!!! What am i doing so wrong???

My second problem is my griddle, every time i cook something it discolors the skillet or strips the seasoning. Im only cooking pancakes or eggs on the thing. I cooked blueberry pancakes and the blueberry circles are forever imprinted. I never use soap to clean either.

But seriously, can some explain how some people can get jet back skillets after 2 seasonings but mine our solid brown after use and 5 seasonings???

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I can understand dark brown, but the three i did are reddish.
 
The seasoning, not the pan, will blacken over time. Every pan is different, and it's not just brand variation or "old virgin iron". Absolutely clean bare iron should be grey, but that brown caste is not unusual. If you note in the video, near the end, all of the skillets have a slightly different color to them, the one on the near left a bronze tone, and it's the oldest of the lot.

My BSR chicken fryer was as brown as your pan when first refurbed; it's midnight black five years later (didn't take that long, though). I think your expectation may be that baking on repeated coats of seasoning are going to give you black, but the black part has more to do with the carbonizing over time of other things in the cooking fats.

Flash rust is virtually inescapable. Just go ahead with the coating with oil and the wiping off of as much as you can; the flash rust will wipe off with it and not return once the oil has formed a barrier between the iron and the air.

As to the griddle, I can only guess maybe sugar or acid in the berries working on a relatively new seasoning.
 
I suspect your oven is lying to you. I was told by a tech that these days if an oven is off 75° it can be considered normal.

I use lard and the first bake is in the Weber at 350° to 400°. The piece will smoke A LOT and then come out with a beautiful Coppertone tan like yours. Then I put it in the oven at a verified 475° (455 to 490° swing) for an hour or two and let it cool with the oven. There is still quite a bit more smoke as the light colored impurities cook out. The item then is black.

This will also work with Crisco. You need to get the item smoking hot to get the brown to turn (read burn) to black. The 500° club is flirting with danger so stay under that a little when your oven recycles.

Hilditch
 
wow an hour or 2 that's a lot of energy. I just finished some pans for a customer that wanted them dark. Crisco or lard is the way to go. I generally put the pans in the oven and leave them in during the preheating till there warm to the touch. pullem out wipem down with a light coat of Crisco. once I hit 350 I let them cook for 30 min and leavem in during the oven cool down. ill do this 3 times at 350 for a brown color if I want them a little dark ill do the last time at 500.
 
Just curious, can heat alone darken the pan. I was thinking I could leave the pan on my Weber for a few hours or more until the coals go completely out. Would that help? I guess it's worth a try.
 
Yes but: only the heat between 400° and 500° will make it black. A Weber normally stays under 400° unless you load it with 5 lbs. of hot coals or more.

Hilditch
 
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Thanks Hilditch!!!!! You were right. First the grill only stayed above 400 for about 15 mins if that, but the rest of the time it was about 350. But it did get darker. :-D Check it out:
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Cool. Now put it in the oven at 450° for an hour. Leave it there till the oven cools and I think you will be happy. If you have a good exhaust fan that vents outside open the oven door a little a couple of times to let the smoke out and the oxygen in. If not then leave the oven closed.

If your happy, cook bacon first and the carbon will absorb the fats to get the seasoning going in the right direction and in a few years it will be the cats ass after the seasoning fills the valleys and covers the mountain tops.

Hilditch
 
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