Healthier alternative to Crisco?

J

JoeB

New member
So my wife questions why I would want to use Crisco to season my pans when I could go with a healthier alternative.....Spectrum 100% all vegetable shortening, made by Hain Celestial. The only ingredient listed is 'mechanically pressed organic palm oil. Has anyone tried using this instead of Crisco? How does it compare?

Thanks,
Joe
 
No clue on how it would be for seasoning, but you can pretty much season with any fat or oil out there. My question would be what difference does a "healthier alternative" make? You're seasoning with it; not cooking with it. Not sure how much healthier palm oil is than Crisco since Crisco contains palm oil.

Copied from Wikipedia (and verified by looking at my can of Crisco)

As of 2012, Crisco consists of a blend of soybean oil, fully hydrogenated palm oil, and partially hydrogenated palm and soybean oils.
 
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I agree with you Kevin. What difference does it make? Try telling this to my health conscious wife...who doesn't understand why I even collect cast iron :-)
 
JoeB said:
I agree with you Kevin. What difference does it make? Try telling this to my health conscious wife...who doesn't understand why I even collect cast iron :-)
Click to expand...

Either you get into the science of seasoning and prove your point, or realize you have to pick your battles, and this one may not be worth picking :)
 
The oil, when properly seasoned, is polymerized and essentially inert. You aren't cooking with it... you are cooking on it. (not to mention that the whole idea of fats being bad for your health is all in the process of being re-written these days).

But I'm a single guy, and probably for good reason. Don't take my advice.
 
Well, after discussing with my wife, she is totally fine with Crisco. We do have a large tub of the aforementioned palm oil that she'd like used up. Any objections to using this for seasoning?
 
I've read a lot about seasoning cast iron over the past few years. Watched youtube videos and what not. Years ago I seasoned a pan, probably with Crisco, and did an hour in the oven @ 450 IIRC

Some months ago I read a thread on a food/cooking/cookware forum with a long discussion about a method a gal posted in a blog on the internet. She used flax seed oil, and did this multiple oven seasoning method. I can't recall how many times in and out of the oven before it was done, but it stimulated some discussion on the forum, it would have totalled up to 14 hours to finally season the pan ! One lady in that discussion made more sense to me than anything I had read. She said her grandmother, and that generation seasoned cast iron by cooking in it.

So when I recently added this #7 slant logo to my battery I recalled that. After I stripped it down with the easy off I took a jar of bacon grease I had collected and swabbed it down. Threw it in the oven @ 250, increased to 350, then to 450. Left it in an hour and then shut the oven off and let it cool down. Since then I've fried a heap of bacon in it and eggs in the bacon grease. Seems to have worked a treat.
 
Any piece im going to use I season once and start cooking. I have no patience. I make sure to cook fatty foods to start but im not generally easy on my pans. I use crisco @ 450. I have seasoned with flax and it comes out pretty black on the first coat but the smell does not make me want to cook in it by any means
 
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