I need to re-season my cast-iron skillet. Can I use food-grade mineral oil?
I have used food-grade flax-seed oil in the past, but my wife and son hate the smell. I'm looking for a better way to do this.
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I have used food-grade flax-seed oil in the past, but my wife and son hate the smell. I'm looking for a better way to do this.
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The "it will go rancid" argument only means you. are. not. using. your. skillet. enough.
Even then...I've never had a animal fat cast iron piece "go rancid". I have one of those corn bread stick pans that only gets used a few times a year. It's probably 50 years old and hangs on the wall when not in use. Never a problem with it..and it gets bacon grease when I make corn bread stick. (yea! New years Collards and Cornbread!)
I'm not a rookie in seasoning cast iron. I asked originally about food-safe mineral oil because my son had picked up some to condition an awesome cutting board he had made in his woodshop class. I've used flaxseed oil before with the best and quickest results, but it really smells fishy when you get it above the smoke point. I've gone with grapeseed oil and am pleased with the results so far (but there's a long way to go, certainly, and cookbookchick is right: the best seasoning does come through regular use and long-term care).
The last time I seasoned a pan I used flaxseed oil for the first time. To my understanding, the difference between flaxseed oil and linseed oil is that flaxseed oil designates that it's foodsafe.
And found that article to be an excellent explanation of the science behind seasoning the cast iron skillet. Although the article is older and the author is no longer posting replies, I think it is very useful. I believe she recommends flaxseed oil for seasoning and includes a guide on how to season your skillet. It is time consuming, but apparently leads to a superior result.
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Bacon, followed by onions is my favourite. Or just onions in loads of olive oil if you aren't a bacon person.
With cast iron, one needs to pick their battles (again, my opinion). Lots of ways work in practice (though perhaps not in science), and when you look at it from a historical point of view, most people in the past didn't have a choice of oils. Edible oil and fats were a very limited resources until after the industrial revolution. They used what they had (which often didn't include ovens either).
For most of my life, I simply followed the instructions that came with, or were stamped(?) onto the back of the pan. These had quite a long range from heat the oil to 200F for half a day, to 450F for half an hour. Though the currently recognized proper way looks something like this: http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/ This method encourages making the oil smoke, which isn't always a practical option, especially when living with others.
I've tried most of them and all of the ones I've tried made me happy. They may not have properly seasoned my pans, but they gave me the result I wanted, a nonstick cooking surface that cleans easily and doesn't rust. It doesn't rust even when I cook tomatoes or wash it in dishwashing water... which is another big no-no, but has yet to give me grief. Sorry if I made you shudder there. Then again, I use my main cast iron pans at least once a day and may simply not have a chance to rust. Yet, my often neglected dutch oven also shows no sign of rust between yearly seasoning (except when someone puts it away wet which apparently serves me right for washing it).
My favourite method so far is with grapeseed oil heated to 350 F for two hours, then left in the oven overnight to cool, wiping the excess oil out partway through the cooling process. Mild to moderate smelling oil smoke stink, with nicest frying surface of the methods I've tried.
I'm glad you asked this, as it's past my regular scheduled seasoning time of year. This year, I'm going with a more traditional animal fat method, and see how that works.
There's only so much you can do to minimize this, short of doing the seasoning outdoor on a grill or portable burner: use very thin coats of oil, run the vent fan, open windows if you can, wait until sensitive household members are away.
Mineral oil is a byproduct of petroleum. Food grade mineral oil is said to be safe, but you decide if that bothers you or not. I use it on my cutting boards because it won't go rancid. Also, I don't want to use walnut oil because I don't want to worry about someone having a nut allergy. I have never thought to use it on my cast iron. If you only use your pan occasionally, it may be a good way to go because it won't easily go rancid.
Personally, I use beef tallow or pork lard. I don't use bacon grease because I feel the sugar used to cure it is contrary to my goals of seasoning in the first place.
Many like seed oils because of the high smoke point. I don't use canola for anything (a whole other conversation), but I do keep grape seed oil on hand.
That flax seed method is supposed to be awesome, but I have heard of people detecting a fishy smell.
I really like the Canter method. Because you have tried flax seed, I have a feeling you are familiar with it.
Let us know what you decide to use.
Do you have a different link that goes to the product?
linseed (Linum usitatissimum) is another word for flaxseed (Linum usitatissimum).
Two words, one plant. Linseed oil can be food safe, and sometimes it isn't. Same with flaxseed oil. It all depends on how it's been processed. For example, lead and other heavy metals sometimes were/are a common addition to make the final woodfinish harder for a product often sold as 'boiled linseed oil'. Just like flax oil (because they are the same thing), you can process/heat linseed without making it toxic.
I suspect the confusion between linseed and flax plant comes from the modern usage of the words linen (which shares a linguistic root with linseed) and flax. Currently we use the word 'flax' to refer to the plant (seed, oil, flower, stocks and chaff) and 'linen' to refer to the fabric (starting somewhere between retting and final hackle, but usually referring to the actual thread or fabric), except in woodwork where the oil is still called linseed.
These Tried and True finishes are all FDA foodsafe (for what it's worth these days) and also Canadian equivalent foodsafe (very slightly more strict). They take a bit more effort to apply to a cutting board than simple vegetable oil, however they last a lot longer and I have yet to find any going rancid. They can be used over many/most wood finishes.
I think you saw me mention the Canter method of seasoning, but I have not used flax seed oil. I use tallow and lard. :)
The flax/lin thing is all a big messy language thing. The meanings of the two has been so fluid in history. Sometimes linen can refer to any bast fibre fabric like nettle, sisal, jute, and linen (Medieval), other times it refers to any 'product' of the flax plant like seeds, oil, fabric (Industrial Revolution). And then there is current usage where the food industry seems to have taken the word flax into their bosom, perhaps to elevate it from the lowly agricultural linseed animal feed. Like when they started improving the rapeseed plant so that it had less of that cancer causing acid and gave it a new name based on where it was developed - good old CANadian Oil Low Acid. I (without sarcasm) think it's marvelous how the food industry uses nomenclature as a way of improving public perception. It's very clever.
I can't wait to see what they do with barley - my prediction on the next superfood. It's cheap to grow, it's lowly history as peasant fodder, intensely rich vitamin and mineral content... but that's the making of another thread.
I just watched a farmer who grows nothing but linseed plants. He claims flax and linseed are two different plants. To quote him: Linseed plants are tall with many seeds. Flax plants are shorter with fewer seeds.
Yay!! More confusion. :)
Sorry for the hijacking of your thread The Principal Cook. Back to your regularly scheduled programming. :)
There is a slight difference between flax grown for fibre and flax grown for seed. Think of it like tomatoes. There are cherry tomatoes and there are roma. Both are tomato. One makes a better salad, the other better sauce. But both can make salad or sauce.
The taller flax grown for cloth can easily be used for seed and oil, the shorter flax grown for oil can be used for making cloth. We are told that if we want to grow for fibre, we have to buy these seeds, if we want for seed, we have to buy that seed...or if we want drought tolerant... then we buy... we buy...
Sorry about the long winded answers, but we've touched on two of my current passions - working with flax (food and textiles) and ranting against deliberate consumer miseducation. I should unsubscribe from this thread so I don't derail it any further.
Yes, you CAN use food grade mineral oil, and many people do.
I don't want my personal predigest to put you off the idea entirely, but perhaps you could find a more renewable resource for seasoning your skillet? If you are an omnivore, lard (especially from ethically raised animals) is a very popular for seasoning pans. Or a vegetable oil with a higher smoke temperature (like coconut or grapeseed) will give olfactory senses a more pleasant experience.
There are some wonderful studies and ideas on the best oil to use; however, whatever you choose to use to season your skillet, it needs to fit in with your lifestyle. For example, if you live somewhere with inclement weather, then of course you don't want to spend half the day airing out your kitchen with the windows open.
I haven't tried food grade mineral oil myself, so I can't tell you how stinky it would be when cooked. I'm confident someone else will pipe up and let us know.