What a good idea about the mineral oil on skillets, never thought of that..I do use it for my cutting boards...
The last cast iron skillets I bought were already seasoned and made in USA, the clerk told me she kept hers in brown paper
bag, so I have been doing that too....so far so good...

I don't cuddle my cast iron! lol I seasoned it when I first bought it, smear with oil stick it in the oven - done. I don't use soap on it, just really hot water and a rag- if something does stick I run a metal spatula around the pan to scrape it off. Then I plop it back on the stove for the next time.
My mom never did care for cast iron either - always had trouble with stuff sticking. I like the fact that I dont have to worry about scratching a nonstick skillet.

I have my grams cast iron round griddle. I do what Jan does but every now and them when my oven needs cleaned I will put my pan in there to bake. My gram always used to put it in the coals of the fire when she cooked outside. She also kept it well greased with Crisco.

I have my mother's set of cast irons. From a tiny one to a very large one. I season them the way you all do. It does well, but my fried potatoes ALWAYS stick no matter how much oil or butter I put in. It's a mess to clean up. Any suggestions?

**PERK** I collect cast iron cookware and trivets!! I also use them all...love, love, love my cast iron, and won't have any teflon in the house!!

Jan is ever so right...NEVER wash with soap or an abrasive. Just hot water, and guess what? You can use a "Chore Boy" metal scrubbie on them!! :D

To season? Clean the pan, and it's the only time it's ok to use hot soapy water...if the pan is old and has a build up of old grease, spray it down with oven cleaner and seal it into a black trash bag, set it out on the porch for a few days. Wash in the hot soapy water and pop it into your oven for about 20 minutes at 250. When the pan is dry and hot, (wear your Ov-glove) spray it with Pam, inside and out, and then do your best to wipe ALL of the Pam off! (It won't happen, trust me! You want a VERY thin coating of Pam on the pan. Pop it back in that 250 - 350 degree oven for about an hour. All done...all that's left is to fry some taters in the pan...not too many, cuz you're going to all but burn them and toss them.
Rinse in hot water, stove top burner to dry, and you should be ready to cook, old fashioned non-stick style! :)

Yep! Leave those potatoes alone!! :lol: Make sure that your pan and oil are HOT before you add the taters, and then leave them alone to cook completely on one side before you try to turn them. You want the sugars in the taters to carmelize and seal before you try to turn, or they're gonna stick. :)

Brings back memories as I had a set of 3 frying pans and a dutch oven (4qt) pot when I was first married and used them for many, many years. After cleaning I would put them into the oven which had a pilot light that gave off enough heat to dry the cast iron. Dutch oven was wonderful for pot roast and stews. Did make a mistake once and made tomato sauce in the dutch oven, sauce had a metallic taste to it. Eventually I must have ignored proper cleaning and they got rusty or didn't cook was well as they used to. Replaced them with lighter pans with telfon coatings but it was never the same.

My mom has a full set of Magnalite- she's been using it for 60 yrs! I have the big roaster. My main cookwear is Club Aluminum & I have been using that for 30 yrs! I do have one cast iron skillet that I use regularly but I gotta say I don't think I could use it for all of my cooking because it is so heavy! Around here that LeCreuset (enamel coated cast iron) is pretty popular but I can hardly lift some of it up!

"I do have one cast iron skillet that I use regularly but I gotta say I don't think I could use it for all of my cooking because it is so heavy! Around here that LeCreuset (enamel coated cast iron) is pretty popular but I can hardly lift some of it up!"

Think that's why I was happy to switch to the lighter telfon coated pans, cast iron is just too heavy.

I wash with dish soap and hot water. Put on the stove to dry, then wipe with canola oil and put in a 250 oven for about an hour.