wilkes

I agree with most of the posters. Never use you cornbread skillet for anything else and never wash it. I put sheets of wax paper between mine when storing them and use wax paper to wipe them out. Sorry about your cobbler pan getting burnt, but I'm guilty of the same thing!

This is what my grandmother taught me. As I preheat the oven, I put some butter in the cast iron skillet and let it melt in the oven. When I put the cornbread mixed into it, it is so hot that the cornbread fries a little. After baking, I wipe the skillet out with a papertowel (not all the time) and immediately put it back into the over which is still hot even though it's turned off. The most important thing is that I don't use this skillet for anything but cornbread.

How to Season a Cast-Iron Skillet


Scrub a new skillet with steel wool to remove its protective coating, and wash with mild, soapy water.

(If reseasoning an old skillet,or pre seasoned just scrub with hot water and a brush.)

Use a paper towel to coat the skillet with vegetable oil.

Heat, uncovered, for 2 hours in an oven at 250 degrees F.

Let cool before use.

Tips & Warnings

Once you've seasoned a skillet, avoid washing it with soap whenever possible.

Clean instead by wiping with a damp cloth after each use.

If you must wash it, clean with mild soap, avoiding detergents and scouring pads;

rinse and wipe dry immediately after washing, then oil lightly with vegetable oil.

If food sticks to the skillet after cooking,

rub with a paper towel and an abrasive such as salt, then reapply vegetable oil. Store uncovered.

If food starts sticking to the skillet during cooking, reseason it.


Season Your Cast Iron

This is probably the most important step in cast iron cooking.

Wash cast iron cookware soap and hot water

Dry thoroughly. Place in 200º. oven (lids separate from dutch oven)

Heat for 5 minutes. Remove and rub inside and outside with shortening

Return to oven, increase temperature to 300 º and heat for 60 minutes.

Turn off heat. Leave cookware in oven for 60 minutes more. Wash

in hot water. Dry and repeat the process, wiping away any excess oil

Season cookware after each use by washing drying, then coat

lightly with shortening and heat in 225º oven for 15 minutes.

(as an alternative after each use you may

just wash, dry and coat with shortening. Inside only)

Thanks whitehawk! Come to think of it, I have been using reg 2 % milk. I don't do a lot of cooking these days and buttermilk just got taken off the grocery list. I will have to add it back for my next cornbread. I tried reseason my pan, I think that is the problem. But I will have to do it again. I'm thinking when I put it in storage, it was there for about a year. I can't remember if it was wrapped in news paper, but I'm thinking since most everything else was that it was too. I've always used butter and never had it stick. Maybe having it stored in paper took out all the oils. Idk, but it kinda makes since. I've never had any luck at getting a new pan seasoned, so my mom gave me one of hers, now I've messed it up :(
I don't have any lard, but maybe I can get some from a real at home cook (who still saves theirs)
Thanks again! I am taking notes! :)

Butter will melt, separate, and the milk solids will burn. Diet margarines such as Heart Balance or reduced calorie/water added products depending on amount of caseinates in the produc will burn in a heartbeatt.

Crisco, Canola, corn oil, or fatback drippings (God forbid)work best. Are you adding buttermilk and oil to your batter? You should be for the best bread.

Don't cut your bread while still in the skillet. When you take it out of the oven you want to run a table knife around the cake of bread. Don't use a sharp knife or you will score your properly seasoned pan. Turn it over at once on a heavy plate. If the bread doesn't come right out and sticks to the pan you will want to place a wet dish cloth on the bottom of the pan you have inverted.

Bread will come right out without tearing the crust.

Silly me }:( I forgot to take my dern cobbler pan out of the oven BEFORE I preheated!!!! Grrrr!!! It had a plastic lid on it!! I was soo excited about fixing my cornbread pan I forgot!!!

In my defense, I have a very very small kitchen. I use my oven to store my pizza pan and my cobbler pan
:(

Now, I need a new cobbler pan

Lard works best to season the pan. Please don't put sugar in my cornbread and I won't pee in your cornflakes.

I always heat my skillet in the oven as it preheats...always wipe it out with a damp cloth and then grease it up again with a little crisco....

i sometimes heat my skillet and sometimes not ..it never sticks ...i only use that skillet for my breads nothing eles !!

Good luck!

Ok! Thanks!! Off to season my pan!

I spray mine with Baker's Secret before I put in the cooking oil--- which I then heat on the stove. I pour in my cornbread batter and let that get good and brown on the stove, then put it in the oven. Never sticks.

regular cooking oil...

it needs to be seasoned....if you've got a build up...then it will start to stick again.

Ok. Season it. I don't have any crisco. I have olive oil. Coconut oil. Some reg cooking oil. And butter. Which should I use??

when I make my cornbread...I add oil as opposed to butter...set the burner on high, when the pan starts to smoke...I remove it just for a minute...then pour the batter in...it will sizzle some...which is good..

while all that is going on...the oven is preheating to 450...then I put it in the oven to bake!

I never cleaned it, except for wiping.... Until I had a burnt stuck mess :( I can't get the stuck parts off without water. I'm soaking it now. Is that what is going wrong??

it might need to be seasoned again....

clean it...oil it and put it in the oven @400-450 degrees...about 30 minutes after it preheats...

and as countrygl stated don't wash it wipe it out and if need be season a couple more times.

Maybe it is the heat. I heat the butter either in the oven or on the stove, but I've been cooking at 400. I have been wondering if, when my skillet was in storage it messed it up somehow. Once it stuck, it has stuck ever since. I may have cleaned it wrong :( idk. I have to clean it now again to make some more for tonight's left overs!

are you washing the skillet after ever time you use it ....if you are don't ..just wipe it out with a clean damp cloth ..