How To Make Cast Iron Non-Stick

In this video I'll show you the easiest way to make your new (or old) cast iron cookware truly non-stick.
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[@rickystarling2863]

This was my weekend project! Once I did this to my lodge cast iron griddle and eggs slide on it like glass, I had to do all of my cast iron! Thanks for posting this!

[@barbaraherrera3984]

Finally 🥳 someone to actually demonstrate the ridges and the importance of sanding. I honestly thought cast iron can only cook Sunny side up eggs 🍳- who knew scrambled too 😮 . Game changer 👏, TY

[@Jingleheimerschmidt]

The most down to earth, informative, and helpful video on cast irons! Thank you

[@knittingmamabear297]

This is incredibly informative. Thank you for covering every aspect and not assuming that your audience knows things already! Tutorials a five year old can follow are perfect for beginners. I got a lodge dutch oven for Christmas and it's my first time owning cast iron so this has been a wonderful resource.

[@mossbackbear]

Have fun! If you get a good season on and follow a maintenance routine, cast iron only gets better with use.

[@lisahaworth5690]

Omg Nic. This totally works. I followed your instructions, seasoned and baked 5 times and my pan is slick as any Teflon. Scrambled egg did not stick at all. Gotta do the rest of my cast iron pans now. AMAZING!

[@LittleBearWoodshop]

Awesome! Glad it worked 🤗

[@theoriginalkeepercreek]

Well, geeze...thanks for the "Duh" moment! I am over 60 years old and have never had a non-stick one. I finally get rid of them at a garage sale and then buy new ones. To no avail. What a waste of money! Never again. I have listened to many videos on this subject but none of them explain the why's and how's like you did. Now thanks to you I do! Happy cooking Little Bear!

[@michaelwebster8844]

I watched 4 other videos before this on how to get a non stick surface on a cast iron pan and this one is the best IMO. I can’t wait to do this to my set. Thanks for the great video!

[@209tone9]

If you want a nonstick surface on the cast-iron all you have to do is properly reheat it. Get it hot then add your oil and reduce the temperature to where you want it

[@mossbackbear]

Great break down. Cast iron is so fun to get into, if anything just for the history. I recently restored some of my grandma's hand me down campware. Turns out one of the skillets was a 3rd series Erie (which later became Griswold), dating back to the 1890's. Also found a 1940's 3 notch lodge and holy cow, they used to better. Both are proudly in regular use now.

[@robohippy]

My grandma always used lard and bacon grease on her pans. I did sand my pan down once. I am a bowl maker by trade, and the angle drill I use for sanding bowls is perfect for sanding the bottom and sides of the pan. One pad I use is firm, and has a 1/4 round profile on the edge which is perfect for getting all the way to the edge of the pan. The random orbit sanders to run at a bit too high of a speed for my preference, and with coarse grits, they don't cut as well as a drill/grinder that goes in a circular pattern till you get to the higher grits, like 180 to 220.

[@bingster-223]

So far you and Kent Rollins are two of the videos that didn't sand it smooth to a polished finish. I'm totally convinced that sanding them too smooth takes a longer time to get your seasoning correct. The first 4 I sanding I went too smooth, I had trouble with the seasoning and resanded them with 40 grit to put some texture in the skillet. Now when I sand a rough Lodge or other rough skillet I use 80 grit or 60 or 40 grits. I only sand them a couple of minutes on the lowest or slowest setting and I leave a lot of the original black on. They turn out incredible. They are way smoother than new Lodge but they take on the seasoning great. If I would have found your video earlier I would have saved myself some work and time. Very good instructional video.

[@mattdlmn]

I’ve watched so many videos on cast iron seasoning and never heard this mentioned. I’m excited to try it out on one of my pans and see how it works. Awesome info!

[@greggramig910]

I have found that seasoning 3 times with grape seed oil, then once with 1/2 cup each of salt, grape seed oil and peels from two potatoes provided great results on original Lodge bumpy surface. Absolutely no sticking or problems at all. Now I have sanded down my Lodge and have seasoned 3 times again with grape seed oil. I will be seasoning once more with grape seed/salt/potato peels and see how that does. Not sure it will be a perceiveable difference as the original Lodge bumpy surface performed superbly. I'll let you know how it goes. Great video and well presented, thanks. Ciao

[@allenhargis4317]

My mother just bought a new cast iron pan and I did exactly as he showed and it came out beautifully. So much better..

[@zritamoe7528]

Great video. Volume is good, your kindness shines through, and very thorough info. Great teamwork from your wife, too :) I found you on Instagram, and saw the post about subscribing to your KZbin channel, so here I am! I'll be deleting my IG this year, so I'm very happy to be able to follow such helpful and wonderful content here on YT. Keep up the great work, and God Bless!!

[@RyanPflederer]

Thanks so much for sharing! We’ve had a couple of lodge pans for a few years and love them but have certainly been frustrated with the ‘stickiness’. I’ll be doing this on each of them in the next week or so! Such great info

[@Jay_Ira]

Been a while bud, thanks so much for this video. My family applied this technique last year and all our pans have stayed smooth and resist sticking so long as we're smart. Thanks also from my wife who texts me frequently how happy she is that our cast irons cook better than non stick pans. Keep up the great work bud.

[@thepatch228]

Eggcellent my friend. Thanks for the walk through. Nice bag of coffee ya got there too. 🐻👍

[@ladypitbullove]

That was incredibly informative! Thank you!

[@bknoid]

Great video man! Just picked up my lodge 10 inch.

[@cjmiller1871]

Great vid! I’ll be sanding iron this winter

[@instigatorbear9250]

Thank you for showing how to do this. Let's just hope I actually do this!!! Thank you again!!!

[@julierickert2145]

Thanks for the info. I need to strip my skillets down, however do you sand down the outside as well when doing rhe inside?

[@youztuber5000]

I sanded mine by hand. Might've taken a little bit of time but wasn't difficult if you don't have a sander. I used 80 grit on the whole pan, inside and out. Didn't remove the dimples, but factory seasoning was stripped. Reseasoned with beef tallow, so far so good. There's a reddit of a guy with 80 layers of seasoning that smoothed out after I think he said 30 coats. Something to try next, maybe, lol. Another thing I do is scrape and chainmail scrub the pan clean all the time to help knock any seasoning high spots down before the next time I season.

[@robertberger2363]

Awesome video I’m going to do this to all my cast iron pots and pans 👍🏻

[@lachlannicholls827]

Good info, I've come across a tonne of cast iron content and none of them bring up this point. Sounds so obvious now that you point it out! God bless the bears

[@cva326]

Good stuff man. Great information

[@erikferreira8307]

Thanks for the vid. I just hand sanded my cast iron but I realized that I didn’t season it well. I’m going to redo it with your method. 🐻

[@GBTWC]

Nice work thank you

[@longbowbear6283]

Thank you brother! 🐻👊🏼

[@HWCism]

You are correct. This is why I look for old Wagner cast iron pans. Lighter, smooth and thinner.

[@erivera9313]

Thank you for this info. Every other method I’ve tried left less than perfect results. Time to sand all my pans down and get me some bacon grease!

[@AKBoostBBQ]

Aweosme! I did the same with mine few years ago. 👍

[@chrisb6823]

great video but what where your seasoning temperatures

[@battlenolaradio5639]

Great video

[@577buttfan]

That pan turned out nice bro

[@dylnfstr]

So when sanding down the factory seasoning, I've seen cases where the new seasoning just disappears once it's cooked in and cleaned the first time. What are your thoughts on that? I'm wondering if those examples were seasoned at too low of a temperature where the fat didn't polymerize as it shoudl have

[@W4ldgeist]

That's my experience, too. I've tried this with carbon steel pans and the seasoning goes on beautifully. It looks amazing. You start cooking your egg and it's at first non-stick. Then you take out the stuff, put it under just hot water and a soft sponge and gone is the seasoning. It's flaky, showing a lot of the metal underneath. I've tried it with linseed oil, canola, lard it doesn't matter. The seasoning just isn't strong enough to withstand cooking. Especially eggs. It sometimes withstands cooking vegetables, sausage, but anything that has "grabby proteins" like a piece of beef or eggs, the seasoning comes right off.

[@aaronthenorm5400]

My cast iron pans work well when cooking eggs; of course I "seasoned" my pans!

[@pgl0897]

Really frustrating to know that a process so relatively easy and simple for them to do in the factory, that improves the final product so much, is no longer being done.

[@gregprince2523]

I wish you would have done an egg cook before and after...... and a difference in washing the egg out before and after... Mind blowing game changer to the women folk....

[@Woodflooralchemist]

Great info! I seen you using the lathe as well. I plan to get one here shortly. Have you done any work making chess pieces?

[@bknoid]

Bring Sally up

[@LittleBearWoodshop]

I have not yet, but I really want to. I've been hoping to get a drum sander so I can make end grain chess boards, but man are those things expensive *laugh/cries*

[@tk75jo]

A little pitting spread out over the frying surface are a good thing. It helps the oil pool evenly over the surface, easier creating an even oil film when frying. That combined with good seasoning making for less sticking. The seasoning sticks easier to an uneven surface too. That's part pf why cast iron is the best frying pans. So just sand off the peaks and nothing more.

[@BurressEd]

17:35 I laughed out loud while watching this. Well done! I'm heading off to Craigslist to save more forgotten tools if life and plan to do the same as you did here. I'll try using the Traeger so that I can fit more in to do at the same time, and maybe it will add to the flavor. Appreciate the video!

[@AskingForAFriend]

How do you clean it?

[@angelbear_og]

Thanks so much! Had no idea to do this. I've tried cast iron in the past, but always had the sticking issues -- and since the pans are so ungodly heavy I didn't see the point. Will give it a try again using this method. ^_^ PS: Don't see you on The Beartaria Times app yet. Someone asked about cast iron the other day, so I just shared this video there. ^_^

[@bknoid]

It was me haha. Great Video! @Angel Bear thank you for the suggestion.

[@LittleBearWoodshop]

Thank you! I'm Woodshop Bear on BT app 😁

[@angelbear_og]

@@LittleBearWoodshop Fantastic! Found you ^_^

[@chdz9402]

Thank you

[@aelfheld]

Field Company cast iron is great, if a wee bit expensive.

[@lawman7256]

When you take cast iron down to metal is it normal for it to turn a copper color when reseasoning. Thank you

[@furkids4ever]

Just a guess but I'll bet it's likely coppery from the bacon grease ...

[@paulbalogh4582]

Sand w/ salt in the pan?

[@captkirk6145]

Have to say I agree with a few of your suggestion and some I totally disagree with. I have witch was my first cast iron skillet was a lodge. I now have over 150 skillets. Good video. For anyone that is helping people get away from the poison that is teflon is a good person to me!!

[@cookingincastiron2371]

Well that would explain why I had to season the hell out of my pans an order to use them the first time. I tried cooking in them right outta the box from lodge and what a mess I had to scrape and burn off the old food remanence and re season cause once you go to town scraping a lot of your seasoning comes off with it

[@MrBardrict]

I can do that on a new cast iron pan without any sticking. The problem is most people do not know how to cook in cast iron. Sanding it and spending all that time is unnecessary.

[@mlindosroom]

Great Video.. thank you!

[@furkids4ever]

Just seasoned 4 pans & dutch oven following Lodges directions ... they didn't say anything about warming before applying the seasoning ... didn't sand so I'm pretty sure the time spent on 3 cycles ( let cool normally) wash & reapply was time well wasted ... 😡

[@trooper2221]

Ok so leave it in the oven 4 hours after greasing it?

[@moss8448]

he does say that then when he does put it in put taking it out after wiping it down he says 45 mins...I'm going with 4 hrs the 1st time then 45 mins after that for however long it takes to get it slick.

[@SassiLassi]

I understood it as he greased it and baked it for 45 mins, then did it 4 more times @45 mins. I could be completely wrong.

[@Joh750]

You should have added a portion how to clean after cooking !!

[@yeeeehaaawbuddy]

If you sand these things down super smooth, they're so super non-stick that the seasoning won't stick either.

[@moss8448]

one time you say 4 hrs then you say 45 mins which one is it?

[@charlescanaday1599]

He said he did 4 seasonings in 4 hrs.

[@moss8448]

@@charlescanaday1599 yeah that's what I ended up doing and it works very well

[@alanrosof7487]

Same ending as most other videos, egg swims in an ocean of grease and doesn't stick.

[@SebastianPucci]

Don't need to sand it to make it non stick..... Waste of time. But if you like it super smooth like glass, then go ahead.....

[@mattdematteo3902]

they used animals fat a 100 years ago to season them

[@cratxn1]

Great except use metal in an iron skillet and your plastic spatula in your conventional non-stick pans

[@whiteyquartz7461]

Before we start sanding, where's your mask!?!?!?

[@alecb2441]

Dude literally put it on mid video

[@DickCheneyXX]

This is all still being done, just not by Lodge. Stargazer, Smithey, Finex, Butter Pat, Field, etc.