Edit

Lol

I left out the part were I cleaned it with wax & grease remover bc I knew that would throw half these folks into a tizzy

I have a CI deep skillet that is over 80 years old, handed down to me from my grandmother.  

Every so often, I have no issues with taking some sand paper to it, getting it real clean, bacon cure, clean, re cure, clean and last run through the oven at 200 F with some EVOO

I'm finding porosity and scars in this thing that had been covered by By previous layers....kinda wild.


It's well on its way back glory.

...and then i showed how I was going to "save it".  
Thanks for the refresher though.

'13ers out in force this evening.

Power tools and anything else that run on electricity should not be used to clean cast iron.
One can add very hot water to hot cast iron and let it sit for a few minutes then take a plastic brush and scrub it out with only water. No detergent needed. Surprise next time it gets hot any germs or bacteria will die from the heat - so unless you prefer the flavor of detergent don’t  bother using it on cast iron. Really want to strip everything off the cast iron a lye bath or electrolysis is the best way. One can spray easy off oven cleaner on dirty cast iron inside a plastic trash bag and let it sit a day or two. You can leave cast iron in a lye bath for days. Then wash it and repeat if needed. To season it Avacado oil, or grape seed oil, or Crisco are the preferred choices. Warm the cast iron to about 200 apply a coat of oil and wipe off as much as you can. Raise the oven temp about 100 degrees every 15 min till you are at 500then turn off the oven leaving it closed over night. In the morning your first coat is seasoning should be good so add a second coat if desired.
Then go cut up an onion and cook that in it.

When you get back to seasoning I recommend a propane torch. Wipe oil on, torch it from shiney to dull and that visual change is you polymerizing the oil, once it gets too hot to keep wiping just leave it to cool. I don’t have the patience to do the iven seasoning bullshit.  I do that 10-20 times as a maintenance/fix effort. Unsaturated oils, vegetable oils, work better as they’re more quickly polymerize and are more reactive compared to saturated fats like lard/tallow.

I use whatever olive oil I have on hand but have used avocoado as well. I like the olive oil as it smokes lower and is easier to “fix”. I tend to have to give it some love if my “everything should be dishwasher safe” wife washes it in the sink (the horror of handwashing!). Its not the hardest most durable seasoning but its easy to fix and maintain.

Just fry some chicken in it and you’ll be fixed right up.

I was thinking cornbread.

Three pounds of bacon.

Everybody wins.

THIS

I started setting a timer for 5 minutes when I place my cast iron on the stove to dry it off.