Seasoning (cookware)

Seasoning (cookware)

       Here's a wiki link on the subject:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seasoning_(cookware)

Poster's comments:

            1) Fall is a good time of the year to do it. Really, anytime is a good time to do it.

            2) I even season my aluminum cooking pots.

            3) Basically, seasoning to me is just using vegetable oil  (or I guess animal fat might do, also) to fill in the pores in the metal cooking pot, and make it more non-stick.  One should clean and dry the inside metal, first. I even boil and steam it out first. Part of that idea is just to get rid of manufacturing residue. Then I'll coat the inside surface with vegetable oil, and slowly heat it and then cool it. Once seasoned, just use the cooking pot over and over again, since, and in general, it re-seasons itself. Now don't clean the inside of the pot with any kind of abrasive cleaners (think soft soap and plastic scrubbers or just wiping it out real good), and avoid acidic type foods (like tomatoes and vinegar stuff)  during the break-in time, like the first meal or two cooked in the pot.
Think of treating it like your Teflon type coating cooking pots, which you can season, too. Even they get scratched and decline over time.

            4) If the outside of the cooking pot gets black with soot and other fire related stuff, so what?

            5)  If you don't like black stuff on the outside of the cooking pot, one can try coating it with any kind of soap (if you have it)  ahead of time. This usually helps the subsequent cleaning effort, though expect some black stuff to remain. In this case, use all the abrasive cleaners you want to use. This experience is just old time camping outside experience.

            6)  Some cooking pots come already seasoned, usually cast iron cooking things. They usually use a soybean oil based method of seasoning  the metal.