This is my first post to this group and I am really hoping someone can
help me. I have 7 cast iron frying pans of varying sizes. I never,
ever use dish soap on my pans nor do I put them in the dish washer,
but I have also never seasoned them properly so at times they would
stick. I decided to season them a couple days ago. I made sure they
were clean and put about 1/2 tablespoon of peanut oil in each one and
put them in the oven at 200o F. I then left them WAY too long. I was
busy around the house and then had to make an emergency trip to the
nearest town which is an hour each way...you get the idea. They were
in the oven for about 6 hours! When I finally remembered them and
took them out of the oven the oil had congealed into a thick sticky
mess on the bottom of each pan. I have tried putting water in them
and boiling them on the stove, vinegar, and finally resorted to SOS
pads to try to get the muck off them. Have I ruined my pans?
Please, please, if any of you kind people have any idea how I can save
them I would be SO thankful...

Just Call Me...
Hoplessly Befuddled

"rhijulbec" > wrote:
> This is my first post to this group and I am really hoping someone can
> help me. I have 7 cast iron frying pans of varying sizes. I never,
> ever use dish soap on my pans nor do I put them in the dish washer,
> but I have also never seasoned them properly so at times they would
> stick. I decided to season them a couple days ago. I made sure they
> were clean and put about 1/2 tablespoon of peanut oil in each one and
> put them in the oven at 200o F. I then left them WAY too long. I was
> busy around the house and then had to make an emergency trip to the
> nearest town which is an hour each way...you get the idea. They were
> in the oven for about 6 hours! When I finally remembered them and
> took them out of the oven the oil had congealed into a thick sticky
> mess on the bottom of each pan. I have tried putting water in them
> and boiling them on the stove, vinegar, and finally resorted to SOS
> pads to try to get the muck off them. Have I ruined my pans?
> Please, please, if any of you kind people have any idea how I can save
> them I would be SO thankful...

I've never heard of using such a low temperature, if you really mean 200
degrees F. If you meant 200 degrees C, your temperature is a bit on the high
side (converts to 392 degrees F). A more reasonable temperature is 350
degrees F.

I've had much better luck coating a pan with vegetable shortening than with
any type of oil. Shortening tends to stay in place better rather than
pooling in the bottom of the pan. Oil tends to run down the sides and leaves
streaks, and in the worse case pools in the bottom as happened to you. It is
better to use a small amount of shortening and do the process multiple times
if one wants a thicker coat. It also can help to put the pan upside down in
the oven on the upper rack with something on the lower rack to catch any
drips.

To recover your pans, I'd use an SOS or other abrasive pan to get out most
of the thick gelled mess and to even out the surface. You don't have to go
down to bare metal again. Then do the seasoning process over again. If your
pans look streaky from drips around the sides (inside and out), don't worry
about it. It has no effect on the use of the pans.

I'm thinking the pooling caused by excess oil, having the pans right side
up, and the low temperature were your problems. The long time in the oven
shouldn't have hurt anything, since only about an hour is really necessary.
The longer time just wasted energy.

Here's one quick reference on how to season from Lodge cast iron:

http://www.lodgemfg.com/useandcare.asp

"rhijulbec" > wrote in message
ps.com...
> I made sure they
> were clean and put about 1/2 tablespoon of peanut oil in each one and
> put them in the oven at 200o F. I then left them WAY too long. I was
> busy around the house and then had to make an emergency trip to the
> nearest town which is an hour each way...you get the idea. They were
> in the oven for about 6 hours! When I finally remembered them and
> took them out of the oven the oil had congealed into a thick sticky
> mess on the bottom of each pan. I have tried putting water in them
> and boiling them on the stove, vinegar, and finally resorted to SOS
> pads to try to get the muck off them. Have I ruined my pans?

No, not ruined, just a sticky mess that has to come off. One way to remove
it is to burn if off in the fireplace or a camp fire, then steel wool the
pans and start over. Self cleaning oven would work also, but will smoke and
stink up the house.

Once you get the goop off, the pans can be re-seasoned. Try frying some
bacon in them. Actually, if the goop is not to thick, that may even take
care of the existing crud and polymerize it for you.