I just bought a new cast iron griddle, and looked around for seasoning
instructions. I found so many different methods online, some of which
contradicted each other. What I ended up doing was cleaning the wax off with
hot water, soap, and a steel wool pad, rinsing and drying thoroughly, then
melting some vegetable shortening in the microwave, applying it all over the
griddle, and putting it upside down in the oven at 350 degrees (preheated)
for an hour, with a cookie sheet underneath to catch the drips. It came out
very dark brown, almost black

Then I fried an entire package of bacon in it, (pouring out the bacon grease
between three batches) and after that a couple of eggs. The eggs turned out
to be a mistake... I didn't really like the flavour the bacon put into it as
much as I thought I might. Oh well

Anyway, I let it cool off a bit, and tried to clean it off with just water
because you're not supposed to use soap, or abrasive stuff, and while most
of the cooking mess came off fairly easily, there were these parts with
charred, caked on blackness which I could fairly easily scrape off with a
fingernail, but could NOT touch with a cloth. How am I supposed to get rid
of that without soap or scouring, or am I supposed to just leave it there?
Maybe it's supposed to be part of the nonstick surface that forms. I don't
know...
Thanks,
Phoebe