I started using cast iron in the mid-80's and always used Crisco shortening as the base seasoning and everything was great.
A few yrs ago I decided to add some new Lodge pans to fill in the gaps, these pans came with factory pre-seasoning but I coated them with Crisco and baked as I had always done. The new seasoning never stuck and would flake off taking the factory seasoning with it. I tried different temps and times but failure at every turn. I assumed that the problem was with the factory seasoning as I'd never had any troubles with Crisco.
Around the same time I decided to strip and smooth an old pan and I seasoned this also with Crisco. The Crisco flaked off this pan just like it did with the new Lodge pre-seasoned pans. I was at a loss.
Fast forward to last year, while doing some research on this I found that Crisco had changed their recipe some time ago and removed cottonseed oil from the mix, I suppose they were looking to cut the fat....who knows. Anyway, since that point I kept it in my mind that one day I'd look for shortening with cottonseed oil in it and give that a try to see if it helps...or not.
Fast forward to two weeks ago, we're stuck with only one Lodge pan here at the campground and it's one of the pre-seasoned Lodge pans that previously failed to accept the Crisco seasoning, we ended up with this because it was the only pan that the movers left behind in the shuffle. I was thinking great now I'm going to have this crap in my food or rust or a combo of the two but then we went shopping and I found a local hick brand sitting next to the Crisco on the shelf. I read the ingredients to happily find that it listed cottonseed as it's main goop. The can is HUGE but half the cost of the little Crisco next to it so I took a chance and bought it.
When we cooked out the next night I slathered the pan up with the cottonseed oil stuff and dropped it on the fire until it smoked and went dry looking followed by another light wipe of the stuff. Well damn was I ever surprised to use the pan the next day on eggs - slippery smooth with ZERO black crud coming off the pan. We've used the pan about 5 or 6 times since and it's going great so far - what a difference!
I'm posting this mostly in case anyone here has had the same problem or maybe some lucky SOB will Google-fu this when looking for an answer to why Crisco doesn't work in seasoning their pans.
A few yrs ago I decided to add some new Lodge pans to fill in the gaps, these pans came with factory pre-seasoning but I coated them with Crisco and baked as I had always done. The new seasoning never stuck and would flake off taking the factory seasoning with it. I tried different temps and times but failure at every turn. I assumed that the problem was with the factory seasoning as I'd never had any troubles with Crisco.
Around the same time I decided to strip and smooth an old pan and I seasoned this also with Crisco. The Crisco flaked off this pan just like it did with the new Lodge pre-seasoned pans. I was at a loss.
Fast forward to last year, while doing some research on this I found that Crisco had changed their recipe some time ago and removed cottonseed oil from the mix, I suppose they were looking to cut the fat....who knows. Anyway, since that point I kept it in my mind that one day I'd look for shortening with cottonseed oil in it and give that a try to see if it helps...or not.
Fast forward to two weeks ago, we're stuck with only one Lodge pan here at the campground and it's one of the pre-seasoned Lodge pans that previously failed to accept the Crisco seasoning, we ended up with this because it was the only pan that the movers left behind in the shuffle. I was thinking great now I'm going to have this crap in my food or rust or a combo of the two but then we went shopping and I found a local hick brand sitting next to the Crisco on the shelf. I read the ingredients to happily find that it listed cottonseed as it's main goop. The can is HUGE but half the cost of the little Crisco next to it so I took a chance and bought it.
When we cooked out the next night I slathered the pan up with the cottonseed oil stuff and dropped it on the fire until it smoked and went dry looking followed by another light wipe of the stuff. Well damn was I ever surprised to use the pan the next day on eggs - slippery smooth with ZERO black crud coming off the pan. We've used the pan about 5 or 6 times since and it's going great so far - what a difference!
I'm posting this mostly in case anyone here has had the same problem or maybe some lucky SOB will Google-fu this when looking for an answer to why Crisco doesn't work in seasoning their pans.