Lard and Cast Iron

[gboyum]

We have been using cast iron pans for years. Initially we used cooking oil to season them, but over the last couple of years we switched to butter, and recently lard. We have one smaller pan that my husband has reserved specifically for eggs. Since we started using lard on it we have been having trouble with the eggs sticking.

Any ideas why this could be? Anyone else use lard in their cast iron?

[Derval]

No experience of lard but ghee has been working well for eggs for me. I just wipe it with kitchen towel after each use. It's just a one-egg pan and half a tsp of ghee is sufficient for 1 egg.

[Fenderbender]

The lard shouldn't have any negative effects..... Try heating the pan with 2 tsp salt and wadding up a bunch of paper towels and scrub the heck out of the bottom for several min on med heat..... That will give you a glass like smooth finish.....dump out the salt and wipe clean....add some lard and let the bottom re- season....

Basic maintenance that I do on my pans....

[Moluv]

The lard shouldn't have any negative effects..... Try heating the pan with 2 tsp salt and wadding up a bunch of paper towels and scrub the heck out of the bottom for several min on med heat..... That will give you a glass like smooth

finish.....dump out the salt and wipe clean....add

some lard and let the bottom re- season....

Basic maintenance that I do on my pans....

I suggested this to my husband "The Master of the Cast Iron" in our house and he thinks it's going to abrade the seasoning. But I have notice since we started seasoning with tallow it doesn't wear as well as the old vegetable oils either. Next we are going to try flax oil, which various websites claim to be the best.

And Fenderbender- I may try the salt trick in secret.

[Fenderbender]

Men.... Big testosterone filled pains..... But we have out uses... LMAO

Yes you will " scrape off" all the old layers of Carmalized burnt oil....

Butttt. Other little bits get stuck and burnt in there as well.... Get enough and everything sticks.... They key is getting it smooth as glass so the salt is a very mild abrasive and sands it down.... All you need is one new layer or heated oil to coat it..... I have dozens of iron omelet and crepe pans that my cooks reseason all the time.... Try banging out 50 or so omelettes in a row and not have something stick.

[gboyum]

Thanks for the suggestions! I think I might try the salt trick as well.

What my husband thinks is that the lard may still have a lot of fat solids left in it, we rendered it at home and ran it through a strainer but not a cheesecloth. So the idea that other little bits of things might be getting burnt in the pan may be what we are dealing with.

[Susan W]

Thanks for the suggestions! I think I might try the salt trick as well.

What my husband thinks is that the lard may still have a lot of fat solids left in it, we rendered it at home and ran it through a strainer but not a cheesecloth. So the idea that other little bits of things might be getting burnt in the pan may be what we are dealing with.

I think you solved the problem. The same thing happens to me when I save bacon fat and don't strain it. It's almost sticky. I say do the salt thing and buy a swatch of cheescloth.

[NMG]

I wonder if it's a saturated/unsaturated fat thing? I re-season quite often with lard or tallow, but when I'm using goose fat (more liquid so more unsaturated) it doesn't need as much TLC.