Where there's smoke, there's... a cast-iron mishap?
Okay, I know there has been a mutltitude of "how do I season my cast iron?" threads, but although I have followed the advice there, I have a problem!
I bought a huge cast iron pot and followed the directions for seasoning - I gave it a soapy water wash, dried it out, gave it a thin oil coat, and popped it in the oven on high for about an hour and a half. It smoked up the apartment pretty good, but I figured that must be normal since I used olive oil and even though my skillets don't do that, this thing has about 5 times the surface area of my little skillet!
So, I let it cool, gave it a little wipe, and put it back in the oven. The next day I tried again in the hopes that maybe another hour would finish oxidizing the oil into the surface and that I could feel safe using it for actual cooking. But no, it smoked like the devil again!
Last night, just to see what would happen, I put the thing on a burner and turned it up high - the inside bottom of the pot smoked AGAIN! I tried giving it a hot wipe with a paper towel, got a little brown residue, and then took it off the heat. I let it cool a bit and then thought perhaps I'd tackle it with some metal scrubbage to just take the oil OFF the surface so maybe I could start again - some patches came off, but others stuck fast.
What the blazes is going on? I can't figure out how there's any oil left to smoke after 3 cumulative hours of oven heat and then some high burner heat! Please advise!
I bought a huge cast iron pot and followed the directions for seasoning - I gave it a soapy water wash, dried it out, gave it a thin oil coat, and popped it in the oven on high for about an hour and a half. It smoked up the apartment pretty good, but I figured that must be normal since I used olive oil and even though my skillets don't do that, this thing has about 5 times the surface area of my little skillet!
So, I let it cool, gave it a little wipe, and put it back in the oven. The next day I tried again in the hopes that maybe another hour would finish oxidizing the oil into the surface and that I could feel safe using it for actual cooking. But no, it smoked like the devil again!
Last night, just to see what would happen, I put the thing on a burner and turned it up high - the inside bottom of the pot smoked AGAIN! I tried giving it a hot wipe with a paper towel, got a little brown residue, and then took it off the heat. I let it cool a bit and then thought perhaps I'd tackle it with some metal scrubbage to just take the oil OFF the surface so maybe I could start again - some patches came off, but others stuck fast.
What the blazes is going on? I can't figure out how there's any oil left to smoke after 3 cumulative hours of oven heat and then some high burner heat! Please advise!