New Dutch Oven sticky, need advice

[jtrainor56]

I bought a 5qt Big Green Egg cast iron Dutch oven about a month ago and followed the seasoning instructions using peanut oil. I was trying to use it up since I bought it only to season my Yoder. For the first time, today I made baked beans in it and after I removed the beans and let it cool I went to clean it and the lid was really sticky, both inside and outside. When I went to do the bottom, the inside was fine but the outside was also sticky, although not as bad as the lid.

I had the Dutch oven in my YS640 for about 1.5 hours at 350*. Did I use the wrong oil for seasoning, or did I season incorrectly?

I ended up washing with a sponge and used Dawn dish soap to get the stickiness removed and have it in the over at 170* to make sure it's dry. I don't have the time to re-season it tonight so I was thinking of just putting on the light coat of canola oil for now.

Would this be okay or should I just leave it until I can season it next weekend? 

Thanks for any help.

Joe

 

[tucson bbq fan]

you should now first fill it with water and bring it to a boil for 10 minutes to get the soap out of the pores - otherwise, you  will never get the taste of soap out of your food.

I don't typically use heavy oils to season my ovens - a light oil (canola, grape seed, etc.) works well.  However, you can use heavier oils and not have a problem if you season it properly.

Did you get rid of any paraffin wax before seasoning it?  That is the only time you should ever use soap in cleaning - and I prefer boiling water to remove the paraffin over letting ay soap get in there. 

You only want a light coating of oil - and the bake it for a couple of hours at 350, then turn off the heat and let the dutch oven stay inside as the whole thing cools down.

If it is still sticky - bake it some more.

If you find a problem - boiling water in it to remove food particles and sticky residues works, as does burning it out over a fire (but be sure to let it cool down before you rinse it out or you could crack it.

 

[woodcutter]

I think Lodge uses a soy type oil for the ready to go seasoning. Personally I've stripped all my lodge pans and re-seasoned with flax seed oil. I put the iron in the oven and let them warm up so you can still touch them without getting burned. Then apply a thin coat of flax oil with a paper coffee filter which helps reduce any lint. I start the oven with the oiled iron in it and set to 500. When the oil is done smoking you can shut the oven off and let it cool. Repeat several times if you want a heavier coating. Just my $.02 worth.

 

[sqwib]

I would start from scratch...and reseason.
Try flaxseed oil it gets really hard.
When seasoning if its sticky may be from the heat being to low. You want it up to around 500. It needs to start smoking then let it go to the smoking stops. This will carbonize (not sure of the terminology) the oil leaving behind a very hard surface

 

[venture]

Flax seed oil seems to be the hot one for the time. Understand it works great.

Since it is already seasoned?

I don't use soap?  Some say it OK?

I just rinse mine in hot water and brush it out.  Then I put it in the oven to dry for a short period.

The brown sticky stuff.  Rinse the heck out if it.  Put it upside down in the oven at 350 or a little higher?.  Make sure there is a drip pan below.  Be patient and cook the crap out of it this one time.  That brown sticky stuff should turn black, and you may be good to go?

If not?  You are back to square one with taking it down and reseasoning it.

Lots of purists out there, but our grandmothers and great grandmothers weren't all that picky?  They just knew what to do with a bucket of lard?

For the really expert opinions, a thorough review of past posts in this part of the forum will provide a lot of ideas.

Good luck and good smoking. 

 

[jtrainor56]

Thank you for all of the advice, looks like I am going to preseason from scratch. Going to also get flax seed oil as well.

Thanks again, Joe.