Most frequent questions and answers
Old Mountain is manufactured In China, and our cookware surpasses all FDA
and California Proposition 65 requirements for safety.
This can happen with new and used cast iron sometimes when it’s stored in a
place not entirely dry and not protected with a light coat of oil.
First, scrub these rust spots off with soapy water. Dry immediately with towel and
place on your cook top on medium heat to thoroughly dry the skillet. After letting
it cool, oil your skillet with sesame oil or grape seed oil and place it upside down
in your oven at 450 degrees for 45 minutes. It will smoke your kitchen up a bit so
you may want to run your exhaust fan. I try to do this twice for best affect to
really season your cast iron.
Now after each use, clean it and dry it as explained above. While still hot on the
cook top spread a light coat of your oil on the inside surfaces of the skillet.
Increase heat just enough for it to start to smoke off again and then just turn your
heat off and let cool. Then store it again. If you do this every time your skillet will
remain seasoned and protected in storage, and ready for your next use.
This happens when a heavy vegetable oil is used. The oil is too thick to
“smoke off”. You need to scour all the sticky and gooey stuff off. Don’t worry
about getting all the way down to bare metal, and don’t worry about getting ALL
the black color off either. Now, after you’re satisfied with the clean surface dry
immediately with a towel and put it on the cook top on medium heat to dry it
thoroughly. If this is done right away you won’t have to worry about any light
sheen of rust forming. After it’s dried completely, let cool.
Now you are ready to re season your Dutch oven correctly. Use sesame oil or
grape seed oil to re season it. Using a heavy oil like vegetable oil or canola oil will
leave it sticky again. Using your sesame or grape seed oil, apply a thin coat over
the entire surface of your cast iron cookware making sure to not have any spots
too heavily coated. It’s a process and can’t be done all at once. Place upside
down in your oven and bake for 45 minutes at 375 to 400 degrees. This will smoke
a lot. Let cool and oil it again and bake it again. Doing this at least three times
gives a great seasoned finish on new and used cast iron. The reason you want to
place it in the oven upside down is so the oil doesn’t pool in the bottom, leaving
thick sticky spots.
The seasoning process is a chemical one. The process of heating the oiled cast
iron till it “smokes off” changes the liquid oil to that of an organic polymerized
coating that protects the bare cast iron from moisture and leaves a somewhat
smoother finish. This isn’t the only way to season cast iron. Many “experts” have
their personal favorites and can be found on Youtube, which is a great resource
for research.
Now after each use, lightly clean without scrubbing through your new seasoned
finish and dry immediately on the cook top like you did at the beginning of this
process. After cooling just oil the inside surfaces again with your oil and store it in
a dry space.