Cast iron skillets don’t usually look like a mirror, but if
you season them every day for 100 days they do. Reddit user u/fatmummy222 (or Dewey for short) has been
enjoying the seasoning process with his skillet so much, he’s been doing it
quite regularly and documenting the whole thing on Reddit.
Seasoning a cast iron skillet is when you apply neutral oil and
heat it, starting the polymerization process. This oil coating bonds to the
cast iron and gives the skillet a natural non-stick effect. Usually, the
seasoning process only needs to be done once with touchups here and there to
revive the coating if it’s been over-cleansed or if the pan has been used to
cook acid foods.
Some skillets now come pre-seasoned so the average cook can
use them right away. Dewey said on Reddit that he doesn’t trust a factory seasoning process, so when he gets a new pan, he tends to strip it and
re-season it himself.
Dewey went a hundred steps beyond one re-seasoning and just kept seasoning until he could see the reflection of his own hand.
Dewey has been very up front about why he’s doing this and it
definitely isn’t to demonstrate ultimate pan care. “Don’t do it, guys. This is just for
internet clout and for ‘science,” he posted. “And also to make random internet
strangers unreasonably mad.” One of the other commenters punily pointed out he
meant to say “’unseasonably’ mad.”
Plus, it seems like Dewey just really enjoys the seasoning process. “I just like how the pan looks after. It’s satisfying. It’s like when
you polish your shoes and make it all nice and shiny,” he says.
Though he vowed not to actually cook with the pan, he has
relented and taken the pan out for a test drive. In this video, you can see Dewey making the world’s slipperiest egg in the pan.
For cleaning, some cast iron cooks swear by a salt scrub
only, but Dewey encourages you to go all in with soap and water, especially if
your pan is well-seasoned. The warning against using soap was probably a
hold-over from when there was lye in kitchen soap, which strips the seasoning.
If you use mild dish soap and hand wash, all should be fine. And, if you’re
feeling like it could use an extra shine, a little extra seasoning doesn’t seem
to hurt either.
From the Reddit threads, it sounds like Dewey has possibly
reached his goals and is done seasoning this pan, for now anyway. Will he keep
going for another milestone or strip the whole thing and start over? Only time
will tell. Perhaps a question for another season?