Cast Iron pan---my seasoning was smoking

[Quicker Thinker Upper]

Sorry if this has been covered before, I took a quick look and couldn't find an answer...

I bought my first cast iron pan recently, and used it for the first time yesterday. It was preseasoned, but I did wash it with soap and water and seasoned it myself (as was suggested in the paperwork that came with the pan)...I seasoned with vegetable oil by wiping a little around the inside of the warm pan, and I then I left the pan alone for several days.

Yesterday, I was going to use it for the first time. I put it on the stove on medium (or possibly high) heat to preheat it. Within a couple of minutes, the veggie oil began smoking. It really couldn't have been longer than 3-4 minutes before this started happening. Tops, it was five minutes.

How do you preheat a cast iron pan without having the seasoning smoke? I thought that cast iron is the best thing for searing meat (which I wasn't doing yesterday). But if I were searing meat, I'd usually let the pan get REAL hot before I cook. Maybe have it sitting on the stove for 10-15 minutes, dry. I'm confused...

 

[Uncle Bob]

..I seasoned with vegetable oil by wiping a little around the inside of the warm pan, and I then I left the pan alone for several days.

Did you wipe out this excess prior to using? Also, after you coated it with the oil did you put it in the oven for the amount of time per your instructions?

 

[DramaQueen]

Every one of my cast iron pans smoked the first time I seasoned them. Did the directions tell you to leave the seasoned pan off the heat? I'm not sure how you can season a pan this way but I've always used the unseasoned cast iron.

 

[Quicker Thinker Upper]

The instructions said to initially clean the pan with water and soap. Then dry it fully. To help with drying put it into an oven, turn the oven to 300 degrees, and when the oven hits 300 turn it off while leaving the pan in there. So the pan is basically sitting in the oven during the preheating, and while the oven is cooling. While the pan was still hot (as per the instructions), I took it out of the oven and wiped some oil on. I then left the pan on my counter to cool down completely.

I don't believe there was excess oil in the pan...

 

[GB]

Heating the pan for 5 minutes is a long time, but not a bad thing. 10-15 minutes would be excessive. Smoking is normal. When you throw some meat in there it will smoke even more. This is normal and to be expected. Turn on the vent on your exhaust system and crack a window. Turn off your smoke alarms, or leave them on if you want to test them to make sure they work.

 

[justplainbill]

To season the pan you need to have the oil in a hot pan and should wipe out the excess oil while still quite warm after the oil has had an oportunity to bake. I don't use my oven in the summer so I get by seasoning on the stove top.

Take a look at the Labor Day BBQ Ribs posted by Uncle Bob if you want to see a nicely seasoned pan.

 

[Quicker Thinker Upper]

JustPlainBill----I'm going to have to ask you to never post pictures of ribs again. You almost singlehandedly ended my vegetarian-ism with those

 

[justplainbill]

They're Uncle Bob's ribs. You can click on his user name and check out his Labor Day Ribs thread.
Bob's big into making smoke ;-)