Seasoning cast iron with bacon grease
Caring for your heirlooms

Seasoning Cast Iron with Bacon Grease

Seasoning cast iron with bacon grease is the age old technique of baking a layer of bacon fat over cast iron cookware to make it non-stick. This is a method that was used by our grandparents – not just because of how readily available bacon grease was, but also because of how effectively bacon grease seasons cast iron cookware. Love it or hate it, bacon grease is often cited as one of the best ways to season cast iron cookware by cast iron aficionados.
Seasoning cast iron with bacon grease is not hard and there are many who have seen great success in seasoning their cast iron pan with bacon grease. You can use bacon grease to season a cast iron cookware using two ways:  
  1. Frying strips of bacon straight into the cast iron.
  2. Pouring and melting reserved bacon grease or fat straight onto a cast iron cookware
Here are the two methods in detail:

HOW TO SEASON CAST IRON WITH BACON GREASE

Method 1: Fry strips of bacon straight

What you'll need:

Bacon strips
– 1 cup for a 10 inch skillet or pot
– 1 ½ cup for 12 inch skillet or pot
– 1 ½ cup for pots or pans over 12 inches

The amount of bacon that is fried on a cast iron pot or pan matters:

We want the bacon to fry and release its fat. If you add too much bacon at a time in a small pot or pan, the bacon will steam instead of fry. The steam will prevent the bacon from browning fast.
You will have to then wait for the water to evaporate first before the frying action begins. If you add a small amount of bacon at a time, the frying action begins right away. We won’t have to wait for the steam water to disappear.

Step#1: Prep work

  1. Place two to three paper towels onto a standard size plate.
  2. Keep a strong empty glass or metal bottle or jar ready near your sink. This is to transfer excess bacon grease. This will come handy when you need to re-season your cast iron pots and pans.

Step #2: Chop up the bacon

Chop up the bacon strips into ¼ of an inch sized pieces.

Step #3: Heat the skillet or pot

Place the skillet over a moderate flame. Let the cast iron pot or pan come to heat. You can feel the heat on your palm by hovering it over the cast iron surface or by feeling the handle of the pot or pan.

Step #4: Sizzle up the bacon pieces

Once the pan comes to heat, place the chopped up bacon pieces into the cast iron pot or pan. The bacon will sizzle at this point. Break up the bacon into pieces. Bacon grease will be released from it.

Step #5: Transfer the bacon on to a platter and reserve the grease

Once the bacon has been browned to your liking, transfer the bacon to the platter with paper towels on it. What you will be left with in the pot or pan is liquid bacon fat or grease. Wear your oven mitts or with thick kitchen towels carefully take the cast iron pot or pan to the jar and pour the grease into it.

Step #6: Coat the cast iron pot or pan with a thin layer of bacon grease

With the excess grease that is left on the cast iron pot or pan, take a scrunched up paper towel and spread the grease to coat the entire pot or pan with bacon grease. Make sure to coat the interior, the exterior and the handles.
Safety tips:
Since the pot or pan is made of cast iron, it will be extremely hot. So make sure to follow simple safety tips:
  1. Wear your oven mitts on both hands when handling, turning, moving, or carrying the cast iron pot or pan.
  2. When the cast iron pot or pan is in place and is stationary, take the oven mitts off your hand that will be used to hold the paper towel to coat the pot or pan with the grease.
  3. Don’t forget that the pan is hot during the process and don’t be tempted to touch or hold the handle without your oven mitts or kitchen towel.
This is the basic method to season a cast iron pan with bacon grease. You can also do this with bacon fat that has been reserved before. Additionally, you can go further and bake the pan in the oven 1 – 2 times especially if you are seasoning a new cast iron pan with bacon grease. The process of this is given in the following method.

Method 2: Seasoning cast iron with bacon grease on stove top and oven

Reserving bacon grease:

Whenever you fry up bacon, there will be grease that is left behind. Pour the grease into an oil bottle that is reserved only for bacon grease.
You also want to make sure that the grease is clear and doesn’t have any black debris in it. This will cloud any food where you use the grease. If the grease contains black debris caused by high heat and burning, it’s best not to reserve this grease.

HOW TO SEASON YOUR CAST IRON WITH BACON GREASE ON STOVE TOP AND OVEN

Step #1: Prep work

  1. Preheat your oven to 450F.
  2. Take a paper towel. Scrunch it up and keep it ready.

Step #2: Wash and wipe dry the cast iron cookware

Wash your cast iron with mild soap and a gentle scrubber. Then wipe the pan with a lint-free cloth. Make sure the pan is as dry as possible.

Step #3: Heat the pan on stove top

Place the pan on a moderate heat. Let the cast iron pan come to heat.

Step #4: Coat the interior of the pan or pot with bacon grease

Pour 1 – 2 tablespoons of bacon grease onto the pan. While still on heat, lightly dip the scrunched up paper towel in the bacon grease and wipe the insides of the pan with the grease. Make sure every inch inside the pot or pan is coated evenly with a thin layer of bacon grease. Wipe away any excess grease and get rid of it. If the pan begins to smoke excessively, reduce the heat.

Step#5: Coat the exterior of the pan with bacon grease

Repeat the process on the exterior of the cast iron pan. Make sure the exterior of the cast iron pan is coated with a thin layer of bacon grease.

Step #6: Coat the handles, nooks and crannies with a layer of bacon grease

With the paper towel, coat the handles on the top, inside of the handles and underneath the handles with a thin layer of bacon grease.

Step #7: Flip the cast iron

Using your kitchen towel, hold the handles of the hot cast iron pan and flip it. Be careful because the pan could be very hot at this point.

Step #8: Coat the exterior of the pan:

Using your scrunched up paper towel, spread the bacon grease all over the outsides of the pan. Make sure that the pan is evenly covered by a thin coating of bacon grease.

Step #9: Wipe excess bacon grease:

Using a fresh scrunched up paper towel, make sure to wipe off any excess bacon grease from the cast iron pan.

Step #10: Repeat this process for cast iron lids and hardware like knobs

Coat the lids – inside and outside with bacon grease. Same goes with cast iron knobs.

Step #11: Place the bacon grease coated cast iron into the oven:

Use oven mitts or thick kitchen towels to hold your hot cast iron pan carefully. Carry it to the oven and place it inside the oven. Close the oven and let the bacon grease bake over the cast iron pan for 45 minutes to an hour.

Step #12: Take the pan out and apply a fresh coating of bacon grease

Once 45 minutes to an hour is up, carefully take the cast iron pan out. Apply a fresh coating of bacon grease over the exteriors, the interiors, handles and every nook and cranny of the pan. Make sure that there are no uncoated spots on the pan. Wipe away any excess bacon grease from the pan.

Step #13: Bake again

Place the pan back into the oven again for another 45 minutes to an hour.

Step #14: Switch the oven off and let the pan cool in the oven

Congratulations! Your pan has formed two layers of bacon grease seasoning.

THINGS TO REMEMBER:

when seasoning cast iron with bacon grease

1. The pan should be heated up at least a little more than low on stovetop. This is to ensure that the moisture from the pan evaporates completely.
2. The pan should smoke a little bit. This will ensure the start of the polymerization process. However, the pan should not heat up excessively due to safety reasons. To prevent any smoke inhalation, reduce the heat till the smoke dies down.

Religious, cultural and diet aspects when considering the use of bacon grease on cast iron

While bacon grease is a very common way to season a cast iron pan in many parts of the world, there are sections of people in the world who will not be able to use bacon grease due to religious, personal, cultural and diet restrictions.
These are very important factors to take into consideration as to why people have specific choices of oils when it comes to seasoning their cast iron. This is also important to consider when you have friends from different religions or diets. Here are the different aspects when considering the use of bacon fat on cast iron:

Bacon is not acceptable in some religions

Bacon is considered ‘haraam’ in the Muslim faith. Muslims cannot eat bacon because it goes against their religious laws and is a very sensitive matter.
A lot of people who follow Hinduism and other religions are strictly vegetarians who will not be able to eat or even taste animal products due to their religious beliefs. Additionally, pork is prohibited food for Jews. Hence, Jews cannot eat bacon.  

Diets that restrict animal fat

When people are on a strict diet that eliminates animal fat, seasoning a cast iron pan with bacon grease may not be ideal.
However, it is important to realize that while a mild flavor of the seasoning oil will impart into the food, it is unlikely that the seasoning oil will mix in excess with your food, especially if the seasoning process was done properly.
If the bacon grease seasoning layers were polymerized properly onto the cast iron pot or pan, this will not release into the food you will be cooking on the pot or pan in the future because the seasoning layer is baked on to the surface of the cast iron. Unless acidic ingredients were used on the seasoned cast iron for over half an hour, this layer is hard to compromise.
Having said that, you must only use the seasoning oils or fats that you are comfortable with. If you are starting a new diet without animal fats, you might as well start on a clean slate and use vegetable oils to season your cast iron cookware.

Vegans don’t use animal products

Additionally, those who are vegan don’t use any animal products and hence, are not able to use bacon grease to season their cast iron pans at all.

Resistance to the idea of animal fat constantly on cast iron pan

Some people are repulsed by the thought of seasoning their cast iron pans with an animal product.
Granted, this is a much easier idea to accept if we had grandparents and great grandparents who nursed their cast iron pans carefully and used bacon grease to season it before vegetable oils became easily available.
Since cookware is used to prepare food, the choice of seasoning oil is very important. Only use the oil you are comfortable with.
Thankfully the choices of seasoning oils and fats are plentiful. You can try out the seasoning oils of your choice and go with what suits you the best. Your personal choice is all that matters.

Are you someone who cannot use bacon grease to season your cast iron pan?

Not to worry. There are more than 4-5 excellent options of seasoning oils that you can use to season your pan with.
Why not try any of the following oils to season your cast iron pan:
  • Grapeseed oil
  • Vegetable oil
  • Olive oil
  • Crisco or vegetable shortening
  • Flaxseed oil
  • Avocado oil
  • Coconut oil
  • Butter
  • Lard
  • Peanut oil
  • Soybean oil
    • Are there any other important considerations to take when seasoning cast iron with bacon grease that I may have left out here? I’d love to hear your point of view and I will try and add it to this piece. So be sure to leave a comment.
    Happy cast iron seasoning!

    Reference:

    Using a cast iron skillet ain’t so hard!, Paul Wheaton and Suzy Bean, September-October 2011,  Countryside & Small Stock Journal

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