the best oil/grease to use for seasoning cast iron

Best:   Bacon squeezins.  Put leftover bacon grease in this sort of screened thing



and then fish it back out.


Tallow/Lard if i am out of bacon squeezins


Coconut oil if i am out of tallow/lard


Awful:  grapeseed oil  the pan gets a weird sort of sticky.

flax seed oil the seasoning flakes off into your food - gross!

olive oil should be used for raw eating only - never heat it

butter   I cook with a little from time-to-time for fun, but i never let the pan get too hot.  I'm not sure, but i think it does not make a proper seasoning layer


What do you use/avoid?

I try to use stuff with a higher smoke point (canola oil and coconut oil have higher smoke points than olive oil or animal fats, I believe; I once learned that flaxseed oil has the highest smoke point? Not sure if I'm remembering correctly) but really I just use whatever type of oil was in it most recently or whatever's at hand.

BTW I don't mind heating olive oil, like if I'm adding it to a sauce, but I try not to use it for sauteing or frying, at least not without mixing it with a different oil that has a higher smoke point. I do sometimes break this rule, like if I saute fresh salmon in a mix of olive oil and butter though, because that's plain delicious.

I primarily utilize animal fats (Tallow) for seasoning my pans but that is because I have it readily available most of the time. I render my own fats from the local butcher to keep on hand periodically.

I've read about some chatter worrying about animal fats going rancid on cast iron but if it is properly polymerized, I don't see that as something that needs to be worried about. I have never had any ill effects utilizing tallow on my cookware for seasoning purposes.

Bacon tops my list. This is especially true for cast iron seeing regular use.