July 12 2016
I ordered a new Stargazer 10.5 inch skillet due to be shipped in August. At the same time I ordered some Crisbee Sticks and received them. I first saw the Crisbee product on Jeffrey B. Rogers U-tube site The Culinary fanatic. He is pretty knowledgeable on cast iron cookware and has the most info of anyone I know on the net.
He has over 200 pieces of cast iron he has seasoned or re-seasoned, old and new. He cleans them with electrolysis or in a self-cleaning oven then seasons with Crisco 3 to 4 times before using. He did a Finex skillet with the Crisbee seasoning; it contains bees wax along with oils.
This is what they say about their product:
*Beeswax is very stable for starters. As an ingredient in the blend, once used to season your cast iron, it will stay on and protect it from rust, mildew, and keep from going rancid. Samples of beeswax thousands of years old are nearly identical to new wax!
*Beeswax does not oxidize and it is not affected by mildew. Once you have applied the cast iron seasoning, storing your cast iron cookware in a dark, cool place for extended periods of time will not be an issue
I recently bought a Camp Chef iron griddle for my gas burner. I seasoned it with lard 3 times before cooking on it. My first cook was some smash burgers and onions. After cooking I just scraped it and wiped it down. I then covered it and it stays outdoors. I got it out for another cook and you can see in the first photo I had some rust. I thought I would try the Crisbee on it.
I cleaned it with a pumice stone then heated it and while warming up I applied some of the Crisbee and wiped it down. I let it go for about 15 minutes after getting to about 600 deg. After it cooled down I did another coat. I would have liked to do a third time but it was getting too close to supper time.
I browned some brats and onions on it. After I tried to clean it the same way by just scraping and wiping good then covered it. Now just have to wait and see if that helps the rust problem. This may not be a fair test since I don’t know how iron takes on seasoning compared to cast iron or carbon steel.
Heating first time
After second time
Sprayed with a little Pam, ready to cook
Cooking on it
Smokin Don
Update:
July 20 2016
After I had seasoned the griddle twice with the Crisbee stick I browned up some brats and some onions on it. I tried to treat it the way I did when I found the rust on it so I just covered it and let set. That was about 2 weeks ago and it has been humid with a couple of showers.
I uncovered it to use the burner to steam corn and found it had rusted but not as much as the first time. I scraped it with a putty knife and wiped it good. It looked like the rust was gone so sprayed with a little PAM and wiped down; all looked nice and black.
The first time it was rust in the metal since I had to use a pumice stone on it. This time I think it was mostly just surface rust so I think the Crisbee did help. When we get some cooler weather I plan to treat it a couple of more times with the Crisbee stick.
Like I said the griddle is iron and not cast iron or carbon steel so this might not be the best test. In the meantime I think I need to not be so lazy and get it cleaned well after cooking.
I know there are several of you that have griddles to cook on. Please tell us how you take care of them
After just scraping and adding Pam
Smokin Don