Cast Iron Skillet Care
Ok. A few things. There is an uneven layer of coating on the bottoms, especially the largest one. That makes food stick. Also, it doesn’t appear that you oil down your pans before storing. Could be the light, but I don’t see a thin patina of oil on them.
To fix:
Get a piece of steel wool and try to smooth out the bottom. You can use an SOS pad, but you must be extra diligent to remove the weird soap. One of those weird metal scrub sponges might also work, but the finer texture of steel wool will give you a better finish. Even a scrubby sponge is better than nothing.
Once the bottom looks smooth, even if you’ve removed the seasoning, dry the pan over heat on the stovetop for a while. It needs to be completely dry before applying oil.
Oven Seasoning
Stovetop Method (for regular maintenance)
After your pan is clean, dry it on the stovetop of all water is completely evaporated. Spread a thin patina of oil over every pan surface. Sometimes, when I’m lazy, I just spray it with cooking spray but that’s how I get drips and also cooking spray has chemicals in it that are probably giving me cancer. This is actually a science project, so precision is best. Sometimes, I don’t do the bottom because I’m lazy, but my pan is well seasoned so that’s ok.
Heat the oiled pan on the stop top for a while. If you get more than a little bit of smoking, you’ve added too much oil. If you see pooled oil, same. I just leave it on while I’m doing something else in the kitchen. Cleaning up the counters, etc. Food prep. If you look at the pan and the oil, you will see some change that is hard to describe happen as the oil polymerizes. It starts to look dry. Once that happens, I turn off the pan, let it cool completely, and rub a final coating of oil on the pan. I ALWAYS rub on oil before storage.
Remember, not too much oil coating. It shouldn’t look oily it should have a sheen or patina. The thicker the oil you apply, the longer the polymerization time and the more likely you will have an uneven surface. Better to add more layers.