I had to do some heavy cleaning on my skillet and need to season it yet my oven is out. Is there another way to do it maybe on the stove top? Thank for any help

Although I personally haven't used cast iron in years, I still remember my dad seasoning his beloved skillets on the stovetop. He never used the oven for this.

Be sure you have the fan going or your smoke alarm will go off.

He would coat the skillet with vegetable oil and then sprinkle salt on it. He would spend a little time & elbow grease rubbing well with a rag.

He would then put the skillet on the stove on a medium heat and would leave it until it started smoking.

While still hot, wipe it out well with paper towels and put aside to cool.

He used his cast iron skillets for almost everything, and he took such good care of them that they rarely needed re-seasoning.

The best way to clean a cast iron pan is to wipe it out as soon as it is cool enough to handle. Never use detergent on one; detergent will remove the oil coating that the seasoning imparts. You can use soap to remove the protective coating from a new pan. If you wipe out the pan as soon as it cools (using steel wool only if necessary), a hot water rinse should keep it clean. Be sure to dry it completely. (Never put one in a dish washer; you'll have to re-season it if you do.) Properly seasoned and cleaned, cast iron cookware will easily outlast you. I have my mother's small pan, which she got from her mother. (I also have a cast iron frying pan that can cook 12 quarter-pound hamburgers at once. It's about 25" in diameter on the cooking surface, and covers 4 burners.) Rather than buying a new one, check out thrift stores. Most Goodwill and Salvation Army stores will have a few on hand.

The Irreplaceable Cast-Iron Skillet

Salt and oil (I prefer olive oil, you can use vegetable oil, or shortening – DO NOT use butter, butter has water in it), elbow grease and a slow "cook" on the stove top. Coarse grain salt works best. It also makes and excellent “cleanser” for scrubbing other things.

You can accomplish this in a covered BBQ grill as well - propane ones work better than charcoal ones - besides being able to set the flame (heat) they do not tend to cover the cast iron in soot. However you can use charcoal, get them reddish/white spread them out evenly at the bottom of the grill, oil the pan real well (inside and out, handle included) set on the grill, cover the BBQ. Only once for the handle and outside/bottom of the pan/pot/skillet.

Doing it on the stove top means you need to use a very low flame - Electric stove tops will not work for the outside/bottom - you will get oil on the burner - which creates is own series of messes.

However you can season the inside of the pan/pot/skillet/etc on stove top.

I do wash my pans in detergent – a full sink with a couple of drops – just enough to suds a little. I do not put the pan in the water, instead I use a dampened sponge and wipe. I also use the green brillo (plastic scrubby) for tough stuck on stuff. If you have a real large mess inside, fill with plain water, cook it to a rolling boil – that will break up the debris. Let the pan and water cool – if you are blessed with a garbage disposal sink, you can pour there, if not the toilet works rather well – it can accept chunks of debris better than the kitchen sink.

Once washed I wipe dry with a dish towel (different than bath towels, it is more like a cotton sheet than with the tufts of fiber) Wipe with olive oil (you can use vegetable oil or shortening if you want to) set it on the stove top and cook it until all the moisture is gone (from water). I let it cool before storing.

I have no place to hang my cast iron, so I set it in the cabinet – between each I used packing material – the sheet of foamy stuff which I cut into disks that fit inside the pans. I then can stack the pans, smaller ones inside larger ones. I also use the foamy stuff in my non-stick and my stainless steel/copper bottomed sets. It prevents scratching and buffers against dings.

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You can accomplish this in a covered BBQ grill as well

I too use my grill to do this...doesn't smell up your house and no smoke alarms go off. I use bacon grease...coat it good...inside and out...then turn up the heat and put the lid down.