There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
First it depends on the pan. Is it a new, quality pan? An old well used super seasoned pan? Or a new cheap pan?
The best seasonings I have found are lard, and bacon grease. In that order. For the initial seasoning I will cook bacon (saving left over grease), or apply lard. Then bake at 300F for about an hour, the time need not be exact, an hour ish is fine. You normally have to repeat this process a few times to get a nice season going. You can do it as many times as you have the patience for.
Prior to this. If you went cheap (like me, looking at you Lodge) sand the bottom of the pan down with some 200 ish grit sand paper, you can then jump up to a higher grit paper if you want but you don't have to. Modern cheap cast iron has modern cheap casting. It ain't like grannies cast iron. Sanding it down a bit will help you get that nice glassy non stick seasoning going.