How to Season a Cast Iron Skillet

October 30, 2008

Last week I intelligently left a quarter inch of water in the bottom of my cast iron skillet in order to help soften the cooked egg layer on the bottom. Also intelligently, I forgot about the skillet and left it over night. When I found the skillet the next morning, the bottom was covered with rust.

I rinsed out the skillet and scrubbed it well, removing all the rust. It was a thin layer, so it wasn’t hard to get rid of. I could tell afterward, however, that I’d lost the seasoning on the surface of the skillet.

Cast iron, by nature, is a rough, porous material, which causes food to stick. To prevent this, it is standard procedure to “season” the cast iron, which involves cooking a thin layer of oil into it, thereby smoothing the surface and making it relatively non-stick, (although not completely non-stick, as I learned the hard way). This layer of seasoning is also known as a patina. So once you’ve lost the seasoning on your cast iron pan, how do you get it back?

You’ll find numerous instructions on how to season a cast iron skillet, but they all amount to the same thing: oiling the skillet and heating it for at least an hour.

Method 1

This method comes from The American Culinary Federation in Culinary Fundamentals. The ACF recommends covering the bottom of your pan with a quarter inch of cooking oil, and then placing it in a 300º F (150º C) oven for an hour.

After the hour, you just have to let it cool, pour out the oil (although not down the drain – I poured it into an empty can and threw it out), and wipe out the skillet with a paper towel to remove any excess. Voilà! You have a seasoned cast iron skillet.

Method 2

This method is recommended by Mark Bittman in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. He preheats the oven to 350º F, and meanwhile puts the skillet over low heat on the stove and coats the whole inside with a tablespoon or so of neutral oil. His technique doesn’t have any excess oil in the pan. Once the oven is hot, he says to bake the skillet for an hour, turn the oven off, and let it cool inside the oven. Voilà again! Seasoned cast iron.

Feel free to use either method. I used #1, but that’s because it was the first one I found. I will probably try #2 in the future because it wastes less oil.

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