Tip of the Day: season a new cast iron pan

by Emily Matchar, Posted Mar 13th 2008 @ 10:01AM

If you haven't discovered the joys of cast iron, now's the time to start. It's cheap, distributes heat evenly and, if properly seasoned, is nonstick. Seasoning the pan involves filling in the invisible cracks and pores in the pan's surface by sealing on a layer of grease. Here's a quick method for seasoning a new pan:

Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Rub pan with a thin layer of lard or vegetable shortening. Place pan upside down in oven with rack positioned beneath it to catch extra drippings. Cook for 2 hours.

Repeating this seasoning method several times helps create a better nonstick surface. Also, try to wash out the pan while it's still warm and dry with a paper towel to preserve the seasoning.

Filed Under: Tip of the Day, How To, Methods
Tags: Cast Iron, Cookware, frying, How To, Pan

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-13-2008 @10:51AM Frank said... I also find that cooking fried chicken or bacon once n the pan helps a lot.

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3-13-2008 @10:56AM Rahul Nair said... I do it by heating the pan and rubbing oil with an onion cut into half. Just any onion and oil combination would work.
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3-13-2008 @10:58AM Mad William Flint said... Got a cast-iron problem.

I just inherited a bunch of cast iron. Great stuff, but a couple of the pans have a level of petrified sludge that's impossibly grafted to the iron.

My thought is to get it out and re-season the things. I've tried soaking, oven cleaner, steel wool, all manner of things that probably shouldn't be used with a "well hey, THIS is caustic, maybe it'll work..." to no avail.

Any ideas short of taking the thing to a bench grinder of some kind? I'm now determined.

(Love the fried chicken idea :-)

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3-13-2008 @11:08AM beerorkid said... Mine has been seasoned with bacon for a long time. Bacon makes up 75% of its duties and the layer of "petrified sludge" is noticeable. But it still makes a great non stick surface for other duties like blackening meats.
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3-13-2008 @11:29AM Kitt said... William, it may take several applications of oven cleaner. Conversely, cast iron is cheap. If they're just regular pans, I'd replace them.
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3-13-2008 @1:48PM Mad William Flint said... Cool ok, so I'm on the right track, thanks.

There's a perfectly good pan under that sludge; I'll not become that strong a contributor to disposable culture.

I'll enjoy it much more if I do the work anyway.
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3-13-2008 @3:08PM Jan said... To clean cast iron that even sand blasting won't budge. Put in a self cleaning oven. Turn on and let her go. Then re-season. I clean the drip pans from the top of the stove this way too.
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3-13-2008 @9:12PM Monty Harris said... William,

Run it through the self cleaning cycle in the oven. It will be bare naked when it comes out.

Works well for a pizza stone that needs a deep cleaning too.

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3-14-2008 @9:13AM Tom Butler said... If your cast iron pans are rusty and have a lot of sludge if you have a fireplace put pans in fire and leave for 45 minutes to and hour remove and rub inside with crisco shortening after 15 minutes wipe oil out. works for me
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3-14-2008 @10:17AM Mad William Flint said... Some great suggestions, thanks. Unfortunately my oven doesn't have temperature numbers on the dial, muchless a self-cleaning mode.

However, overnighting it with oven cleaner seems to have done the trick.
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