How to Season a Cast Iron Pan and Not Feel Like a Crazy Person

People are cult-like about their cast iron pans. You’re lucky to have one, lucky to have found one, now you must take care of it, guard it, and evangelize! Ok, well, just slow your roll. Cast iron pans are great!!

Related: One Skillet Wonders: Latin Recipes Made in a Single Pan

They’re durable, multi-purpose, and efficient and if you’re into that sort of thing, you can pass them down. The thing is, they have to be seasoned when you first get them. And at the risk of being inflammatory, it’s not that hard. All you need is some canola oil. Check this out. 

What’s seasoning?

Cast iron pans are exactly what they sound like: straight up iron cast into a pan. Nothing more. But untreated iron will rust and would be unpleasant to cook on because your food would stick. So you need to season it. And seasoning means building layers of fat that when heated bond to the metal and to itself and ultimately becomes a form of plastic. When you’ve applied multiple layers of seasoning, you get a hard skin on your pan that has those miraculous nonstick properties. [pagebreak]

How do I season it?

Everyone’s got a way, usually the way their mom / grandmother / aunt / cousin did it. But all you really need is canola oil, an oven, and some time. Once you get your cast iron just start off by giving it a quick rinse in warm soapy water. Now, dry if off completely – you want zero drops of water on it. So after letting it air dry, plunk it on a heated stovetop for a minute or two.

Next rub it with oil (canola oil is great) and buff it. You don’t want it to be greasy, just rub in the oil until it’s “absorbed” in the pan. And get every part of it – over, under, around, the handle.

Now, put it in a 450 degree oven and let it sit for half an hour. If you’re worried about their being any oil at all on the pan (maybe it didn’t look totally absorbed) put the pan upside down on a pan to let any oil drip off. It might smoke, that’s ok. Just crack open a window.

Finally, repeat the process 3-4 more times.

Now what?

Now you’re ready to use. Your pan is all set and should last you a lifetime. Every time you cook with it and add any oil, you’re basically adding more seasoning. Enjoy.