How To Season A Cast Iron Skillet
Today I am thrilled to bring you a guest blogger who will be speaking on a topic we all need to know about – how to season a cast iron skillet the right way. As a Mechanical Design Engineer, Richard Hall may seem an unlikely choice for a food blogger, but his heritage, common-sense know-how, and generosity in sharing his knowledge with us make him the perfect choice for a topic of the utmost importance to any Southern cook! Thank you, Rich!
Hey all,
It is a pleasure to blog on Southern Plate. Just as Christy has written about her Southern heritage, mine is similar. Both sets of my grandparents were sharecroppers in Southern Tennessee and North Alabama. I grew up eating fresh Southern food out of the garden and barnyard.
Since Christy has all these great Southern recipes, I thought it might be useful to share how to season a cast iron skillet or other types of cast iron cookware. You may ask, what is seasoning and why do I need to season my cast iron skillet? The answer is very simple. Seasoning makes it non-stick like all the new miracle cookware. And the why is you can buy and maintain a non-stick skillet with nothing more than vegetable oil and shortening and common sense and it will never wear out. The cast iron skillet can be used to cook on the stovetop, the oven, or the grill. A good iron skillet can be passed down as an heirloom if taken care of properly.
What You Need to Season a Cast Iron Skillet
It is very simple to do albeit a little messy. What you will need is:
- The cast iron skillet
- A box of vegetable shortening, which can be purchased in your favorite supermarket for less than $2.
- A roll of heavy paper towels
- Your oven
Just a quick note, the seasoning of a new skillet and the re-seasoning of an are the same except for the first step. So let’s get started.
How to Season a Cast Iron Skillet
Wash new skillets before seasoning
Make sure your new has been washed in hot water and mild dish soap. This will remove the factory anti-rust coating. For re-seasoning an existing skillet, just make sure to wipe the entire surface with hot water and a clean washcloth or a paper towel (sponges need not apply). Dry the skillet by heating it on the cooktop then let it rest and cool. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees.
Season with vegetable shortening or oil
Fold the paper towel into a fourth and place a dollop of vegetable shortening in the skillet. The size is not important, but for a 10” skillet, use about 1/4 of a cup. More can be added as required to cover.
Instead of lard or vegetable shortening, use any kind of vegetable oil. I recommend refined coconut oil as it has a higher smoke point.
Take the paper towel and coat the interior, the exterior down to the bottom edge, and the handle liberally.
I don’t coat the very bottom of the skillet, as any cooking surface that it touches will make smoke and just burn off the shortening or oil.
Place the skillet in the oven
Once you have the skillet coated, place it in the oven (at 200 degrees) and set a timer for 3 hours. This low temp will open the cast iron pores up and allow the vegetable shortening to penetrate as it liquefies.
Remove from the oven
After the time is up, cut off the oven and let the skillet cool. Once it is cool enough to touch, wipe it down with another paper towel to remove any or vegetable shortening and just leave a on the surfaces.
In another hour or so, wipe it down again.
After this final wipe, the skillet will continue to cool and in about an hour will look like the last picture.
Using Your Cast Iron Skillet
Now you are ready to use the skillet. For the first couple of uses, cook something greasy like bacon or sausage. This will help heat cycle and re-coat the interior surface which will make the non-stick coating better. Also, be aware that it is going to smoke for the first couple of uses as it heat cycles and burns off the water trapped in the pores and the excess vegetable shortening.
To maintain the skillet you will need to wipe the interior every couple of months with bacon grease during a heat cycle or cook something greasy and re-season about every 2 years following the process above.
Also, don’t let food sit in the skillet as this will remove the seasoning.
After each use, wash the skillet out using a very mild soap solution and warm water. NEVER wash in the dishwasher. The reason for using mild soap solution is to keep from removing the seasoning layer.
One other note that I personally do is the drying step after a wash. I will turn the cooktop on to high heat and place the wet skillet on it for about a minute. This will heat the skillet up enough to dry the water and heat cycle the pores. This keeps everything as it should be.
If you choose, you can render your own lard from bacon drippings. If you own a microwave bacon-cooking tray it is very easy. Just cook some bacon and let the drippings cool either in the tray or pour them into a bowl or shallow dish while still hot. Once it has cooled and congealed, you can use it just like the vegetable shortening as described above. This is perfect for the occasional re-seasoning of your skillet.
I hope this has been helpful and if you have any questions just direct them to Southernplate.com and I’m sure Christy can find me to get the answers.
See you ’round,
Rich
P.S. From Christy. This post would not be complete without me sharing one of my all-time favorite Southern Plate comments with y’all! Special thanks to Bill Gent for this sweet, horrifying, and hilarious memory!
When I was about 7 or 8 I saw those dirty old skillets and decided I would clean them both really good with SOS pads. My mama would be so proud that I got off all that old black stuff and make-em shiny. I took them outside and used the garden hose since I didn’t wanna make a mess inside. Then I proudly took them to her when I was finished and proclaimed my good deed. I heard a gasp. She calmly said..”Why thank you, honey.. but.. uhh..” I don’t know why I remember it.. maybe it was that horrified gasp that burned it into my memory. ~ Bill Gent
Your next contest should be “Oldest Cast Iron” stories/pictures! I use my Great Grandmother’s dutch oven, it cooks great!
I’ve also heard of people greasing the cast iron and buring it in the ground in a fire pit. Heard that works like a charm! 🙂
Time to drag my old skillet out. Thanks for inspiring me to do so. 🙂
Bill,
I have found that a regular green scouring pad will take the surface rust off unless it has been sitting in water or a damp location. Use some good hot heavy detergent water and scrub away. Then use the seasoning process and it shoud be good as new!
Rich
HAHA! Glad I could help!
One thing Maybe Richard could answer. I have my grandmothers cast iron Dutch Oven. Its rusted but just looks like surface rust. Would it get in the pores making it unusable? Can I get the rust out with Steel wool? (I guess I can use an SOS pad although I have a strange aversion to them for some reason..)
Hi Bill! I jus wanted to add that I have a cast iron pan that was never properly seasoned, I spent a day scrubbing it in good soapy hot water to get all the rust off, then dried it out and seasoned it as above – I’ve now had this pan for about 6 years and it is my favorite skillet! Good luck!
I have a strange aversion to sos pads also. I never knew anyone else had this problem. I also do not know what it stems from. It makes my skin crawl to touch one, almost like nails on a chalkboard to some people. Wonder what causes it?
Great topic!
I have a couple dutch ovens that I love to take camping with us and cook in over the campfire.
I also have a couple skillets that are sitting in the basement that I just never took the time to season, just might have to pull them out and use them.
Michele
SO I have a couple of questions. My mother-in-law just bought be a hoe cake pan and a small 10″ skillet, preseasoned. So I don’t need to do this seasoning process for 2 more years?
Also, I dry my skillet on high heat also and then rub Crisco on the inside and on the handle. Do I also need to coat the outside to keep it from rusting?
Can I store them in eachother? I usually have both pans on my stove at all times. The skilleis resting on the hoecake pan. Will they rust if I keep doing this?
Thanks!
Angela,
The seasoning reapplication time depends on the use and care. If you cook fatty foods then the seasoning will last longer. If you cook acidic foods and don’t maintain by periodically wiping with lard or bacon grease, then the seasoning will wear faster. You will be able to tell when you need to reapply by looking at how the food comes off the cooking surface. If it starts to stick you should think about reseasoning.
The drying with heat should prevent the outside from rusting but if you don’t use them often they will surface rust. A light wipe on the outside will keep this from happening. As far as using Crisco, this is ok for maintanace but if you store them for a long period without use, the vegitable oil based product will go rancid. This is why lard is preferred.
If you make sure that the bottom of the pan is dry before stacking there should not be an issue with stacking them. My wife and I keep ours stacked by size in the cabinet all the time.
I hope this answers your questions.
Rich
Guess I need to go buy some lard just for the cast iron pans. I have had bad luck with them rusting in the past so I wanna be careful and make sure to do everything right this time.
Thanks, Rich!
I’m sorry I come from the old country of Missouri and my mama would have slapped my face if I put bacon grease on her Iron skillet to season it. You should never put any grease on it to season that has salt in it. It will eventually make it pit…..The lard is a good choice not bacon grease.
Louise,
Lard is the rendered fat of hogs.
JMad,
Bacon is cured with salt and salt is then present in the drippings and rendered bacon grease. Lard is rendered before any curing and contains no added salt.
Bacon grease will not cause cast iron to pit. If it did, you should never cook bacon in it. I am from the old country of Alabama and bacon grease OR lard works fine. Heck, Crisco works okay too. I just dont find it lasts as long. You just need solid fat.
Leslie,
You are right about the Crisco, or any other shortening for that matter. Lard does work best and lasts longer but vegetable oit also can be used in a pinch for a touch up or to re-season a small patch. It usually turns a little sticky for me so I stay away from it. Bacon grease left in the pan for a while has never pitted or my pans but I wonder if using it to season a new pan might? Frying salt pork sure never hurt any of my pans either and that is salty as it gets.
When seasoning you are turning the grease to carbon (like paint) in doing you change the structure of the grease. Lard and baccon grease are by far the best. Crisco will never get to the point of being a hard surface and will just be sticky. Leslie you are right lard and or baccon grease are the best to use. The only thing you dont want is any food paticles in the grease before cooking the iron.
hey rich… i have always wanted a cast iron cornbread pan (w/ 7 corncob-shaped cavities for cooking cornbread) so when i found this one , i was thrilled… with rust and all! i scrubbed w/ steel pads; washed and dried and seasoned twice w/ vegetable oil… a read all this talk about lard… should i season again w/ bacon grease or lard, since its still not the color i think it should be? i want to bake some cornbread soon! thanks
Protect a cast-iron skillet. Place a coffee filter in the skillet to absorb moisture and prevent rust.
Bill cracks me up.