How to Season Cast Iron Skillet?

Cast iron skillet is loved by everyone who is involved in cooking. It’s one of the most used kitchen appliance. It’s the ideal pan to fry up a pork chop, roast some chicken thighs or to bake a delicious lot of brownies. They’re quite simple to clean. Cast iron skillet can be easily used to cook anything if you have maintained it in a good condition by seasoning. Read the article and learn the steps to season cast iron skillet.

Season Cast Iron Skillet

Steps to Season Cast Iron Skillet:

Various Steps to Season Cast Iron Skillet:

  • Whenever you use your cast-iron skillet, you should clean out any left-over of food.
  • Just do a quick cleaning and keep an old towel or rag near your stove solely for this purpose.
  • For gritty pieces and crumbs, wash it with salt and your cloth.
  • If it’s really horrible, you can try some lukewarm water, and a pinch of clear soap.
  • Never put your pan in the dishwasher to clean it.
  • Old-style cast-iron skillets don’t appear from the box with a coated surface that is nonstick.
  • You use cooking oil to do coating the skillet and blazing it for an hour in a 350° F oven.
  • It won’t take on that polished black coating, but once you parched it with towel or cloth, it will be ready to use.
  • You’ll fortify the nonstick layer every time you burn the oil in the skillet, and you can rush the procedure by seasoning as frequently as you like.
  • Using oil saves the iron skillet from the rust.
  • Rust spreads from one part of the pan to another like virus spreads in the human body.
  • Some foods especially eggs may stick to new iron skillet. Use only a few drops of little extra oil or grease until you’ve done the seasoning quite well.
  • Seasoning is damaged by the acidic foods like beans, tomatoes; lemon and certain breads and should not be used until the seasoning is done well.
  • Cast Iron hardly needs to go above an average heat setting when correctly pre-heated.
  • But if you do cook at higher temperatures, get the cast iron skillet to temperature steadily and add oil or butter to just before adding food to avoid sticking.
  • The handles of cast iron skillet get hot; use paws. Use stands to guard countertops from warm cookware.
  • Maintaining the seasoning well will keep your cast iron skillet and carbon steel in a good shape, but still you may require re-seasoning your cast iron skillet at some point of time.
  • If the food still sticks to the surface of iron skillet, or you see a gloomy, gray color, follow the seasoning process again.
  • Rinse the cast iron skillet with hot, detergent water and a firm brush.
  • It is okay to use detergent this time as you are doing the re-seasoning work of the cast iron skillet again.
  • Wash and dry finally.
  • Apply a very tinny, even coating of cooking oil to inside of the cast iron skillet. Don’t use too much oil as it will lead to the sticky finish.
  • Use aluminum foil on the lower rack of the oven to hold any leaks.
  • Set the temperature of the oven to 350 – 400 degrees F.
  • Place cast iron skillet upside down on the first rack of the oven to avoid merging.
  • Bake the cast iron skillet for at least an hour. After the elapsed time, switch the oven off and let the cast iron skillet to cool in the oven.
  • Place the cast iron skillet open, in a dry place when cooled.
  • Follow the same process if seasoning is again required.
  • The flames of the stove should not cover up the sides of cast iron skillet.
  • Always buy the cast iron skillet having the same size of the burner.
  • Don’t put the cast iron skillet in the microwave.
  • When doing the deep-frying, fill cast iron skillet only to 1/3 of capacity.