Conversations Across The Kitchen Table
Episode 9: How to Season a Cast Iron Skillet the Right Way · ~6 min
My grandmother had a cast iron skillet that was older than my mother. Seasoned so deep, so black, so smooth — you could fry an egg in it without a drop of oil and it would slide right out. She never washed it with soap. Never put it in the dishwasher. And when she passed, that skillet was one of the first things the family talked about. Not jewelry. Not money. That skillet.
Cast iron is the original non-stick pan, and when you know how to care for it, it will outlast every coated pan you've ever owned. But too many people are either scared of it or doing it wrong and wondering why their food is sticking. Let's fix that.
A lot of people think seasoning means adding flavor — like salt and pepper. That's not it. Seasoning a cast iron skillet means building up a layer of polymerized oil on the surface. That's a fancy way of saying: you bake oil into the iron until it hardens into a natural non-stick coating.
Every time you cook with fat — butter, bacon grease, vegetable oil — and every time you properly season the pan in the oven, you're adding another layer. Over time, it builds into something almost like a glaze. That's what my grandmother's skillet had. Decades of layers.
Step 1: Wash it. Yes, just this once, with warm water and a little dish soap. You're starting fresh. Rinse well and dry completely. Then put it on the stove over low heat for a few minutes to evaporate every drop of moisture. Water is the enemy of cast iron.
Step 2: Apply a very thin layer of oil all over — inside, outside, the handle, the bottom, all of it. The key word is thin. Too much oil and you'll end up with a sticky, gummy surface. Use a paper towel to wipe it on, then wipe most of it back off. It should look almost dry. Good oils: flaxseed oil, vegetable shortening, or plain vegetable oil. Avoid olive oil — its smoke point is too low.
Step 3: Bake it upside down in your oven at 450 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Put a sheet of foil on the rack below to catch drips. Bake for one hour. Turn the oven off and let it cool completely inside — don't rush it.
That's one round of seasoning. For a new skillet, do this three to four times before cooking in it regularly. Each round builds another layer.
After cooking, clean the skillet while it's still warm. Use hot water and a stiff brush or a chainmail scrubber. No soap — at least not regularly. Soap strips the seasoning. If something is really stuck, add a little coarse salt and scrub with a paper towel. That works like a gentle abrasive without damaging the coating.
Dry it immediately and completely. Put it back on the stove over low heat for a minute or two to evaporate any remaining moisture. While it's still warm, wipe a tiny bit of oil over the cooking surface with a paper towel. Done.
If your skillet ever looks dull, gray, or starts to rust in spots, don't panic. Scrub off the rust with steel wool, wash it, dry it, and re-season in the oven. Cast iron is almost impossible to destroy if you're willing to put in a little care.
Cast iron holds heat better than almost any other pan. It takes a little longer to heat up, but once it's hot, it stays hot. That's why it's perfect for searing meat, frying chicken, baking cornbread, and making a pan sauce. It goes from stovetop to oven without a second thought.
If you don't own a cast iron skillet yet, go get one. A Lodge cast iron skillet runs under thirty dollars at Walmart or on Amazon. It will outlast every non-stick pan you've ever owned. It will outlast you. And if you take care of it, one day somebody in your family is going to be talking about your skillet the way my family talked about my grandmother's.
That's the legacy of cast iron. That's the legacy of soul food.