🍳 Cast Iron and Cookware Care

What seasoning is

A bare iron pan rusts easily, and food sticks to it. Seasoning is a thin, hard, dark coating that fixes both problems. It is not salt and pepper; it is cooked-on oil.

Here is what happens. Cooking oil is made of fat molecules. When a very thin layer of oil gets hot enough, a little past the point where it starts to smoke, those molecules link to one another in long chains and set into a hard film, a bit like varnish drying. Chemists call this polymerization (from Greek poly, “many,” and meros, “part”). The film settles into the tiny pits of the iron and partly bonds to the metal, and the iron itself helps the reaction along.

Each coat adds a layer only a few molecules thick, which is why seasoning builds up over time and why thin coats work better than thick ones. A thick coat can’t cure all the way through and ends up sticky.

Sources: [1], [2]

How to season a new or stripped pan

Most cast iron sold today comes pre-seasoned, so you can cook in it right away. Season it in the oven when it is new and bare, after you scrub off rust, or when food starts to stick.

1. Wash the pan in warm, soapy water and dry it completely with a towel.
2. Rub a very thin coat of cooking oil over every surface, inside and out, handle too. Vegetable oil, canola oil or melted shortening all work. Then wipe it again as if you made a mistake and want it all off. It should look dry, with nothing to drip or run when you tilt it.
3. Put a sheet of foil on the lower rack to catch drips. Set the pan upside down on the middle rack.
4. Heat the oven and bake for 1 hour (see the temperatures below).
5. Turn off the oven and let the pan cool inside it.
6. Repeat two or three more times for a stronger first coat, if you like.

A brown, slightly sticky spot on a new pan is usually oil that hasn’t fully cured, not rust. It goes away as you cook.

Sources: [2], [3], [4]

Everyday care: wash, dry, oil

1. Wash. Use warm water, a little dish soap if you like, and a stiff brush or scrubbing pad. Scrape stuck bits with a pan scraper, or scrub with coarse salt and a little water.
2. Dry. Dry it completely with a towel right away. Water left on iron turns to rust quickly.
3. Oil. Rub a thin layer of oil over the whole surface with a paper towel.

• Don’t soak cast iron or leave it in a wet sink.
• Don’t put it in the dishwasher; it strips the seasoning and causes rust.
• The more you cook in it, especially with a little fat, the better the seasoning gets.

Sources: [5], [4]

Myths and facts

Sources: [5], [6], [7], [4]

Bringing back a rusty pan

1. Scour off the rust with steel wool while the pan is cool and dry.
2. Wash it in warm, soapy water, scrubbing the rusty spots, then rinse.
3. Dry it completely.
4. Rub a very thin, even coat of oil all over, inside and out. For a few small spots, this may be all it needs.
5. For more rust, bake it upside down at 450–500°F for 1 hour, with foil below, and let it cool in the oven.

Sources: [7]

What not to cook for long in bare cast iron

Tomatoes, citrus juice, vinegar and wine are acidic. Over a long cook they wear down seasoning and can give food a metallic taste. A short simmer in a well-seasoned pan is fine. Lodge’s rule of thumb is to keep acidic ingredients in bare cast iron for no more than about 45 minutes.

For an all-day chili, a long tomato sauce or a wine braise, use enameled cast iron or stainless steel.

Sources: [6]

Enameled vs. bare cast iron

Sources: [8], [5]

Carbon steel, stainless and nonstick

About nonstick coatings and PFAS. Most nonstick coatings are made from a kind of PFAS. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration lists nonstick cookware coatings among its authorized uses and says: “Studies show negligible amounts of PFAS in this coating can migrate to food.” Families who prefer pans without a coating can use cast iron, carbon steel or stainless steel.

Sources: [9], [10], [11]

Wooden boards and spoons

• Wash with hot, soapy water, rinse, and dry standing up. Don’t soak wood or put it in the dishwasher; it warps and cracks.
• About once a month, or when the wood looks pale and dry, rub in a thin coat of food-grade mineral oil (or a mineral oil and beeswax board cream). Let it soak in, then wipe off the extra.
• Wooden spoons get the same treatment: wash by hand, dry, and oil now and then.
• Replace a board with deep grooves or cracks that won’t come clean.

Sources: [12]

Knives: honing, sharpening and storing

• Honing on a steel lines the edge back up. Do it often; some cooks hone before every use.
• Sharpening on a stone or sharpener grinds a new edge. It is needed far less often, about once a month for a knife you use every day.
• Hand-wash and dry good knives right away. Dishwasher heat and harsh detergent dull the blade and harm handles.
• Never drop a knife into a sink of soapy water, where someone can’t see it. Wash it, dry it and put it away.
• Store knives in a block, on a magnetic strip or in blade guards, not loose in a drawer.
• Cut on wood or plastic boards. Stone, glass and granite dull a knife fast.

Sources: [13], [14], [15]

Sources

1. The Science of Seasoning, America's Test Kitchen. Accessed 2026-10-30.
2. How to Season Cast Iron, Lodge Cast Iron. Accessed 2026-10-30.
3. How to Season a Cast Iron Skillet (Natasha Haynes), Mississippi State University Extension. Accessed 2026-10-30.
4. Got a Cast Iron Skillet? (Cheryle Syracuse), N.C. Cooperative Extension, Brunswick County (2024). Accessed 2026-10-30.
5. How to Clean Cast Iron, Lodge Cast Iron. Accessed 2026-10-30.
6. 3 Tips for Cooking Acidic Foods in Cast Iron, Lodge Cast Iron. Accessed 2026-10-30.
7. Cast Iron Troubleshooting (how to restore), Lodge Cast Iron. Accessed 2026-10-30.
8. Cleaning and Care: Enameled Cast Iron, Lodge Cast Iron. Accessed 2026-10-30.
9. Cast Iron vs. Carbon Steel, Lodge Cast Iron. Accessed 2026-10-30.
10. Use and Care (stainless and nonstick), All-Clad. Accessed 2026-10-30.
11. Authorized Uses of PFAS in Food Contact Applications, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (updated January 3, 2025). Accessed 2026-10-30.
12. Bulletin #3108, Safe Cutting Boards: Materials, Usage, and Cleaning Tips, University of Maine Cooperative Extension. Accessed 2026-10-30.
13. Honing vs. Sharpening, Work Sharp. Accessed 2026-10-30.
14. The Ultimate Guide to Knife Care, Made In. Accessed 2026-10-30.
15. Teaching Safe Knife Skills, Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation (2019). Accessed 2026-10-30.