Care

How to Season a Skillet Easily

The first step is to protect your skillet from rusting. Remember that bare carbon steel doesn't like water, so we need some form of hydrophobic coating. This can be oil, wax, or fat.  I prefer grape seed oil. It's a drying oil that will polymerize easily and form a tough non-stick coating. In my experience it offers the best performance. However, most oils and fats perform well enough - don't be afraid to use what you have, or experiment!

Rub a very light coat of oil over the skillet with a paper towel or cloth. - make sure to also coat the entire handle and any nooks where the handles attach to the body. Bake in the oven for at least 1 hour at 420 F. Now your skillet is protected and usable (but not completely seasoned). You can repeat this step to add additional layers of oil to season it, but I find the following method works better...

Bring the skillet to the oil smoke point (420 for grape-seed). I prefer to do this outside because it can get smoky, but if you have a nice range hood it shouldn't be a problem. Next, apply very thin coats of oil to the inside of the skillet and watch as they are cooked dry.  Each time the coat dries, add another coat.  I typically do this at least 5 times (it doesn't take very long with this method). Now you have a seasoned skillet!  When you cook, don't forget to add oil or butter and get the proper heat before adding food! This will greatly increase its non-stick properties.

Keep it dry! Don't let iron come into contact with water for long periods of time. After washing, heat it on the stove (or in the oven) until the water evaporates - this doesn't take long!