How to Clean and Season a Cast Iron Skillet

The Cast Iron Skillet has been around for almost two hundred years but didn't become popular until the 19th century. My grandmother has one and I'm pretty sure her grandmother had one before her. When we think of the cast iron skillet, we think of our family's favorite recipes passed down from generation to generation. My grandmother is the one who taught me our family's favorite meals and today, I am going to instruct you how she taught me to clean up after them too.

All supplies to clean and season your cast iron skillet will most likely be found in your home.

• Natural Oil
• Kosher Salt
• Paper Towels
• Cast Iron Skillet

All is done, you just finished frying or cooking a meal in your cast iron skillet and now it's time to clean up. The best time to clean your cast iron skillet is when it's still hot. What you're going to do is discard any excess oil and grime from cooking into a nearby trash can or into an empty bowl.

If your cast iron has tough grime on it from cooking, kosher salt can be added to the pan to help remove any tuff food particles that are stuck to it. For this cleaning method usually a 1/2 cup of kosher salt will suffice. Even though the salt is hard, it is still a soft particle and will not scratch your pan while cleaning it with a paper towel.

Once the kosher salt has consumed all leftover food particles or tough grime, next we will rinse the pan with hot water. No soap will be needed for this step since the salt collected the food and the water rinsed the excess particles from the pan. After rinsing the pan, we will dry it with a paper towel and begin to season it before our next use.

To season your cast iron, you will begin by adding a neutral oil. For example, it could be vegetable or olive oil, either will do. After adding a small amount of oil, you will take a paper towel and begin to rub it into the inside of the skillet. This will help condition or season your pan for its next use. After oiling the inside, you can take the same paper towel and begin to do the bottom of the pan and handle.

After seasoning the pan with oil, the next step is to bake it. You will want to bake your skillet for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. This will allow the heat to set the skillet so it will prevent it from rusting.

And that's it! After pulling your skillet from the oven, you have a clean and seasoned cast iron skillet in just 5 easy steps! Some will say to bake the skillet three to four times prior to storing it but a helpful hint my grandmother suggested is to store the cast iron skillet on the bottom rack of the oven so that when it's not in use, it will bake a few extra times while you're cooking in other dishes.

Cooking with a cast iron skillet is a wonderful treat for the family but knowing how to maintain one is an even better trick for them.