Then you bought a pre-seasoned bandage iron skillet (congrats!) and, at present, you desire to know if there'south anything special that you need to do when you lot're using it for the first time?

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Let'southward merely say you lot came to the right identify. As a long-time possessor of multiple pieces of cast iron cookware myself, I'm about to requite y'all a crash course.

But, before we become into information technology, here'due south the long story brusque:

To use a pre-seasoned bandage iron skillet for the kickoff fourth dimension, rinse it in hot water and pat it completely dry. Pour a generous amount of high-smoke point cooking oil inside it, and then preheat (not on loftier) and melt with it.

Of course, in that location's more than to it than meets the eye. Then let's encounter what else you need to know earlier you get cooking.

Cooking With Pre-Seasoned Bandage Fe for the Start Time

Rinse the skillet with hot running water. This helps to remove the dirt or residue that has accumulated during the manufacture, transportation, or storage of the cookware before it ended up in your kitchen.

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Yous can employ a soft sponge or a nylon castor, just not steel wool. Despite lore to the contrary, a little chip of dish soap is fine and won't wash away the factory seasoning. (That said, many die-hard cast iron fans prefer to avert it.)

Pat the skillet completely dry, on the inside and out. Equally you probably know by now, cast iron and moisture don't get along well. In fact, information technology can apace catch rust when exposed to it for prolonged periods of time.

Dry your skillet thoroughly whenever yous've exposed it to h2o or cooking liquid. In my experience, a skillful ol' dish towel, lint-complimentary microfiber cloth, or a few newspaper towels are best for drying cast iron cookware.

Never soak a cast fe skillet (or get out h2o in it) for long periods of time; it tin cause it to rust.

Add oil to your skillet. When cooking with a brand new cast iron skillet, pour cooking oil with a heavy hand the first iii or four times. In other words, be generous and don't hold back.

One piece of advice yous won't find in cookbooks is that a cast iron skillet can go scorching hot, and not all cooking oils stay stable at loftier estrus.

For example, olive oil breaks down, producing harmful compounds and emitting bluish smoke, at a temperature of 375°F (190°C). That threshold is likewise chosen the smoke indicate, and all cooking oils have one.

The best oil for cast iron cooking is one with a neutral taste—and then that it doesn't impart likewise much season on your nutrient—and a relatively high smoke point. My personal favorites are avocado oil (520°F), rice bran oil (490°F), and sunflower oil (440°F).

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Go your skillet hot. Reverse to what most of us call up, at that place'southward seldom a need to cook on high heat. Doing so can exist detrimental to your cooking equally it can burn your food and/or cause the seasoning to flake off.

For instance, Lodge, the longest-standing cast atomic number 26 cookware company in the Us, pre-seasons their skillets with soybean oil, which has a smoke point of 450°F (232°C).

So yous don't desire to heat a Lodge skillet above that threshold every bit the seasoning may burn and turn into black residue on your skillet that flakes off on your foods (unless yous're planning to re-flavour it soon after).

Instead, use medium-low oestrus to make an omelet; medium heat for sunny-side-up eggs, bacon strips, onions, and beans; and medium-high heat for thick-cut steak, burgers, and salmon fillets.

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By and large speaking, cast atomic number 26 is a poor conductor of rut. So these skillets take longer to go hot than ceramic or non-stick, simply they distribute heat more evenly and are simply as reluctant to let go of it.

This is what makes them so adept for cooking methods that require a steady source of heat, similar browning meats, shallow-frying foods, or baking cornbread.

Cook with your skillet. You lot know that the cooking oil in your skillet is hot enough to cook in when it starts to coruscate and shimmer (dance around). That's the all-time time to add your food and get cooking.

If the oil starts to smell weird and emit a steady stream of blue smoke, that'south a tell-tail sign that you've heated it past its smoke betoken. There'southward no going back, and it's not recommended that you swallow the oil, as it has formed harmful compounds.

The best thing to exercise with burnt oil is to take the skillet off the heat, allow the oil to absurd downwardly (or transfer it to a rut-proof storage container if you're nether time force per unit area to continue cooking), then discard it.

You tin meltnigh anything in a bandage iron skillet. A few things to proceed in mind:

Red meat (thick-cut, burger patties, sausage) and poultry (whole birds, pieces) are meliorate choices than fish. With its porous surface, the skillet can grab the smell and taste of fish and impart it on annihilation else you lot melt with it over the new few uses.

Avoid recipes that call for overly acidic ingredients—such as tomatoes, lemons, lime, vinegar, and wine—or their sauces. The bare fe surface will react to the acids and leach into your foods, imparting them with a metallic flavor.

No matter what you lot're cooking, it's best to bring it to room temperature by taking it out of the fridge 15 minutes ahead of time. When cold foods come into contact with a hot pan, they're prone to sticking.

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Permit the pan cool down, rinse it with water, pat it fully dry, store it.

Never rinse a hot pan under cold water. You lot're exposing it to thermal shock that can cause it to warp or, in rarer circumstances, intermission into pieces (cast atomic number 26 is sturdy just breakable).

For the same reasons, you don't desire to put a hot skillet on a rock-cold countertop. Instead, let your skillet absurd down naturally and by itself on the stove before cleaning and storing it. This can take one-two hours.

Clean your cast iron skillet using the aforementioned technique as before: rinse with hot water, with a little dish soap or no soap at all, using a soft sponge or nylon castor to scrub off any food residuum, and then pat fully dry out with a dishcloth or paper towel.

The all-time places to shop cast iron skillets are inside a chiffonier, stowed in the oven, or hung up on the wall. The hooks for hanging cast iron skillets should be well-mounted to studs on the wall since these cooking vessels are very heavy.

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What Does Seasoning Mean, Exactly?

Seasoning is the process of applying vegetable oil on the inside and out of your cast iron skillet with the help of a newspaper towel, then blistering it face downward (so that the oil doesn't pool) for nearly an 60 minutes in an oven preheated to 450°F.

Equally a issue, the oil polymerizes and turns from a liquid into a slick blanket that protects your skillet from corrosion and rust and keeps foods from sticking to the cooking surface.

Seasoning is not rocket scientific discipline, but it can be messy—especially if y'all've never done it before and y'all don't know how much oil to use (the short reply is as little as possible so that it doesn't drip onto your oven).

Happily for home cooks like you and me, most bandage iron skillets come pre-seasoned present, pregnant that the manufacturer has already done the hard work for u.s. in the factory.

Will I Ever Need to Re-Flavour a Pre-Seasoned Pan?

Unlike all other cooking vessels, bandage iron skillets only get better with time. The more you lot cook fat foods in them, the more the fats and oils contribute to the seasoning.

Still, sure things tin wear off the seasoning on your cast fe skillet, like when y'all cook overly acidic foods in them or when you lot clean them with harsh detergents. When yous melt sunny-side-up eggs in your pan, and they begin to stick, that's typically a sign that you lot need to re-season it.

How often you need to practise this depends entirely on your cooking habits and on how well you treat your pan. I recently wrote a whole blog post on the topic titled, "How Often Should Cast Iron Skillets Be Seasoned?"

What to Read Next

Knowing how to intendance for your cast iron skillet is just as important as being able to use it properly. To learn how, head on over to "How to Care for Your Cast Atomic number 26 Pan."

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Founding Editor

When Jim isn't in the kitchen, he is unremarkably spending fourth dimension with family and friends, and working with the HCW editorial team to reply the questions he used to inquire himself back when he was learning the ropes of cooking.