How to Season a Cast Iron Skillet (and Keep It That Way)

Pour a generous handful of kosher salt into the pan. Ball up a kitchen towel or paper towel and scrub the salt around in tight circles. The salt is gritty enough to lift rust spots without scratching the bare iron underneath.

Keep going until the surface looks even and matte gray. For heavy rust, you can switch to a chain mail scrubber - it is faster but a bit more aggressive. Salt is the gentler default.

Run the pan under warm water with a small amount of mild dish soap. The seasoning has already been stripped at this point, so the cast iron forum will not yell at you. The point is to wash out the salt and any rust debris before you re-coat the pan.

Use a sponge or soft cloth - nothing aggressive. The metal is bare and you want it clean, not abraded.

Wipe the pan dry with a kitchen towel or paper towel. Get the cooking surface, the underside, the handle, and the rim. Any moisture left on bare iron will rust again before you can season it.

If you want to be extra careful, set the pan on a low burner for a minute to drive off any remaining water. The whole surface should look uniformly dull gray with no shiny wet spots.

Scoop a small amount of Crisco or pour a tablespoon of vegetable oil onto a paper towel. Rub the oil into every surface of the pan - inside, outside, handle, and underside. You want a thin, even coat, not a puddle.

Wipe off any excess. Counterintuitively, less oil makes a better seasoning. Thick oil layers turn sticky and gummy in the oven; thin layers polymerize into a hard, slick coating.

Place the oiled pan upside down on a foil-lined or parchment-lined baking sheet to catch any drips. Slide it into a 350F oven and let it bake for one full hour.

Upside-down is intentional: any excess oil drips off the cooking surface instead of pooling there, leaving a smooth, even coating. After an hour, turn the oven off and let the pan cool inside the oven before pulling it out.

While the pan is still warm from cooking, wipe it out with a paper towel to clear the big chunks of food. If anything is stuck, sprinkle in a little kosher salt and scrub with a balled-up paper towel - same trick as the rust step, much gentler.

A small splash of warm soapy water and a quick rinse is fine. A properly seasoned pan can handle it. What it cannot handle is sitting wet in the sink for an hour.

After the post-cook rinse, dry the pan thoroughly. Then rub a very small amount of oil into the cooking surface - just enough to leave a faint sheen, not a wet film. This protects the seasoning and keeps the iron from oxidizing while it sits.

Store the pan in a warm, dry oven if you have the space. The trapped warmth keeps moisture away from the surface and the seasoning gets stronger every cook.