How do you properly season cast iron cookware?

Seasoning, Cleaning & Caring for Cast Iron Pans

When the pan has cooled after use, wipe it clean with paper towels. Wash the pan in hot water quickly without soaking or soap, then rinse. Dry thoroughly and apply a thin coating of fat or oil.

Stubborn cooked-on or burned-on food is best removed by soaking in hot water. Use a plastic scouring pad if necessary. If that doesn't get it clean, soak the pan in a solution of 3 tablespoons of baking soda per 1 quart of water to remove burned-on food or grease. Do not scour off the seasoned finish built up on cast iron over long use. This necessitates reseasoning of the pan.

Rust may be scoured with fine steel wool or scouring powder but reseasoning of the utensil will be necessary.

More advice from Wiki s Contributors:

• Exfoliate your iron pans. This is good for getting the little burnt bits off the bottom of the pan. You will need kosher salt, paper towels, and vegetable oil. Set the pan on the stove on low heat. Add only enough oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pan. Heat pan until warm to the touch but not hot, then add a generous amount of kosher salt. "Scour" the pan with the paper towels and kosher salt until the burnt bits are removed. Wipe away excess oil and salt with a clean paper towel and rinse with water only. Dry immediately.

• If the pots have a lot of buildup from age, get a good fire going in the fireplace or outside, remove any wooden handles, and throw in the pot. Carefully remove after about 30 minutes, cool, wash with hot water, dry, rub with unsalted oil, and bake at 250 degrees Fahrenheit for 3 hours to reseason it.

• If you find rust on the pan even though it is dried thoroughly after use, try this additional drying method: Put the pan on the stove and let it heat until any water left in the pan has evaporated.

• Soap or other cleaning agents should not be used on cast iron. After it's properly seasoned, all you need to clean it is hot water and a little oil. If you need more than that, then it's not properly seasoned.

• To clean rust from an abused, garage-sale cast iron skillet, try soaking the it for 24 hours in a bath of 1 part molasses and 3 parts water. Clean with a bit of steel wool. Season the pan when finished.

• The best way to really clean an iron pan is with a rotary wire brush. You can buy a stiff wire brush to mount on a power drill, preferably one that plugs in. You can remove the entire carbon coating and any rust with ease before reseasoning.

In addition to the fine information presented by previous contributors, I would like to share a couple of little known secrets to cleaning & caring for cast iron.

First, any challenging, cooked-on mess on a piece of cast iron can be done simply with white vinegar--or other kinds, I suspect, in a pinch--and paper towels or (and yes, I realize this is grave sacrilege) a metal scrubbie. In fact, straight vinegar is unmatched in its ability to easily clean food where water is not available. I learned this from a kind woman when I was a food demonstrator and I had to cook sausages all day in a skillet with little (or unfriendly) access to water. Amazing. And the vinegar & paper towels trick works on any cooking surface that I have tried.

As for the complete prohibition of soap & water: nonsense. A very well-seasoned pan can tolerate gentle cleaning in the sink, if that is your preference. Just place your thoroughly cleaned & rinsed piece immediately on a hot stove, wipe lightly with oil, turn off the stove & you're done. So now there's no need to kill or curse well-intentioned friends or family members who try to help out by washing your skillets. And my cast iron pans are unmatched for their non-stick surfaces. So there. :>)

Second, don't make the mistake of using too much oil when you season your pan (like I had numerous times over the years). Now I start with a clean, dry, hot pan, and just wipe it with a cooking oil, carefully wiping out any excess that appears as it heats & cools. And any time I use my oven, I will put any cast-iron-seasoning-in-progress items in as well, to take advantage of the heat; again, making sure that the surface of my piece stays very lightly & evenly oiled.

Finally--and I am loathe to share this, as I fear it will leave a significant dearth in the availability of cast iron pieces at garage sales & flea markets --but the very best way to renew a piece of cast iron that appears completely & hopelessly encrusted with God-knows-what, is to simply put it in your self-cleaning oven--or a friend's who is willing). It is important to place your piece in the center of one of the racks--assuming the racks are tolerant of the process (some manufacturers warn of self-cleaning the racks at all). I have done this numerous times over the years, and I never fail to be amazed at the results. Very often I do not even recognize the piece that comes out.

Another method. Experienced cast iron collectors/restorers will often use a lye bath to clean old cruddy pieces. Of course, there are safety issues involved here. I recommend reading the WAGS article;

http://www.wag-society.org/Electrolysis/lye.php