How To Use Olive Oil To Season Your Cast Iron Skillet (2024)

FAQs

How To Use Olive Oil To Season Your Cast Iron Skillet? ›

Pour a thin layer of olive oil into the skillet and use a paper towel to spread it around, making sure to coat the entire surface of the pan. 4. Place the skillet in the oven and bake it for 30 minutes.

Since olive oil is such a pantry staple, many people naturally wonder if they can use olive oil to season cast iron. You can use olive oil to season cast iron, but you need to choose a high quality extra virgin olive oil, which should have a smoke point close to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

If you've ever burned canola or olive oil while cooking with stainless steel cookware, you'll certainly have seen some brown splotches appear, and you'll also have seen how difficult these splotches are to remove. That's because you've actually turned your oil into plastic and bonded it to your pan.

You're going to have to give your skillet at least six coats of oil and baking to create a hardwearing non stick base. Basically, new cast iron needs some intense TLC for the first year or so of it's life.

You should season a cast-iron skillet at least once a month, but seasoning it after each time you cook with it also works. You may not need to repeat the entire seasoning process as you did before initially using it, but after each use, rinse it and give your cast-iron skillet a quick season by oiling it.

Oil. Apply a very thin, even layer of cooking oil to the cookware (inside and out). If you use too much oil, your cookware may become sticky.

Preheat and bake.

Preheat your oven to at least 450°, then slide your pan into the oven.

That's why our simple cleaning steps have you rub oil into your pan after each use to ensure the seasoning remains for quality cooking. You can also season your cast iron cookware in the oven.

The method to cooking with cast iron on the stovetop is HEAT, do not add the cooking oil until the pan feels hot, because the oil will be the benchmark of the pan's readiness. If the butter sizzles, pan's ready. Oil slides across the pan with easy, pan's ready.

How do you season cast iron so food doesn't stick? ›

After cleaning and drying the skillet, apply a thin coat of vegetable oil. Place aluminum foil on the bottom rack(just in case of any drippings). Heat the oven to 480 degrees. Place the skillet on the middle rack upside down and bake it for an hour.

Keep It Seasoned

You season it once and it's good for decades. Here's how to season a cast iron pan: Scrub in hot, soapy water and rinse with clean warm water. Dry completely with a cotton or paper towel immediately after rinsing.

Why Olive Oil Is Good for Skillet Seasoning. Olive oil is a great option for seasoning your cast iron skillet because it is affordable and easy to find. It also has a high smoke point, which means it can withstand high temperatures without burning.

When oils or fats are heated in cast iron at a high enough temperature, they change from a wet liquid into a slick, hardened surface through a process called polymerization. This reaction creates a layer of seasoning that is molecularly bonded to the iron.

Label: If the olive oil is well past its harvest date (more than 18 to 24 months), it's possible that it has gone rancid. Smell: If olive oil is past its prime, it will not have a fresh, fragrant aroma and flavor. It may smell like wax, plastic or crayons.

It's important to not use anything too aggressive such as steel wool, sponges or other abrasive cleaning methods as these will strip your seasoning. For particularly difficult to clean messes, fill your pan halfway full with water and heat over the stove.

Butter is excellent for cooking, adding to gravies, and even frying if you control the heat to medium-low. But it is not a good choice for seasoning cast iron cookware first time. Butter has a high smoke point. If you season the cast iron pots with butter, they will burn out too soon.

To season your pan before cooking, you'll heat the pan with a thin layer of neutral oil (like vegetable, avocado, or olive oil).

Olive oil's smoke point can actually vary greatly depending on how the oil itself is harvested, processed and refined. Extra virgin olive oil — which has not been processed or refined in any way — generally has the highest smoke point of all olive oil varieties, over 400 degrees Fahrenheit, when freshly bottled.