To Season

1. Place a large piece of aluminum foil on the bottom of your oven. This is important and it’ll catch the drips.
2. Preheat the oven to 450F with a rack in the middle.
3. Rub the inside and outside of the pan with a light coating of oil. You want the entire pan coated in oil.
4. Place the cast iron pan, upside down, in the oven on the rack.
5. Bake for 1 -1/2 hours. Note: Seasoning cast iron pans does generate smoke similar to cooking in a dirty oven.
6. Once done, turn off the oven, and let the pan cool to room temperature in the oven.
7. If it’s a brand new pan, do this a few times before use. Repeating this process several times is recommended as it will help create a stronger “seasoning” bond.
8. Once cooled, wipe the pan again with a VERY light coating of oil and store with a paper towel between the pans.

To remove rust stains

1. If you need to remove rust: use a mixture of salt and oil and scrub that hard into the rust, then rinse thoroughly in hot water. Use steel wool if necessary.
2. Next, scour the pan completely under hot water. Do this for several minutes or until the water runs clean. if you use soap or an SOS pan you MUST make sure there is no residue left otherwise your foods will taste like soap!
3. Next season the pan with the instructions above doing this seasoning step (coating, baking and cooling) at least 2 times.

To clean

1. I try to avoid soap at all costs. For me I use about a 1/2 cup of kosher salt into the still-warm skillet. Use a folded kitchen towel to scour.
2. Discard the salt and rinse the skillet with hot water.
3. Dry immediately with a kitchen towel, or heat skillet over a medium-low flame to evaporate the moisture.
4. Very lightly coat the entire pan with oil, wipe clean and store away.