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How to Season a Cast Iron Skillet

Seasoning a cast iron skillet is done by rubbing a bit of canola oil onto the surface, heating the pan in a 250-degree oven for two hours, which opens up the pores of the metal, and wiping out any excess oil. Season a cast iron skillet before using it with instructions from an experienced chef in this free video on cooking.

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Video Transcript

These are stainless steel, almost everyone has them in their kitchen. This is a cast iron skillet, it's a little heavy. I'm Jawara the Chef and I'm going to show you how to season this cast iron skillet. These are old fashion, but they still cook very well. Mine's a little fancier, it's got the little grills in here, in case you want to be cooking the meats or something, you get the little marks on it and stuff. But they also come without the grills in it and everything. The first thing you want to do when you purchase one of these here is you got to wash them out because they have this little special protector and everything. You want to wash and clean all that out. Give it a good scrub, rinse it well and then dry it. You season your pan so your food won't stick to the surface. In the old days, they used to season with lard. Oh, now, we got a little more help here. Now, we're going to season with canola oil. I pour a little in my skillet. Now, I just take my towel and I just go - working it all in and around. Now make sure you don't miss no spots or nothing. This is where part of the seasoning part comes in. Get that in there nice and good. Now, that I've got things all even in here and stuff now, get all the edges done and stuff, now I'm going to put this here in my oven at 250 degrees for two hours. The heat from the oven causes the pores of the skillet to open. The oil gets in there and then it bonds with the skillet. The pan's still warm, two hours is up and you just want to wipe out some of the excess oil. Be careful, it's still warm. A seasoned pan will brown the meat a whole lot better and it will not stick to the pan. I'm Jawara the Chef and that's how you season your cast iron skillet. That's what I'm talking about.