HOW TO USE, CARE FOR, CLEAN, AND STORE YOUR CAST IRON SKILLET
If you’re using a cast iron skillet in your kitchen, you’re doing it right. But if not and you want to start, then you’re in the right place! For whatever reason, using a cast iron skillet can be a little intimidating. I’m going to show you just how easy it is to use, care for, clean, and store a cast iron skillet so you can cook with it daily and use it forever!
When purchasing your cast iron skillet, keep these things in mind.
It’s easiest if you find a cast iron skillet that is already seasoned. Then you don’t have to do it yourself right away. We’ll discuss seasoning the skillet in a little bit.
You can really get any brand of cast iron that you’d like, but my mom got me hooked on Lodge. So that’s what I use for my cast iron skillet, my cast iron dutch oven, and my regular dutch oven. I love them all!
You can get them directly off the Lodge website, but I’ve found that it’s a little cheaper to get them at Homegoods, Marshalls, At Home, etc. or even garage sales!
Washing before using your cast iron skillet.
Before using your cast iron skillet, obviously read the instructions first which should include the following. If you got it used, then follow these instructions too.
It should have you wash it with hot water and soap. Likely after this, you shouldn’t have to use soap anymore on it because it’ll be good and seasoned. But for now, you want to get all the store gunk and dust off.
We’ll talk about daily cleaning in just a moment, hang in there.
Seasoning your cast iron skillet.
So this is where you’re going to get the “non-stick” factor of your pan.
Essentially, layers of oil build up on the pan and create the nonstick layer. This is also why you don’t necessarily want to keep washing it with soap later on because it’ll peel off those oil layers and you’ll just have to keep seasoning it.
After several Youtube videos, my fiancé finally figured out the best and easiest way to season the cast iron. Here’s exactly what he did:
Make sure you’re checking it frequently throughout the oven process! See why, below.
- Scrubbed it with salt and water using a regular sponge.
- Cleaned it with hot and soapy water.
- Made sure it was completely dry.
- Put a light coating of oil in the pan.
- Put it in the oven upside down with a cooking sheet underneath to catch the oil.
- Baked it in the oven on 350 deg for 1 hour.
- Let it cool.
When it comes to step numbers 4 and 5, truly make sure you have a light coating of oil and actually place the pan upside down.
The first time we did it, we had a little too much oil in the pan and put the pan in the oven right side up. We then had a nice little fire in our oven and had to quickly run the pan outside, yikes! Don’t be like us.
Daily use and cleaning of your cast iron.
We use our cast iron skillet pretty frequently, but if you’re someone who only uses it periodically, then you may need to repeat the seasoning steps more often throughout the year.
As a reminder, you don’t want to use metal utensils on your cast iron because you don’t want it to cut through the coating. Using metal utensils or cutting anything up in your cast iron skillet is a way you could potentially get rust, and you don’t want that!
After you’ve made you’re delicious recipe in your cast iron, the daily cleaning part is pretty simple.
If you’re worried about food getting stuck on your pan, I make this Amazing Sourdough Cinnamon Roll Recipe in my cast iron skillet all the time!
Once the pan is cooled down, place a light layer of warm water in the bottom and let it sit for 5-10 minutes.
Use hot water and an ironware chainmail to clean and scrape any residual food off. You can also use salt to scrape the excess food, but now that’s I’ve used chainmail I won’t go back to the salt unless I have to.
Once it is all clean, dry it off completely and add a thin layer of oil to the pan. Place it on the stove for 10 minutes and then let it cool. It is now ready to store.
Storing your cast iron.
The biggest tip when storing your cast iron cookware is to make sure that it completely dry before putting it away.
After that, you can really store it anywhere. We leave ours in our oven.
When we first got our cast iron skillet, we had one incident where we didn’t get it dry all the way and noticed a little rusting. We just repeated the seasoning steps and haven’t had an issue since.
So, just make sure it is completely dry and you’ll be good to go!
I hope you feel more confident to use, clean, and store your cast iron skillet and cookware with these easy and simple tips!
If you have any questions, leave them below!
