Upgrade Your Cast Iron Skillet : 6 Steps (with Pictures)

If you purchased a new cast iron pan, chances are the manufacturer "preseasons" it. You could cook with this pan straight from the store but I like to take it a bit further with some modifications (more on that in a later step).

Goto siao to know more.

First let's focus on seasoning:

Don't use flavored cooking oils or something will a low smoke point like any olive oil.

Don't use Flax oil even though this has a high smoke point, your season will degrade over time. Trust me, I know.

Don't use a lot of oil for each coating. If your pan is getting sticky after seasoning, you likely used too much oil.

Don't season in the oven in summer, unless you like the heat.

The traditional method would be to add a little (VERY little) bit of oil to the pan, stick it in an oven at a high temperature, like 450 - 500F, and let it come up to temperature for an hour or so, kill the heat, leave the pan in the oven and let it come back to room temperature naturally. This is a very effective method but the downside is you need to repeat this process quite a few times (I go 6-7 times total). This could take you all day. Granted, this is a relatively hands off process but still.

The quicker method I use is to take the pan to the stove top (pic 1) but you could do this outside on the grill (which would probably be more beneficial in terms of your smoke detectors). Get the pan ripping hot to where is starts to look "discolored" (pic 1 again). Next, I use an old clean T-shirt or kitchen towel that doesn't have a lot of lint. Place a very small amount of oil on the rag (pic 2) and carefully (I bunch up the towel and use tongs) rub it on the metal pan. Be quick and thorough as the ripping heat will start to break down the oil and polymerize it (pic 3). This process will get you the non-stick surface you are pursuing. I feel this process is completed for each coating when the smoking stops in which case you will wait for the pan to come back up in temperature (this shouldn't take long) and repeat the coatings. Again, I do a total of 6-7 wipes with new oil until I am done. Pic 4 shows the pan when I have gone through all 7 coatings. Now you can cook something and the industry standard for this point is to cook an egg (pic 5).

Go very thin on each oil application to the point to where you feel like you added nothing. This is ideal which may seem counterintuitive but you want to slowly build your polymer chain. If you glob on the oil thinking more is better, it isn't. You won't get full polymerization and will likely just get a sticky residue (which is not what you are after).

The traditional oven seasoning generally takes me a day and in the sense of good BBQ, slow is the way to go. You want the season to penetrate all the imperfections on the pan's surface.

The quick method takes me maybe 1/2 an hour, max. This still gets the same results and I used this for my cast iron pans. I also used this on a carbon steel pan after I completely stripped off the original season.

How do you strip the old / bad season? Funny you should ask!

Buy Side Top Pick

Victoria

Signature Series 10-Inch Skillet

This luxe, preseasoned skillet heats food consistently and evenly, and cleans up like a dream.

Pros

• Heats food quickly and consistently 
• Easiest to deglaze and clean 
• Ergonomically designed handle
• Oven-safe to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit 
• Lifetime warranty 

Cons

• Higher price 
• On the heavier side of tested models at 5.3 pounds 

Of the cast iron skillets we researched and tested, the Victoria Signature Series 10-Inch Skillet performed best. We found that it rose to the top in testing, heating oil in just under two minutes and browning a quarter onion evenly and thoroughly in half that time. We noticed no detectable hot spots on the stove or in the oven, and a frittata cooked in 19 minutes, with just a small amount of browning around the edges.

The Victoria was the easiest to clean among the cast iron skillets we tested, requiring next to no work, thanks to the manufacturer&#;s ample preseasoning. The fond, or brown bits left sticking to the bottom of the pan after cooking, came off easily when we used beer to deglaze (the process of adding liquid, heating and stirring).

The ergonomically designed, soft-grip handle made the Victoria the most comfortable pan to use on the stovetop, and pour spouts on three sides made it easy to remove liquids from this pan while hot. The Victoria was the second-highest-price skillet we tested, but the pan&#;s high marks for performance and comfort convinced us that it was well worth the investment for a piece of cookware that will be around for the long haul. It also comes with a lifetime warranty.

Best lower-price cast iron skillet

Lodge

10.25-Inch Classic Cast Iron Skillet

This is the best choice for a lower-price cast iron skillet that still overperforms.

Pros

• Significantly lower price
• Food achieved maximum browning 
• Oven-safe to 650 degrees Fahrenheit 
• Lifetime warranty 

The company is the world’s best Custom Cast Iron Cookware supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.

Cons

• Some hot spots 
• Meat stuck slightly to pan 

The Lodge 10.25 Inch Classic Cast Iron Skillet comes in at less than an eighth of the price of the Victoria without sacrificing much quality. Although we noted a few detectable hot spots in this pan&#;particularly during the oven test, where we found the frittata to be somewhat unevenly browned&#;this lower-price pan was able to heat oil in approximately the same amount of time as our top pick.

The Lodge, like most of the pans we tested, is preseasoned, but we found that food had the tendency to stick more than in the Victoria, especially meat. Still, it was relatively easy to clean, particularly after deglazing, which handily removed fond from the bottom of the pan. Like all other cast iron models, this pan must be washed and dried by hand. The Lodge also comes with a lifetime warranty, which is impressive for the price.

Best lighter-weight cast iron skillet

Stargazer

10.5-Inch Cast Iron Skillet

For something light, choose this skillet that still offers even heating and a slick surface.

Pros

• Lightest of the models we tested 
• Heats food quickly 
• Easy to deglaze and clean 
• Slick interior 

Cons

• Doesn&#;t state oven-safe temperature 
• Higher price

Cast iron is a heavy material, and the skillets we tested were all quite weighty. But the lightest 10-inch pan we tested was the Stargazer 10.5-Inch Cast Iron Skillet at 5.2 pounds (notably, the heaviest pan we tested was 7 pounds). The Stargazer is an ounce or so lighter than our top choice, but an ounce can make a big difference when it comes to moving a skillet around a stovetop.

We found that this skillet was noticeably easier to maneuver thanks to its reduced weight. &#;It&#;s lightweight, it&#;s more responsive than other brands and the handle is longer and contoured, so it&#;s easier to grip and it doesn&#;t get blazing hot,&#; says food writer and recipe developer Carrie Havranek. &#;It also has a nice rim/lip, which helps if you are scraping things out of the pan.&#;

It&#;s also a uniformly great pan, with a slick, preseasoned interior that prevents food from sticking and a substantial bottom that allows oil to heat both quickly and evenly. In fact, the Stargazer heated oil and food faster than almost any of the other pans we tested. It was one of the highest-price options, but it comes with a lifetime warranty. That, combined with its weight and performance, makes it worth the money.

Others you should know about

A great unseasoned pan

Nexgrill

10 Inch Round Cast Iron Skillet

We tested one unseasoned pan, the Nexgrill 10-Inch Round Cast-Iron Skillet, which costs less than $25. For home cooks looking for more control over seasoning, this is a good bet. The pan comes with a one-year warranty, heats oil in two minutes and distributes heat evenly throughout. Besides the lack of seasoning, which led to some sticking&#;even with added fat in the pan&#;the major issue we had with the Nexgrill was its heft. It weighs 7 pounds, and we found it slightly unwieldy in testing.

The higher-price Smithey Ironware No. 10 Skillet is still worth considering, if you&#;re willing to shell out $170 for a pan. It was the fastest to heat of the models we tested, with a slick, preseasoned interior. After writing a cookbook on cast iron pans, author Jackie Freeman only held on to three skillets, and the Smithey Ironware was one of them. But we found it less comfortable to pick up and move than the comparably priced Victoria, and therefore a little harder to use. Our top pick&#;s handle made maneuvering it much easier, particularly for those who find cast iron pans to be heavy or unwieldy to begin with, and this was a determining factor when it came to whether or not the price was worth it.

How we picked

Trust us

I spent years working in restaurants, and I completed a yearlong certificate program at the French Culinary Institute (later called the International Culinary Institute) in , graduating at the top of my class. Since then, I&#;ve tested and developed recipes for major newspapers and magazines. I&#;m also a seasoned product tester and have specific expertise when it comes to kitchen equipment. Can a cast iron pan achieve even heat? Does it reach a smoke point within seconds, or minutes? These are questions that I have the specific expertise and experience to answer.

For this guide, I also spoke with three experts, all of whom are cookbook authors, stylists and recipe developers with extensive experience using cast iron skillets: Carrie Havranek, a food writer, recipe developer and cookbook author based in Easton, Pa.; Jackie Freeman, a Seattle-based chef and the author of &#;Cast Iron Skillet One-Pan Meals: 75 Family-Friendly Recipes for Everyday Dinners&#;; and Chris Kar, head chef of The Dimon Estate, in Jamesport, N.Y. All three offered valuable help in how to test and research the best cast iron skillets, what brands I should seek out for testing and how I might begin considering my options.

We tested

Here&#;s what we were looking for when researching cast iron skillets:

• Size: We tested cast iron skillets that measured around 10 inches in diameter, but cast iron skillets range in size from about 8 inches to 12 inches. Although a 10-inch skillet is a common and useful size, you should choose the size that suits you and your kitchen the best. &#;For my purposes, anything smaller than a 10-inch skillet is too small, and anything larger than a 10-inch is just too unwieldy,&#; Freeman says.
• Weight: The majority of the cast iron skillets we tested weighed around 5 pounds, although one weighed slightly more. If you find heavy pans to be burdensome, you should take this into consideration when shopping. 
• Oven-safe temperature: Cast iron skillets are all oven-safe to varying degrees. Our top pick was oven-safe to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. 
• Warranty: Of the five models we tested, four came with limited lifetime warranties and one came with a one-year warranty. 

We conducted five tests on all of our cast iron skillets. First, we timed how long it took to heat cooking oil on the stovetop, followed by how long it took to brown two sausage links that had been removed from their casings. Then we measured the time needed to sauté a quarter of an onion in oil. We assessed how well deglazing with beer worked to remove fond from the bottom of the hot pan (you can use various liquids to deglaze; beer was a natural pairing with sausage), and finally, observed results of a cooking test of a frittata, conducted within the oven.

We tested both preseasoned and unseasoned cast iron skillets. &#;If you don&#;t want to get involved with seasoning a pan, then a preseasoned one is a great shortcut to getting started, especially if you are new to the process of using one,&#; Havranek says. &#;It gives you a great baseline of understanding how the pan works and how to take care of it.&#; We found this to be true, and we also found that the preseasoned pans released food more easily and were easier to clean. &#;I always recommend buying a preseasoned pan so you can get cooking right away,&#; adds Freeman. In terms of ease of use, Freeman&#;s advice certainly holds true. All cast iron will need to be reseasoned eventually, a process that involves baking the cookware in a high-temperature oven with a thin layer of fat.

To clean the cast iron, we scrubbed, per the advice of our experts. &#;Most of the time, I can get away with a quick soapless scrub with hot water,&#; says Freeman. &#;If I have something that&#;s a bit sticky, I will scrub it with a stainless steel chain scrubber under hot water.&#; To avoid rust, we dried completely. &#;You really have to dry the cast iron, or else you&#;ll get rust spots,&#; Kar says, and we did note rust spots when we missed moisture on some of our pans during testing. It&#;s not an uncommon issue, and you can deal with the rust by rubbing about &#; cup of kosher salt onto the surface of the pan until it has disappeared.

Our experts

• Carrie Havranek, a food writer, recipe developer and cookbook author based in Easton, Pa.
• Jackie Freeman, a Seattle-based chef and the author of &#;Cast Iron Skillet One-Pan Meals: 75 Family-Friendly Recipes for Everyday Dinners&#;
• Chris Kar, head chef of The Dimon Estate in Jamesport, N.Y.

Meet the contributor

Hannah Selinger is a contributor to Buy Side from WSJ.

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