Coating
Seasoning
Family: Seasoning
What it is
Seasoning is cooking oil baked onto bare cast iron or carbon steel until it hardens into a slick, dark layer. It gets better every time you cook with fat, and acid, soaking and neglect wear it away.
Why it matters in your kitchen
Picture cornbread dropping out of a skillet in one piece. That release is seasoning, which Lodge describes as oil baked onto the pan.
It's a coating in the ordinary sense, one you build and repair yourself. Most cast iron comes pre-seasoned: Lodge sprays its pans with vegetable oil and bakes them at the foundry.
Good at
- Release that improves. Lodge and de Buyer both say the surface gets better with every use.
- Rust protection. de Buyer says seasoning is what keeps carbon steel from rusting.
- Fixable at home. Damaged seasoning comes back with oil, heat and cooking. No factory needed.
Watch for
- Acid wears it. Lodge suggests acidic dishes under 45 minutes, and only once the seasoning is built up. A dull patch after tomato sauce comes back as you cook.
- Water undoes it. Leave the pan wet and it rusts. Dry it on a burner and rub in a little oil.
- It can flake. Lodge says to scrub flakes with a nylon brush or salt, rinse, dry and oil.
- Dark residue on the towel. Lodge says that's normal, especially after acidic food or high heat. It works itself out.
Who it suits
Good for you if you'd rather maintain a surface yourself than replace a factory coating. Skip it if you want a pan that never needs oiling.
In short. Seasoning is oil baked into a hard, slick layer on bare iron and steel: it builds as you cook, and acid and water wear it down.
Seasoning is the cooking surface of cast iron and carbon steel. For what research has and hasn't shown about iron pans, see our guide.
Where it is used
- Bare cast iron pans
- Carbon steel pans and woks
How to care for it
- Wash, dry completely and rub on a thin coat of oil after each use.
- Re-season in the oven or on the stove when the surface looks dull or gray, or food starts sticking.
- Keep long acidic simmers for another pan.
What the label tells you
- A seasoned surface, maintained by the cook.
- Pre-seasoned at the factory, with the oil named, when the maker says so.
What it doesn't tell you
- It isn't nonstick in the PTFE sense, and it isn't permanent.
- "Pre-seasoned" doesn't mean uncoated.
Coating pages describe the coating in general. The profile on each product page says what we know about that product and how we know it.
Products with this coating
Nothing in the shop uses this material yet. The page is here for the gear you already own.