How to treat a cast iron pan that only gets occasional use

cast-iron

I have a small cast-iron pan that I use a few times a month, sometimes more, sometimes less. Most advice about how to season a cast-iron pan involves lightly oiling and wiping it down, after it's been cleaned, before putting it away. This seems to assume that the pan gets used every few days. Since I don't use it very often, my concern is that any oil that remains on the pan might go rancid before I use it the next time, and that it will affect the flavour of whatever I cook. Is this something I should actually worry about? How do other people treat a cast-iron pan that only gets occasional use?

Best Answer

My (carbon steel) wok is used with that sort of frequency and doesn't go rancid. What I do is (you may want to modify a little for the fact you're on cast iron):

  • Rinse and dry it.
  • Get it fairly warm.
  • Pour in a little oil (sunflower as that's what I mainly use).
  • Swirl/wipe the oil over the surface.
  • Heat until I think it starts to smoke; turn off the gas.
  • After a few seconds wipe of the excess with a paper towel.
  • After a few minutes wipe it off again as some oil will have magically appeared
  • Heat until it just starts to smoke again (fairly slowly to allow the heat to even out).
  • Allow to cool before putting away.

Now this isn't a very hard seasoning, but it does a good job of stopping the pan from rusting and stopping food from sticking next time it's used. The final amount of oil is very small, which helps.

Related Topic