How to Season a Cast Iron Pan — The Complete South African Home Cook's Guide

 A well-seasoned cast iron pan is one of the greatest tools in a South African kitchen. It improves with every use, costs almost nothing to maintain, and if you treat it right — it will outlast you.

By K.B. Shivuri · The Seasoned HearthTime needed: 1–2 hours activeOven time: 1 hr per roundDifficulty: Easy

If you have ever cooked with a cast iron pan and had food stick to it relentlessly, or watched it turn orange with rust after a single wash, this post is for you. Cast iron is not difficult to care for — but it does require you to understand one central concept: seasoning.

Seasoning is simply a thin layer of polymerised oil baked onto the surface of the cast iron. When you heat oil on metal to a high enough temperature, the oil undergoes a chemical transformation — it polymerises, binding to the iron in a hard, smooth, non-stick layer. Do this several times, and you build up a surface so slick that eggs slide across it, boerewors releases cleanly, and vetkoek comes out perfectly golden without sticking.

In South Africa, cast iron is a kitchen essential — from braai pots to potjie pots to flat-bottomed pans for the stove. Understanding how to season and care for cast iron means you will never have to replace it. Let me show you exactly how to do it.

Active Time

20 min

Oven Time

1 hr

Rounds Needed

3–4

Difficulty

Easy

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What Is Seasoning and Why Does It Matter?

Raw cast iron is porous and reactive — expose it to moisture or acidic foods and it rusts or reacts. Seasoning fills those pores with a hard, inert layer of polymerised oil that protects the metal, creates a natural non-stick surface, and improves with every cook.

Think of it as the pan building its own protective skin. A brand-new pan has none. A pan that has been used and seasoned for years has a surface as smooth and dark as polished stone — and genuinely non-stick for most cooking tasks.

What You Will Need

For Seasoning

• Your cast iron pan (new or to be restored)1
• Flaxseed oil, grapeseed oil, or Crisco shorteningsmall amount
• Paper towelsseveral
• Oven (needs to reach 230°C)1
• Aluminium foil to catch drips1 sheet

The Seasoned Hearth tip — flaxseed oil builds the hardest seasoningOf all available oils, flaxseed oil (also called linseed oil — find it at health food stores or some pharmacies) polymerises the most completely, building the hardest and most durable seasoning layer. It has a low smoke point which paradoxically means it bonds to the metal at lower oven temperatures. It is worth seeking out for your initial seasoning rounds. For maintenance, any high smoke-point oil — grapeseed, sunflower, or vegetable shortening — works perfectly.

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How to Season Your Cast Iron Pan — Step by Step

Step 1 — Clean the pan first

1. 1
   New pan: Wash once with warm soapy water to remove the factory coating or storage oil. Rinse thoroughly and dry immediately and completely — do not allow to air dry as it will begin to rust within minutes.
2. 2
   Old, rusty or sticky pan: Scrub with steel wool and coarse salt until all visible rust and old sticky residue is removed. Rinse and dry immediately. For very stubborn rust, a paste of coarse salt and oil scrubbed with steel wool works excellently.
3. 3
   Place the clean, dry pan on the stove over medium-low heat for 2 minutes to drive off any remaining moisture. The pan should feel completely dry to the touch — any residual moisture will cause the seasoning to bubble or flake.

Step 2 — Apply the thinnest possible oil layer

1. 4
   Pour a very small amount of your chosen oil onto a folded paper towel — about half a teaspoon. Rub it over every surface of the pan: the cooking surface, the outside, the handle, and the bottom. Cover every centimetre.
2. 5
   Take a clean, dry paper towel and wipe off as much of the oil as you can. The pan should look almost dry — barely any sheen visible. This is the counterintuitive step that most people get wrong. Too much oil leads to a sticky, gummy, uneven seasoning. The layer must be so thin it appears almost invisible.

Less oil is always better than moreThe most common seasoning mistake is applying too much oil. Thick oil layers do not polymerise properly — they bake into a sticky, uneven coating that makes food stick and feels gummy to the touch. Apply the oil, then wipe almost all of it off. Trust the process — multiple thin layers build a far better seasoning than one thick one.

Step 3 — Bake upside down

1. 6
   Preheat your oven to 230°C (as high as it will go, or at least 200°C minimum). Place a sheet of aluminium foil on the bottom rack to catch any drips.
2. 7
   Place the pan upside down on the top oven rack. Putting it upside down allows any excess oil to drip off rather than pooling in the cooking surface and creating uneven spots.
3. 8
   Bake for 1 hour. Turn off the oven and allow the pan to cool completely inside the oven before removing — this slow cooling is part of the polymerisation process. Do not rush it.

 

Step 4 — Repeat for a proper build

1. 9
   One round of seasoning is a beginning, not a finish. Repeat the entire process — thin oil layer, wipe almost dry, bake upside down for 1 hour — 3 to 4 more times for a genuinely non-stick surface. Your pan will gradually darken from grey to a rich, dark brown to eventually an almost black, slightly glossy surface. This is exactly what you want.

The Seasoned Hearth tip — cooking builds seasoning faster than the ovenAfter your initial 3–4 rounds of oven seasoning, the best thing you can do is simply use your pan. Every time you cook with fat — frying vetkoek, searing boerewors, making eggs in butter — you add to the seasoning layer. A cast iron pan that is used and cared for daily is virtually maintenance-free within a few months. The problems arise when it sits unused.

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Daily Maintenance — How to Care for Your Pan After Each Use

• While still warm: wipe with a paper towel or rinse briefly under warm water.
• If needed: scrub with a stiff brush or coarse salt — never steel wool on a seasoned pan.
• Dry immediately: place on the stove over medium-low heat for 1–2 minutes until all moisture evaporates.
• Apply a tiny oil layer: rub the cooking surface with a barely-there amount of oil while still warm. Wipe almost all of it off.
• Store dry: in a dry cupboard with something between stacked cast iron pieces to allow air circulation.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use soap to wash my cast iron pan?

A small amount of mild dish soap used quickly will not damage a well-seasoned cast iron pan. The old rule about never using soap dates from when soap was made with lye, which was genuinely damaging to metal. Modern dish soap is far milder. The important rules are: never soak the pan in water, never put it in the dishwasher, and always dry immediately after washing.

My pan has a sticky coating after seasoning — what went wrong?

Too much oil was applied. The excess oil did not fully polymerise and baked into a gummy, sticky layer instead of a hard, smooth one. Scrub the sticky area with coarse salt, wash, dry, and start the seasoning process again — this time applying an almost invisible layer of oil before baking.

How do I know when my pan is properly seasoned?

A properly seasoned pan is very dark — almost black — with a slightly shiny but not sticky surface. Water beads and rolls off easily. Eggs cook without sticking when you use a small amount of butter. If you can fry an egg cleanly in your cast iron pan, your seasoning is excellent.

My pan has some rust spots — is it ruined?

No. Rust on cast iron is almost always recoverable. Scrub the rust away with steel wool and coarse salt until the metal is clean and grey again. Rinse, dry completely on the stove, and re-season from scratch with 3–4 oven rounds. It may take a few rounds to fully restore a neglected pan, but it will come back beautifully.

Season It Right, Use It Always

A cast iron pan properly cared for does not just last a lifetime — it gets better with every year. Season it right, cook with it daily, and it will be the most used, most reliable pan in your kitchen. The Seasoned Hearth was named for this kind of cooking. Old tools, patient hands, and food that lasts.

— K.B. Shivuri, The Seasoned Hearth