How do I season a carbon steel pan?

Almost every seasoning failure is the same failure: too much oil. A seasoned surface is not a coating you apply, it is oil that has soaked into the metal and been chemically converted into a hard film. Only the oil that has soaked in can convert; anything left sitting on the surface stays soft, then bakes into a sticky mess.

Safety

What you'll need

• A neutral high-smoke-point oil — rapeseed, sunflower or grapeseed
• Kitchen paper or a lint-free cloth
• Hot water, washing-up liquid and a scourer for the first strip
• Oven gloves and a handle cover

Step by step

1. Strip the factory coating first.New carbon steel pans come coated in beeswax or a lacquer to stop them rusting in the shop. This must come off completely or the seasoning will be blotchy. Scrub with hot water, washing-up liquid and a scourer until the water sheets off bare grey metal — this is the one time you may use detergent freely on the pan.
2. Dry it on the heat.Put the wet pan on a hob ring on medium for a couple of minutes until every trace of water has gone and the pan is warm to the hand. Bare iron rusts in minutes, and any water left under the oil will stop the film bonding.
3. Apply oil, then take it all off again.A teaspoon of neutral oil, rubbed over the whole inside, the rim and the outside with kitchen paper. Then take a fresh piece of paper and wipe it all back off as if you had made a mistake. The pan should look almost dry, with only a faint sheen. What remains in the surface is exactly the right amount.
4. Heat it until it stops smoking.On the hob, medium-high, tilting the pan to bring the sides into the heat as well. It will smoke steadily, then the smoke will thin and stop — that is the oil finishing its conversion. This takes 5–10 minutes per coat. In an oven, 220–240°C for an hour, upside down on the top shelf with a tray underneath, does the same job with less attention.
5. Let it cool and repeat three or four times.Each round adds one microscopically thin layer. The pan changes from silver to straw, to bronze, to brown. Four coats gives a working surface; it will keep darkening with use for months and get better as it does.
6. Build the rest of it by cooking.The best seasoning comes from fatty cooking, not from more seasoning sessions. Cook bacon, fry eggs in a decent film of oil, make chips. Avoid acidic and watery things for the first few weeks while the layer is young.
7. Wash it correctly afterwards, every time.Hot water and a brush or a chainmail scrubber while the pan is still warm, no soaking. A little washing-up liquid is fine on a mature seasoning and will not strip it — soaking and the dishwasher will. Dry it on the hob and wipe the faintest trace of oil over the warm surface.

Tips

• A pan is not non-stick after four coats and is not supposed to be. It becomes genuinely slippery after a few months of regular fatty cooking.
• Flaxseed oil is often recommended for a very hard, fast seasoning. It does polymerise beautifully and it also tends to flake off in sheets later. A neutral cooking oil gives a slightly softer, much more durable layer.
• Uneven colour is cosmetic and does not matter. Patchiness that is sticky to the touch does matter, and means too much oil.
• Salt and a little oil scrubbed round with kitchen paper takes off stuck-on residue without stripping the seasoning.

If it doesn't work

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