The Care and Feeding of Cast Iron: Cleaning and Seasoning Cast Iron Cookware

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Grease the iron on all surfaces fairly heavily and set it in the flames. When a good coating of soot has been deposited on the bottom, turn the piece and brush the sooty surface with more shortening. Be sure to use a natural fiber brush for this because synthetics will melt. When the topside, now facing the flames, has accumulated a sufficient layer of soot, turn the piece again and grease the sooty surface. Two or three turnings should complete the job. Remove the iron from the fire and let it cool.

Now comes the messy part. Liberally grease paper towels and use them to wipe off the iron. Lots of loose soot will come off, so you'll need plenty of towels. Try not to reapply this loose surface soot to the ware. Keep wiping with greased paper towels, periodically shifting to a clean spot, until most of the heavy soot is removed.

Your iron should new have a deep black finish, which normally only comes with months of use. What you've done is fill in all of the pores and voids in the iron, creating a smooth nonstick surface. The black finish will now help to absorb and hold heat evenly.

You can use the iron right away or clean it to remove any additional surface soot. We usually clean ours, so as not to transfer any soot to the kitchen stove. But should you choose to skip this step, the first cooking job will finish the cure, and no additional loose soot will appear unless you use the piece on an open fire.

PROPERLY CLEANING CAST IRON

Proper cleaning of cast iron is the secret to maintaining the cure. So let's repeat once more: Do not use soap on cured cast iron. Ever! All you need is hot water (the hotter the better) and a scrub brush.

Once again, use straight hot water from the tap or water you've heated in camp. If outdoors, pour a small amount (a cup or two is all it takes) in the iron and use the scrub brush to vigorously scour all surfaces. Rinse the surface with more hot water. Indoors, merely let the hot water flow over the iron as you scrub it with the brush. If you are concerned about sterilization, pour boiling water into and over the iron after you have brushed it. But frankly, we don't consider this necessary: If the iron has been cured properly, it will not harbor pathogens.

Immediately dry the iron, then coat it with a thin film of shortening. This replaces any you have lost through cooking and cleaning and further prevents rust.

Iron that's been used on an open fire will always have loose soot on the outside. Rather than dirtying the scrub brush, we use one of those plastic scouring pads instead. We keep a few reserved solely for this purpose, to avoid transferring soot to other cleaning products. And we first wipe the ironware with greasy paper towels to remove most of the loose soot.

Depending on what it's used for, cast iron often doesn't have to be cleaned at all. We have friends who reserve one skillet strictly for making cornbread. When the skillet comes out of the oven, they turn the bread onto a rack to cool. The skillet is merely given a wipe with a paper towel, and a new film of shortening is applied. Very often, you can use the same approach even for foods cooked on the top of the range. The idea is to make sure nothing but a thin film of grease is left behind.

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