Choosing a skillet and getting it ready

Size: a 10 to 12 inch skillet fits two steaks or a family's worth of potatoes. A 12 inch pan is heavy (around 8 pounds), so pick the 10 inch if lifting is a concern.
Before buying, set the pan on a flat counter and press each edge: it should not rock. Check the rim and handle for cracks, which cannot be repaired.
Buy pre-seasoned. New pans come with a factory coat, so you can cook the day it arrives.
A helper handle (the small loop opposite the main handle) makes a heavy pan much easier to lift with two hands.
Before every cook, heat the pan gradually: 5 to 6 minutes over medium to medium-high is typical.
Test the heat with a few drops of water. When they sizzle and skitter away, add a thin film of oil and start cooking.

An empty black seasoned cast iron skillet heating on a clay wood-fired stove with flames underneath — A seasoned skillet preheating over a wood fire

Where people take it next

Dutch oven cookingA heavy lidded pot for stews, braises, chili and crusty bread, going from stovetop to oven in one piece.

Start here

Cook one braise this week: brown the meat in the Dutch oven on the stove, add the liquid, put the lid on and let a 300°F oven do the rest for a few hours.

Oven Beef Stew (Lodge Cast Iron)

Cast iron restorationStripping rust and old buildup off neglected pans and seasoning them back to a usable, black finish.

Start here

Pick up one cheap, crusty skillet at a thrift store or yard sale, then strip it, take off the rust and season it back to black.

Stripping & Cleaning (Cast Iron Collector)

Cast iron cookware collectingHunting vintage pans by maker and mark, which leans on the same restoration skills to clean up what you find.

Start here

Before you buy, learn to read the marks on the bottom of a pan (maker, logo and size number) so you can tell a collectible piece from a common one and spot reproductions.

Trademarks & Logos (Cast Iron Collector)

Open a card for its first step. Dutch oven cooking adds the pot to your kit; restoration and collecting share one add-on with the stripping supplies and safety gear.

Going deeper on restoration

Using Electrolysis (Cast Iron Collector) In-depth guide to building an electrolysis tank, including the hydrogen gas it gives off.

Two thick steaks searing in a black cast iron skillet with smoke rising against a dark background

Your first week with the pan

Unbox, preheat, sear, clean, oil

The first recipe, from the pan maker

How to Sear a Steak in Cast Iron (Lodge Cast Iron) A 1.5-inch steak seared 2 minutes a side, then 4 minutes in a 350°F oven; needs a high smoke point oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Fresh items: the steak, plus butter, garlic and a sprig of thyme or rosemary if you want to baste.

What you can cook in your first month

Seared steak

The classic first test of a hot pan, and it teaches you how long a proper preheat takes on your stove.

Skillet potatoes

Diced raw potatoes fried in oil until crisp outside and tender inside, a forgiving way to practice heat control.

Pan-roasted chicken thighs

Skin side down until crisp, then into the oven until the thermometer reads 165°F.

Smash burgers

Ground beef pressed thin on a very hot pan, which shows off the crust cast iron can build.

A fresh oven seasoning coat

One thin layer baked on at 450 to 500°F, so you know how to touch up the pan when it gets patchy.

Seasoning and everyday care

Bacon frying in a black cast iron skillet on a metal grate over an open campfire — Bacon frying in a skillet over a campfire

Seasoning is oil baked into a hard, slick layer. Every cook with fat adds to it, so a pan you use often maintains itself.
Use a neutral, high smoke point oil (canola, vegetable oil or shortening). Butter and unrefined olive oil burn at searing heat.
To touch up a patchy pan: wipe on a very thin coat of oil inside and out, then wipe it off again as if you made a mistake. Too much oil bakes into a sticky film.
Bake it upside down at 450 to 500°F for an hour with a baking sheet on the rack below to catch drips, and let it cool in the oven.
Simmering acidic foods (tomato sauce, wine, vinegar) for a long time strips seasoning and can taste metallic; keep it short until the pan is well seasoned.
Keep it out of the dishwasher and out of the sink overnight. Water left on bare iron turns to rust within hours.

Seasoning steps, from the pan maker

How to Season Cast Iron (Lodge Cast Iron) The maker's free oven-seasoning steps and everyday cleaning advice.

Staying safe with hot iron and stripping chemicals

Handles get as hot as the pan, on the stove as well as in the oven. Grab a cast iron handle only with a handle cover or oven mitt, and keep the handle turned in from the edge of the stove.
Searing and oven seasoning both make smoke. Run the range hood or open windows before you start, and expect the smoke alarm to complain if you don't.
Don't run cold water into a very hot pan. The sudden temperature change can crack cast iron.
Skip the self-cleaning oven cycle as a way to strip old pans. It runs far hotter than seasoning needs and can warp or crack a pan, especially a thin vintage one.
Lye-based oven cleaner (sodium hydroxide) burns skin and can blind. Wear chemical-resistant gloves and splash goggles, work outdoors or somewhere well ventilated, and store bagged pans and the can where children and pets cannot reach them.
Electrolysis tanks (a battery charger, washing soda and a steel plate in a tub of water) give off flammable hydrogen gas. Run them outdoors only, away from sparks, flames and cigarettes, and unplug the charger before you touch the clamps.

A well-used black cast iron skillet on a stovetop toasting seeds, with a knitted cover slipped over its handle — A skillet on the stove with a cover on its handle

Stripping old pans safely

Stripping & Cleaning (Cast Iron Collector) Free collector reference on oven-cleaner stripping, vinegar rust removal and why to skip the self-cleaning oven.

What trips beginners up

Eggs and fish will stick for the first few weeks.

That is the thin factory seasoning, not your technique.

Uneven browning.

On a small burner the middle of a 12 inch pan runs much hotter than the edge, so give it the full preheat and move food around.

Blotchy or brownish patches on a new pan are normal and even out with cooking.

They are not dirt to scrub off.

The pan is heavy.

Decide where it will land (a cold burner works) before you open the oven door.

Panicking over rust or a flake of seasoning.

A spot of rust scrubs off with the chain mail and a fresh coat of oil, and the pan is fine.

Three old rusty cast iron skillets and an oval griddle hanging on a log-cabin wall, one with a star cast into it

Where to learn more

Makers, marks and old iron

Cast Iron Collector answers most questions about odd pans, stripping and maker marks, and its forum is active. The WAGS association is the place to go once you start identifying and dating vintage pieces.

Collector references

What the kit covers

The base kit is one pre-seasoned skillet plus the things that keep you safe and the pan in shape: handle protection, a scrubber that won't hurt the seasoning, and an oil that works for both searing and seasoning. The salt, pepper and garlic powder make it the shopping list for the first steak recipe too. The Dutch oven is the only extra for braising, and the restoration add-on holds the chemical-stripping and rust-removal supplies, with the safety gear that goes with them.

Overhead view of a rib roast in a bare cast iron Dutch oven beside a knife, onions, garlic and spices on a dark table — A roast in a cast iron Dutch oven

Stock the stovetop

Every line below is something you buy online, and the seasonings are the shelf-stable half of the Lodge steak recipe. The Dutch oven and the restoration supplies stay out until you switch on their add-ons. Clicking a card selects it in the kit, and clicking the selected card again takes that line out.

Pre-seasoned cast iron skillet (10 to 12 inch)

Essential · Core equipment

The one pan the whole hobby is built on; it sears, fries and bakes, and moves from stovetop to oven.

budget

Lodge Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet, PFAS-Free, 10.25 Inches

4.6(87.5K)

$24.90

Cast Iron Cooking

Choosing a skillet and getting it ready

Where people take it next

Your first week with the pan

Seasoning and everyday care

Staying safe with hot iron and stripping chemicals

What trips beginners up

Where to learn more

What the kit covers

Stock the stovetop

Pre-seasoned cast iron skillet (10 to 12 inch)

Silicone skillet handle cover

Heat-resistant oven mitts

Stainless chain mail scrubber

Canola oil (high smoke point)

Kosher salt

Ground black pepper

Garlic powder

Instant-read meat thermometer

Plastic pan scrapers

Stainless steel flat-edge spatula

Cast iron Dutch oven (5 quart)

Lye-based heavy-duty oven cleaner

Chemical-resistant gloves

Chemical splash goggles

Heavy-duty contractor trash bags

Distilled white vinegar