Every time you heat cooking oil or fat in your Field Skillet or Dutch oven, you make your pan’s natural non-stick cooking surface stronger and more resilient. Whether you’re a first-time cast iron cook or an experienced collector, it’s best to break in a new skillet with a few seasoning-friendly dishes. Think of these dishes as a starting point for a lifetime of cast iron cooking.
How Simple Dishes Help Build Cast Iron Seasoning
First things first: preheat your skillet. Heating your pan for a few minutes over a low to medium burner will help make sure food doesn’t stick to the cooking surface. In your pan’s early life, it’s also a good idea to use a little extra cooking oil or fat, especially if you’re planning to cook proteins.
Seared, sautéed and roasted vegetables are great place to start; veggies won’t stick to your cooking surface like fatty proteins, and are easy to spread out over the entire cooking surface, helping build seasoning evenly. Let’s dig in:
Start with Vegetables
Any seared, sautéed, or pan-roasted vegetable recipe is a great place to start breaking in your skillet. Vegetables won’t stick to your cooking surface like fatty proteins, and are easy to spread out over the entire cooking surface, helping to build even seasoning.
