---
title: 'How To Cook With Cast Iron'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=79vyiI89gpc'
video_id: '79vyiI89gpc'
date: 2026-06-30
duration_sec: 741
---

# How To Cook With Cast Iron

> Source: [How To Cook With Cast Iron](https://youtube.com/watch?v=79vyiI89gpc)

## Summary

This video is a comprehensive guide to cast iron cookware, covering seasoning, cooking methods, and cleaning. It demystifies common fears, showing cast iron is durable, versatile, and easy to maintain with proper technique. The key is creating a polymerized oil layer that protects the pan and allows years of use.

### Key Points

- **What is seasoning** [00:13] — Seasoning is a protective layer of polymerized oil created by heating oil in the pan, forming a hardened, invisible layer that prevents sticking and protects the pan.
- **Soap is safe on seasoned cast iron** [00:46] — If the pan has a proper seasoning layer, you can use soap to clean it without damaging the coating.
- **Stripping a damaged pan** [01:23] — To strip a rusted or caked pan, soak it in equal parts water and white distilled vinegar for 1–2 hours, then scrub with baking soda and a metal scouring pad.
- **Best oil for seasoning** [03:41] — Organic flax seed oil is optimal because it oxidizes completely in the oven, creating a durable seasoning layer.
- **Key to preventing sticky seasoning** [04:56] — After applying oil, wipe off as much as possible; only a very thin veneer should remain to avoid a sticky finish.
- **Oven seasoning process** [05:48] — Place a sheet tray on bottom rack, set pan upside down on middle rack, start with cold oven, heat to 500°F, then bake for 1 hour.
- **Three main cooking methods** [06:03] — Use cast iron like a normal pan (searing steaks, sautéing), as an oven dish (baking cobblers, pies, pizzas), or as a shallow fryer (retains heat well).
- **Best cleaning method** [10:45] — While pan is still warm, sprinkle with salt, scrub with chain mail or metal pad, rinse with hot water, dry immediately, and heat on stove to evaporate residual moisture.

### Conclusion

Once you learn how to season, cook, and clean cast iron properly, it becomes virtually indestructible and can last for generations. The pan is far more forgiving than most people assume—just avoid boiling water and don't let acidic foods sit for long.

## Transcript

This is by far the most [music]
inexpensive, durable, multi-use tool you
can possibly buy for your kitchen, and
everybody is afraid [music] to use it.
Not anymore. This is your all-inclusive
guide for using [music] cast iron from
the beginning of seasoning to cooking
with to cleaning. This is the only guide
you'll ever need, so let's begin. Before
you start cooking, we're going to talk
about [music] seasoning. Don't get
scared. Relax.
>> [sighs]
>> What the hell is seasoning? All you're
doing is creating a protective layer of
essentially built-up polymerized oil.
That's oil that's basically just been
blasted so hard with heat into the pan
that it's created a hardened layer
that's essentially [music]
invisible to the eye, but your pan will
look matte. Number one, it prevents food
from sticking, [music] but number two,
it creates a protective layer that keeps
your pan looking like this all the time.
You can even use soap. When you have a
proper seasoning, which is that layer on
your pan, it's essentially protected for
life. Every time you cook in it, you
don't even need to re-season it usually
if you keep cooking with it because as
you cook, you increase the layer of
seasoning. Whether you have a pan that's
sitting somewhere in your kitchen that's
up and you think is unusable or
you have a brand new pan, I'm going to
show you what to do. Now, if your pan is
up and it's sitting somewhere,
maybe you're thinking about throwing
away. Maybe there's rust on it. Maybe
there's food all crumpled up on it. It
looks disgusting. [music] You can still
use it. You can fix it with what I'm
about to show you next, which is the
stripping portion. First step, you're
going to be doing something that you
might think is wrong. And well, you
know, sometimes two wrongs make a right
because this pan is also in a state of
what I would consider raw. That's going
to go into a sink, into a bowl, or some
sort of a container. We have a bathtub,
something that it'll fit in. Or you
could even plug up your sink and fill
that up. That works, too. So, you're
going to cover it with equal parts water
and white distilled vinegar. So, mix
that around. Make sure that it's
thoroughly combined, and you're going to
let that sit [music] for at least an
hour or around two hours. You don't need
to strip the pan every time. You'll only
need to strip it when it's super
up. But if you do need to re-season your
pan, simply revisit the seasoning
portion of this video. Now, after it's
soaked, we're kind of there. A lot of
the up is gone. This is
already starting to come off. So, at
this stage, you're going to sprinkle on
baking soda, which obviously is going to
react with the vinegar. And then, you
ever seen one of these? These are so
dangerous. Oh my god. Metal [music]
scouring pads. Be very careful. Maybe
wear gloves if you don't have rough and
tumble hands. Just get in there. You'll
notice that I'm scrubbing in circles.
Don't just scrub like
Think about it, right? Circles are the
best way to scrub. I don't know why.
Just scrub in little circles and trust
me, okay? You can dunk in your vinegar
mixture, scrub. Now, the point here is
to do two things. Number one, clean the
pan thoroughly, get all the out of
it. But, number two, you want to strip
the pan a little bit. The pan is going
to look a little bit more silvery than
black. And you're just going to repeat
this with your entire pan. The inside of
the pan, the walls on the inside, the
outside, the [music] bottom, the handle,
everything. Now, once that pan is
stripped, you can season it. Look at
this guy. It's looking a lot less
up, but still up. It's okay. I
know you're seeing like, "Oh my god, I
rubbed all the sort of black pan look to
it." Don't worry. It's going to come
[music] back. You're seeing a little bit
of raw cast iron in there, and that's
okay. So, we're going to wipe this out,
get it as dry as you can get it with a
towel. And you're going to see some of
that soot, some of that metal shaving on
your towel. So, I would recommend using
a tea towel that you probably don't plan
to keep after this. [music] I would only
wash it with like towels if that makes
sense. You might look at this and go,
"Oh, this is dry. You're ready to roll,
right?" It's not. Cast iron is porous.
If you put your hand here, you can
immediately see the condensation cuz
there's still water emanating in those
pores. So, to get that out completely,
we're going to take it over to the
stove, set it on medium high, explode
your kitchen also, and then you're just
going to let this sit for like a minute
or two until you don't see any more wet
spots on the pan. That just guarantees
the pan is totally [music] bone dry. You
want to do this as quickly as possible
because it will start to get a little
bit of surface rust. That's okay. We'll
wipe that off in a second. Okay, our pan
is dry. Take it back over to your linen.
Now, from here, we're going to use
organic flaxseed oil. This is the
optimal oil to use because we
essentially want it to completely
[music] oxidize in the oven. Flaxseed
oil is basically begging to oxidize.
Drizzle some of that on there and then
using a towel again, the towel that I'm
going to throw away, going to wipe
[music] the whole thing out. And you're
going to see a lot of stuff come off
your pan doing this. The oil is part of
not only the seasoning process, but the
cleaning process. You're going to get
everything. Get the handle, the inside
of the handle, get this little hangy
hook thing, the edges, [music] and the
walls of the inside of your pan. You're
going to flip it over. You're going to
do the same thing on the other side. I
want you to get not just the bottom, but
the sides of the bottom. [music] I want
you to get the underside of the hook
dangly hanging foot side and then
finally I want you to get [music] the
whole underside of the handle, the sides
of the handle, absolutely everything,
guys. So, that's not apparent. And then
you're essentially just going to wipe
off all of that oil. At this stage we
are ready. If you have a up cast
iron pan, it is now ready to be
seasoned. [music] If it wasn't this
stage, you were just ready to add in
your seasoning, now you're on to your
seasoning stage. So, we already have
applied the oil. If you want to feel
extra good about yourself, you could
always add another layer, but the key is
this is the most important part about
seasoning cast iron. Although you're
wiping the oil on, you're coating the
surface of the pan, your goal with your
towel should be to wipe off as much of
it as you can cuz it's going to leave a
very thin veneer no matter what you do
cuz it's in the crevices, in [music] the
pores of the metal. If you do not wipe
it out enough, what will happen when you
season this and I know you guys have
experienced this. My pan was sticky
after I seasoned it. That was because
there was too much oil in there. You got
to basically leave the thinnest [music]
veneer possible. Your goal should be to
basically try to wipe it all out. We are
ready to pop this in our oven. First, on
the bottom of your oven, place a sheet
tray and then directly on the rack above
that, which would be your middle rack,
you're [music] going to set your pan
overturned this way down directly over
your sheet tray. The oven's totally
cold. It's off. Close that, start
[music] it, and then you're going to set
that to 500° F. Now, once it's preheated
to 500 degrees Fahrenheit, you're then
going to leave it at 500, but the second
that they can dings and says, "I'm hot."
Set a timer for 1 hour. Now, we have a
beautifully seasoned pan. It's matte.
Nothing's feeling sticky in here. This
is ready. Now, how do we cook with this?
There are three main ways to cook with
cast iron. Number one is possibly the
most important thing, and I think most
people do not get this. It's cast iron,
you got to be really careful. My god,
might get up. Literally, just use
it like a normal pan. Obviously, it is
not a nonstick pan. You can get it close
to that, but let's not
ourselves. It's not a nonstick pan. But,
it is a cheap pan that has stainless
steel capabilities. Cook with it
normally. You can make things like
steaks in it, crab cakes. I don't know
why I went to crab cakes. I think I
really just want a crab cake right now.
Saute vegetables, make chicken thighs,
make pancakes in it. Use it like you
would use stainless steel or even a
griddle, for example, right? These are
great for things like steak. You get
your pan, set your burner to a medium
high, let that get hot, add a little bit
of oil in there, add a steak that's been
seasoned to your liking, sear for 2 to 3
minutes, flip, sear for another minute,
add in some butter, baste it if you
like, take your steak out, slice and
serve. And guess what? You would have
done the exact same thing with
stainless. It's just cast iron. If
anything, you could beat this up even
more. You could use different tools that
you maybe don't want to use in your nice
stainless. The second way, this doubles
as your oven's best friend as well as
serveware. You can [music] serve your
guests with this pan cuz it looks cool,
looks nice, right? You can bake things
in this like cobblers, like pies, like
pizzas. And it can go in and out of your
oven constantly with very minimal
cleaning. But, the most important thing
is because it's so
heavy and thick, it doesn't heat up as
quickly as stainless steel. I wouldn't
make a pie in a stainless steel pan. You
could, but frankly, you risk burning
because the metal is so thin and the
crust ends up burning. But, this can
handle all of your favorite baked goods.
And when you serve this with a bubbling
mac and cheese or a bubbling cobbler
[music] in the center of a table, I
mean, it looks nice. You could give
someone a metal spoon and they can
they can do this all they want. This pan
is almost indestructible and it still
looks nice. So, for example, with a
cobbler, you would take a cold pan, you
don't need to set it on the stove, add
whatever fruit you want to [music] add,
sugars, spices, etc. Toss it together,
macerate it, top it with whatever drop
biscuit dough you want, and bake it. It
is the easiest dessert, but look how
beautiful this is. You set that on a
table, put a big fat scoop of vanilla
ice cream, and let it melt, let people
scrape at that, they're going to be
happy. And all of a sudden they're going
to be like, "Man, I should get [music]
my cast iron seasoned." Yeah, you
should, Sally. I know you're using your
oven as a storage space and you're
leaving it there, and I know it stinks a
little. And number three, the final
thing. This isn't just a pan, this is
also a fryer, right? A shallow fryer or
a deep fryer. In this case, it would be
a shallow fryer cuz it's pan, but if you
get a pot version, it becomes a deep
fryer. It's [music] the perfect thing
for deep frying because when you drop in
your fried foods in this pan, for
example, you're making a chicken cutlet
or chicken katsu, that oil temperature
is going to retain heat much better than
it would in stainless steel because of
all of the heat that's retained [music]
in the pan itself. Baking and frying are
the two things that cast iron does that
stainless steel can do, but actually not
as well. And that's hard for me to
admit, but it's true. For example, add
in just enough vegetable oil to fill it
up halfway, we heated it until 350° F,
we have a beautiful breaded chicken
cutlet that goes in and fries for about
4 to 6 minutes until it's crispy, golden
brown, and cooked throughout. Then you
just set it down, maybe serve it with a
little bit of katsu sauce and Kewpie
mayo, some fresh green onion, and guess
what? This is actually the easiest
method to clean because you just toss
your oil as you usually would, and then
just give it a little wipe, maybe a
little bit of hot water in there, that's
done. The point in frying is the oil
[music] goes in, you heat the oil to a
specific temperature, you put the food
in until it's done. That's it. It's
amazing. But Josh, what are all the
things I'm not supposed to cook in a
cast iron pan? Everybody told me I
should never put tomatoes in a cast iron
pan, or it will literally turn into a
demonic void that unleashes the
hellscape that's been residing in the
center hot magma of the earth and it
will take over the rest of the world
mineral engineer AI to compete against
me and my work. That's a fair concern
these days. You can put acidic foods in
them, it's fine. Just be aware that the
longer [music] that they sit in there
the more likely they'll start to have
kind of an iron flavor. Don't let them
sit in there for too long. Don't let the
pan cool down [music] and then spoon it
out of there. The point is get it in,
get it out of the pan as quickly as you
can. Try to avoid too many acidic
ingredients. The one thing that I don't
love using cast iron for and I really
would advise not using it for is just
boiling water. It's really not great for
it. I'd rather you go get a cheap
aluminum pot that you keep to the side
for pasta and just [music] boiling water
stuff in general. I don't think that
this is the right pan for boiling any
kind of water. So don't do that. And
then the third and final thing and this
is not a no-no zone, it's more of just
like a
it's not my first pick is really really
really delicate high-fat fish. Yes, you
can blacken fish in this really nicely,
but if the fish is something that will
fall apart in the pan, I would opt for
frying that fish in this pan like
breading and frying and shallow frying
or deep frying or doing some sort of a
blackening where there's a lot of oil in
the pan. Not a no-no, you just need to
be super aware of how you use it. So the
best way to clean this pan is while
[music] it's still warm or hot. So
usually what I do is first I have my hot
pan that I've just finished cooking this
steak in. First you'll sprinkle the pan
with a generous amount of salt, scrub
that with chain mail or a metal scouring
pad, remove [music] any stuck-on debris,
then take it to your sink, add in some
hot water, scrub aggressively. Don't use
[music] any plastic to clean this while
it's this hot cuz the plastic will melt.
Rinse it out with water and it's good as
new. Once that's done, you need to dry
it immediately and completely with a
towel [music] and then if you're going
to take it a step further, I would
recommend that you set it over a medium
or low heat burner until all [music] of
the liquid has been evaporated off the
pan even after wiping it down cuz
sometimes it gets stuck in the pores.
That's it. It's 10,000 [music]
times easier to scrub off any
particulate matter that's stuck to it.
If the pan is ripping ripping, ripping
hot, just be cautious adding water
that's too cold because you can [music]
crack the pan sometimes if you
completely submerge it in ice cold
water. A lot of people over-obsessed
with oh, you do this, don't do this.
Cast iron pans are essentially
indestructible. Unless you manage to
find a way to crack one in half, it's
likely still usable. You just got to
learn how to fix it. And once you learn
how to use [music] cast iron, it will
last not only the rest of your life, but
your children's life, their lives, etc.,
etc., etc. Do we have a study yet on
when cast iron runs out? I don't think
society is old enough yet. I'm not a
history buff, guys. If I'm wrong here,
just just leave me alone. Subscribe.
Love you so much. Bye.