 This is a how-to video for the ultimate method of seasoning cast iron. Originally by Cheryl Cantor and featured by America's Test Kitchen, her blog post goes into the science of what makes the perfect finish on your cast iron. All you need is a piece of cast iron cookware, an oven that can go to about 500 degrees Fahrenheit and ideally have a self-clean feature, and most importantly, flax seed oil. So I just ruined the bottom of this pan. It used to be really nice but now it's had some stuff cooked on it, kind of screwed it up. Decided I'm just going to redo the whole thing from new again. I just scrubbed it out with some SOS pads and just went to town on it, making sure I could get all the bumpies and cooked off bits off the bottom. Kind of needed it. It was in pretty bad shape from months and months of use. Over here you can kind of see what it used to be like. It was in a lot better shape before it had some good finish on it but now I've gotten it personally down. I'm going to show you what to do to strip it and redo everything from the ground up. First off we put the pan in the oven upside down. Like that. What you're going to do is you're going to run it through the clean process so it's a good time to clean the oven as well. So then what we do clean and start. And that's pretty much it. Now we just wait for it to go through the entire cleaning process and cook the crap out of the oven and that will also strip down the pan back down to its base. All right time is up and look at that. That is all done. Looks like there is a little bit of residue in there. Still pretty hot. I want to see if I can rub that out in the sink. Just probably just get a clean cloth or something brush off some of that scum that's cooked on the bottom there. You can see a little bit of rust and actually I think most of that is like super hyper cooked oil from the old finish on there. But let's start oiling that up. What you need is flaxseed oil. Just some of the stuff. Same type of thing you would get it. It's usually sort of sold as a health supplement. So you might not see it in the cooking area. This is to give you a omega 3S. That's what you want on this. I don't like to use paper towels. I'm just using a old cut up t-shirt here because paper towels leave little fluff bits on it that just not quite as good. So just a little bit in there. Just sit back there. Get the rag. Let's start slathering it on there. Just want a nice even coat everywhere. This first application will be absorbed really quick now that all the pores are open. Yeah, man. It's got these. Top of this good nice and hot soil. I don't want to leave anything on there. That's it. Now it goes back into the oven. Just to get rid of this. Make sure everything's nice and even in there and we will bake it at the highest temp that your oven can go. Mine I believe is 500. That's it. This will go in for an hour to cook. An hour to bring it up to temperature. Then an hour to cool off. And here is the first coat. Already nice and black instead of that gray we had before but still very rough. So let's oil it back up again. You want to keep adding more coats until the oil starts to be up when you wipe it across the surface. This usually takes 6 to 8 coats of oil. Avoid getting bits of lint or shreds of paper towel left on the cast iron. If you do it will become part of the finish in the next round in the oven and will leave permanent bumps in the overall finish. I like to do the coats back to back so the oven stays relatively warm. It saves a little electricity or gas if you have a gas stove. Just be careful not to burn yourself on the pan. Because this takes 6 to 8 passes, usually we have to do it over a couple days. That's why it really helps to have a oven you can set a timer for so it'll shut off after an hour. It starts getting late at night like this. You can just set it and then go to bed. Not all oils are created equal. You need an oil that's high in Omega 3 fatty acids. When you heat these up they polymerize and bond to the metal giving you that non-stick surface. Flax seed oil is the highest count of Omega 3 fatty acids that is food safe. Many people use it as an Omega 3 supplement so look forward to the supplement or health food section of your local market. I'm not sure if you can see this but how it's starting to beat up instead of soaking into the pores. That's a sign that we're pretty much done here. I'm just starting to get the oil to beat up on the top instead of soaking. That's when your finish is good to go. We'll just finish this last one up and that's it. At the end of this process you'll have such a strong finish that it would survive a pass in the dishwasher. I still like to baby mine and keep the finish up but an occasional dab of soap every cell often will not strip the finish. That's it. Have fun cooking on your heat retaining natural non-stick cookware. I guess I better put my money where my mouth is and show that it works too. So now we get this nice crisp looking pan. Everything is all just that stuff is not coming off that is just cooked on there. The oil was starting to beat up just looks indestructible now. I'm afraid they're going to shake apart but if they were flipped over so loose on top let's see really bad at this. Oh that one's on my loose. There we go. Now his friend needs a little bit of help. There we go. Ready for another round really. A little bit of stickingness on there that cleans right up. I mean it came off with a plastic spatula. So that's pretty much it. All you have to do now is keep up with it. When you clean it just boil some water in it real quick don't let it boil away. Just bring some water up to a boil. Scrub it out with a plastic brillo pad or just a regular green scrubby brillo pad. Anything that's not still warm and clean it up. Put a little oil in it before you cook each time to re-season it and it'll be good to go. I like to heat up till it gets just shimmery and spread the new layer of oil inside. That's it. Throw it in back and it's ready to cook for next time.