hi my name is andrew and today i'd like to show you how to season and care for your cast iron cookware there are a number of reasons that some people prefer to use cast iron cookware the first of which is that it has superior cooking quality so it heats very evenly and it retains its heat very well which is going to give you better tasting food as a result second of all it is less expensive than other comparably high quality types of cookware sometimes by five times as much and lastly it really will last forever if you just take basic care of it which is what i'm showing you today before you start cooking with cast iron it has to be seasoned seasoning your cookware creates a non-stick surface and protects the metal from rust it's really easy to season your cookware it's a simple process of coating the metal in oil or fat and heating it so that the pores in the metal open up and the oil fills the pores creating a smooth black surface now here i've got a bayou classic 14 inch square griddle i've left this side unseasoned so it looks just like it would straight out of the box and you'll notice that it has a gray sort of silvery color to it and uh it's not real shiny now the other side i've actually already seasoned and you'll notice that it doesn't look the same it's black it's a little bit shinier the surface is much smoother which you might not be able to see but i promise that this side of the griddle is much smoother than the side and you can see the difference in color which is what you're going for before you start you want to make sure that your cast iron is good and clean so you want to wash it in hot soapy water the next thing you want to do is preheat your oven to about 250 to 350 degrees fahrenheit it's not an exact science but you want to get it hot enough to open up the pores in the metal and allow that oil or fat to soak into those pores now you're ready to take cookware and you're going to give it a generous coating of oil or fat and what i've got here is actually vegetable shortening because that's what byu classic recommends and i'm also will be seasoning this bayou classic two quart dutch oven so i'm gonna take my vegetable shortening i'm just going to use a little napkin so that it's a little easier to spread and i'm just going to spread it all over the surface of the metal and make sure that i get it entirely so as you can see i've got the inside of my dutch oven thoroughly coated with vegetable shortening and now i'm going to put it in the oven for about two hours and i'm going to place it in there upside down i've got a tray underneath it to catch any drips and in about two hours i'm going to take it out so it's been about two hours i've taken my cast iron out of the oven and i'm just going to give it a wipe with a little paper towel and make sure there's not any excess oil left just sitting in there now now we're ready to cook and once you've cooked and eaten and you're ready to clean up it's really easy but you want to remember not to use soap because that's going to break down that seasoned surface that you just created so use hot water sponge or brush and if things are really stuck on you can put some water in there and get that water boiling on top of the stove it should loosen up any really stuck on bits of food um so once i've done that i like to put it on the stove and heat it up to just to get the water to evaporate and get it real nice and dry and then i put another little thin coat of vegetable oil onto the pot that layer of vegetable oil is just going to help to keep up that level of seasoning and make sure that your pan is ready to go next time you're ready to use it it's going to prevent rust so i would recommend doing that so those are the basics of taking care of your cast iron cookware it's really easy and the extra work pays off with really great food thank you for watching i hope you enjoyed it