How to season cast iron, and why ours arrives ready
Seasoning is a layer of polymerized oil bonded to the iron. It's what makes a pan non-stick and keeps it from rusting. Building it is simple, and most instructions online make it more complicated than it is.
Wipe a very thin layer of a high-smoke-point oil on the whole pan, inside and out. Then wipe it off as if you made a mistake; what's left is enough. Bake upside down at 450 to 500°F for an hour. Let it cool in the oven. Repeat two or three times. Thin layers are the entire secret; thick layers go sticky.
We do this three times with flaxseed oil before the skillet ships, in a batch oven at 500°F. Flaxseed polymerizes hard and gives a dark, even base coat. It's a little more brittle than other oils, which is why we tell you to cook with it right away: the first dozen meals, especially anything fatty, build the layer that lasts.
After that, maintenance is the one-minute version: rinse hot, dry on the burner, wipe on a drop of oil. The pan will get darker and slicker every month. That's the plan.