frying pans

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:21 AM -0600 2/18/04, Page Stephens wrote:
>  Out of sheer curiosity does anyone out there know how to properly season a
>cast iron skillet or for that matter any other cast iron cooker like a Dutch
>oven?
>
>It takes a little knowledge or you end up with everything sticking to the
>pan since they cannot be used off the shelf.
>
>If you do it right, however, the implement will work like a charm and who
>needs Teflon.
>...
>Never, and I say never did we allow a drop of water or for that matter oil
>touch those sacred pans which I assume Glenn is still using.
>
Well, this is a bit off-topic, but while it's standard wisdom to
avoid soap and water (much less dishwashers) in cleaning one's
cast-iron skillets/pans, I've never heard of avoiding oil.  I season
them with oil.  In fact, I don't see how I would use one without "a
drop of...oil", since I usually cook with oil in them.  (They are
great used dry, though, for such tasks as roasting spices.)

So I'll bite--how do you season them without oil?

larry