this step. 3) Place a sheet pan with a lip on the bottom rack of the oven. 4) place the casts iron on the middle rack. Place a tablespoon of vegetable shortening in the centre of the piece. 5) When the cast iron is warm enough to melt the shortening, but not too hot to handle, remove from the oven and rub the shortening all over the pan -- including the outside, bottom and handles using a paper towel. 6) Put the cast iron back in the oven, upside down. If left right-side up, excess fat could pool in the bottom and polymerize during the long cure time. This would produce a coating reminiscent of plastic lamination, which is one of the toughest substances on earth. 7) Turn the oven off after one hour and allow the cast iron to cure in the oven until cool. 8) When the cast iron is cool to the touch, wipe off any excess fat and store. To clean cast iron, he recommends adding a little coarse salt and cooking oil into the pan when it is still warm from cooking and scrubbing it. When finished dump the salt, wipe clean, and store the piece. Sep 18, 2012 6:10 PM Sheila Keenan says... Another reason to cook with cast iron: it's a source of dietary iron. Sep 18, 2012 5:56 PM Tiffany says... I just picked up some green pans at a huge discount from cookworks to replace the bad Teflon ones we had