Metal cookware such as cast-iron, stainless steel or carbon steel pots or skillets, woks, bread pans, cookie sheets, and muffin tins

Wooden utensils such as spoons, spatulas, and cutting boards (and even the handles of good kitchen knives, if you're very keen on this)

1-5 teaspoons (5-25 ml) of any vegetable oil (excepting safflower and corn oil, which are too sticky when dry)

1 teaspoon (5 ml) of mineral oil

Metal: 5 minutes to wash and dry, and 30 minutes baking in the oven

Wood: 5 minutes to wash and dry, and 5 minutes to season.

2torial #0842: Learn2 Season Cookware Care for a slice of Cajun cast iron?   Did you leave half the scrambled eggs burnt to the bottom of the pan? Maybe you needed a hammer and chisel to get the cookies off the baking pan. Perhaps it's time to season your cookware. It has nothing to do with flavor--rather, it's the process of developing a natural non-stick finish on metal cookware and baking utensils. Also known as tempering, this simple procedure saves you some scrubbing of burned pots and pans, protects the utensil against the damaging effects of moisture, and protects the food from picking up any metallic flavors. There's also a kind of seasoning that develops with wooden utensils like spoons, spatulas, and cutting boards. Seasoning wooden items will protect the wood from drying, warping, and cracking.     Especially if the utensil is new, give it a thorough cleaning before you season it. For metal utensils, use hot water and a small amount of mild dishwashing soap with a stiff brush. This will remove any nasty compounds that may be hanging around from the production line. In another case, a particularly messy cooking job will require you to scrub down the utensil with hot water and a brush. Although this is sometimes necessary, you've just removed any protective coating that was laid on the utensil. But on the bright side, you now have the perfect opportunity to reseason the utensil, having returned it to a fairly pristine state. When to hold the seasoning: Utensils coated with non-stick surfaces (like Teflon or some versions of Caphalon) don't need to be seasoned. Be very careful, however, with non-stick utensils as you cook with and clean them. Any scratch in the surface can result in the absorption of toxic chemicals (from the non-stick surface) into your food. So clean these without soap or a brush: simply rinse with water and wipe the surface with a kitchen cloth or paper towel.     Part 1