I'm struggling to season my Staub cast iron!

I came across your comment and I think that all of this is simply the result of needing to cook differently and clean up a little bit differently as well. When cooking, as has already been mentioned, it is important that enameled cast iron is properly preheated, on no higher than medium heat, For several minutes before adding oil and then adding the food. You can actually get an infrared thermometer to verify the pan is correctly preheated throughout the cooking surface, but once you do this a lot of people just use they're outstretched palm as the temperature sensor. I think that the stickiness that you are experiencing is almost exclusively from temperature and timing, but there are likely some food deposits that are being left behind which will make the surface appear dull and haven't either darker or lighter appearance than the original enameled coating. On traditional cast iron this maybe considered part of the seasoning, and on Staub it is mostly supposed to affect the appearance, but there are a couple of cleaning techniques that are tried and true for ECI. First, I always place water in almost all of my cookware are immediately after I am finished with it so that it does some work for me before I wash by hand. Most of the time, I will just empty this water and whatever food debris is left out of the pan and then I'll put the pan back on the stove with some water and a couple tablespoons of baking soda and allow it to simmer while I'm cleaning everything else up. This is an excellent, absolutely non-damaging, way of cleaning cookware that has been abused or has lots of grime around rivets and handles and hard to clean gaps and divots. I buy the great big bags of baking powder from the warehouse clubs and I probably go through at least one every few months. Second, Barkeeper's Friend will become your best friend in the kitchen, if it's not already. Make sure you keep the red and green scrubbies exclusively for your raw cast iron and stainless, because it is simply too abrasive and will permanently damage the enamel. Use Barkeeper's Friend with a non-stick friendly scrubby and your surface will clean up easier than you can currently imagine... And, the service will look like it did when it was new, instead of having a dull model appearance.

Hi Lila, thanks so much for your question. Just wanted to jump in here—because Staub cast iron is enameled, it's true that you don't need to season it like you would with traditional cast iron. Also, because this cookware doesn't have a nonstick surface, sticking can happen. We generally find that the best way to avoid sticking is to preheat the pan and be sure you've added enough fat before adding your ingredients. Curious about the interior of your cookware, though—is it chipping? If you'd like us to take a look, you're more than welcome to write [email protected]. We'll do our best to help!

If you wish to re-season your cast iron pots, I have a couple of suggestions (which are based on an instruction sheet set to me when I purchased a cast-iron skillet from Smithey Ironware Company):

(1) Preheat your oven to 450F; apply a thin sheen of oil with a high smoke point (canola, vegetable, grape seed, or even lard) to the entire surface of your cast-iron cookware; heat it in the oven for an hour, then turn off the stove and allow the cast-iron cookware to cool down.

(2) Heat your cast-iron cookware on a stovetop at high heat; once you see smoke, apply a thin sheen of oil with a high smoke point to the cooking surface with a paper towel (but be careful, as the surface will be very hot); after a few minutes, the cooking surface will darken; turn off he heat and allow the cast-iron cookware to cool down.

(3) Turn your broiler on high; apply a thin sheen of oil with a high smoke point to the cooking surface of your cast-iron cookware with a paper towel; place your cast-iron cookware under the broiler for 7-10 minutes or until the cookware darkens; remove carefully and allow to cool down.

Be sure that when you clean your cast-iron cookware, you use warm soapy water (not a dishwasher); then dry it. You can at this point, if you wish, put a thin sheen of oil with a high smoke point to the surface.