Seasoning Your Rome Pie Iron

How To Season and Prepare Your Rome Pie Irons & Cast Iron Cookware For Use

Rome Pie Irons and cast iron cookware are not pre-seasoned. When you season your Pie Iron it not only helps prevent oxidation, but helps food from sticking to the iron.

Our pie irons are cast with natural cast iron and the only thing we add is a
light coating of paraffin wax on the iron to protect it from rusting while on the store shelf and in transit to you.

As our pie irons have steel and wood rods attached to the casting*, seasoning needs to be done outside on a BBQ, Firepit or campfire.  

1) Remove the wax coating:
After buying your pie iron you’ll want to remove the paraffin wax by melting it off or scrubbing with hot water. We feel the easiest way is to melt it off on a BBQ grill or over a campfire/firepit.  After melting of wax, wipe clean with a paper towel

2) Season the iron
Next you’ll need to season the cast iron. This will both protect it from easily rusting and also help develop a surface that over time and use will become almost a non-stick surface.

You season our irons with a high heat oil (not low burn oils such as olive) as one would season a cast iron skillet. Canola oil is probably the most popular choice for sessoning, however we love the cast iron Pie Iron seasoning oil that Lovett Sundries makes for us. It’s a blend of coconut oil, castor oil & flax seed (available for sale on pieiron.com.) We also sell their conditioning oil which is great for continuing care and cleaning up rust.

Season by coating the castings, inside and out the oil.  Place on a grill or campfire, heat at a moderate temperature for 15 minutes. Wipe out the inside with a paper towel, re-coat and heat again. After heating the second lime, remove from fire/heat source and wipe out any excess oil with a paper towel.  Do not season on the stovetop or oven.

Continuing Care:
After use, clean out any chunks with a brush or sponge. You may wash out with water, but dry after doing so as leaving water on the pie iron will promote oxidation. Expect cast iron to become darker with repeated usage; this shows that it is becoming well seasoned. If you’re going to leave the pie iron unused for a long period of time, it does not hurt to add a little drop of oil on the iron (rubbed on with a paper towel.)  

If you develop any rusting from storage or leaving out in the elements, it generally a surface rust that can easily be removed by clean off with a brush (we sell a great Tawashi brush from Japan for cleaning cast iron) and re-seasoning. We also have a conditioning oil blend that is great for cleaning up rust spots. It's like our seasoning oil, but has thick pieces of salt mixed in.

We hope you enjoy your Rome cast iron cookware!

*The waffle irons (#1028, #1100), Jaffle Pie Irons (#1105, #1205) and #1305 Panini Press either have removable rods/handles or a cast in metal handle so they would be suitable for seasoning in an oven. If using an oven place tin foil on the rack below the irons. Also, note, that the paraffin wax can be smoky when melting off so if you have the ability to season outside that is still preferable.

Here's a short video we put together with seasoning tips: