IRONHEARTH
Cast iron, cared for — seasoning, cooking, and reviving a good skillet.
From sizing a seasoning coat and scheduling the oven to converting a skillet size into servings, timing a preheat, planning a rust removal, and scaling a recipe to your pan, IronHearth pairs free hands-on calculators with practical guides and a richly illustrated museum. Cook with confidence, season with care.
Cast Iron Calculators
Free tools for cast-iron care and cooking — seasoning oil calculator, seasoning oven temp & time calculator, skillet size to servings calculator, preheat time calculator, rust removal planner, and recipe scaling calculator.
Seasoning Oil Amount Calculator
Work out how much oil a thin, even seasoning coat actually needs from your pan's diameter and wall height, in millilitres, teaspoons, and tablespoons
Seasoning Oven Temp & Time Calculator
Get an oven temperature just below your oil's smoke point, plus a bake-and-cool schedule for however many coats you're building
Skillet Size to Servings Calculator
Convert a skillet's diameter into a realistic serving count for a one-pan skillet meal, based on the pan's actual cooking-surface area
Skillet Preheat Time Calculator
Estimate how many minutes it takes to bring a pan of a given weight up to searing temperature on gas, electric, or induction
Rust Removal Planner
Turn a rust severity and method into a soak time, scrub-pass count, and the seasoning coats you'll need afterward
Recipe Scaling Calculator
Scale ingredient quantities by desired servings, or by the change in cooking-surface area when you move a recipe to a different skillet size
Museum of Cast Iron & Hearth Cooking
Wander an immersive, richly illustrated collection — cast-iron skillets and their makers, the Dutch ovens that traveled from open hearths to modern stovetops, the woks of high-heat East Asian cooking, and the long history of hearth cooking itself, each in its own gallery. Every entry, image, and fact is drawn from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.
Tour the museum →From the Journal
Practical guides on seasoning, cleaning, rust care, and getting the most out of a skillet or Dutch oven — reading to pair with the calculators above.
How to Season a Cast Iron Skillet From Scratch
A step-by-step method for building a durable, non-stick seasoning layer on a new or stripped cast-iron skillet, from choosing an oil to the final cool-down.
Why Food Sticks to Cast Iron (And How to Fix It)
The most common reasons eggs, fish, and pancakes stick to a cast-iron pan, and the practical fixes for each one — heat, oil, patience, and seasoning quality.
The Right Way to Clean Cast Iron After Cooking
A practical cleaning routine for cast iron that protects the seasoning instead of stripping it — when soap is fine, when to reach for salt, and how to dry it properly.
How to Remove Rust From a Cast Iron Pan
A practical guide to identifying rust severity and choosing between a vinegar soak, a salt scrub, or electrolysis to bring a rusted cast-iron pan back to life.
Cast Iron vs Carbon Steel vs Enameled Cast Iron: Choosing the Right Pan
A practical comparison of bare cast iron, carbon steel, and enameled cast iron — weight, heat retention, maintenance, cost, and which jobs each one handles best.
Getting a Real Sear on Cast Iron
Why a proper sear depends on pan temperature, moisture, and patience more than the pan itself, with worked preheat times and a routine for steak, chicken, and vegetables.
Keep Learning
Plain-language explainers on the material science of cast iron, the cookware built from it, cooking technique, and the makers and history behind it all — everything you need to go deeper with confidence.
Visit the Learn hub →