How to Season a Made In Carbon Steel Pan

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A Made In carbon steel pan arrives pre-seasoned with shea nut and coconut oil, so you do not strip it. Wash it in warm soapy water, dry it on the hob, then build your own layers by cooking fatty food and adding thin oil rounds as needed. Treat the factory layer as a head start, not a finished surface.

Do not strip a Made In pan

This is the key difference from most carbon steel pans and it is easy to get wrong.

A raw pan like the Matfer ships coated in beeswax that must be scrubbed off completely before anything else. Made In does not. The company states it has already applied the first two seasonings using shea nut oil and coconut oil.

Scrub that off and you have thrown away work that was done for you.

Wash it, dry it, cook in it.

First use

1. Wash in warm soapy water. Removes packing residue. Do not scour.
2. Dry on the hob over low heat until no moisture remains.
3. Preheat two to three minutes on medium. Test with water: it should bead and skate rather than hiss.
4. Add oil, then food. Something fatty. Bacon is ideal.
5. Clean while warm, dry on the hob, wipe on thin oil.

That is the whole first-use routine. The pan will still stick somewhat. Two factory layers is not a mature patina.

Building on the factory layer

Cook fatty food for the first few weeks. Every fatty cook adds seasoning.

If you want to speed it up, run two or three deliberate rounds: half a teaspoon of neutral oil, wiped back until the pan looks dry, heated until it smokes steadily for two minutes. Method in how to season a carbon steel pan.

Keep acid out entirely until the surface darkens. Made In pans arrive light and turn black over weeks.

A caveat worth knowing before you buy

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Made In’s own published customer reviews carry an overall 4.7 from 11,316 reviews, which is strong. Within those reviews there is a recurring complaint that the factory seasoning wears through or peels sooner than buyers expect, some of it photographed, occasionally within two months.

That is not a reason to avoid the pan. It is a reason to treat the pre-seasoning as a starting layer and build your own on top from day one rather than relying on what came in the box.

If the factory layer does peel, it is not a defect you cannot fix. Scrub the loose material back, reseason that area, carry on. Detail in how to reseason a carbon steel pan.

Specifications

See the Made In 10 inch or compare it against nine others in our frying pan guide.

Frequently asked questions

Specifications from Made In product listing, checked 22 July 2026.