So basically , the iron gets manufactured very rough . There are microscopic grooves , pits , and ridges that all make the surface of the pan very uneven and sticky . When you put food on it to cook , even if you use oil , butter , or other fat , the food still sticks to these irregularities and makes it hard to get off . On top of that , it makes cast iron a bitch and a half to clean . Seasoning adds a layer between the metal of the pan and the food which fills in the grooves and makes the pan as workable as your standard nonstick pan . But with cast iron , all you need to make it non stick is to season it . The seasoning process is just basically taking some amount of fat , like vegetable oil or bacon grease , and coating the pan in it . You then stick it into an oven and get it screaming smoking hot . At this temperature , the fat youve applied undergoes a chemical change which turns it into a polymer . Thats all really fancy language for it makes it nonstick . Once cooled , you can take the pan and do whatever you want to it , and itll work good as teflon . The advantage of the cast iron is that theyre super hard to ruin . With a teflon or ceramic pan , once the nonstick layer starts to wear off it can flake off into food or otherwise become a nuisance , added to the fact that the pan is no longer completely non stick . Plus , if you abuse the nonstick pans they can quickly become useless . Not with cast iron . Unless you crack the thing , you can always wash it down to the iron , reseason it , and then its as good as new . Its the kind of thing you can pass down from generation to generation .