I don’t think we mean to hate and we like to provide suggestion for seasoning. It is just that in my opinion, you should try the easiest method first, before moving to the more complicated one. I used all kind of seasoning method, so I am not burned out from the conversations.
By the way, if you are like smooth surface cookware, and non-telfon, then why not carbon steel cookware?
Is carbon steel easier to season?
Jammie,
Carbon steel cookware is quite easy to season. They have a smooth surface. Carbon steel cookware are easier to season than the rough surface cast iron cookware. However, the rough cast iron cookware also retain the reasoning layer a little better.
Put it this way, it usually takes me a few sessions to season a cast iron cookware to make it nonstick. However, you can make a carbon steel cookware nonstick in one seasoning application. If you want a smooth surface cookware and easy to season (one session), then carbon steel is the way to go.
Thanks for the endorsement of carbon steel! I don’t cook w/high heat too often & use my Chambers broiler plate for such, but sometimes a screaming hot skillet is the ticket.
Just use Crisco and not a mix. Unless you have a food allergy that prevents the use of Crisco it will work the best. Have been using cast iron for 40 or 50 years and this always works great. We switched to flax seed because of soy allergy that my wife has at it was not near as good. All of my cast iron is non stick. Just wipe a little oil of any kind on the pan after use and after seasoned and it will be good forever.
I’m with Chem on this. Your seasoning surface will eventually be whatever oil you cook with, so the primary purpose of the initial base is to provide high adhesion. I season with Crisco, and then cook with olive oil, coconut oil, and avocado oil. Among others.
The only cast iron I use any more is Lodge’s combo fryer which is inverted for baking bread, and it’s just as smooth as my four carbon steel pans. But the rough surface of the cast iron sure held the initial seasoning better than any of my carbon steel pans.
I have a cast iron pan that I use for getting a nice browning on vegetables or meat, or to heat up pizza. I don’t really care it it’s non-stick, I like it for the intense heat I can get. I don’t know what bumpy means in this context.
I have a carbon steel wok for fried rice and vegetables. I don’t consider it non-stick.
I wash both of these with soap and an SOS scrubby. Then warm them up, swipe at bit of oil around, heat a little more and that’s it. I don’t know if that is considered seasoning.
I like the idea of using Crisco, it seems sort of logical.
Edited to add: I use soap to clean my pans because if I fried onions or fish or something previously, I really don’t want my potatoes or Brussels sprouts to smell like last night’s dinner.
If you thoroughly clean it, then it is probably not seasoned. A seasoned carbon steel or cast iron cookware should very deep brown or black. (on the other hand, just being black does not mean it is seasoned).
I’ve had it less than a year, and don’t really use it often. It’s heavy!
I think it’s getting there, though? (And don’t make fun of my dirty stove, the housekeeper is coming tomorrow.)
Late to the discussion, but my 2 cents: I’ve used flax seed to re-season, use pans daily/ weekly in rotation, depending on what we’re cooking: no problems with flaking or sticking. I wonder how those who report flaking and sticking are using and maintaining their pans. The flax (or baked on Crisco or grapeseed, whatever) is just a base. You want to be adding seasoning to that base layer every time you cook. If you’re using soap and a scrubby after you cook, you’re subtracting your top layer of seasoning, not adding to it. So your pan never gets a chance to build up from the base. Soap’s not the only thing that cleans a surface. Oil will clean a pan! Let it cool after use, then wipe the residual oil down with a clean paper towel, distributing it all over the pan (front, sides and back, handle too) if there’s enough oil. If bits of food won’t come off with wiping, mix a little kosher salt with the oil and wipe it out. If it still sticks, a little water (not cold) on your pan, heated up will practically float off any residue. Then dump the water, dry it on low heat and oil your pan before you put it away for next time. Keep using your pan and oiling it afterwards with whatever you cooked with. Any kind of oil or combo that suits your recipe is fine and will contribute to a nice non stick surface that gets better with time. My skillets don’t stick or flake and all have a slick, glassy black surface.
One tip: after stripping and re-seasoning, the first thing I cook to give the pan a blackened, super slick non-stick surface is green onions in peanut oil. The chemicals and salts in the onions carbonize and enhance non stick properties. (You cook the onions to a blackened char and then throw them away, you don’t actually eat them). Heat your freshly seasoned pan on medium high until a drop of water on the surface vaporizes instantly. Add peanut oil and a bunch of green onions chopped into one inch pieces. Cook them to a char (10-20 minutes) moving them around aggressively with a metal spatula, scraping and pressing the charred onions into the surface and sides of the pan with the spatula. You’re done when they’ve burned away to a crisp. Your pan’s surface will acquire a nice even black tone in the process. Let the onion remnants and oil cool, then dump the onions and most of the oil, and wipe your pan all over with any remaining oil. Your pan will be super slick and have that coveted jet black color. Then go ahead and cook with it, making sure you wipe your pan clean with whatever oil or butter you used after it’s cooled enough to handle.
I bought a Debuyer carbon steel skillet, followed the potato-skins-and-water boil to start seasoning, and the darn thing has continued to stick. Reading this thread has motivated me to go back to working on it once I find it again (got fed up and put it away in the Pot Cabinet From Hell a couple of years ago).
i hope this isn’t considered a threadjack, but is seasoning carbon steel any different from cast iron? I don’t have a problem with any of my cast iron, and I have a lot of it- bought new and used, cheap to pricey.
Years ago someone on Chowhound wrote that the stains you get on your baking utensils are what you want for seasoning your cookware, and these stains are formed at 350 degrees F. That’s how I seasoned my Debuyer skillet (coating with a THIN layer of cooking oil and baking for an hour), although I repeated it two or three times. It’s well seasoned, cooks well, although I always put some oil or butter in it when I use it.
Thank you- I’ll try that. I just washed it, it was pretty dusty, I’ll try this.
Hope it works!
Well, I tried what you said, when I brought it out of the oven, it looked absolutely awful.
Only thing is, some foods and ingredients can take the seasoning right off. A couple of weeks ago I made a braised fennel recipe that calls for a tablespoon of vinegar at the end. After that I had to re-season the pan.
Yep. Don’t let the look fools you. The proof is in the pudding. That being said, based on the photo, I say it is still lean a little on under-seasoned. As time go on, let’s hope it turn a bit darker and harder.
I agree, Chem, and won’t fry any more eggs on it for a while, the last one stuck in a couple of spots, and and underneath the stuck spots was shiny new pan… DH won’t use it, and I don’t blame him with all the brouhaha over the last year or two, I’ll continue to cook things on it that I know won’t stick, and hope for more seasoning of it. It’s a very sexy pan, as pans go.
Thanks for that, bcc, Noted!
I think most of us oldies grew up with it, before the fabulous array of oils that we have access to these days. I haven’t bought a little can of butter flavor crisco in years, but that doesn’t mean I won’t next time I go to the store, now that you’ve reminded me of it.
