I am always surprised that no one in these threads seems to mention Pam or other equivalent cooking sprays. A million years ago, before these sprays existed, I worked in a little bakery where we brushed a homemade oil-and-lecithin mixture onto our tinned-steel loaf pans and it worked beautifully to eject the baked loaf spotlessly with a tap and a twist. The pans weren’t usually washed because the lecithin built up and became impressively non-stick. These sprays are basically the same thing.
I just counted that I have 9 cast iron pans and use the spray to maintain the seasoning on all of them. In regular use, they get a good spray to start, then oil added if I’m frying. After cooking, if I’ve had to scrub off something I’ve burned or if I’ve cooked liquid and the seasoning is dull not shiny, the pan gets another good spray and wiped down before storage. Otherwise just a rinse. With a new pan or an old pan that’s being rescued, you can get the seasoning started with the spray and some warm-ovening, for as many cycles as you want to build up the finish.
Overall this has been as low-maintenance and effective as I think you can get and keeps all my cast iron in frequent rotation. I had tried many of the oil techniques before and they never worked as well.
Interesting, I have been thinking about trying the lecithin oil mixture myself. If you remember still, could you please share how much of lecithin to what amount of oil should be added? I dont want to use the ready sprays myself.
It was literally over 40 years ago, so the best I can remember, it was a couple of tablespoons or so of liquid lecithin in a quart mason jar of safflower oil. I’d start your experiments there. I’d probably use peanut oil these days. It definitely was a thicker coat than you’d end up with using a spray.
Allright thanks for digging that deep into your brains! Lets see if I’ll find some liquid lecithin, I know there is that granule stuff in the shops nearby. Sadly I havent seen peanut oil in anywhere here, could order that too online though.
I’m basically done seasonig my pans, I dont see it worth the hassle and smoking the house. So I just use them, wash with mild detergent when necessary and perhaps oil a bit after, or no. They are doing ok this way, but I’ve been interested about the leicthin oil mix thing indeed. Wonder if its near regular butters performance?
Our method includes using grape seed oil and turning the pans face down against a low gas flame for 20 mins when the pans need some attention. We use the avocado oil spray btwn deeper cleans. Never touches water. Salt to clean and vinegar to strip and reseason reconditioning iron finds at flea markets.
Ok, sounds good. In case I’d season still I would likely use the gas grill outside in similar manner. The lecithin oil mixture I just thought to try as a cooking fat, to see if its more nonstick than regular oil, or if it could rival the performance of butter.
Grill or fire pit works equally well. We use grape seed because we cook w it rather than buy yet another high point oil. We have never used butter or Crisco for seasoning iron.
My best seasoned cast iron is the Dutch oven I use for baking bread. I spray it before each use, using a pump spray rather than aerosol. It has a lovely glossy black finish. But the major lesson here is to just USE the cookware for everyday cooking, using substantial oil. Wipe clean/dry after use. I find warm water okay but not detergent water. I dry on stovetop, using another light film of oil or spray.
I had the same problem with my DeBuyer mineral pan. Seasoned it with the potato and salt method. It looked like hell and everything stuck. Then I tried several layers of sunflower oil in the oven. It looked immaculate and shiny. But the first time I cooked in it, the seasoning came off. So I just said to hell with it and kept cooking in it. It still looks like hell but it has become more and more nonstick.
Yes, carbon steel and cast iron benefit from different seasoning methods and oils. Both pans are composed primarily of iron. And Ironically, carbon steel pans actually have slightly more iron. Cast iron pans are more porous, and so benefit from a more saturated/viscous oil like Crisco, lard, avocado oil, etc. The fat/oil sinks in to the pan’s pores more and it is easier to build up coats of seasoning. Carbon steel pans are more polished and smooth, and thus much less porous. Any seasoning tends to sit on the surface where it is more vulnerable to being stripped off. That’s why it’s better to just season carbon steel pans with unsaturated oils and just cook in them. It takes longer to build up any seasoning.
I finally bought the lecithin, powdered sunflower lecithin to be more specific. It works wonders for nonstick performance indeed apparently. I have just added a bit of it straight to a stainless or cast iron skillet after adding oil as it mixes quite easily with a spatula. Salmon don’t adhere to the pan at all and eggs are gliding too, effective stuff. See how it effects the cast iron seasoning in the long run
IMHO, this is a bourgeois problem, “Back when”, pans were used daily with animal fats. No detergents, so fats built up on pans. Ergo -> seasoning. A new pan was a rare occasion but soon built up a coating.
Today we meticulously follow manufacturers’ instructions on how to quickly build up this coating. Best, again, IMHO, is just use it frequently/continuously for frying with any fats , wiping it clean as possible and WASHING IT VERY GENTLY IN WATER ONLY, drying stovetop, until a finish develops.
I found a tube of Camp Chef cast iron conditioner in the pantry that I bought a while back and forgot about. Primary ingredient is palm oil, along with some others. It seems to help better and faster than any of the myriad different oils/fats I’ve used in general, with my Debuyer skillet especially it seems to be working better and more quickly than it otherwise had been. It’s almost ready for the use-all-the-time rotation.
I used a combination of safflower oil and coconut oil. I used the Culinary Fanatic’s (see his youtube channel) method for cast iron. Heat oven to 200°F. Place pan in oven for 15 min. to heat it up. Remove pan, grease the pan with a light coat of oil. Wipe dry with blue shop towels. Place back in oven at 300°F for another 15 minutes. Remove pan and wipe down again (you have to wipe and smooth out the beads of oil which have started to form). Then place pan back in oven at 400°F for 1 hour, then turn off the oven and let pan cool down naturally inside oven (takes about 2 hours to cool down).
The pan looked like hell, and I was pretty despondent. I had spent so much time getting a perfect looking seasoning over several days. I didn’t know what else to try. So I gave up and just started cooking in the pans. Over the next couple of years, the pans still looked splotchy and speckled, but today they look fairly evenly dark although not perfect like a cast iron pan would.
Carbon steel does not take to seasoning as well aesthetically as cast iron. I did discover that the more animal or saturated fat you cook in carbon steel the more evenly darker it gets. These days I have to wash it less and less, sometimes just a wipe with a paper towel will do. I dry the pans by heating them up on the stove top, then putting in a small dollop of Crisco, remove from the heat, and wipe it down with a blue shop towel. Heat up again (but not till smoking) then wiping down again. The trick is to get the pan hot enough to open the metal pores for the oil, but not hot enough so that it burns the oil to the pan–which works on cast iron but not on carbon steel because it’s not as porous. I find it’s best to wipe the pan dry with a blue shop towel but still allow the pan to feel slightly greasy. Leaving it slightly greasy helps set the pan up nicely for the next use. It will be more nonstick than if you had burned oil dry on it. Cast iron pans are more forgiving when you’re cleaning and drying them than are carbon steel. You have to be more finicky and diligent with carbon steel.
I’m told that this type of carbon steel pans are shipped with a coat of wax on them. It sounds as though your many rounds of oven seasoning may have been covering up the wax (and never even touched the pan), because you didn’t mention stripping the wax off first.
I have some DeBuyer pans too. Merely warm the pan, pour a mm or two of grape seed oil then crank up the flame until the oil smokes. Pour it out and buff with a paper towel.
Sticking eggs is likely a cooking technique issue. No offense intended. A little oil with butter then the egg.
Also, I mainly use nonstick pans. They’re great. But some proteins work nicely in steel. For me…I use the right tool for the job…which is the one that produces the best results for my skills/approach.
