Seasoning is to prevent rust -- it does not make the pan nonstick. Put one coat of high smoke point oil (such as grapeseed), bring it up to the smoke point, and you are done. Just cook in it, its a tool not a museum piece.
Question about seasoning a carbon steel pan
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Michi
I dislike attempts to rewrite history
Ditto.
Tritto. (Is that a word? Anyway, you know what I mean... me too.)
foodnoobie
Active Member
I finally seasoned my pan and did the best i could. The bottom of the pan is very smooth. But the edge of the pan has some areas that feels a bit sticky. I think perhaps i didn't wipe it enough after pouring out the oil. Is this a problem?
I will only use it to cook eggs and i only cook eggs on the bottom of the pan. So as far as food sticking, the sticky parts on the edge in the middle/higher up of the pan shouldn't matter. But i don't know if it will harden and flake off into my food. Should i scrub it off with vinegar and re-season the edge? If that's possible. Or should i try to remove the entire seasoning and start over?
Thanks for all the great advice!
I will only use it to cook eggs and i only cook eggs on the bottom of the pan. So as far as food sticking, the sticky parts on the edge in the middle/higher up of the pan shouldn't matter. But i don't know if it will harden and flake off into my food. Should i scrub it off with vinegar and re-season the edge? If that's possible. Or should i try to remove the entire seasoning and start over?
Thanks for all the great advice!
boomchakabowwow
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the sides build up on my from "splatter". i dont let it get into my head.
enjoy!!
enjoy!!
I've been chasing a really non-stick coating on mine to get more consistent french style omelets. After an initial seasoning my usual process is that I heat up the pan to just smoking, add the oil I need to cook, take it off the heat and let it cool down a little but not cold, add eggs. Using metal spatulas also help dislodge any small spots that still stick. Its not foolproof but heat control seems to be the secret for me.
foodnoobie
Active Member
Is there a benefit to heating up the pan that much before adding oil? I do that when i cook steaks on a stainless steel pan, but when i try to add butter in a very hot stainless steel pan, it's very prone to burning the butter. I personally don't like to cook eggs with oil. They soak all the oil up and i end up with incredibly high calorie eggs which don't help my weight goals.
So for my carbon steel pan, i just put butter in a cold pan, let the butter melt and then immediately put in my eggs.
Not sure if this is bad or not. This is how i used to cook eggs in my teflon pan when i still used them. They did stick a bit in some places, but that's probably due to the seasoning being only 1 layer and the butter amount being at an absolute minimum.
Dan-
Senior Member
Doubling down on being wrong, eh?
If it is sticky on the sides from your base coating it will just get worse and worse. You're correct that it means the layer was too thick to start.
I would re-do it if it were mine. Doing it now will be easier than months from now.
I would re-do it if it were mine. Doing it now will be easier than months from now.
foodnoobie
Active Member
Should i just get some vinegar water mix on a sponge and scrub the hell out of the sides and then apply a very thin coating on just the side and heat it up?
Or you suggest starting over from scratch completely, removing the entire seasoning?
I've stripped a carbon steel pan before and, if you have it, bar keepers friend really does the trick with some elbow grease. I have a cleaning brush that attaches to cordless drill and I use that with the BKF.
It seems to work but it could be just as effective to add oil at room temperature and bring it up to temp. I remember seeing it as a method on maybe reddit years ago and I haven't had any problems with it so I haven't tried much else.
I have found that perfect non-stick 'slidey' eggs on carbon steel is difficult to achieve every time but its never so sticky that I have to soak or scrub the pan afterwards. It seems like a few mm sized spots still stick every once in a while.
boomchakabowwow
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i've filled a pan with water, and wiped it with 200 grit wet/dry sandpaper. the nuclear option for sure.
most days, i just put it into the BBQ oven when i am preheating for a cookout, and burn it down some. it shakes out like soot.
like @Tea_Hills states. eggs are fickle. i can get slip slidy eggs and serve them up. then use the same pan for the next batch and they stick.
Yea it can be a pain. I've moved away from teflon non-stick and I was cooking at a friends house who had a fresh non-stick pan. Boy did I forget how easy it is
shopshopshop
Well-Known Member
my weird egg-and-carbon steel thing is that it seems to not stick really well if i use cooking spray rather than straight up oil or butter or whatever. no idea why.
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I wonder whether cast iron is somehow better than carbon steel in achieving a non-stick surface (eventually). My much-used small cast iron pan never has eggs stick on it, and my new nubbly aluminum omelette pan, which I conditioned in the same way I would the others, is getting closer with each use.
Michi
I dislike attempts to rewrite history
That makes no sense at all. I'm can't wait to try it
The sticky section is probably partially polymerised oil. The sides of the pan are usually the last to smoke off. This is more likely if the oil layer is thick. A thinner coat is much easier to manage. I usually wipe a thin layer of oil on the (cold) pan with a paper towel.
Having said that, if the seasoning on the base is OK, it may just be a case of needing more heat on the sides. You could leave it on for longer but the pan will get pretty hot, which may make warping a possibility in thinner pans. Or you could move and tilt the pan so that the part that needs the heat is over the flame.
If you somehow got a thicker layer of oil on the sides than on the base, it may be best to start over. I'd probably try dishwashing detergent in the first instance but acidic abrasives like BKF would probably work better if it was troublesome to remove.
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Heat is important. The pan needs to be hot enough to istantly vapourise the water in the part of the egg in immediate contact with it. This forms a transient cushion of steam between the pan and the egg in the second or two that the proteins in that part of the egg denature. The proteins can then form a crust without the denatured proteins wrapping around the microscopic irregularities in the pan. The seasoning fills in many of these irregularities, but not all. You still need a hot pan.
How hot? Hot enough that a drop of water doesn't immediately vapourise but instead jumps around the pan. Search "Leidenfrost effct" on your favourite video app. Once the egg is in, you can turn the heat down.
You can rub off the sides with some steel wool. It doesn’t take the seasoning all the way down unless it is the first coat.
Let the butter melt and wait until it stops bubbling. This is how you gage the temp for eggs…
I can get a pretty good nonstick seasoning layer in both cast iron and carbon steel pans, but the seasoning in carbon steel always seems to be more difficult to maintain.
foodnoobie
Active Member
Thanks everyone! I have 1 last question.
When i put some butter in my carbon steel pan that i seasoned, almost immediately i start to see smoke, even on very low heat. I wonder if this smoke comes from the butter melting, or because of the seasoned coating of the pan. It's strange because it is on low heat, so it's not like the temperature is hotter than the smoke point of the oil in liquid form. Not sure if this smoke is dangerous or not, but not sure what i can do about it either or if it's normal.
When i put some butter in my carbon steel pan that i seasoned, almost immediately i start to see smoke, even on very low heat. I wonder if this smoke comes from the butter melting, or because of the seasoned coating of the pan. It's strange because it is on low heat, so it's not like the temperature is hotter than the smoke point of the oil in liquid form. Not sure if this smoke is dangerous or not, but not sure what i can do about it either or if it's normal.
MrHiggins
Senior Member
Probably steam? Butter has plenty of water in it.
Is your butter immediatly burning? Then your pan is too hot for butter and I guess it could be smoke.
foodnoobie
Active Member
No i put the cold butter in a pan on low heat. The pan isnt hot at all. But it starts to smoke very fast. I thought maybe it has to do with the seasoning of the pan? But i don't know, this is the first time i use carbon steel. Maybe it will go away on its own unless it is steam.
Michi
I dislike attempts to rewrite history
Does it smoke before you put in the butter? If not, it’s not the seasoning.
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What the previous few posters said!
With one addition; what are you trying to cook/fry? for most stuff frying using butter means you need some oil too to prevent the butter from burning straight away.
Watch some YT stuff, well known chefs frying up whatever it is you are trying to do and you should be able to compare how your pan is doing....too hot butter burns, too cold frying does not happen, and anything in between. You need to feel your way around things for a bit and it'll become less daunting real quick.
With one addition; what are you trying to cook/fry? for most stuff frying using butter means you need some oil too to prevent the butter from burning straight away.
Watch some YT stuff, well known chefs frying up whatever it is you are trying to do and you should be able to compare how your pan is doing....too hot butter burns, too cold frying does not happen, and anything in between. You need to feel your way around things for a bit and it'll become less daunting real quick.
Probably steam, unless you see the smoke before the butter melts.
To use butter though, put some oil in the pan, just enough for it to cover the surface of the pan. Heat pan. Drop the butter in before you put the food in and allow it to mostly melt. Then put your food in.
P.S. It takes a lot of heat to burn clarified butter. Regular butter burns easily.
sumis
Senior Member
ghee.
.
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