New to Cast Iron and Carbon Steel and need help.

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drchrisdvm2009

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Hi everyone! I'm brand new here, but hoping to learn lots. I've been browsing the forums for a while until I was approved to post, and have read most things about Cast iron and carbon steel, but everything sounds awesome on paper, but when I go to translate it to my actual pans, I seem to suck.

I bought 2 Prep'D skillet's in cast iron and seasoned with an oven method 6 times using canola oil. I went to cook a steak on it the first time and half the seasoning just flaked off. I stripped and then re-seasoned with Flax oil, again with the oven method, 6 additional times. Cooked a chicken dish on the cast iron over medium heat on an induction stove, and again, 3/4 of the seasoning just flaked off. It has never become smooth, to where an egg would slide around and I'm just frustrated with it. It has a nice black patina, but still not smooth. I've been using this nearly daily for the past 3 months, and I'm not sure what to do with these.

I then went and got 3 Misen carbon steel pans. Seasoned with the oven method with their proprietary wax. 5 seasonings, and it looked good for a few days, still not non-stick, but decent. Until I cooked a chicken parm, and the entire seasoning flaked off.

What am I doing wrong? In the past 1/3 of a year, I have pans that food just sticks and I am getting discouraged with cooking. I took some pictures of the carbon steel pans post cooking, and one of the cast iron.
 

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I’m not a kitchen chef so .....

I do have a 12” carbon debuyer pan that took the better part of a year to season. I really like it but in my trial and error experience I think maybe your trying to work with too many NEW carbon steel pans.

My pan seemed to get progressively better over time if it was warmed up FIRST and had a good layer of oil.

In my experience, I would just really work with one pan first getting a good season and learning the pan/cooks
 
For the carbon, instead of the oven, try the stove top, potato peel and salt technique. It is what matfer borgeat recommends for their new ones and it gives a nice start.
 
Looks like you have some hot spots on the pans. Is your stove electric or gas? Try warming it up a bit slower and if electric, I am not sure you want the elements red hot. Get a laser read thermometer to get the surface temp and when it hits about 350 for cooking. Also make sure you have enough oil for the amount of food you are cooking. One more thing, if you are making sauces in the pan and getting it to hot, the liquid will remove some seasoning, on carbon steel, it really won’t matter much, but sucks on cast iron.. at least in my experience.
 
For cast iron, I burn off any pre-seasoning and give it 3-5 extremely thing seasoning applications using Crisco. I do it all outside on the gasser so I don't smoke up the house.

Many other methods work too. My buddy leaves the pre-seasoning and uses bacon grease to build his up.
 
rm41400 said:
I’m not a kitchen chef so .....

My pan seemed to get progressively better over time if it was warmed up FIRST and had a good layer of oil.
Click to expand...

This is spot on, for all pans. To help with non-stick, heat up the pan first, no oil. Once the pan is up to temp add your oil. Once the oil heats up, then add your food. This is the preferred method for any pan (cast iron, stainless, non-stick coated) to help keep food from sticking and for best performance.
 
For the best/easiest/fastest/most fool proof way to season a cast iron pan is to bake a batch of skillet corn bread. Not sure abot CS. Plus you get a tasty treat along the way.
 
I've come to prefer my steel pan over cast, it has a better shape and is half the weight. My steel pan looks blotchy like yours but is still mostly non stick, Frankly, no matter the seasoning of any pan, without oil stuff will stick...and cooking with a sauce, especially tomato will strip some of the seasoning.
When I'm done cooking I just lightly clean the pan , spray with pam or rub a dab of oil over the surface, bring the pan to smoke point and wipe "dry", Thats it, They're not teflon and never will be, but works for how I use them.
 
Day 1
Cook a pound of bacon-remove bacon and eat- let pan with dripping cool
Rub a dab of bacon grease all over skillet
Place pan with drippings in fridge.
Day 2
Remove skillet from fridge
Heat pan pour off drippings into container
Cook 1# of bacon-remove bacon and eat- let pan with drippings cool
Rub a dab of bacon grease all over skillet
Repeat, repeat 5-7 days in a row

Bluedawg
Every day for a week-every week for a month-every month for a year

Use the skillet

You’ll have lots of bacon, plenty of bacon grease and should have a “good” skillet
 
16Adams said:
Day 1
Cook a pound of bacon-remove bacon and eat- let pan with dripping cool
Rub a dab of bacon grease all over skillet
Place pan with drippings in fridge.
Day 2
Remove skillet from fridge
Heat pan pour off drippings into container
Cook 1# of bacon-remove bacon and eat- let pan with drippings cool
Rub a dab of bacon grease all over skillet
Repeat, repeat 5-7 days in a row

Bluedawg
Every day for a week-every week for a month-every month for a year

Use the skillet

You’ll have lots of bacon, plenty of bacon grease and should have a “good” skillet
Click to expand...


Im curious as to the point of putting it in the fridge?
 
My doctor would email me if she even thought I was doing this:

Day 1
Cook a pound of bacon-remove bacon and eat- let pan with dripping cool
Rub a dab of bacon grease all over skillet
Place pan with drippings in fridge.
Day 2
Remove skillet from fridge
Heat pan pour off drippings into container
Cook 1# of bacon-remove bacon and eat- let pan with drippings cool
Rub a dab of bacon grease all over skillet
Repeat, repeat 5-7 days in a row

Now to test that theory....I got pans, I got bacon -what's the worst that could happen?
 
One of the problems I ran into when seasoning my CS pans was I was leaving too much oil when burning-in.

The key was to wipe pan until it looked almost dry, then heat oil past smoke point, let completely cool, then repeat multiple times.

It is counter-intuitive but what may be happening with the seasoning process is thicker coats of seasoning can / will create sticky surface. Happened to me even though it looked black and slick after 5 coats.
 
After I clean my pan, I add a small amount of oil and spread it all over with a paper towel. I then get a couple of clean paper towels and wipe the oil out. It leaves a very thin film. It's like oiling a gun, you never get all the grease out unless you use soap or burn it off. The very thin layers seem to last better than thick coats.
 
musicmanj said:
This is spot on, for all pans. To help with non-stick, heat up the pan first, no oil. Once the pan is up to temp add your oil. Once the oil heats up, then add your food. This is the preferred method for any pan (cast iron, stainless, non-stick coated) to help keep food from sticking and for best performance.
Click to expand...

I learned a long time ago from a cooking show:

Hot pan, cold oil, food won't stick.

It does seem to work.
 
Definitely hot pan, cold oil. My carbon steel wok continuously sheds and replaces the darker “seasoning” bits. Over time they build a good surface. Takes time, and don’t worry about the spotty look with steel seasoning.
Clean both pans while still quite warm with hot water and a light scrub, NO soap ever. The cast iron I’ll only use a flat wood spoon along with hot water and some coarse salt to clean. Heat back up to remove the water and reseason very lightly with oil before storage.
 
Thank you so much for the replies! I'll answer questions or add comments as I read them.

1) RM41400 - We have 4 adults and 3 children that we are cooking for, that's why we are using so many pans at once. :) i wish i could do only one pan at a time. Dang hungry mouths.
2) Hawklaw - I'll try the stovetop/potato/salt method and see if that makes it work.
3) BBQ-Lover - This is an induction stovetop that we are using. New Thermador Freedom, and it "should" be super even heating, but it does warm up FAST. I'll try the laser temperature and start at 350.
4) MusicmaNJ - Thanks for the tip, I'll try heating pan, then oil, then food.
5) scp - this sounds like a fun tip and a tasty one at that. if the potato and salt doesn't do it, I'm definitely using this corn bread method. :)
6) 16Adams - I love the idea of the bacon. Plus its just delicious. I'm going to do this too.
7) Brimclau - I think we may have been doing too thick of a coating. I've been doing the layers super thin, almost to where the pan looks dry prior to heating.
8) BigAndy - Thanks! I'm definitely working on thinner and thinner layers. But oiling a g-u-n? Aren't those bad words these days? lol! I love cleaning and oiling my guns.
9) JLems - Wooden spoon - got it. We clean when still hot/warm and never any soap. Thanks!

You guys are amazing! Thanks for helping out a newbie.


Chris
 
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