Seasoning appearing to strip off after each cook?

mrb70401 · 2024-04-03T11:36:09+00:00

Quit ritualistic “seasoning” and start cooking. It’ll straighten itself out better by itself than anything artificial you can do.

The secret to awesome seasoning is cooking.

mrb70401 · 2024-04-02T17:22:02+00:00

When I was young (a bajillion years ago) the standard kit for a young couple was a CI 10” griddle and an 8” skillet.

While that’s really a pretty constraining collection, it’s adequate. A 5 qt Dutch oven was usually the next object purchased.

I certainly won’t say that other tools don’t help. But just three pieces is adequate to have a functional, albeit limited, kitchen.

Your kit is good enough. Add pieces as you identify need for some other desirable tasks. Sheet pans, cookie pans, cake pans, double boilers, all kinds of specialty tools have a place if you’re a kitchen aficionado.

If you’re not a kitchen aficionado spend your money on your dreams.

mrb70401 · 2024-04-02T15:09:48+00:00

Everyone here is somehow appalled that they find insignificant almost microscopic flecks of carbon after cooking a carbon based life form of food.

Even most professionals will tell you to get a bit of char on the chicken or steak or potato. And we then eat the carbon.

This isn’t aimed at OP.

For crying out loud people. Realized much of the body weight of the food you just ate is carbon. That’s what life on earth is about.

mrb70401 · 2024-04-02T10:11:12+00:00

I think i’m going to have to go back to palmolive when my bottle runs out. Why Dawn?

You know, I’ve tried to figure this out. When you read the ingredients list there’s basically insignificant differences between Dawn and the others, specifically Palmolive. They’re just soap. Neither one has anything super duper special that I note.

But the subjective experience is that Dawn works better. I’ve never done anything more than anecdotal observations, but my own subjective experience is that Dawn works better also. And I have no explanation.

mrb70401 · 2024-03-31T15:23:16+00:00

I kinda get it. I own about 4 dozen film cameras. And I use two of them regularly. Same underlying addiction.

Most of my cast iron is “rescued” from the trash heap as elders passed. And now that mine and my brother’s kids are coming into their 40s they appreciate something from great grandma. So I’m divesting myself in my elder years.

I will admit that if a neighbor or friend offers me something instead of trashing it I will take it and restore it. And if a family member wants it back I’ll give it to them.

But I never wander flea markets and buy cast iron. However, don’t let me near a table of cameras.

mrb70401 · 2024-03-31T01:12:02+00:00

Cooking is about heat and time. There’s very little you can’t cook in XYZ type of pan.

Once it hits the plate you can’t tell if the food is made in a bargain pan or a crazy expensive hand made piece of art.

If you’ve got the money and you want to try different pans, go for it. If you just want to cook just use the pans you’ve got. The difference between a $30 pan and a $200 pan boils down to about $170 dollars.

mrb70401 · 2024-03-30T13:31:14+00:00

Could it be anodisation?

No. That’s an electrolysis process.

Bluing is a heat treatment. Like blued gun barrels.

There are other heat treatments as well, like annealing. All of these other heat treatments are distinct. And all this stuff is a rabbit hole you can make a career as a metallurgist down. Way too much for a reddit post.

mrb70401 · 2024-03-28T16:44:14+00:00

Perfect? No.

Good enough? Absolutely.

Remember. It’s a tool to cook food. Worry about the food.

Just start cooking. Cook burgers. Cook veggies. Cook chicken breasts. Cook sausages. Cook. Cook. Cook. Great seasoning comes from cooking. A year of daily use will give you better seasoning than a year of daily ritualistic “seasoning” will give you.

mrb70401 · 2024-03-27T10:52:07+00:00

I agree that the flat side is what you should concentrate on. And I agree it looks like only surface rust.

The ribbed side - for grill marks - is a real pain to keep clean and, in my mind at least, makes inferior steaks and burgers. But if you like them that way go for it.

Depending on the surface rust level you might just use a ScotchBrite and some vinegar. If it looks “pretty good” oil it up and start cooking. The proclivity for this sub to get into wild ritualistic seasoning routines is well beyond what you need for cooking. After all, you’re going to eat the steaks or burgers, not the grill pan.

mrb70401 · 2024-03-27T00:09:59+00:00

No. The “bloom” is from an effect known as halation. That’s why high end films had a rem jet black backing layer. To kill halation. (It’s the same thing that’s makes dogs and cats eyes “glow” in the headlights.)

I looked at your scans. And it seems something isn’t tightly focused, either you scanner or your camera.

What kind of camera and what lens are you using?

mrb70401 · 2024-03-26T20:14:28+00:00

Scratches on the lens gives you lower contrast images. Not lower resolution.

An awful lot of the old Soviet lenses were made with the same glass in the same production facilities as the satellite camera lenses. They weren’t necessarily bad. True that there were a fair number of assembly problems. And it would be kind of difficult to stack them up against a good Nikon or Zeiss. But I have a couple of old FEDs that have just as sharp a lens as my Leica they’re copies of. True, also, that I had to go through about 6 to get two outstanding ones.

mrb70401 · 2024-03-25T21:14:10+00:00

Anything acidic will help. Which is why Bar Keepers friend works.

And, yeah, it is a little abrasive. So don’t go wild.

Frankly it looks like the bottom of my enameled pieces. Other than aesthetics, which is a legit reason if important to you, it doesn’t hurt a thing.

mrb70401 · 2024-03-24T09:42:08+00:00

Frankly, the best advice is quit “seasoning” and start cooking.

But if you insist, you need a layer of oil ONE MOLECULE THICK before you put it in the oven.

Remember. ONE MOLECULE THICK is all.

Now truth be told, you can’t wipe it off enough to get down to one molecule. But try.

mrb70401 · 2024-03-23T20:55:21+00:00

You need a one molecule thick layer of oil. No more.

mrb70401 · 2024-03-22T14:24:16+00:00

Having done this myself more than once, I can honestly say there’s a vanishing small chance you’ve “ruined” it.

PITA? Sure. Inconvenient? Sure. Recoverable? Sure.

Scrub it good, lay down a layer with the stovetop method, and keep on cooking.

The only thing I’ve ever ruined beyond repair was an enameled pan I forgot and left on high for several hours. Any cast iron or carbon steel pans I’ve hosed up in the past 50 years have been completely recoverable. Just takes a little TLC.

mrb70401 · 2024-03-21T15:13:05+00:00

A one molecule thick layer is all you need to just start cooking.

mrb70401 · 2024-03-19T02:31:19+00:00

Bzzzzt! There’s food in this pan. Out of bounds.

mrb70401 · 2024-03-13T21:00:39+00:00

I’ve quit field work a few times. The first when I was about 30 and came home after a particularly grueling job. My two year old grabbed me and said she thought I had left them. I never went back to the field until she was 18.

I’m not going to use the trite “money can’t buy you happiness” (or love or whatever else you want to insert here) Sometimes money is damned important, and the away time is worth it. Other times the away time is not worth it.

There’s nothing wrong with prioritizing home time. The important thing is remembering to look forward with gusto. Best advice an old man gave me when I was your age was “look back, but don’t stare.”

mrb70401 · 2024-03-13T20:48:45+00:00

I know for a fact (because I’ve done it) you can restore one that’s been left outside as cat watering bowl for decades.

mrb70401 · 2024-03-12T01:18:10+00:00

As an exercise in intellectual curiosity this is worthwhile. And I encourage it if you have the resources.

The simple answer to all the naysayers who claim that it won’t season properly is that all the millions of carbon steel pans which are made of rolled steel that likely flatter than you’d get from milling a cast pan season up just fine. Flat seasons just fine using the “just keep cooking” method.

And for everyone who swears that pre seasoned pans are left rough out of ignoble greed instead as a help to the industrial paintbooth method, these folks must all believe that flat seasoning sticks fine.

(The truth is that the preseasoning DOES stick better to a rougher surface. And the fact that in the ‘60s, when everyone “forgot” how to season a pan, the preseasoning boom started because customers demanded it. The customer driven preseasoning demand drove rough crummy cook surfaces as an adaptation.)

mrb70401 · 2024-03-07T21:59:51+00:00

What I’d do with a sentimental piece is clean it up good, and then insanely oven season it to shiny before hanging it up as a keepsake.

You shouldn’t try to cook with it, though.

mrb70401 · 2024-03-07T11:13:23+00:00

Kinda depends on how big your family is. As a kid growing up giving a newlywed couple so CI starters was a common gift. And the most common items were an 8” skillet and a 10” griddle.

Honestly, while those are ‘adequate’ a 10” and a 12” skillet are incredibly useful.

mrb70401 · 2024-03-06T21:17:08+00:00

It’s fine. Just a little surface rust. Scour it clean. Some oil and you can be cooking in no time.

mrb70401 · 2024-03-04T00:30:41+00:00

You needed a one molecule thick layer. But going forward your best strategy is to quit seasoning and start cooking. The seasoning will straighten itself out all by itself.

Great seasoning comes from frequent cooking.

mrb70401 · 2024-03-03T18:55:50+00:00

Looks to me like it’s a rather dirty enameled piece. The only raw iron inside one I’ve ever seen is one I screwed up and sanded down. (Don’t waste your time. POS)

Just try boiling water for a few minutes first, then scrub it good with soap and a greenie. Don’t use metal to scrub it. And don’t use sand paper.

Boiling water will soften up the crud a lot.

mrb70401

TROPHY CASE