4 ms·

Contra to what most are saying here, I went through this laborious and stinky process of taking my pans down to bare metal and building them back up with flax o

by krrrh 6y ago

Contra to what most are saying here, I went through this laborious and stinky process of taking my pans down to bare metal and building them back up with flax oil a couple of years ago and got great results. I did get poor performance after a few months and felt heartbroken over it, but fixed it with another approach that differs from received wisdom: use soap and a nylon scouring pad from time to time. That’s never damaged the seasoning, but removes any caked on burned bits of food that dull the pan. I read on /r/castiron that the idea of soap being damaging is a hold over from when lye based soap was commonly used for dishes. Modern dish detergent isn’t going to cause the same damage. The other thing that helped was getting a straight metal spatula to really scrape the pan which has resulted in a smoother surface over time.

stouset 6y ago
Nobody is saying you’ll definitely get bad results from this, but it is a large waste of time. I say this as someone who did the same thing, always struggled to figure out why I had problems, and had better results when I simply stopped babying it. IMO your problem was likely the lack of washing. Soap and scrubbing will not damage your patina in any meaningful way. What washing does do is removes the caked on, half-polymerized bits that causes food to stick (and which creates a negative feedback loop of problems). Your cast iron is not a precious flower. Your grandmother did not fret over the decision of which oil to use for optimal seasoning. Use it, abuse it, and clean it out like anything else when you’re done (if there’s visible residue). If you want, dry it out on the stove top afterward and wipe a thin layer of oil on to it.
- krrrh 6y ago
  I agree, things improved when I liberally used soap, scrubbers, and sharp flat metal spatulas to scrape things clean. But I also haven’t seen any flaking of the flax base seasoning like others have. With previous pans I have accidentally scrubbed down to bare metal. Maybe I was just starting with thrift store pans that had been too heavily babied, and the process of cooking off the layers of carbonized food and old seasoning and starting over helped regardless of which oil I used.

by krrrh 6y ago

stouset 6y ago

Nobody is saying you’ll definitely get bad results from this, but it is a large waste of time. I say this as someone who did the same thing, always struggled to figure out why I had problems, and had better results when I simply stopped babying it. IMO your problem was likely the lack of washing. Soap and scrubbing will not damage your patina in any meaningful way. What washing does do is removes the caked on, half-polymerized bits that causes food to stick (and which creates a negative feedback loop of problems). Your cast iron is not a precious flower. Your grandmother did not fret over the decision of which oil to use for optimal seasoning. Use it, abuse it, and clean it out like anything else when you’re done (if there’s visible residue). If you want, dry it out on the stove top afterward and wipe a thin layer of oil on to it.

krrrh 6y ago
I agree, things improved when I liberally used soap, scrubbers, and sharp flat metal spatulas to scrape things clean. But I also haven’t seen any flaking of the flax base seasoning like others have. With previous pans I have accidentally scrubbed down to bare metal. Maybe I was just starting with thrift store pans that had been too heavily babied, and the process of cooking off the layers of carbonized food and old seasoning and starting over helped regardless of which oil I used.