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> You really shouldn't buy a special oil just [for] seasoning your cast iron and carbon steel. It's not necessary. Pick an oil with a high smoke point, a neutra
by bch 6y ago
> You really shouldn't buy a special oil just [for] seasoning your cast iron and carbon steel. It's not necessary. Pick an oil with a high smoke point, a neutral taste, and plenty of easy availability. That's often peanut. Avocado is great if you're fancy.
Keep a squirt bottle of oil on hand and make sure you're using enough.
> I had friends dedicate years to flax seed oil. They're not happy about it, as they've got flaking to deal with.
I happen to have bought some flax oil specifically for seasoning my cast iron - you’re saying it’s contraindicated though? (So “you don’t need special oil, but _especially_ not these” (leaving only peanut and avocado))?
For the amount of times the word “science” is dropped there’s still a good amount of myth and legend associated with owning cast iron. Short of having my own double blind statically significant study and perhaps a microscope to observe the polymerization effects, I’m still flopping back/forth a bit about what “the best” or at least not leaving a simple improvement on the table, is. What a journey.
Still worth the trouble, though. Cooking is fun, and cast iron is a good cooking tool.
- nightski 6y agoI interpreted what he said as you don't need a special oil, but here are some good options that do not have a strong flavor and will work well. But you could just as well use any other oil. I avoid nut based oils so I generally have olive and avacado around.
- BikiniPrince 6y agoI don’t know if there was much interpretation. It broke down the science well enough or at least offered theories. Having some good success and failure I am willing to try a few ideas in the article. One variation a YouTuber offered was to heat the oil in the pan on the stove and then wipe the excess. So far I have duplicated a lot of points in the article with different success ratios. I do agree a long smoke rate, upside down and long cooling period is ideal. I use the grill so I don’t worry about the smoke generation. More or less I’ve used this on the last successful project, but with corn oil. I went with a hybrid seasoning oil recently and I’m not impressed. I’ll try flax next.
- bch 6y agoI guess the best oil (olive or otherwise) is highly processed, to remove volatile (flavour and healthy) components, since it’s essentially just being cooked into a polymer. Added bonus that these are probably cheapest - is that your experience?
- late2part 6y agoOlive Oil's smoke point is not terribly high. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Smoke_point_of_cooking_oils https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Smoke_point_of_cookin...
- bch 6y agoIt looks to me like refined olive oil is in a range that puts it near the top. I guess the question though, is: is it sufficient?
- OJFord 6y agoWhy do you want it to work? Sunflower is cheaper, higher smoke point, and the flavour isn't relevant here (though even if it weren't going to be lost, you would not want it, another strike against olive anyway).
- bch 6y agoIf it’s to be dismissed, might as as well do it for the right reasons. Additionally, if somebody doesn’t have sunflower oil on hand (like me), then understanding what can stand in might save a trip to the grocery store and having yet another singly-used item in the cupboards.
- OJFord 6y agoWell, the only reason ever really to use olive is for its flavour; otherwise something else (e.g. sunflower, rapeseed/vegetable) is at least as appropriate and significantly cheaper.
- KozmoNau7 6y agoThe instructions for seasoning my carbon steel pan that I bought ages ago have worked better for me than any other method, fit both carbon steel and cast iron. Just fry up a full pan of very heavily salted potato peels. Use more oil and a lot more salt than you would normally use for pan frying. Make sure to move them around, don't be afraid to scrub them around, they will feel gritty due to all the salt. Fry the peels until they're very dark, they should be far too dark and salty to be edible. Wash out the pan with hot water and dry it. Done. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that. It's the method used in professional kitchens, as far as I know.