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Additional tips from someone who failed: 1) Buy a used cast-iron off ebay. The old cast irons were machined smoother. Anything you buy new from lodge today is
by yojo 12y ago
Additional tips from someone who failed:
1) Buy a used cast-iron off ebay. The old cast irons were machined smoother. Anything you buy new from lodge today is going to have a texture like low grit sand paper. Any old Wagner or Griswold is going to have a much smoother base surface.
2) Make sure you get everything off your pan. If you did buy a new pan, they often have weird artificial seasoning on them. If you have an old pan, anything loose can provide a failure mode for your new nice coat of seasoning.
3) Don't get 100% of the oil off between coats as the article suggests. You won't build any seasoning.
4) Consider using Canola oil. The flaxseed oil that you buy seems to have some particulate matter that is noticeable in the finished seasoning. That or I didn't shake mine enough.
5) Consider doing this at a time when you can open all the doors/windows. Even if you stick to the really thin layer, your house will still get a smelly smoke.
6) Don't leave anything nice on the top of your stove. My oven vents out over the burners, and a Le Cruset pot resting there got covered in a sticky residue that was a pain to clean off.
More background:
I tried this with a beat up hand-me-down wagner about a year ago. I did six coats of flaxseed while following the instructions to "get all the oil off" with a towel after each application. The result was a pan with basically no seasoning that everything stuck to.
I went back and repeated while leaving a thicker layer (still not oil pooled or anything, but noticeably wet/shiny). This worked much better, and left a decent coat on the pan that things don't stick to. Sadly I did not strip the pan back down after the first misadventure, and some of my nice seasoning is now peeling around the corners.
- _greim_ 12y ago> The flaxseed oil that you buy seems to have some particulate matter that is noticeable in the finished seasoning Running it through a simple coffee filter might fix this.
- jules 12y ago7) Do it outside on a campfire, not inside your house in the oven. It's much faster and less messy.
- tomkinstinch 12y agoA gas barbecue grill (on low) works quite well to.
- jonnathanson 12y ago"The flaxseed oil that you buy seems to have some particulate matter that is noticeable in the finished seasoning." I'm guessing that you buy unrefined flaxseed oil, and that you keep it refrigerated? That's what you should be doing, and it's all well and good. But unrefined flaxseed oil contains a mix of fatty acids with different melting points. Some of these solidify under refrigeration, and give the appearance of being particulates when poured or used.
- yojo 12y agoSpot on. Thanks for the insight!
- raverbashing 12y agoSee olive oil if you live in a colder country (and supermarkets don't heat enough) Maybe you can bring it to room temperature (to something like 25C) before using
- batbomb 12y agoCarbon steel pans (DeBuyer) are a good alternative as well.
- 001sky 12y agothis is the answer. right here. just don't pay retail. cast iron is for hipsters
- cossatot 12y ago>cast iron is for hipsters Yes, and it would be foolish to use cooking utensils preferred by a group of people who likes simple, time-tested tools and methods to cook tasty, balanced meals using high-quality ingredients.
- 001sky 12y agoHipsters don't have any priority claims on cooking with good methods or ingredients, simple or not, healthy or not. The type of pan you use has no bearing on this. Its foolish to use something that performs worse than something that also cheap and readily available. Thats just called ignorance. Try a de buyer or a mafter and then come back and update your post.
- cossatot 12y agoI'm simply objecting to the use of 'hipster' as a pejorative here, which I find tiresome (and I assume many others on a forum used largely by young technologists do as well). In this instance it's a strange term to use negatively, as hipsters the hipster stereotype includes some foodie-ism. It's also an imprecise way to characterize cast iron cookware, unless you can demonstrate that hipsters do have priority claims on it over less hip groups like the elderly or midwestern housewives or NRA members or whatever. My apologies for trying to fight snark with snark, I'll keep my whining non-sarcastic from here on out. In any case, although I have no current plans to replace my cookware, what should I expect in improvement upon switching to said less ironic brands? Less food sticking? Better heat distribution or other characteristics?