TLDR:
- Remove wax with boiling water, hot water and mild soap
- Dry the pan and heat it up
- Wipe the pan with an oiled rag to create a thin film of oil.
- Wipe the pan with a cleaner rag to remove any excess oil.
- Heat the pan on high heat, with a fan running, until all surfaces turn deep brown.
- If the pan is large, moving it around may speed up the process.
- Alternatively, bake the pan, upside down, in a preheated 500F oven for an hour and let the pan cool in the oven.
No, it has nothing to do with spices! It s a process of converting a raw steel or iron surface into a practically non-stick cooking surface that is also rust-proof.
The process of seasoning is what may keep a number of people away from carbon steel, or cast iron. I, too, was at first unsure how all of that will work out. I am happy to report that the feat has long been gone and that seasoning really should not be a reason for avoiding this superb, non-stick, ultra durable, and inexpensive cookware.
Basically, one coats a porous cooking surface with a very thin film of oil, and then applies high heat to essentially burn the oil. The oil dries and polymerizes and sticks onto the surface and in the pores, forming a protective surface that is practically non-stick. The beauty is that this surface is very sturdy, so one doesn't need to worry obsessively about protecting it.
Sheryl Canter's blog post is often referred as an authoritative source of science behind pan seasoning. Having a research background, I read the post, found it interesting, but I will admit that I prefer to keep things in life a bit simpler.
If the seasoning does get damaged or if you didn't season the pan properly, there is nothing to worry about. You simply season the pan again, as many times as you want. And of things go really badly, one can use steel wool to strip the old seasoning away and start again.
It is quite refreshing that these days carbon steel and cast iron are making such a comeback. Rarely does one come across items that are practically indestructible. I wonder what the business model of producers is - once you buy a carbon steel or a cast iron pan, it will last you for your life time, and it will outlive future generations as well.
Which oil to use?
Which oil should one use when seasoning a pan? This is a much debated question, and everyone seems to have their opinion. Sheryl Canter in her blog argues that flax seed oil is the way to achieve the hardest and the slickest seasoning possible. She also acknowledges that one can get a usable pan with other kinds of oil. When one purchases seasoned pans, manufacturers tend to disclose what oil they use - I have seen mentions of canola oil, bran oil, coconut oil and who knows what else.
Which oil should one use when seasoning a pan? This is a much debated question, and everyone seems to have their opinion. Sheryl Canter in her blog argues that flax seed oil is the way to achieve the hardest and the slickest seasoning possible. She also acknowledges that one can get a usable pan with other kinds of oil. When one purchases seasoned pans, manufacturers tend to disclose what oil they use - I have seen mentions of canola oil, bran oil, coconut oil and who knows what else.
The one consistent message I have seen is not to use extra virgin olive oil, or any other oil that contains impurities. Even Sheryl Cantor states that for flax seed oil, one needs to read the label and make sure that it contains no additives.
So what should one do? I don't claim deep expertise in chemistry of oil, and I have tried a number of options: canola, grape seed, corn, walnut, coconut, flax seed come to mind. I managed to get a usable seasoning with all of them, and frankly, I find it hard to tell the difference. I think it boils down to what you have at home. For example, flax seed oil is finicky - it is rather pricey, and one needs to store in the fridge. If you don't use it in smoothies or in some other way, do you really want to keep a bottle of oil in an already packed fridge just for occasional seasoning? Likely not.
What do I use? If I use straight oil, I go with either grape seed or walnut, or flax if I have it. But I like to play, and I read that adding beeswax to the seasoning helps with the process - but I have not seen a good explanation why. So I made myself a few seasoning pucks which I have been using lately.
Making a seasoning puck is, of course, trivial. One takes a clean tin can, and adds in there 1 part of beeswax, and two parts of oil. The proportions are by weight. The can goes in a hot water bath to melt the wax, then into silicone molds for the mixture to cool down. In a couple of hours, the pucks slide easily from the molds and are ready to use.
For oil, I have used grape seed and flax seed, or walnut and flax seed. I find these pucks easy to use, the seasoning appears strong, and I find it easier to control how much seasoning I use - a quick touch of a hot surface melts just the right amount of the puck away.
Procedure
Carbon steel pans come coated with beeswax! How retro and how amazing! The wax is applied to protect the pan against rusting. Here is a brand new, still waxed Matfer pajella 14 inch carbon steel pan that I have been eyeing for a while - for the large cooking surface, and for its use as a roaster.
It looks nice and new, does it not? First we have to remove the wax. That is SUPER easy. Simply boil water in a kettle and pour boiling water in the pan, then swirl the hot water around. Then wash the pan with hot water and mild detergent - both the cooking surface and the bottom. If you are still not sure you removed all the wax, pour some water in the pan, bring the water to boil, and swirl it around.
I think it took me under 10 minutes to remove the wax from this large pan. So please, fear not, it really is easy. The washed pan looks like this.
No real visible differences!
The next step is fun. You need two old cotton or linen rags - I use old dish cloths. It really best to use these, but you can get away with paper towels. The lint free variety is best, but I have done this successfully with regular paper towels as well.
Dab some a little bit of cooking oil on one of the rags, or rub a rag with a seasoning puck.
This rag will be used to apply the oil on the pan. I keep such a rag in the kitchen under the sink. Sometimes I use it after cleaning a pan to wipe it with just a bit of oil. That is often recommended and it is really not required. You seasoning will protect the surface, and if you don't use the pan frequently enough, the oil will simply go rancid.
So now we have a rag with a bit of oil or seasoning wax, and a rag that is clean, or at least has much less oil in it.
Put the pan on the stove and heat in on medium for a few minutes. The goal is to open pores in the metal a bit more. Once the pan is nice and warm, or even really hot if you lose track of time, wipe the whole pan with the oily rag. leaving as thin a film on the pan as you can possibly imagine.
Then take the clean rag and wipe the pan some more. This is a most important step - the pan will look practically dry. Excess oil will simply pool in the pan into sticky spots. You can remove those of course, but why give yourself additional work.
Then set the heat to medium high or high and let the pan heat up and smoke of 5-10 minutes. Run your fan and open the windows if the fan cannot handle the smoke. This is what starts to happening:
You see that a part of the pan was starting to turn brown. This is a good thing, that is the oil starting to polymerize.
After a bit longer, the pan continues to transform, and the polymerization is starting to happen on the side walls as well.
Notice that this pan is very large and even though I used a large and powerful burner at full heat, I still had to move the pan around to get the heat distributed enough. If I waited longer, I think I would not need to move the pan, but my approach worked just fine.
At the end, the entire pan got a really deep patina and it looked like it was 100 years old! Well, almost. A well-used pan does darken with time.
Procedure
Carbon steel pans come coated with beeswax! How retro and how amazing! The wax is applied to protect the pan against rusting. Here is a brand new, still waxed Matfer pajella 14 inch carbon steel pan that I have been eyeing for a while - for the large cooking surface, and for its use as a roaster.
It looks nice and new, does it not? First we have to remove the wax. That is SUPER easy. Simply boil water in a kettle and pour boiling water in the pan, then swirl the hot water around. Then wash the pan with hot water and mild detergent - both the cooking surface and the bottom. If you are still not sure you removed all the wax, pour some water in the pan, bring the water to boil, and swirl it around.
I think it took me under 10 minutes to remove the wax from this large pan. So please, fear not, it really is easy. The washed pan looks like this.
No real visible differences!
The next step is fun. You need two old cotton or linen rags - I use old dish cloths. It really best to use these, but you can get away with paper towels. The lint free variety is best, but I have done this successfully with regular paper towels as well.
Dab some a little bit of cooking oil on one of the rags, or rub a rag with a seasoning puck.
This rag will be used to apply the oil on the pan. I keep such a rag in the kitchen under the sink. Sometimes I use it after cleaning a pan to wipe it with just a bit of oil. That is often recommended and it is really not required. You seasoning will protect the surface, and if you don't use the pan frequently enough, the oil will simply go rancid.
So now we have a rag with a bit of oil or seasoning wax, and a rag that is clean, or at least has much less oil in it.
Put the pan on the stove and heat in on medium for a few minutes. The goal is to open pores in the metal a bit more. Once the pan is nice and warm, or even really hot if you lose track of time, wipe the whole pan with the oily rag. leaving as thin a film on the pan as you can possibly imagine.
Then take the clean rag and wipe the pan some more. This is a most important step - the pan will look practically dry. Excess oil will simply pool in the pan into sticky spots. You can remove those of course, but why give yourself additional work.
Then set the heat to medium high or high and let the pan heat up and smoke of 5-10 minutes. Run your fan and open the windows if the fan cannot handle the smoke. This is what starts to happening:
You see that a part of the pan was starting to turn brown. This is a good thing, that is the oil starting to polymerize.
After a bit longer, the pan continues to transform, and the polymerization is starting to happen on the side walls as well.
Notice that this pan is very large and even though I used a large and powerful burner at full heat, I still had to move the pan around to get the heat distributed enough. If I waited longer, I think I would not need to move the pan, but my approach worked just fine.
At the end, the entire pan got a really deep patina and it looked like it was 100 years old! Well, almost. A well-used pan does darken with time.
The pan was ready for cooking. I think this patina looks great, and I prefer it over the clean stainless steel look as carbon steel does not nag me to keep the pan shiny and new looking.
Because I am who I am, I did the seasoning twice, even though it was not needed. I pre-heated my oven to 500F and I wiped the cooking surface and walls with the oily rag again. The pan was super hot and started to smoke right away, Then I wiped the pan with the clean(er) rag to remove the excess of oil. I baked the pan in the oven for almost an hour and let it cool. There was no visible difference, but I felt good about being diligent. But I admit that I almost never do the seasoning in the oven as it takes more time, energy, and I don't think it is any better than stove-top seasoning.
The moment of truth
The same day, I used the newly seasoned pan to make pancakes. To my great satisfaction, I needed to use only a little bit of cooking oil - about as much as I would have used anyway on a non-stick pan. Cooking on medium heat, pancakes seared nicely and the pan required only a wipe to be clean and ready to be used again.
Cooking on medium heat is one adjustment one needs to make when switching to carbon steel or cast iron - these materials conduct the heat so much better than teflon of ceramics that one needs to cook at a lower heat.
Because these pans are so much more substantial than teflon or ceramic coated pans, one needs to preheat them for a bit longer. My carbon steel pans need about a minute or two on medium heat to preheat. It is much better to preheat on medium, because this gives the heat an opportunity to distribute more evenly and one avoids possible hot spots.
Because I am who I am, I did the seasoning twice, even though it was not needed. I pre-heated my oven to 500F and I wiped the cooking surface and walls with the oily rag again. The pan was super hot and started to smoke right away, Then I wiped the pan with the clean(er) rag to remove the excess of oil. I baked the pan in the oven for almost an hour and let it cool. There was no visible difference, but I felt good about being diligent. But I admit that I almost never do the seasoning in the oven as it takes more time, energy, and I don't think it is any better than stove-top seasoning.
The moment of truth
The same day, I used the newly seasoned pan to make pancakes. To my great satisfaction, I needed to use only a little bit of cooking oil - about as much as I would have used anyway on a non-stick pan. Cooking on medium heat, pancakes seared nicely and the pan required only a wipe to be clean and ready to be used again.
Cooking on medium heat is one adjustment one needs to make when switching to carbon steel or cast iron - these materials conduct the heat so much better than teflon of ceramics that one needs to cook at a lower heat.
Because these pans are so much more substantial than teflon or ceramic coated pans, one needs to preheat them for a bit longer. My carbon steel pans need about a minute or two on medium heat to preheat. It is much better to preheat on medium, because this gives the heat an opportunity to distribute more evenly and one avoids possible hot spots.
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