----------------------------------------
seasoning
October 19th, 2018
----------------------------------------
I recently acquired a pair of beautiful pans. You may already be
aware that I have a distinct preference for cast iron cookware,
and so it may surprise you to learn that these pans are different.
Instead of cast iron, these pans are wrought iron!
US-ION ran a kickstarter [0] for what they call "Solidteknics Iron
Skillets". They've developed a machining process allowing them to
mass produce wrought iron instead of cast iron. The result is
theoretically both lighter and more durable. Quite a claim!
(HTM) [0] Solidteknics Iron Skillets
Cast iron (and now wrought iron) cookware is an heirloom item.
Rather than buy-it-for-life, it's buy-it-for-generations. That's
value I can get behind! This lifespan doesn't come without some
effort, though. You must care for your stuff if you want it to
last. This is true of pretty much everything, but it bears
repeating. My lovely leather shoes need polish. My knives need
sharpening and oil. Iron needs seasoning.
What is seasoning? In layman's terms, it's a coating of oil that
goes through a chemical bonding to the surface of your pan. It
protects the iron and makes it non-stick. It's safe! It won't
break down and poison you like other **coughTEFLONcough**
coatings.
Is it a lot of work? I don't think so, but others disagree.
There's also about 7,000 different opinions on how best to keep
a pan clean over time, "properly" season it, etc. Here's my
method; you can decide for yourself if it's too much work.
- - - - - - Initial Seasoning - - - - - -
Brand new iron is naked and fragile. If you buy an unseasoned pan
it may look like steel or it may be black already. Regardless, it
needs some extra special care right in the beginning to get things
off to the best start. Putting on the initial layers of oil is the
slowest part and requires the most effort. After this, upkeep is
extremely simple.
To season a cast iron (or wrought iron) you'll need the following:
- sandpaper, fine grit
- a clean cotton rag or old t-shirt
- a can/tub of vegetable shortening
- the pan/skillet/dutch oven/whatever
- an oven that can reach 480°F
1. Begin by thoroughly scouring the pan clean. It may have shipped
with beeswax coating to protect it in transit, or there may be
old layers of seasoning to work off. Hot water, scrub with
soap, do it to it.
2. Dry the pan by hand, and then in the oven under low heat until
you're sure there's no moisture on it at all.
3. Lightly scratch up everything with the sandpaper. Roughing the
surface will help the first layer of oil bonding.
4. Heat your oven to 480°F or there-abouts.
5. Dab your cloth into the shortening, then rub it over the whole
pan, inside and out. Make sure you get the handle too. Don't
leave anything untouched. You don't need a lot of shortening or
a thick coat. In fact, the thinner the better. Wipe it on and
then use a clean part of the rag to wipe it off again.
6. Place the pan upside down into the oven. Cook it for 90
minutes.
7. Turn off the heat and allow the pan to cool completely.
8. This is the sucky part. Now that you've put a single coat on
your pan, it probably doesn't look too different. It may have
darkened slightly or maybe not. This initial process needs to
be done at least twice more. If you have the time over the next
couple days you should do it as much as you can. I usually do
five or six iterations. Go back and repeat steps 4-7. You don't
need the sandpaper on every round. You can use it a second time
after that first seasoning if you want, but I don't bother
after that.
9. Your pan is now mostly seasoned, but it can use a little extra
love in the cooking area still. For this secondary seasoning,
we'll use your stove top! Crank the heat on a burner to high
and get ready.
10. Add a thin layer of shortening to the inside of your pan and
also a bit to the base, but don't bother with the handle this
time. We're focused on the cooking area.
11. Place the pan on the burner, but get ready with your cotton
rag. Wrap it around a wooden spoon or grab it in some tongs so
you can use it on the pan while it's on the heat.
12. For the next minute or two, continuously wipe the cotton on
the pan while it heats up. This will cause it to smoke A LOT.
Open some windows, turn on a fan, etc. Let it smoke like this
for up to 30 seconds, then cut the heat.
13. Allow the pan to cool for 10 minutes, then repeat steps 9-13
a few more times.
Your pan should be uniformly black. It should not feel sticky or
tacky to the touch. If it does, you have too much oil on it still
and it didn't fully bake in. Wipe it down with a clean cloth and
toss it in the oven at 480°F again for another 30 min to get
everything fully baked in.
You can use this thing to cook now! But cook on what? That's the
best part. You can cook on anything from an induction stove to an
open fire. It's so versitile!
You might notice a little sticking of delicate foods like eggs
& fish when you first start using it. That's because your
seasoning is just at its beginning. That effort may have seemed
like a little or a lot, but it's the start of the long road of
maintenance that will make your pan better and better with every
use.
- - - - - - Maintenance Seasoning - - - - - -
Every time you use the pan you need to clean it. This should also
go without saying, but people get really weird about cast iron and
logic seems to go out the window. Much conventional wisdom says
that you don't need soap, or SHOULD NEVER USE SOAP, with your pan.
I'm here to tell you that's a bunch of crap. Please use soap.
Clean your pan well. Stay healthy. Don't be gross. But how...
1. Clean of the physical bits from your pan with a hard plastic
scraper or metal that won't gouge the seasoning. I have a 6"
square of chainmail that I use. Don't press super hard, just
get all the stuff off the surface.
2. Soap and water and clean the thing like you would any other
pan. Seriously. It's fine. If you want to be extra cautious,
don't use a lemon based cleaner. Acids wear down seasoning (not
that fast).
3. THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP!!!! Dry the everliving shit out of that
pan. I hand dry mine and then immediately place them back on
a burner and crank it to medium heat to cook off any lingering
water. Soap doesn't harm anything, but it will if little bits
of it remain on the surface. Water will do much, much worse.
Rust sucks (though even that can be fixed).
4. While the pan is still warm from the drying heat, dab a bit of
vegetable shortening on a rag and do a quick surface rub on the
inside and base (don't do the handle unless you plan on putting
it back in the oven to bake).
5. Crank a burner to high heat and cook & smoke that shortening
for a minute or two. Then congratulate yourself on adding yet
another layer of seasoning to your awesome pan of awesome. This
is what will build up more and more over time and turn it into
the only pan you ever want to use for cooking anything ever.
Ever.
6. Let it cool, and put it away for 20 minutes until you can't
wait to use it again!
That's it. That's my routine with all my iron. The new wrought
iron pans are on seasoning #4 in the oven cooling. They'll get two
more rounds today before I start the stove top. Does that seem
like a lot of work to you? I bet my grand children will appreciate
it when they inherit the super skillets.
One final note: if you have cast iron that has rusted, it is
probably still fine as long as it hasn't created a pit or hole.
You can sand off the rust, or in extreme cases you can use some
home chemistry to remove all the rust through electrolysis [1].
Once the rust is gone, go to the start of my initial seasoning
instructions and act like it's a new pan. A day or two later and
it's back to working order. If you're a thrifty person you can
pick up old cast iron from yard sales or flea markets for
a dollar, put in some elbow grease with your shortening, and have
a brilliant cookware set!
(HTM) [1] Cleaning cast iron with electrolysis