2 Frying pans in 4 months...Spec me a new Frying pan!

mid_gen · 26 Jun 2018 at 06:51

I used a few mm of sunflower oil, and chucked a load of rock salt and some potato peelings in. Fried that til smoking and left to cool. Seems to have done the job, although I got a bit of residue on the sides.

jpaul · 26 Jun 2018 at 07:40

the resilience of the seasoning depends on what you cook, how you clean it (and heat source?)
I can strip seasoning a bit with acidic tomatoes,
I only use it for savoury, if I wanted to swap to sweet (french caramelised tart) would need to clean better with detergent, as opposed to wiping, which would strip.
griddle is committed to steaks too.

had found a good article on multi-layer pan heat distribution

Raymond Lin · 26 Jun 2018 at 12:38

I rubbed some oil on mine, top and bottom and put it in a hot BBQ upside down and let it cool on its own.

It kind of worked, it’s not a smooth colouring though, very patchy. I am thinking of scrubbing it all off and start again. Although to be fair, if I put just a little oil on it I can fry an egg just fine without sticking.

robj20 · 28 Jun 2018 at 07:28

Raymond Lin said:
I rubbed some oil on mine, top and bottom and put it in a hot BBQ upside down and let it cool on its own.

It kind of worked, it’s not a smooth colouring though, very patchy. I am thinking of scrubbing it all off and start again. Although to be fair, if I put just a little oil on it I can fry an egg just fine without sticking.

A large portion of the pan is non stick but one bit that catches all the time. Think this will be my last attempt at iron pans. Back to non stick.

robj20 · 1 Jul 2018 at 16:46

So it's gone in the bin, completely destroyed two peices of sea bass. Plenty of oil in the pan and it instantly stuck so all the skin came off. Attempted to turn it over and that stuck as well. Absolutely not as good as a good nonstick pan just need to find a decent thickness one.

Pho · 1 Jul 2018 at 18:23

robj20 said:
So it's gone in the bin, completely destroyed two peices of sea bass. Plenty of oil in the pan and it instantly stuck so all the skin came off. Attempted to turn it over and that stuck as well. Absolutely not as good as a good nonstick pan just need to find a decent thickness one.

You must be doing something wrong in seasoning it. Can you take a photo of what the pan looks like? It should be dark black.

You also don't really need to clean them, just wipe them with a paper towel. You really shouldn't be using washing-up liquid or anything.

robj20 · 1 Jul 2018 at 18:33

Pho said:
You must be doing something wrong in seasoning it. Can you take a photo of what the pan looks like? It should be dark black.

You also don't really need to clean them, just wipe them with a paper towel. You really shouldn't be using washing-up liquid or anything.

I haven't been cleaning it, just put some water in the pan straight at cooking and a quick wipe with a sponge then dry it.
Its a dark colour in the center but the edges and sides won't take the seasoning. Bit even where it's dark it still sticks in places.
Not sure what I could have done wrong, rub it with oil so it's very thin then heat to just smoking let it cool and repeat.

Pho · 1 Jul 2018 at 19:10

robj20 said:
I haven't been cleaning it, just put some water in the pan straight at cooking and a quick wipe with a sponge then dry it.
Its a dark colour in the center but the edges and sides won't take the seasoning. Bit even where it's dark it still sticks in places.
Not sure what I could have done wrong, rub it with oil so it's very thin then heat to just smoking let it cool and repeat.

Heat it with oil in the pan until it's smoking, then get a paper towel and rub some more over all of the pan including the edges etc.

Then stick it in the oven upside down at gas mark 5 (190c) for about two hours. That's the crucial bit to get the seasoning to take - I guess when you heat it on the hob the sides aren't going to get too hot relative to the bottom.

robj20 · 1 Jul 2018 at 19:12

Pho said:
Heat it with oil in the pan until it's smoking, then get a paper towel and rub some more over all of the pan including the edges etc.

Then stick it in the oven upside down at gas mark 5 (190c) for about two hours. That's the crucial bit to get the seasoning to take - I guess when you heat it on the hob the sides aren't going to get too hot relative to the bottom.

Won't fit in the oven.

Pho · 1 Jul 2018 at 19:12

robj20 said:
Won't fit in the oven.

Ah. Buy a bigger oven?

Can you fit it in by taking out the shelves and wedging it in one way or another?

robj20 · 1 Jul 2018 at 19:14

Pho said:
Ah. Buy a bigger oven?

Can you fit it in by taking out the shelves and wedging it in one way or another?

Nope. Not even close to fitting. The instructions that came with the pan say nothing about putting it in the oven so seems odd to then be a requirement. Anyway it's gone, going to see what ceramic pans are like.

Pho · 1 Jul 2018 at 19:16

robj20 said:
Nope. Not even close to fitting. The instructions that came with the pan say nothing about putting it in the oven so seems odd to then be a requirement. Anyway it's gone, going to see what ceramic pans are like.

You don't need to. The more you use it the more of the patina it should just naturally pick-up.

Did you put water on it to clean when it was red hot? Maybe you needed to leave it to cool, I don't know but maybe that was effectively scrubbing off the layer you actually needed to bake in.

Raymond Lin · 1 Jul 2018 at 19:24

You just got to accept it’ll stick in the first month of use, my cast iron was like that but now they are both stick.

The carbon steel isn’t there yet, tried to fry an egg yesterday and it was a mess lol

mid_gen · 7 Jul 2018 at 08:11

Got a 28cm De Buyer Carbone Plus a few weeks back, to go with the crepe pan. It's taking a little while to get used to, but not missing the non-stick.

Crepe pan is like glass already, omelettes and pancakes just slide off. Big pan is taking a while, partly because I deglazed it with some chicken marinade that was more acidic than I was counting on.

flea.rider · 7 Jul 2018 at 09:23

the hotter you get it the better it will be .. like opening the pours on your skin ..

robj20 · 7 Jul 2018 at 12:05

flea.rider said:
the hotter you get it the better it will be .. like opening the pours on your skin ..

I thought you weren't too go past the smoking point. If hotter the better I could have got mine to 450c.

flea.rider · 7 Jul 2018 at 13:36

well I've always made it try to glow ..easier with a wok there thinner ..
just have to watch when you put the oil in it can flash and has done a few times ..lol

HeadlessChicken · 9 Jul 2018 at 06:44

I know how you feel with the De Buyer pans, they can be infuriating. I so neallly binned mine too, I got a lovely special edition 20cm for general use. Took it back to the bare iron 3 times as I thought it just wasn't taking. But I perservered and it's glorious now.

I've since bought a crepe pan, which has been perfect (crepes, omelettes & eggs) and a large 28cm, which is new but already great.

Sadly experience with these really helps, but definitely worth keeping with.

Smokey Deza · 19 Jul 2018 at 21:59

Not sure I can be bothered to buy one of these pans and re-engineer it lol. Will probably just get an expensive Tefal one again.

Raymond Lin · 21 Jul 2018 at 10:18

HeadlessChicken said:
I know how you feel with the De Buyer pans, they can be infuriating. I so neallly binned mine too, I got a lovely special edition 20cm for general use. Took it back to the bare iron 3 times as I thought it just wasn't taking. But I perservered and it's glorious now.

I've since bought a crepe pan, which has been perfect (crepes, omelettes & eggs) and a large 28cm, which is new but already great.

Sadly experience with these really helps, but definitely worth keeping with.

I stuck with it, punnnnnnnnn and today I tried some sausages then some eggs, one after another, came off away clean, finally.