Season pan salvageable?

BUDFORCE

BUDFORCE

BUDFORCE

Soldato
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Hi all,

I have a couple of other pans, woks actually, a carbon steel Asian one, cheap and thin I use on a gas burner, and a heavy cast iron one

Both I have managed to get really good surfaces on and are a dream to cook on.

This pan was a gift de buyer mineral b I believe, would have been expensive.

I cannot get a good season on it. The pan is heading towards 2 years old, always rubbed and heated oil, not cleaned with detergent etc, but all that seems to happen is the oil burns patches on, that flake off.

My only thought is when I first got it I may have tried to force a season on it, I put it on a gas burner outside for an hour or so putting oil on it, but probably a slightly deeper layer of oil than I should.

The pictures below I have had to resort to giving it a bit of a scrub with a sponge scour, because the pan was getting borderline unusable. Is this salvageable? Any suggestions, scrub down with metal scour maybe and try again?

IMG-20220903-103307.jpg


IMG-20220903-103320.jpg
 
I'd be tempted to scrub it down and start over, you've got nothing to lose except time. Maybe a bath of oven cleaner/caustic soda to really cut back the existing season then go over it with a metal scrubby then try a re-season. Maybe even sand/walnut shell/vapour blast it to get a nice, fresh surface if you can DIY it? What oil did you use on this pan? Good luck :)
 
Never any need to bin these pans - they can be "reset" very easily. Either in a pyrolytic oven, or use one of those heavy duty oven cleaners with the bags.

Silly Q - but did you definitely get all the wax off when it was new? It comes with a thin covering, but have heard people having real issues seasoning if they didn't get it all off.

Other than that, I've found these pretty easy to season really - I normally add some flax / whatever oil, super thin, upside down in a hot oven for an hour, then let cool in the oven. Do this a few times and then build as normal. Some will say you don't even need to bother with that.
 
HeadlessChicken said:
Never any need to bin these pans - they can be "reset" very easily. Either in a pyrolytic oven, or use one of those heavy duty oven cleaners with the bags.

Silly Q - but did you definitely get all the wax off when it was new? It comes with a thin covering, but have heard people having real issues seasoning if they didn't get it all off.

Other than that, I've found these pretty easy to season really - I normally add some flax / whatever oil, super thin, upside down in a hot oven for an hour, then let cool in the oven. Do this a few times and then build as normal. Some will say you don't even need to bother with that.
Click to expand...

Thanks I'll give it a go.

I'll update this thread in due course.
 
Another vote for keeping it.
Just scrub the old flaky stuff off with a metal scourer until its smooth again or go down to bare metal and re-season.
Quite a lot of videos on Youtube on how to refurbish old woks/pans
 
If you get black flakes on it like that it is often because you have over heated it. You want to polymerise the oil coating, not turn it into charcoal.

As has been said, watch a few youtube videos. But you pan will need to be totally cleaned back to bare metal before re-seasoning properly.

Mine looked a bit like your when I literally found it in a garden shed. Now I can fry eggs in it with no sticking.

Cast iron is awesome.
 
Just chuck some vinegar in it for a while and give it a thorough scour back to clean bare metal with some wire wool.

Then re-season it, with a suitable oil.

What you have there is not 'season', it's just encrusted burnt oil. You just want to heat the pan until it starts to smoke, then turn the heat off, let it cool a bit, then wipe the excess off.

What others have said is right, you never need to chuck a good cast iron pan!
 
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Hodders said:
If you get black flakes on it like that it is often because you have over heated it. You want to polymerise the oil coating, not turn it into charcoal.

As has been said, watch a few youtube videos. But you pan will need to be totally cleaned back to bare metal before re-seasoning properly.

Mine looked a bit like your when I literally found it in a garden shed. Now I can fry eggs in it with no sticking.

Cast iron is awesome.
Click to expand...

Jealous of the eggs, mine sticks I might need to start again but the missus ruins it every now and again. No tomatoes love but it doesn’t help
 
I can fry an eggs in a stainless steel pan with no seasoning (being stainless, it won't be). The trick is in the technique.

1 - Place a clean pan and heat until HOT, I mean really hot.
2 - Add oil and cover the surface.
3 - Turn heat down to low, wait 10 seconds
4 - Crack and egg on it and then LEAVE it.
5 - Once the bottom crisps up it will lift off clean.

What is happening is the metal expands when its really hot and then oil goes into all the tiny gaps on the surface and as you turn the heat down it closes down a little and now form a non-stick layer with all the gaps now covered.

 
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~Divine~Wind~ said:
Call me a heathen if you will.... Wire brush on the end of a drill not make faster work of it?
Click to expand...

Well heathen or not it's exactly what I had to resort to.

I tried soaking in vinegar, then something called vanquish, which is a commercial grade oven cleaner.... nothing.

So basically took a brass wire brush drill head to it:

IMG-20230303-200759.jpg



To the touch it's relatively smooth, but before I try to re-season I'm am going to take some wet and dry paper to it to try and really get the surface smooth.

Just waiting for that to turn up in the post.
 
BUDFORCE said:
Well heathen or not it's exactly what I had to resort to.

I tried soaking in vinegar, then something called vanquish, which is a commercial grade oven cleaner.... nothing.

So basically took a brass wire brush drill head to it:

IMG-20230303-200759.jpg



To the touch it's relatively smooth, but before I try to re-season I'm am going to take some wet and dry paper to it to try and really get the surface smooth.

Just waiting for that to turn up in the post.
Click to expand...
hahah!

Certainly looks to have done the trick tho!
 
Well, my wet and dry paper turned up wasn't quite what I had intended, problem with buying stuff like that online, was a lot rougher then I had anticipated but still gave it a bit of a go.

I have not dared cook on it yet, but I've given it 4 rounds of very light seasoning and 24 hours to rest in between as one youtube channel suggested and I think it should be getting there.

I might give it another few rounds of seasoning then try and cook an egg.

IMG-20230310-142118.jpg
 
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