Recently, I discarded most of my non-stick skillets and acquired several carbon steel (DeBuyer and Matfer) and a few vintage cast iron items. I've done a great deal of research on seasoning techniques and have settled on a combination of stovetop seasoning (with either lard or flaxseed oil) and passes through the oven (with the same oils, at 500 degrees for one hour as described in Cooks Illustrated). This seems to be working very well for the cast iron pieces, but I'm having a terrible time maintaining the seasoning on the carbon steel. My daughter cooked scrambled eggs in my little DeBuyer skillet this morning, and as usual they stuck to the pan like no tomorrow (this happens even with a fair amount of butter). Before today, this pan had a beautiful, smooth black patina from multiple seasonings. I put it on top of the stove with a little water and boiled it for maybe 30 seconds to loosen the eggs without scrubbing. Well, now the pan is pretty much back to bare metal. Seems as though the seasoning should be a lot more durable than this. I have read that, with proper seasoning, these skillets should be practically nonstick. Please help. What am I doing wrong? Thanks very much!
