CookTek

My SO cooked... something in my 25, and left the pan on a low burner long enough for the residual oils to gelatinize-ish up into that sticky super glue gunk. sigh. You know what I'm talking about. There went a year of seasoning, but such is life. This was well past: boil water in it. Past stainless scrubby with BKF. Next night I cooked outside on the Weber, and took the pan back to bare metal over white oak fire. Scrambled up a few sacrificial eggs in oil and loads of kosher salt, and started anew. Back to slick in no time. Love these pans. Light, indestructible, great performance.

Also, and not to mix-up things with my previous posts, but it is admittedly strange to read about not making eggs in these Darto pans. These things are ideal for soft creamy scrambled eggs. Perhaps another thing I don't subscribe to... but I don't do that whole "low-n-slow" method of scrambled eggs. Again, in the Darto pan, I just heat maybe a 1TB of oil in the pan till smoking. Swirl it around. Turn off heat. Throw in say 2 beaten eggs, and actively but smoothly stir the eggs, letting "liquid eggs" flow under the barely cooked eggs. It takes less than 30 seconds. Creamy, soft, no color, just pale yellow, no browning, no crispy edges. It's the same methodology as french or japanese omelette, high heat, super fast, but I just keep it in scrambled form, rather than smoothing it out for an omelette.

The 35 Paella pan is finally here! Here's a pic of it next to its smaller G1 siblings for scale. I appreciate the refined fit-n-finish of the new pan. As many of you know, the handles of the original pans have fairly sharp edges. One day I'll get around to grinding them down. Darto has clearly heard our concerns, and so they took the time and effort to slightly round off the edges from the handles, underside of handles, pan edges. Much appreciated! The pan came with a protective coating of wax, or something or another, that just took some elbow grease, dawn, hot water, and a stainless scrubby to remove. As far as seasoning, I admit I don't really fuss or buy into the multi-layer baking process. I own these 4 Darto pans, a boatload of Lodges, other carbon steel pans and woks, and all I've ever done was "sacrifice" a couple of eggs during 1st seasoning. I just heat up a neutral oil till smoking, throw in the eggs, a load of kosher salt, and just "scramble" till the eggs dry up. Again, as many of you likely know, if you just put oil in a pan, it can gunk up and turn sticky. The eggs serve as both an oil sponge and a towel of sorts that allows me to rub the oil in the pan smoothly. Dump out the eggs and salt, wipe it down with paper towels, and done. Time to get on with normal cooking. I don't know if this helps or just inflames the "seasoning" argument, but this is what I do, what I've done for a couple of decades, and all my various iron / steel pans are super slick. I plan to use this pan extensively for Tapas on my 26" Weber kettle. I burn white oak and cook the tapas over open flame in my Darto pans, Columbian black clay pans, Spanish cazuela, etc.

I also need new pans like a hole in the head! I have a full complement of All Clad stainless, a boatload of cast iron, one carbon steel Matfer black, and recently picked up the Darto 20. I love it, so also ordered the 23 and 27 to take advantage of the free shipping. Like a previous poster mentioned, I just break in my iron by sacrificing a few eggs (or potato skins) by deep frying them for a while till they turn crumbly, then wipe clean with a paper towel. Done. Really dig the Darto, it has a serious utilitarian look about it, and it performs superbly. Making the high heat / 10 second French omelette is effortless. Using a bit of clarified butter, no sticky, only slidey. I like the curved lip slope for easy tossing / sauteing, and love the weight / balance. Kick ass single piece, seamless handle. No rivets, no welds. The handle can get a tad warm, so I either use a side towel or an Ove glove. I've slipped on silicon handles on my Lodge pans, but I don't want to cover up the "Darto" name on these babies. I love 'em and am glad I found Darto before picking up more Matfer or Mauviel carbon steel.