DARTO pans

[adey73]

17 hours ago, quiet1 said:

For some reason my 27 isn't seasoning as well as the smaller one, even though I'm using the same method. Annoying.

 

I had that too, but the other way round 27 came out a treat but 23 is a blotchy mess.

 

Oven cleaner and then start again, anyone?

[chefmd]

First time cooking fish in my Darto pan and it did not stick!  Love it.

 

[rotuts]

@chefmd  

 

is that on induction ?

 

 

[chefmd]

1 hour ago, rotuts said:

@chefmd  

 

is that on induction ?

 

 

No, it is on electric.  I have an old Viking induction burner that does not recognize some items that should be induction compatible.  It was top of the line when I bought it but it is probably time for a new one.  Funny story about this burner.  My mother in law gave my husband and me a matching pair of Burbery scarves from Neiman Marcus for Christmas one year.  Never mind that she is Jewish and that we are not into designer fashion and do not celebrate Christmas.  I was delighted to discover that NM sold Viking in their on line catalog.  Exchange ensued.  I assured my MIL that I will use induction every day but the scarves would not be used often.  She was cool with that.  

[Anna N]

 These eggs were fried in my small pan. I have never measured it but I'm guessing it is probably the 23? It will just hold two eggs with a little bit of room around them. I have never been as successful with the next size up and have now started again from bare metal. 

Edited to add

 

I see @adey73 has a similar issue.  Strange. 

Edited January 29, 2017 by Anna N (log)

[TicTac]

My re-seasoning (first method was a flawed oven method) came out quite well on my MB 12 inch. 

 

10-12 rounds (I lost track!) of flax seed oil seasoning on stove top, letting it cool 100% before moving on to subsequent rounds.

 

The key I found was to apply a small amount, and then wipe it off with a clean cloth, let it get to smoking and then cool.  The minute amount left  post wipe is more than sufficient to create the layer for that round.

Edited January 29, 2017 by TicTac (log)

[scubadoo97]

I've not let it cool to ambient temp.   Am I messing up the cross linking?   I've been taking them down to around 120f or so.   About the point I first let it warm up to apply the first layer of oil

[quiet1]

My larger Darto seems to be getting seasoned by sheer force of persistence, although it isn't the lovely even almost factory-like finish some folks manage. It is, however, AMAZING. I get a fantastic sear with it on meats, now that it is better seasoned it works nicely on eggs (although this is still a work in progress,) and tonight I used it for pancakes with just a drop of oil to start, and they browned and came up beautifully. I am in love.

 

I do find the weight a little unwieldy, but it's worth it for the results. My housemate might grind the edges of the handle a little, also - they're a little sharp. (Not like they'd cut you, but they are so squared off they dig in unpleasantly when handling the pan in certain ways, especially for him - might be a function of how you grip the pan and hand size?)

 

If I get a larger stove so I have more than one decent burner, I might have to get another pan so I can have two going at a time for bigger dinners with steak or similar. Still, these pans seem to handle crowding pretty well - my other frying pan steams everything as soon as I get more than two steaks in the pan, even if there should be adequate room for three. (Not large steaks, obviously.) The Darto does three no problems.

[TicTac]

I have a question, though not necessarily about Darto - about Carbon Steel in general.

 

As previously mentioned I put my pan through 10 layers of Flax seasoning, looked great - cooked a steak on it last night, worked out very nicely...

 

My issue is when it comes to cleaning - I did not want to be abrasive at all nor use soap, so I sacrificed a cloth and some hot water and wiped it down.

 

The fat came off, but so did a 1x1 cm flake of the original seasoning - which really frustrated me!

 

Am I doing something wrong?!

 

 

[Jon Savage]

I'm really happy with my 27 cm pan. Used it several times & it seems quite non stick already. My wife remarked it seems like Teflon.

 

I did nothing special upon receipt; just gave it a good scrub & seasoned with rice bran oil.

 

Eggs just slide around too. It is, in short, my new favorite pan.

 

TicTac - that's kinda sorta normal. Keep using it; no need to get too crazy about seasoning it as it will most likely sort itself out.

[Martin Fisher]

I'm considering ordering the 5 piece set with 'free shipping' for $226.00 USD at some point. 

[gfweb]

Made some fried chicken last night in the Darto....one step seasoning of the pan

[rotuts]

I finally got around to seasoning my two DARTO's test. on the gas range.  68 outside and the windows were all open w a nice breeze.

 

I use as little flax seed oil as possible and went to smoking and there was very little odor.  after wiping all over w s lint free cloth w the min. on the cloth,

 

I then wiped then down lightly again w a clean cloth , which i used over and over.  

 

i did the second wipe down after the first where there were fain swirls from the first coat which you could only see w oblique  light.

 

the smaller pan , # 23

 

 

about 8 coats .

 

used it this am for sunny side up eggs w a little butter in the pan fist.  eggs slid all around , ' butter skating ' they were

 

here is the larger pan , the # 27

 

if you look closely there is a very small blemish , a tiny nick , lower R quadrant.  this is of my own doing and not from Argentina.  my pans had been sitting around

 

for a bit waiting for the right day.  I can feel this nick , even though it small .  I should have rubbed it out before starting  

 

maybe some 600 grit wet / dry sand paper    then some rubbing compound to leave no trace of fine scratches on the initial bottom.

 

Ill probably et-do it some time ,  who likes to be reminded one's and idiot every time i use this pan.

 

wonderful pans.

 

 

[rotuts]

I tried low temp scrambled eggs in the small DARTO and was surprised it did not work

 

Is not the pan , but the finish that worked fine for fried eggs , i.e. cooked at a higher temp

 

melt butter in the pan, on low heat   in this case  induction @ 100 F.   stir the eggs around slowly until curds for and the mass is still soft

 

3 - 4 minutes ?  used a silicone spatula.

 

for the first couple of slow stirs no problem , then the eggs stated to stick  and indeed the pan had to be filled with warm water and scrubbed out

 

with a teflon sponge.

 

Ive never done this s a cast iron pan that had good patina so seems the non-stick coating needs a minimal temp or it doesn't work

 

anyone had similar issues w lower temp cooking w polymerized coatings ?

 

new to me

[Anna N]

Hmmm. Not sure. I made an omelette yesterday with no sticking. Heated the pan then added butter. Waited till it stopped foaming, poured in two beaten eggs, left them alone till they started to set then reduced the heat. Lifted edges to let uncooked egg flow under. Added filling before the egg was dry, folded and "poured" onto plate. 

[rotuts]

my butter may not have gotten to the sizzle.

 

I think that's the issue : lower temp cooking.    scrambled eggs cooked over low heat end up like very soft barely formed custard and taste different

 

these are traditionally done in a double boiler 

 

my T-fal 8 " pan

 

T-fal E93802 Professional Total Nonstick Thermo-Spot Heat Indicator Fry Pan, 8-Inch

 

on the Burton set on #1 or 100  F  with some butter in the pan first does a fine job 

 

I can fiddle w the coffee and the CSB for toast for a few minutes while the beaten eggs warm up the use the silicone

 

spatula to finish them off.

 

I jut thought id mention that it seems  poly,prized coatings need a minims temp first to  ??  firm up ?

Edited February 27, 2017 by Smithy
Adjusted link to be Amazon-friendly (log)

[btbyrd]

Darto is currently offering free shipping for orders over $100. They now also apparently offer a payment plan.

 

RE: Scrambled eggs, I've only found two ways to make them in carbon steel that avoid sticking. The first uses my Mirage Pro induction burner, which offers relatively good temperature control when using carbon steel. I set it to 65C, let it preheat, add a good amount of butter, and add the eggs while stirring relatively frequently. If I drop the temp to 60C, the eggs will stay warm buy basically won't cook; if I go up to 70C, they'll cook much faster but start to stick. At 65C, there's relatively little sticking (but still some); it's the Goldilocks temp. However, given the low temperature, the eggs take FOREVER to cook. But the result is extremely silky, rich, custardy scrambled eggs with small curds. These are my favorite scrambled eggs, similar in texture/results to Heston's method of making scrambled eggs in a double boiler. Takes a while, and you have to stir it not infrequently... but if you're having a lazy morning and want primo scrambled eggs, that's the way to go.

The other option is to go at a much higher temp, still using a goodly amount of butter, and do a quick scramble. You want hte pan hot enough that butter will melt and foam rapidly, but not so hot that it starts rapidly browning/burning the milk solids. When I care a lot about the results, I don't like to do this because it cooks the eggs too quickly which can make them tough and dry if you're not watching them carefully. Even if you time it right, the eggs aren't my favorite -- but they're perfectly fine for a quick weekday breakfast and there's little sticking if the pan is hot enough.

For cooking scrambled eggs at a normal, intermediate temperature but avoiding sticking... I still haven't found a good method (and I use lots of butter). However, that's the ONLY thing that I miss about having a "real" non-stick pan. I may eventually pick up a Scanpan or other similar nonstick for breakfast duties, but for now I'm sticking (sometimes literally) with carbon steel.

[rotuts]

@btbyrd 

 

thanks for your comments  

 

I use this pan :

 

T-fal E93802 Professional Total Nonstick Thermo-Spot Heat Indicator Fry Pan, 8-Inch

 

the 8 " for two eggs and the 10 " for more on the Burton induction plate.   I set it to 100 f with a little butter first and it works well.

 

so for low temp cooking these work fine.  

 

 

Edited March 22, 2017 by Smithy
Adjusted link to be Amazon-friendly (log)

[btbyrd]

I used to have one of those pans and liked it quite a bit, but had an issue using it on induction with temp control. The problem is that the pan doesn't have enough mass to adequately heat the temp-sensing element in the induction burner while it's warming up. The result, in my experience, is that it SEVERELY overshoots the set temp. I set mine to 65C and let it heat, and butter scorched and blackened immediately upon adding it to the pan. After cleaning it up and cooling it down, I set it to 65C once more and used an infrared thermometer to measure pan temp. It got up over 425F before I turned the burner off to prevent it from damaging the nonstick coating. Instead of getting 65C (or a little more) I got 218C in the pan. No me gusta. Something similar is going on with your burner, since 100F is much too low a temp to cook eggs. Maybe I could get it to work by way undershooting the temperature, like you're doing. In any event, that T-fal pan is nice (if light) and I even got one for my mother for Christmas this year. It worked great for me on gas and smoothtop electric ranges, but I didn't like it much for induction. But I digress.

[rotuts]

the Burton works fine at its lowest temps    100 and 150 F

 

higher than that on these pans  , judging by the areas that boil , the set-up is a poor one

 

at 100 F   ( setting # 1 )  i frist melt a little butter , then add the beaten eggs and do other stuff ;

 

get the coffee going , get the toast toasting  etc.   the eggs barely cook.  once everything is in order :

 

I turn the burton up to 150 and rapidly move the eggs around w a silicone spatula for a very short time.  as soon as I see cooked eggs on the bottom of the ban

 

I take the pan off the induction surface and Finnish them that way , take only a few seconds.   these are very soft custard like eggs

 

the way I like scrambled eggs.   using this pan I get away w less butter but get the butter flavor in the eggs.

Edited March 22, 2017 by rotuts (log)

[kayb]

OK. I am about to take on seasoning my three new Lodge carbon steel pans. I plan to use flaxseed oil, as that seems to be the oil of choice. I have an electric stove. As I understand it, my procedure is to heat the pan moderately, add some oil, wipe it down, then put it back on the heat until that thin film of oil smokes; then cool a bit and wipe it out, and repeat the process 10-15 times. 

 

What temp should the stove be set? Do I just do it on high? Medium high? 

 

 

[rotuts]

make your layers as thin as possible.

 

you could use the oven and do all three at the same time.

 

let them cool completely.

 

here is some info :

 

smoke point for flax seed oil

 

the smoke point for flaxseed oil seems low , that's barely above boiling water !

 

good luck

[lindag]

I'm SO tempted by the #27.  I have an aging All Clad 3 qt. non-stick saute pan that I will need to replace one day and AC no longer makes this model. 

Like rotuts, I really don't need another pan and will have to squeeze it in to store it, but I'm having a hard time resisting.  Haven't pulled the trigger yet, but the thought keep circling around in my head.

[rotuts]

@lindag 

 

if you can afford it , don't resist.  its a beauty.

 

that will give you ' room ' to resist something else.

 

' resisting room ' is finite.  find out what's next in line.  You don't even know about it  yet.

 

[btbyrd]

EDIT: This post is actually not accurate and was written hastily. There is actually no warping at all, just a slightly rounded bottom on all of my Dartos that I'd never noticed before.

My No. 27 came slightly warped, but it's gotten more warped recently. It wouldn't bother me if I still had a gas range, but now that I cook on a flat electric cooktop (or induction HOB), the wobble is annoying. Grr.

Edited May 18, 2017 by btbyrd (log)