Oils for seasoning Cast Iron

[rotuts]

what sizes did you get ?

 

eventual pics in the DARTo thread ?

Edited December 26, 2016 by rotuts (log)

[Norm Matthews]

re linseed oil:  It's the binder that has been used in artists oil paint for the last 500 years.  Flax oil is food grade linseed oil. 

 

 

[daveb]

Amazon has the Flaxseed oil, several variants of it.  I use it in the oven, light application, wipe, into hot oven for an hour, turn oven off, let cool.  Repeat.  Have done same on stove top and outside on the wok burner.  

 

In "Breath of a Wok"  Young talks of final seasoning of a wok with Chinese onions or spring onions for luck.  I need all the luck I can get in the kitchen so my last seasoning session  I'll saute a qt or so of onions until carmalized.  No defensible reason just my thing. 

 

The only time I've had flake offs was when I tried to shortcut the process and use to much oil at once.  Don't do that anymore.

[quiet1]

14 hours ago, Anna N said:

I was fortunate enough to receive two of the Argentinian pans for Christmas. I seasoned  them in my own peculiar way.  Grapeseed oil that was spread on and then practically removed and heated and cooled over and over again but not at the high heats recommended.  There are two sentiment beings in this house both with serious breathing issues and smoke is just unacceptable.   I am cooking my breakfast and one of them this morning and so far it appears to be remarkably nonstick.  

 

What sort of level of heat did you use? I don't particularly want to smoke up the house or wait until it is warm enough out to get away with opening windows and doors for ventilation so I am curious about lower heat seasoning.

[btbyrd]

If "seasoning" means adding a durable, non-stick layer of polymerized oil and carbon to cast iron or carbon steel, it cannot be done at low temperatures.

[Anna N]

5 hours ago, quiet1 said:

 

What sort of level of heat did you use? I don't particularly want to smoke up the house or wait until it is warm enough out to get away with opening windows and doors for ventilation so I am curious about lower heat seasoning.

 I think it is impossible to describe heat settings unless you resort to thermometer readings which I'm not about to do. I still got the pan very hot but I wasn't prepared to fill my house with smoke.  Despite warnings that it cannot be done this way I was able to fry an egg yesterday with barely a teaspoon of oil and no sticking.   I am quite satisfied with the surface of the pans.  YMMV

[lindag]

I've found that with flaxseed oil that it goes rancid very quickly.  I keep oils like that in the fridge now to extend their life.

[Norm Matthews]

The flax oil I got recently was refrigerated at the pharmacy.  I used the new steel pan for an omelet this morning.  I had seasoned it with the flax oil 6 times, then wiped it with olive oil last night and made the omelet this morning with a little butter. It slid around the pan like it was on ice. 

[TicTac]

Either I botched something or Tofu isn't the best thing to try on this type of pan for the first time....

 

 

[daveb]

Tofu is never the best thing.

[quiet1]

13 hours ago, Anna N said:

 I think it is impossible to describe heat settings unless you resort to thermometer readings which I'm not about to do. I still got the pan very hot but I wasn't prepared to fill my house with smoke.  Despite warnings that it cannot be done this way I was able to fry an egg yesterday with barely a teaspoon of oil and no sticking.   I am quite satisfied with the surface of the pans.  YMMV

 

Going by your example, I just tried seasoning mine on the stove with thin layers of oil and heating it not quite to smoking between coats, then letting it cool a bit, heat, repeat. I did 4 layers, I might do a couple more tomorrow. Might just try it with an egg for breakfast and see how it does.  It looks reasonable, at least.

 

(I used canola oil since that is what I had handy. Wiped a thin layer on to a warm pan, let it heat a bit, then wipe again with a dry towel to make sure the layer of oil was VERY thin, which is something I got somewhere or another from a video on seasoning cast iron on YouTube since sometimes the oil kind of beads up a bit if it is a touch too thick.)

[paulraphael]

Rotus' basic premise is the right one. Use an oil high in polyunsaturated fat and it makes short work of seasoning. I use safflower oil, which according to this chart is higher in polyunsaturated fats than any of the others. I don't think those small differences are too important ... sunflower and corn and canola oil should work fine. I just happen to have safflower around for sauteeing. It's a good choice if you're shopping for an oil specifically for this purpose.

 

One detail that's helpful is to look for oils that list the smoke point. When the oils are highly refined, they have higher smoke points ... sometimes 450°F or higher. These high heat versions are ideal. I set the oven about 25° higher than the smoke point. You want the oil to partially burn—the seasoning is created by a mix of polymerized oil and carbonized oil. It's the carbonized (blackened) soot particles that make the polymer stick-resistant. If you just polymerize the oil without any blackening, food will stick like crazy.

 

Definitely do it in multiple thin layers. I put oil on a piece of paper towel and wipe it onto the pan very lightly (using tongs when the pan is hot). Put in the oven until it smokes and the smoke starts subsiding. Pull it out and repeat. You can do 5 or 6 layers in a half hour. The house will smell bad for a while.

[quiet1]

1 hour ago, paulraphael said:

Rotus' basic premise is the right one. Use an oil high in polyunsaturated fat and it makes short work of seasoning. I use safflower oil, which according to this chart is higher in polyunsaturated fats than any of the others. I don't think those small differences are too important ... sunflower and corn and canola oil should work fine. I just happen to have safflower around for sauteeing. It's a good choice if you're shopping for an oil specifically for this purpose.

 

One detail that's helpful is to look for oils that list the smoke point. When the oils are highly refined, they have higher smoke points ... sometimes 450°F or higher. These high heat versions are ideal. I set the oven about 25° higher than the smoke point. You want the oil to partially burn—the seasoning is created by a mix of polymerized oil and carbonized oil. It's the carbonized (blackened) soot particles that make the polymer stick-resistant. If you just polymerize the oil without any blackening, food will stick like crazy.

 

Definitely do it in multiple thin layers. I put oil on a piece of paper towel and wipe it onto the pan very lightly (using tongs when the pan is hot). Put in the oven until it smokes and the smoke starts subsiding. Pull it out and repeat. You can do 5 or 6 layers in a half hour. The house will smell bad for a while.

 

I have a pair of steam-proof oven gloves (with fingers, not mitts) that I find super handy for this kind of thing - if I'm careful I can hold the paper towel in my gloved hand and rub directly, which helps sometimes with making sure to get right into corners. (Less an issue on the Darto pans because they are nicely rounded, but with cast iron that has more of a corner, being able to get right in there is useful.)

 

I may have just ordered another Darto because I needed the 27 also and there was still free shipping... (It was between the 27 and the 34 paella pan. Still not convinced I went with the right one, but the 34 seems like it might be a touch too big.)

[CentralMA]

It's not often that I need to season cast iron as much of my stock has been well cared for and passed down over the years. But a recent purchase of a De Buyer Mineral B got me thinking about how to get started. 

 

I agonized over this for at least a week. Each morning though I cooked up some bacon, a couple of eggs, then wiped out with some toast, and had breakfast. Eventually I forgot to agonize, and the pan was seasoned as it should be. My grandmother would be proud of me, doing it the way she would have, so it matches her pans in the rack.

 

When I was in my late teens, back in the early seventies, I ran across a large deep cast skillet at the Salvation Army. An easy inch of solid carbon inside. Wasn't smart enough to burn it out, eventually chiseled it out, then a good sanding with varying grades of emery cloth and motor oil (yes...motor oil) to clean up the residue. That pan, 40 years later, is a pleasure to use. That one too got it's seasoning only through general use.  

[paulraphael]

Certainly it works to just use a pan. It's probably what most people did over the years. The other ways are for if you're in a hurry, or want to make sure you get the smoothest or most durable finish. At least the smarter versions will accomplish this.

[weinoo]

It's taken a while, but I've gotten these to the point where they've become my daily nonstick frying/sauté pans, and I've relegated the purchased nonstick pans to a back shelf.

 

[Susie Q]

I got my grandmother's and great aunt's cast iron. Grandy used lard to season her skillets and chicken fryer and on the other side of the family the shepherds at the sheep camp used sheep fat and what ever cooking oil was in camp to season the cast iron Dutch ovens and skillets. 

 

They didn't buy a specific special oil, all were and are nonstick from years of use so I also use lard or oil for up keep.