Seasoning Carbon Steel

[Margaret Pilgrim]

14 hours ago, kayb said:

 

 

I have also  been known to cuss when I break a yolk flipping an egg. Which I do, sadly, more often than not. Which is why I don't fry eggs much. And why I keep my son-in-law (well, he's a good kid, and I keep him for other reasons), because, damn, that boy can fry an egg.

 

 

Our son, using a dedicated non-stick pan, flips fried eggs.    I just watch, astounded.   I turn them with a spatula.   He told me that the only way he can turn them is by flipping, that when he tries to use a spatula he either breaks them or loses them onto the stoptop.    Different strokes.

[chromedome]

It's unrelated to the current discussion of eggs, but every time my eye meets the title of this thread the (sizable) smart-alec side of my brain says "Oh, just salt and pepper usually..."

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Our son, using a dedicated non-stick pan, flips fried eggs.    I just watch, astounded.   I turn them with a spatula.   He told me that the only way he can turn them is by flipping, that when he tries to use a spatula he either breaks them or loses them onto the stoptop.    Different strokes.

 

I flip too.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

I confess that I flunked "seasoning 1".    I have meticulously followed manufacturers' instructions only to wind up with an unseasoned pan.  BUT most all of my cast iron pans and one Dutch oven, my calphlon dedicated to deep frying and several woks have become perfectly seasoned.   Because, I believe, they are used consistently with oils and never scoured clean.    The Dutch oven is one I use for bread and which I spray with cooking spray each use and only rinse out with water.   In my mental "notebook", it is the repeated use of oil that is allowed to gradually adhere that creates the desired surface.  

[weinoo]

Either that or you're just lucky.

[CentralMA]

On 10/8/2020 at 5:36 PM, weinoo said:

 

Nope...

 

 

You're getting them sunny side up, over easy, or over hard. From the griddle. At any "breakfast place" or "diner" I know. Real ones.

 

 

Why would you want a fond when you're making fried eggs?

How often do you get to Worcester? And why would you if I may be so bold to ask?

40+ years ago I worked on Shrewsbury Street, had many a lunch at the Boulevard. Great pic by the way...it actually looks pretty clean. And many a 3AM visit too, after carousing around the city until 2AM. Lots of stories. 

And the Arturo's pic? That in Westboro? ~30 years ago I tended bar for a spell at the previous location in Worcester (their location previous to Worcester was in West Boylston).

[Beusho]

Well it's almost a year and I was using my carbon steel pan consistently 3-4 times a week trying to build up a nonstick layer and..it kind of works. There are spots on the pan that never developed into non-stick. I generally just rinse and dry the pan, maybe with salt and oil if there is gunk. After drying it I put a tiny amount of oil and heat and wipe out. It's been pretty disappointing but after so much work with the pan it has made me appreciate my heavy cast iron and also my T-fal non-stick. Pretty sure I'll retire it soon 

[weinoo]

6 hours ago, Beusho said:

Well it's almost a year and I was using my carbon steel pan consistently 3-4 times a week trying to build up a nonstick layer and..it kind of works. There are spots on the pan that never developed into non-stick. I generally just rinse and dry the pan, maybe with salt and oil if there is gunk. After drying it I put a tiny amount of oil and heat and wipe out. It's been pretty disappointing but after so much work with the pan it has made me appreciate my heavy cast iron and also my T-fal non-stick. Pretty sure I'll retire it soon 

 

I understand you dry it, oil it and wipe it out before putting it away.  But the next time you use it, do you heat it, put a tiny drop of oil in it, and wipe it out before you start actually cooking in it.  Because this is the method I use for all non non-stick pans (i.e. cast iron, whatever my wok is made out of, carbon steel). Even when using stainless steel or lined copper, the pan needs to be at a proper temperature for stuff not to stick.

[weinoo]

11 hours ago, CentralMA said:

How often do you get to Worcester? And why would you if I may be so bold to ask?

40+ years ago I worked on Shrewsbury Street, had many a lunch at the Boulevard. Great pic by the way...it actually looks pretty clean. And many a 3AM visit too, after carousing around the city until 2AM. Lots of stories. 

And the Arturo's pic? That in Westboro? ~30 years ago I tended bar for a spell at the previous location in Worcester (their location previous to Worcester was in West Boylston).

 

Worcester - a few times a year - we have good friends who live in Shrewsbury (actually Holden now). If we've got a concert or some other thing we're going to in Boston, we'll also stay a night or two in Shrewsbury. And it's good for the legal pot stores. 

So we've been to both the Boulevard and the Miss Worcester - two classics, if ever there were! 

 

And this isn't the Arturo's in Westboro - it's the one on Houston St., here in Manhattan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[CentralMA]

3 minutes ago, weinoo said:

 

Worcester - And it's good for the legal pot stores. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now there's a new marketing campaign. Sure beats the old one "Worcester, Paris of the Eighties"

 

 

Next time in the area have your friends take you to Westboro. Arturo's is well regarded in the area, in business for 40 years.