Carbon Skillets

[jbart65]

I’ve thrown my cast-iron pan in the fireplace once or twice to burn everything off. Probably work on carbon too.

[gastro gnome]

I’ve thrown my cast-iron pan in the fireplace once or twice to burn everything off. Probably work on carbon too.

The self cleaning cycle on the oven does the same thing. Or a spray oven cleaner with lye. Either one will strip a pan down to raw metal.

[old onion]

I’ve thrown my cast-iron pan in the fireplace once or twice to burn everything off. Probably work on carbon too.

The self cleaning cycle on the oven does the same thing. Or a spray oven cleaner with lye. Either one will strip a pan down to raw metal.

How's the smell in the house when using the self cleaning method? I also heard that works.

[gastro gnome]

I’ve thrown my cast-iron pan in the fireplace once or twice to burn everything off. Probably work on carbon too.

The self cleaning cycle on the oven does the same thing. Or a spray oven cleaner with lye. Either one will strip a pan down to raw metal.

How's the smell in the house when using the self cleaning method? I also heard that works.

Smoke more than smell. I'd open some windows.

[old onion]

The self cleaning cycle on the oven does the same thing. Or a spray oven cleaner with lye. Either one will strip a pan down to raw metal.

How's the smell in the house when using the self cleaning method? I also heard that works.

Smoke more than smell. I'd open some windows.

Sounds like a Spring time job.

[lsboogy]

Bright Orange is about 2K - why coals are a great thing for seasoning. No oil survives at that temp - pour on what cha want as the pan cools and it will be fine. My camping pans are the best nonstick stuff ever invented - old carbon steel stuff that will never fail - just use them and be happy

[lsboogy]

@ Iso what do you mean by orange pan?

An orange pan is one you toss on the coals and go look at mushrooms for a bit while its heating up. My little camp pan has been well over 1500 degrees on many occasions - just toss some butter in it when cool and then your morning eggs. I love campfires

[Jeff B]

I dunno. I had to do this with the blue handled pans my sister had for several year (mom got mad at her and took them back and gave them to me because she kept washing them in soap and the were rusting - my sister now has my old stainless stuff) - no idea the maker but they are French from the mid 50's. I just put a good 1/2 and 1/2 mix of oil and salt in the pan (well enough to make a 2cm paste in the bottom of the pan), added a few potatoes worth of skins and cooked till brown - stir all the time.

These pans have been in use in every French home for hundreds of years with the same results. We want to have some sort of fantasy that there is a magic method - every unschooled ignorant person in France made it work by a country recipe that was loosely translated over generations. What you want to do is get rid of the machining oils and wax, put some cooking oil into the steel, and use it as long as you live. Don't put too much acid (tomatoes etc) into the pan and it will never fail. No soap, just coarse salt and a towel to scrub it out, and the longer you use it the better it gets. Simple country stuff, don't make it anything else. KISS (Keep it simple and stupid) - and the pan will be in your great grandkids kitchen.

Thanks, I'm looking forward to seasoning it. Definitely no soap. But when cleaning, can you use an abrasive scrubber with the water and salt? Or just something gentle like a sponge? Your second sentence was 106 words. Very impressive.

I am of a different mindset. I use soap in mine. Soap will remove any unpolymerized oil but not touch a quality seasoning layer. Dry your pan, just like your knives, and you will be rust free.

+1
If you have a good seasoning soap isn't going to hurt it.

[Drewski]

Sounds like while the pan is new, no soap, but then after a good layer of seasoning, soap becomes an option.

[Drewski]

So, seasoned my 12.5 DeBuyer country pan tonight. Didn't turn brown as quick or as much as I thought it would. Then cooked a shrimp stir fry. Worked beautifully. Been using large, thinner, "non-stick" sauté pans purchased from Canadian Tire (like Lagostina) for my stir frys up until this point. So glad I made the switch. Was was less scary than I thought it might be. My left forearm is sore, can imagine how strong pros using pans like this all day must be. Attached a picture after day 1. Now, to find somewhere to store this behemoth...

[Ut_ron]

Bought a de buyer 12.5 pan. Used bar keepers friend and scrubby, then soap and water. First seasoning I used the oven method. Oh my gosh it came out after two hours so messed up. Black on parts but huge spots of clear on others. Thought it didn’t matter. Tried cooking potatoes on it, stuck horribly. I believed I put the oil on too thick and not even.

Ok time to start over. Back to bkf and 0000 steel wool. 30 minutes later and a lot of elbow grease it was back to clear.

This time I used the stove top method. Oil, salt and potatoes peel. Looking good. Did a couple of heat to warm and then very oil and heat to just smoking then cool.

Still looking good. Fried so bacon and no stick. Potatoes came out great. Ok some hard stuff test. Fried an egg, one tiny stick spot but moved all over the pan and east to flip.

Really liking it Last night tried to cook a steak. Got pan hot put in some oil and then the steak. Darn it! In cooking the steak it took off about half the seasoning on the bottom and sticking a lot.

Cleaned off the stuck stuff with some hot oil and salt like I do my Dutch oven pans. Guessing I need to keep building up the seasoning.

I keep hearing about how easy but so far not. Wondering if I messed up the pan too much the first time.

[Cutuu]

Bought a de buyer 12.5 pan. Used bar keepers friend and scrubby, then soap and water. First seasoning I used the oven method. Oh my gosh it came out after two hours so messed up. Black on parts but huge spots of clear on others. Thought it didn’t matter. Tried cooking potatoes on it, stuck horribly. I believed I put the oil on too thick and not even.

Ok time to start over. Back to bkf and 0000 steel wool. 30 minutes later and a lot of elbow grease it was back to clear.

This time I used the stove top method. Oil, salt and potatoes peel. Looking good. Did a couple of heat to warm and then very oil and heat to just smoking then cool.

Still looking good. Fried so bacon and no stick. Potatoes came out great. Ok some hard stuff test. Fried an egg, one tiny stick spot but moved all over the pan and east to flip.

Really liking it Last night tried to cook a steak. Got pan hot put in some oil and then the steak. Darn it! In cooking the steak it took off about half the seasoning on the bottom and sticking a lot.

Cleaned off the stuck stuff with some hot oil and salt like I do my Dutch oven pans. Guessing I need to keep building up the seasoning.

I keep hearing about how easy but so far not. Wondering if I messed up the pan too much the first time.

I wouldn't worry about you thinking you messed up the pan. If it's not warped it should be fine. It's probably just going to take some time/technique to get it seasoned nicely.

[old onion]

Na,you didn't ruin the pan. I learned to not rush my steak when searing it.I let it release on it's own so that I don't pull off the seasoning.If it does then so be it.I just clean it and wipe on a thin coat of either peanut oil or Avocodo oil and use the stove top method to reseason it.

[old onion]

So, seasoned my 12.5 DeBuyer country pan tonight. Didn't turn brown as quick or as much as I thought it would. Then cooked a shrimp stir fry. Worked beautifully. Been using large, thinner, "non-stick" sauté pans purchased from Canadian Tire (like Lagostina) for my stir frys up until this point. So glad I made the switch. Was was less scary than I thought it might be. My left forearm is sore, can imagine how strong pros using pans like this all day must be. Attached a picture after day 1. Now, to find somewhere to store this behemoth...

Hey Drew,that little handle on the opposite side of the pan isn't there for looks.

[Drewski]

So, seasoned my 12.5 DeBuyer country pan tonight. Didn't turn brown as quick or as much as I thought it would. Then cooked a shrimp stir fry. Worked beautifully. Been using large, thinner, "non-stick" sauté pans purchased from Canadian Tire (like Lagostina) for my stir frys up until this point. So glad I made the switch. Was was less scary than I thought it might be. My left forearm is sore, can imagine how strong pros using pans like this all day must be. Attached a picture after day 1. Now, to find somewhere to store this behemoth...

Hey Drew,that little handle on the opposite side of the pan isn't there for looks.

Ha! I'll have to keep that in mind. I was shuffling the pan around while stir frying, so didn't have a free hand this time. I did purchase another carbon pan yesterday though, was on for half price at my kitchen store. This time, a Ballarini 3000 series 9 inch pan. Definitely a bit thinner than the DeBuyer but the employees had used the Ballarini line quite a bit and liked them.

Separate mini-topic: what size crepe pan is most useful for a home cook? There were a variety of sizes, and I don't have any experience making crepes so far, but wondering if there is a good general size to do it all... 8 inch? 10 inch? Obviously this depends entirely on what size crepes I want, but just hoping for some advice from people that make crepes.

[old onion]

So, seasoned my 12.5 DeBuyer country pan tonight. Didn't turn brown as quick or as much as I thought it would. Then cooked a shrimp stir fry. Worked beautifully. Been using large, thinner, "non-stick" sauté pans purchased from Canadian Tire (like Lagostina) for my stir frys up until this point. So glad I made the switch. Was was less scary than I thought it might be. My left forearm is sore, can imagine how strong pros using pans like this all day must be. Attached a picture after day 1. Now, to find somewhere to store this behemoth...

Hey Drew,that little handle on the opposite side of the pan isn't there for looks.

Ha! I'll have to keep that in mind. I was shuffling the pan around while stir frying, so didn't have a free hand this time. I did purchase another carbon pan yesterday though, was on for half price at my kitchen store. This time, a Ballarini 3000 series 9 inch pan. Definitely a bit thinner than the DeBuyer but the employees had used the Ballarini line quite a bit and liked them.

Separate mini-topic: what size crepe pan is most useful for a home cook? There were a variety of sizes, and I don't have any experience making crepes so far, but wondering if there is a good general size to do it all... 8 inch? 10 inch? Obviously this depends entirely on what size crepes I want, but just hoping for some advice from people that make crepes.

Drew,
I went with a Mauviel 9-1/2 inch" carbon crepe pan and the cooking surface is 8 inches so I find that size perfect. My wife has a 10 inch crepe pan and it's cooking surface is 8-1/2 inches and she thinks that is perfect but she don't count. After all,what's a cowgirl know beside slinging horse manure ?
Now there are smaller crepe pans but I think they are to small. I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup of batter for my pan. It's all what you want.

[Drewski]

Thanks for the advice Old. Really helpful. If anyone else has anything to add, please do. Seasoned my Ballarini pan tonight, looking good so far.

[gastro gnome]

Drewski, what types of pans are those? Maybe it's the angle of the shot, but it seems from the pictures that the pans have pretty high sides but modest cooking surfaces. Almost like a "chefs" or "weeknight" pan? Or French skillet?

I just think the carbon steel pans pans I've normally seen have a higher surface area to volume ratio.

[Drewski]

Drewski, what types of pans are those? Maybe it's the angle of the shot, but it seems from the pictures that the pans have pretty high sides but modest cooking surfaces. Almost like a "chefs" or "weeknight" pan? Or French skillet?

I just think the carbon steel pans pans I've normally seen have a higher surface area to volume ratio.

It's a Ballarini (Zwilling) 3000 series 9.5". And yes, the footprint is actually only 6". Not sure what it classifies as, but I'm waiting for sales to invest in larger pans.

https://www.zwilling.com/us/ballarini-p ... 0-890.html

[Altadan]

Alright,

I've been lurking this thread for a while, and really wrote it off when it first started.
We've been enjoying a set of Calphalon nonstick pans a whole lot these past two years, and suddenly... the gorgeous layer is starting to fade....
So here I am. Just placed an order for a deBuyer 12.5"
I've got my hopes up, more because of all y'all than because of the Amazon reviewers.
Just not sure about the seasoning; any helpful tips, or are the included instructions as good as they go?

Also, apart from tomatoes, what else should I be avoiding? please don't say "onions"