# Question on debuyer seasoning



## brianh (Jan 12, 2014)

I seasoned my debuyer from west elm with the flax oil technique, probably about 6 times in the oven. The inside was a nice brownish color. Used it tonight with scrambled eggs which may have been ambitious as most of the seasoning came off. It's like it just rubbed off when I wiped out the pan. The edges have some brown left and a little on the bottom. What should I do? Season again or just use the thing and let it season naturally with some proteins?


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## bkultra (Jan 12, 2014)

Question did you remove the bees wax coating when you received the pan? Most boil potato skins for this purpose. I personally would season again and keep trying until I got one that was stable. It's all a learning experience

Here is a faster way to season a fry pan using the stove top

[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xoIO8YOpyN4&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DxoIO8YOpyN4[/video]


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## brianh (Jan 12, 2014)

Thanks for the response. This is one of the ones without the beeswax coating. I'll give it a cleaning and try the stovetop method. I didn't get it black on the inside, only brown, so I guess I did t season enough.


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## bkultra (Jan 12, 2014)

A true black coating will come with use, don't be to concerned with that. Or if you want a "black" coating you could season 10+ times. Remember you want very very thin coats... Just enough to make the surface look wet, but not enough to run or drip.


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## brianh (Jan 12, 2014)

I just did a quick cleaning with bkf and got most of the seasoning off. Pan started turning light brown almost instantly which I hope is not rust. I dried immediately and put on the stovetop on high heat and will do the flax oil agai . Am I worrying too much? Thanks, carbon pans are new to me.


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## Richard78 (Jan 12, 2014)

The stovetop method as posted by bkultra is the best way imo, the coating is really strong.
But somehow when I cook omelettes with oil they still stick a little. When I use butter there is no sticking at all.


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## Talim (Jan 12, 2014)

The brown stuff is probably rust. It should be grey if you've cleaned the seasoning off it. I'd clean it again with BKF and then immediately dry it off with a paper towel while it's heating up on the stove top. Once dry, coat it with oil then proceed to season it. If the vollrath video isn't working for you then I'd try the wok method. Keep in mind that seasoning will come off every now and then but it'll build up too every time you use the pan. Also before using the pan make sure it comes up to your desired temperature before putting food in it. Also be sure to put enough oil/butter/fat when cooking. It's not like teflon where you can use it with very little oil and not have it stick.


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## Bef (Jan 12, 2014)

I've had exactly the same experience with the method you used. And just before, Ihad the same issue with the Vollrath method.

I'm planning on trying the Vollrath method again, but with some canola oil instread of flaxseed oil.

Let me know if you find a way to season properply your de Buyer.


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## brianh (Jan 12, 2014)

I finally got the brown off from the inside and am re-seasoning on the stovetop. The outside also got splotchy from the bkf and light rusting which I also cleaned off. What do you do to maintain the outside of the pan, anything?


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## rahimlee54 (Jan 12, 2014)

I think the consumer stove tops aren't hot enough to get the same results as the guy in the volrath vid. Just speculation though. I changed from flax to crisco I think it looks better, I'll do a couple more coats of crisco and try it out and see.


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## brianh (Jan 12, 2014)

I think my pan got hot enough first time around on the stovetop cuz it seemed to have hit the flax's smoke point. Cheap gas oven but I'm doing on the "super" burner.


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## Bef (Jan 12, 2014)

rahimlee54 said:


> I think the consumer stove tops aren't hot enough to get the same results as the guy in the volrath vid. Just speculation though. I changed from flax to crisco I think it looks better, I'll do a couple more coats of crisco and try it out and see.



I was using an Iwatani 15,000 BTU butane stove. Got a nice, black seasoning, but it went off the first time I used it to cook eggs.


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## rahimlee54 (Jan 12, 2014)

Ok Correction I can't get a nice black seasoning then . Crisco is doing better though for me. I have a glass top stove, it gets really hot but the sides aren't taking on any color to speak of.


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## EdipisReks (Jan 12, 2014)

did you heat salt in the pan, prior to seasoning? In my experience, this is a must, if you don't want the first items you cook to stick to the seasoning better than the seasoning sticks to the pan, as it removes all of the moisture from the pan.


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## brianh (Jan 12, 2014)

For me, no salt first time but I did this second time. After two stovetop seasonings I'm at about where I was after 3-4 in my oven. My oven gets no hotter than 475 at best so maybe the oven method was too gentle.


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## Bef (Jan 12, 2014)

EdipisReks said:


> did you heat salt in the pan, prior to seasoning? In my experience, this is a must, if you don't want the first items you cook to stick to the seasoning better than the seasoning sticks to the pan, as it removes all of the moisture from the pan.



I'm not the original poster, but I had the same issues... On my side, I had the pan inthe oven for anour prior to seasoning to make sure that it was dry.

I might try Crisco, looks like we're a few guys to have had issues with the flaxseed oil method.


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## hardline_42 (Jan 12, 2014)

There's a whole lot of over thinking going on in this thread, and possibly some high expectations for seasoning results. IME, the seasoning on carbon steel doesn't get as deep or as even as cast iron. My best carbon steel is splotchy and hideous with large areas that look unseasoned, even after years of use, but it cooks and releases food like a dream. For future reference, I've never had to strip and reseason carbon steel even when certain foods make it uneven. I just keep cooking with it and the pan heals itself. A well developed seasoning looks more like this than what we're used to seeing on an old cast iron skillet:






If you've already stripped the pan, scrub until it's shiny again and try the stove top method. You don't need much more than two or three coats before it's seasoned enough to cook with. Too many coats too quickly tend to yield an unstable seasoning. Scrambled eggs are a bit ambitious for the first few weeks of using it (YMMMV) but you'll get there.


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## EdipisReks (Jan 12, 2014)

That looks like perfectly good seasoning. The very black seasoning I posted in a pic on the DeBuyer vs All-Clad thread was after many, many layers. I also find that too many layers leads to unstable seasoning, but _too_ too many gives you a thick carbon layer that is tough and very non-stock. The pic I posted was after _too_ too many.


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## Sambal (Jan 12, 2014)

I get much better nonstick with my de Buyer when cooking with butter or ghee (as mentioned earlier by Richard78). Even with eggs. Any idea why this is so? 

ER, interesting your comment that too many layers of seasoning will make the coating "unstable", but "too, too many" would give a "tough and very nonstick stock". Well, in your experience just how many layers is "too, too many"?


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## EdipisReks (Jan 12, 2014)

Too, too many is just a joke: once it becomes a stable layer of carbon, it's not really layers, anymore. You get to that point the same way you make layers of seasoning, you just keep going.


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## bkultra (Jan 12, 2014)

The most important thing to remember is... You can not ruin these pans by experimenting. Worst case you can strip the seasoning and start over. I just spent the last 3 days redoing all my cast iron (with crisco). I had no reason other then I just felt like it. 

Next up for me is playing with seasoning my forged iron pans (flaxseed). If I don't like the results I'll go back to using crisco because I have always had good results with that.


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## EdipisReks (Jan 12, 2014)

Yep, unless you cook over Mount Doom, the worst you'll do is undo everything you've done. Then do it again!

I mostly use Crisco.


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## Notaskinnychef (Jan 13, 2014)

I had a hell of a time getting the old caked on stuff off to return season it until I took it to the media Blaster at my dad's (less harsh than sand blasting). Had em in there for a few passes and it was pure raw metal. Seasoning took much easier this time. Used flaxseed method.


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## Craig (Jan 13, 2014)

hardline_42 said:


> There's a whole lot of over thinking going on in this thread, and possibly some high expectations for seasoning results. IME, the seasoning on carbon steel doesn't get as deep or as even as cast iron. My best carbon steel is splotchy and hideous with large areas that look unseasoned, even after years of use, but it cooks and releases food like a dream. For future reference, I've never had to strip and reseason carbon steel even when certain foods make it uneven. I just keep cooking with it and the pan heals itself. A well developed seasoning looks more like this than what we're used to seeing on an old cast iron skillet:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I'll echo this. I had a similar issue with one of my first carbon pans where I seasoned it to the point of being black like cast iron. After a few weeks it all came off when I was cleaning it one day, all at once. My other pan looks just like this one and works great. When I redid the first one, I stopped much earlier in the seasoning and I haven't had a problem with it since.


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## DeepCSweede (Jan 13, 2014)

I had the same issue to. I spent a day, potato peels in water, then about 10 coats of peanut oil for about an hour a crack. A week later all of that started flaking during cleaning. Next run I just did one quick run of seasoning and then started using it. After cleaning, I would put it on the stove for 5 minutes and then run a paper towel with some oil on it over it and let it cool. It took about two months to look like the one above and I am pretty happy with how it works now. I will have to try the flax oil method at some point.


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## brianh (Jan 18, 2014)

Seasoned it again with the stovetop method and flax oil. Maybe 9-10 times, it was almost all black, some brown. Used it for the first time tonight with a thick NY strip and it came out great. Only a hint of the seasoning came off, right where the steak first hit. It really acted better than non-stick.


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