Few notes on seasoning, unless it’s a pan you’re using daily, there’s a chance for animal fats to go off particularly if you haven’t fully polymerized them. Not a problem if it’s a daily driver, but if you only pull it out in winter months or every few months it’s more of an issue.
Past that, there’s some theory but it’s basically just people testing stuff and finding what works. Not a lot of science on seasoning pans sadly.
The general consensus from cast iron restorers and manufacturers that I’ce gathered is animal fats don’t have the right chemical makeup for optimal polymerizing. You want 3 things, a high polyunsaturated fat content, a high polyunsaturated:monounsaturated ratio, and for it to not be a drying oil.
Can animal fats work? Sure, but just about any fat can be used, some folks have even gotten good results with flaxseed even though most find it to be flaky.
Generally, you want a non-drying/semi drying fat, that has a high polyunsaturated fat content and a high polyunsat:monounsat. Saturated fats aren’t great for polymerization since they tend to be less reactive. Happy bonds, sad seasoning.
Bacon fat (and bacon by extension) which you see people tend to recommend is particularly bad, at least in the states because the overwhelming majority of cures here use sugar (gasp). Nothing destroys baby seasoning faster than caramelizing sugars, and I’d include acids in that.
Grape seed, high linoleic sunflower (not the stuff off the shelf) tend to be among the best. Soybean is also supposed to be decent, and crisco is a grandmother classic, while relatively high in saturated fats does have a decent poly:mono ratio.
But again, anything works. Hell, I use avocado since it’s what I tend to cook with and it’s fine, but the pans are used 2-4x a week.
If the pan is gonna be used regularly, it really doesn’t matter. Your initial seasoning isn’t likely to survive contact with the enemy for long, so it’ll be replaced and repaired with whatever you cook with. Get whatever cooking oil you have that isn’t flax, and use it, and then just use the pan.
Also, smoke point doesn’t matter. That’s one of the bigger takeaways from browsing posts by restorers who probably apply more seasoning in a week then I will in a lifetimes. Polymerization isn’t kicked off at the smoke point, it’s just accelerated by increased temp. Similar to how you can brew coffee in your fridge overnight, in a sous vide over a few hours or in dripper in a few minutes based on temp, you can also drop the temp of seasoning considerably. I use mostly avocado, which smokes at somewhere around 450-480? And I season it by putting it on the control freak at 300-325 for 2-3 hours. No smoke generated, my lungs are happier and it’s cheaper than heating up the oven for a shorter duration higher temp
(Oh and if you find it to be flaky, go thinner. You’re generating a thin film which tend to see immense stresses. Going too thick can lead to a loss of flexibility and cracking. Thin You should be wiping oil off at least twice. Once when you are “applying” it (really just applying the faintest trace of oil to the surface) and once when the pan is hot and the pores of the metal have expanded, to make sure the oil gets into the pores and to remove the extra)
Past that, there’s some theory but it’s basically just people testing stuff and finding what works. Not a lot of science on seasoning pans sadly.
The general consensus from cast iron restorers and manufacturers that I’ce gathered is animal fats don’t have the right chemical makeup for optimal polymerizing. You want 3 things, a high polyunsaturated fat content, a high polyunsaturated:monounsaturated ratio, and for it to not be a drying oil.
Can animal fats work? Sure, but just about any fat can be used, some folks have even gotten good results with flaxseed even though most find it to be flaky.
Generally, you want a non-drying/semi drying fat, that has a high polyunsaturated fat content and a high polyunsat:monounsat. Saturated fats aren’t great for polymerization since they tend to be less reactive. Happy bonds, sad seasoning.
Bacon fat (and bacon by extension) which you see people tend to recommend is particularly bad, at least in the states because the overwhelming majority of cures here use sugar (gasp). Nothing destroys baby seasoning faster than caramelizing sugars, and I’d include acids in that.
Grape seed, high linoleic sunflower (not the stuff off the shelf) tend to be among the best. Soybean is also supposed to be decent, and crisco is a grandmother classic, while relatively high in saturated fats does have a decent poly:mono ratio.
But again, anything works. Hell, I use avocado since it’s what I tend to cook with and it’s fine, but the pans are used 2-4x a week.
If the pan is gonna be used regularly, it really doesn’t matter. Your initial seasoning isn’t likely to survive contact with the enemy for long, so it’ll be replaced and repaired with whatever you cook with. Get whatever cooking oil you have that isn’t flax, and use it, and then just use the pan.
Also, smoke point doesn’t matter. That’s one of the bigger takeaways from browsing posts by restorers who probably apply more seasoning in a week then I will in a lifetimes. Polymerization isn’t kicked off at the smoke point, it’s just accelerated by increased temp. Similar to how you can brew coffee in your fridge overnight, in a sous vide over a few hours or in dripper in a few minutes based on temp, you can also drop the temp of seasoning considerably. I use mostly avocado, which smokes at somewhere around 450-480? And I season it by putting it on the control freak at 300-325 for 2-3 hours. No smoke generated, my lungs are happier and it’s cheaper than heating up the oven for a shorter duration higher temp
(Oh and if you find it to be flaky, go thinner. You’re generating a thin film which tend to see immense stresses. Going too thick can lead to a loss of flexibility and cracking. Thin You should be wiping oil off at least twice. Once when you are “applying” it (really just applying the faintest trace of oil to the surface) and once when the pan is hot and the pores of the metal have expanded, to make sure the oil gets into the pores and to remove the extra)
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vintage.
