Seasoning of Stainless Steel fry pan

[Kate Kelley]

Is there something you must do to prepare a brand new stainless steel/copper fry pan for cooking?

[cape chef]

Originally Posted by Kate Kelley

Is there something you must do to prepare a brand new stainless steel/copper fry pan for cooking?

Of course you want to wash it

If you want to season your pan, cover the bottom of the pan with salt and about an half inch of a high burning point oil. Heat your pan until it smokes, turn off the heat and let is sit until it is safe to discard the oil and salt.Then with a clean cloth wipe out the remaining salt and oil. This process seals the pores of the pan and will prevent foods from sticking. If you wash your pan you will need to re-season it.

[amy]

if you season it with salt and oil won't this season it for the life of the pan, what do you mean you'll have re season after it's been washed, confused by your response...

[chefmikesworld]

Amy,

Because the stainless steel is such a porus metal, when you bring the face of the metal in contact with hot water it opens up the pores in the pan and will extract the oils that you used to season it with....

This method is to protect it from sticking, if you are using the pan for general saute etc. this method really is not necessary, but I usually do it when I first purchase a saute pan.

Good question...

Cheffy

[chefmikesworld]

I should have added that that is the purpose of the salt, the salt aids in the opening of the pores of the pan to allow the salt/oil mixture seep into its pores...

Cheffy

[phatch]

Originally Posted by chefmikesworld

I should have added that that is the purpose of the salt, the salt aids in the opening of the pores of the pan to allow the salt/oil mixture seep into its pores...

Can you point to some sources to verify the function of salt in this process? The reasoning sounds suspect to me. Salt doesn't dissolve in oil so you won't get any of salt's fun ionic functions and the chemistry of the stainless steel and salt doesn't fit what I know of chemistry.

Phil

[chefmikesworld]

Hey Phil,

This is a good point, and I will see what I can find, but you make sense, this is just what I have been taught and never questioned it...

Will do some looking around and see what I find...

Thanks for provoking thought...

Cheffy

[chefmikesworld]

OK...who wants to pick this one up...

I called Chef Roy yesterday after getting the original reply from Philip, he told me that my substance abuse in those days factored into my memory loss, that he never taught me that...LOL...

OK...sooooooooooooo....I did some looking around in my library, stashed away in an ancient volume of Gastrominique I found instructions to a saute pan I bought eons ago, and it said the same thing that me and Cape said originally (more in the line of what Cape said, not me)...

Soooooooooooo........scientifically it does not make sense to me now that I think about it for several reasons...as Philip so happily pointed out...

Salt does not disolve in oil...salt can contribute nothing to the metal other than being an abrasive when cleaning out the pan of the oil (now that I think about it)...

So now I am lost and confused...I have been using this method for close to twenty years now and never questioned it before because it has always worked...now I want to know why it works...

Who's next???????????

[phatch]

I know a few people who do this with cleaning cast iron to preserve the seasoning and it may carry over from that many many years ago.

Stainless steel resists the carbon patination that carbon steel, such a wok, develops and as cast iron develops.

I can see that wiping out the hot pan with the salt and oil solution would help scour out the pores of any stuck micro bits and leave a sheen of oil behind for good performance for the next use.

That's about as far as I can take it with my knowledge and resources.

phil