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Curing Carbon Steel

post #1 of 7
12/24/08 at 5:25pm
Thread Starter 
Got a set of debuyer carbon steel skillets as a present. The instructions say to cure it by first boiling potato skins for 15 minutes.

Got a couple of questions:

1. What purpose does boiling the potato skins serve?
2. Does the pan have to be filled with water, or just enough to cover the skins.

Next it says to rinse the pan with very hot water, wipe it, and heat oil in the pan.

3. Again, is this just a slick of oil, or does the pan have to be filled?

And what would happen if I just cured it like cast iron?

Thanks.
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post #2 of 7
12/24/08 at 6:02pm
I think they're using the boiling and the potato scrap for cleaning up any
production residue.

I've seen a number of references to using rice rinsing water for cleaning woks as the starch sucks up the grease and so forth.

But yes, you could cure it as with cast iron.
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post #3 of 7
12/24/08 at 9:32pm
Your post has stirred my memory and it occurs to me that sticking a carbon knife in a potato was one method used to patinate the blade. So perhaps the potato skins in boiling water helps along the patination as well as what I noted above from wok lore.

Phil
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post #4 of 7
12/25/08 at 3:41am
To help with curing/seasoning my carbon steel pan, I chose to deep fry taco shells in it. Mmmmmmm. Homemade tacos just like my dear late mother made.
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post #5 of 7
12/26/08 at 4:19pm
Can you tell me more about poking CS knives into potatos? Seems to me with my 30+ years experience with CS knives, that allowing several different kinds of foodstuffs to reside on the blade overnight will cause darkening, aka patination, aka developing patina.
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post #6 of 7
12/26/08 at 5:10pm
Precisely. It's sort of like gun bluing which is basically a form of controlled rust. But it forms a protective layer. As far as knives go, it's more a matter of taste for appearance, but it does offer some surface protection from further oxidation.

So the boiling potato skins might be a related concept but that's really just a guess.

Phil
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post #7 of 7
12/29/08 at 5:02pm
http://www.cheftalk.com/forums/cooki...l-skillet.html

Have fun!
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