Carbon Steel Pan Guide: Seasoning, Cleaning, Maintenance, Cooking Techniques

Simple guide on how to use carbon steel pans on the daily. Cleaning and storing, nonstick cooking techniques, and maintenance. Season a new pan or re-season an old one included. How to season carbon steel wok, how to fix warped carbon steel pan, carbon steel pan daily use.

Watch next:

0:00 - Intro
0:45 - Nonstick Cooking Techniques
3:12 - Cleaning and Storing
5:17 - Nuking and Re-seasoning stovetop method
7:30 - Fixing Warped Pan
8:16 - Seasoning New Carbon Steel From Factory

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[Chow-House]

Tip for all the wok fans: If you have a gas burner then you can remove the diffuser plate on your burner to get a jet flame that focuses the heat on the center bottom of your wok where you want it!

[berniem.]

Wow, almost 100% correct info on carbon steel (which also works for cast iron) in a, compact, short format. I like it.
Just use even less oil or wipe the excess off more thoroughly before it turns into rubber when seasoning a new skillet. Your layers still are too thick so the oil pilymerizes only partially while the rest turns into sticky gunk.

But aside from that, I really like your video. It condenses a lot of good information from other channels like Uncle Scott's Kitchen, Cowboy Kent Rollins or Cook Culture into a short time factor.

Oh, and stop using those cheap induction ovens for carbon steel. Not only do they only have tiny coils (you can tell by the size of the hotspot forming in the center of the skillet) which limits the maximum bottom size of the skillet to that tiny size. They also have terrible power control with only one true power level (max power) and achieving the other with overly long cycles which result in the skillet constantly overheating and cooling down. The hot spot is what warped the skillet. The hot spot expands (that's what hot metal does) while the surrounding material is still cool and does not expand too. So there's only one direction to expand, up- or downwards, which results in a bulge.
Using a bigger (coil) sized and well regulated induction burner is works fine. I have almost zero issues on my AEG / Electrolux induction stove top. Just preheat slowly and never use the boost / power / quick boil function and limit the skillet bottom size to the true size of the induction coils (not the maximum pot size markings, but the true size of the coil underneath). You can find out that size by boiling water or melting powdered sugar at max power in a thin aluminum skillet / pot. Where the bubbles form (or the sugar melts first), that's the true size of the coil.

[outkstl]

Bravo, great content. One of the only carbon steel seasoning vids I watched thru the end. Cheers!

[blancheknox]

Your voice is so soothing. I just received a new carbon steel wok for my birthday. I watched countless videos before I found you where people were putting on a show rather than informing. The steady tempo of your voice was calming and instructive giving the viewer a better grasp of what to do and how to fix mistakes. 谢谢

[Euniceathome]

That blue when you're seasoning the new pan is so pretty 😍This was such a thorough video and interesting to learn about the maintenance for carbon steel. your little workshop area and the pan holder station looks nice and industrial!

[nbrikha]

You can also use table salt in the pan for some REALLY hard to clean, stuck food. Heat up salt in the pan and then brush it in. Not so abrasive that it'll reduce the seasoning much, but it'll definitely give it some good clean

[geoffreydowen]

I've ruined two carbon pans and have to strip them back to metal. just found you liked and subbed. thank you from Suffolk England .

[chonzor]

Awesome overview of carbon steel for newbies. There are soooo many videos out there but this is the most thorough I've seen. Thank you.

[jetthepanda]

Great video! Love that you told us about how to maintain the pans and not just how to season like all the other videos out there. Hope this video keeps getting you views forever 😊

[kailu]

Randomly found your channel and love it. You deserve more subs!

[AtTheIntersection]

You are a kitchen genius!!! Thank you for these tips with the relaxing voice ! 😉

[alanharris]

Wonderful job pointing to the fact that sticking isn't all about seasoning steal. It's very much about understanding the food and control of the application of heat. I cook fried eggs in my stainless steel pans all the time and can have them slide. Conversely, SS is perfect when it's desirable to have meat stick to produce the fond for making wonderful reductions. The trick is the temperature and knowing that meat (courtesy of the Maillard reaction) will release itself at the appropriate time. Good chefs go deep in their knowledge of the natural sciences.

[timothyvanpelt_cyclist]

Nice and clear explanation on how the oil at temperature prevents the food from sticking.

[kennguyen]

If anyone is curious about why protein releases from the pan it’s from the Maillard effect. Something having to do with amino acids and reducing sugars. I failed chemistry but this I remembered. It’s actually pretty amazing how it works. Video is spot on about carbon steel!

[leandraainlove]

Love the information and your humor. Thanks!!

[nicklagola]

I clean mine by adding hot water, brining to a simmer, and scrap with wooden spoon. Dump out water and dry pan. Always works wonders for me

[Dero]

Length of vid matching thumbnail. Nice touch!
I cant be the only one to notice!?

[Buck]

This is quite interesting. I use cast iron but it's getting heavy for my old arms. Thinking now about buying one and see how I like it.

[viccw]

Thanks a lot for this great video!

I had a bad experience today, I have a hypothesis of what happened, and I'd love to have your opinion on it.

I seared potatoes on a carbon steel pan, but one important difference with your situation is the pan was on a wood fire, and I had previously noticed that it can get really hot.

What happened was that half of the pan kept sticking terribly, whereas I hadn't had any problems before. I added some oil while cooking, but it didn't improve. In the end I managed to finish cooking by placing all potatoes on the half of the pan that was fine. I noticed that on the "bad" half of the pan, all oil seemed to have vanished, the surface was not shiny like the other half.

My hypothesis is the following. The fire was going too strong, heating the pan too much. The half that stuck was the half right over the flames, thus hotter. It got so hot that all oil smoked off, as if seasoning it. Thus the potatoes would stick because they just wouldn't be lying on oil, but directly on the seasoning.

What do you think?

Thanks again for this great video!

[dbkfrogkaty]

I have two Matfer Bougeat pans, a 9 inch and a 11 inch. The 11" pan was a breeze to season and get nice and non-stick. The 9 inch pan was a pain to season for some reason. Seemed an egg would always sick no matter how much oil or butter I used. I even striped it down and started over. After more cooking, seasoning in the oven and stove top it is finally to the level I wanted. A non stick pan.