<story><title>Chemistry of Cast-Iron Seasoning (2010)</title><url>http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gambiting</author><text>Yes, if you happen to own an oven that has this feature. It&amp;#x27;s not exactly common.&lt;p&gt;Edit: because of course I triggered a storm. Maybe it&amp;#x27;s common elsewhere. I&amp;#x27;ve lived in few EU countries, rented then owned a few houses, exactly only one of them had an oven with the self cleaning(by heating up to like 500C) feature, I don&amp;#x27;t think we ever used it. When we bought our current oven none of the ones we looked at had that function. A fancy Candy we looked at had a function where it cleans itself with steam(where you fill up a provided container with water and then it heats it up to fill the oven with steam and in theory that softens the gunk. No idea if that actually works).&lt;p&gt;If it&amp;#x27;s common where you live, then my apologies for this comment.</text></item><item><author>chongli</author><text>&lt;i&gt;Nothing short of steel wool is going to affect the patina.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Actually, if you throw it in the oven and set it to self-clean it&amp;#x27;ll strip the seasoning right off. I&amp;#x27;ve done it with my cast iron pan before. Washes completely clean and ends up gun-metal grey; a non-oxidized pure iron surface. This is a great way to start over with the seasoning process if you&amp;#x27;re unhappy with it.</text></item><item><author>stouset</author><text>Also, without washing, you end up with rough spots of non-sticky partially-polymerized bits. Wash it with soap and a scrub brush. Nothing short of steel wool is going to affect the patina.&lt;p&gt;For proof of this, check out your aluminum baking sheets. If they’ve been used, they’re almost certainly covered in a shiny black substance that’s a complete pain in the ass to remove, even with abrasives. That’s essentially what’s on your cast iron.</text></item><item><author>war1025</author><text>As someone who owns more cast iron than is reasonable, I just wanted to go a step beyond upvoting this and acknowledge in writing that this is the correct view of things.&lt;p&gt;You want oil soaked into the metal. This idea that you are trying to build a non-stick surface on top of the metal is just adding extra work that isn&amp;#x27;t needed.&lt;p&gt;Wash with soap, dry of the stove top, put in some oil (I use peanut), then take a paper towel and rub the oil around over everything and at the end the metal should look shiny but there shouldn&amp;#x27;t be any pooled oil left anywhere.&lt;p&gt;If you are cooking something that doesn&amp;#x27;t leave a residue or strong flavor, you can skip the washing all together and just leave it there to cook with next time.&lt;p&gt;If you try to go the whole &amp;quot;never wash this&amp;quot; route, you end up with unhappy results going from cooking something with onions and garlic to cooking something more neutral flavored. No one wants onion flavored pancakes.</text></item><item><author>kevinmchugh</author><text>You really shouldn&amp;#x27;t buy a special oil just got seasoning your cast iron and carbon steel. It&amp;#x27;s not necessary. Pick an oil with a high smoke point, a neutral taste, and plenty of easy availability. That&amp;#x27;s often peanut. Avocado is great if you&amp;#x27;re fancy.&lt;p&gt;Keep a squirt bottle of oil on hand and make sure you&amp;#x27;re using enough. Using soap to clean your pans will make maintaining your seasoning easier, as you use less effort to clean them. See this if you&amp;#x27;re skeptical: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.seriouseats.com&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;the-truth-about-cast-iron.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.seriouseats.com&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;the-truth-about-cast-iro...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I had friends dedicate years to flax seed oil. They&amp;#x27;re not happy about it, as they&amp;#x27;ve got flaking to deal with. I also had friends disbelieve me that soap was okay, and they&amp;#x27;ve mostly come around after hearing me swear by it for years.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nycticorax</author><text>Not sure where you&amp;#x27;re writing from, but it&amp;#x27;s very common in the US.  This article (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.thekitchn.com&amp;#x2F;why-you-should-almost-never-use-the-self-cleaning-function-of-your-oven-175110&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.thekitchn.com&amp;#x2F;why-you-should-almost-never-use-th...&lt;/a&gt;) quotes someone who works for an appliance store in Cincinnati who says it&amp;#x27;s difficult to sell an oven without that feature.  And as others have said, every oven I have every owned (or that my parents owned when I was around and capable of forming memories) has been self-cleaning.&lt;p&gt;Maybe it sounds fancier than it is?  Is not like it has a little robot that cleans the oven.  It&amp;#x27;s just a mode where the oven can get the internal temperature very high (up to 1000 degrees F according to that article) that just incinerates any organic material stuck to the oven walls.</text></comment>
<story><title>Chemistry of Cast-Iron Seasoning (2010)</title><url>http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gambiting</author><text>Yes, if you happen to own an oven that has this feature. It&amp;#x27;s not exactly common.&lt;p&gt;Edit: because of course I triggered a storm. Maybe it&amp;#x27;s common elsewhere. I&amp;#x27;ve lived in few EU countries, rented then owned a few houses, exactly only one of them had an oven with the self cleaning(by heating up to like 500C) feature, I don&amp;#x27;t think we ever used it. When we bought our current oven none of the ones we looked at had that function. A fancy Candy we looked at had a function where it cleans itself with steam(where you fill up a provided container with water and then it heats it up to fill the oven with steam and in theory that softens the gunk. No idea if that actually works).&lt;p&gt;If it&amp;#x27;s common where you live, then my apologies for this comment.</text></item><item><author>chongli</author><text>&lt;i&gt;Nothing short of steel wool is going to affect the patina.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Actually, if you throw it in the oven and set it to self-clean it&amp;#x27;ll strip the seasoning right off. I&amp;#x27;ve done it with my cast iron pan before. Washes completely clean and ends up gun-metal grey; a non-oxidized pure iron surface. This is a great way to start over with the seasoning process if you&amp;#x27;re unhappy with it.</text></item><item><author>stouset</author><text>Also, without washing, you end up with rough spots of non-sticky partially-polymerized bits. Wash it with soap and a scrub brush. Nothing short of steel wool is going to affect the patina.&lt;p&gt;For proof of this, check out your aluminum baking sheets. If they’ve been used, they’re almost certainly covered in a shiny black substance that’s a complete pain in the ass to remove, even with abrasives. That’s essentially what’s on your cast iron.</text></item><item><author>war1025</author><text>As someone who owns more cast iron than is reasonable, I just wanted to go a step beyond upvoting this and acknowledge in writing that this is the correct view of things.&lt;p&gt;You want oil soaked into the metal. This idea that you are trying to build a non-stick surface on top of the metal is just adding extra work that isn&amp;#x27;t needed.&lt;p&gt;Wash with soap, dry of the stove top, put in some oil (I use peanut), then take a paper towel and rub the oil around over everything and at the end the metal should look shiny but there shouldn&amp;#x27;t be any pooled oil left anywhere.&lt;p&gt;If you are cooking something that doesn&amp;#x27;t leave a residue or strong flavor, you can skip the washing all together and just leave it there to cook with next time.&lt;p&gt;If you try to go the whole &amp;quot;never wash this&amp;quot; route, you end up with unhappy results going from cooking something with onions and garlic to cooking something more neutral flavored. No one wants onion flavored pancakes.</text></item><item><author>kevinmchugh</author><text>You really shouldn&amp;#x27;t buy a special oil just got seasoning your cast iron and carbon steel. It&amp;#x27;s not necessary. Pick an oil with a high smoke point, a neutral taste, and plenty of easy availability. That&amp;#x27;s often peanut. Avocado is great if you&amp;#x27;re fancy.&lt;p&gt;Keep a squirt bottle of oil on hand and make sure you&amp;#x27;re using enough. Using soap to clean your pans will make maintaining your seasoning easier, as you use less effort to clean them. See this if you&amp;#x27;re skeptical: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.seriouseats.com&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;the-truth-about-cast-iron.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.seriouseats.com&amp;#x2F;2014&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;the-truth-about-cast-iro...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;I had friends dedicate years to flax seed oil. They&amp;#x27;re not happy about it, as they&amp;#x27;ve got flaking to deal with. I also had friends disbelieve me that soap was okay, and they&amp;#x27;ve mostly come around after hearing me swear by it for years.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>chipsa</author><text>Mine doesn&amp;#x27;t, but that&amp;#x27;s because it&amp;#x27;s too fancy, and has a special coating on the inside that&amp;#x27;s supposed to make stuff just come off. Freaking Whirlpool. It doesn&amp;#x27;t work.</text></comment>