I’ve only bought the pan a week ago and used it three times. Hot dogs, eggs, and steak.

When I’m done I clean it with a scrubby sponge and once with a little bit of detergent, then put it on the stove to dry quickly. Then while it’s hot I smear maybe a teaspoon of vegetable oil on it with a paper towel “brush”.

In between uses it’s wet with oil, as you can see in the picture. How much residual oil should there be? I had the impression that it would be dryer.

Also, how much should I scrub? I am not going to leave crust of beef on there, but I also don’t think it’s supposed to be scrubbed back to new smoothness.

    • tychosmoose@lemm.eeEnglish
      3·
      9 hours ago

      It depends. If you need to season/reseason then smoke is good. Heat to just above the smoke point and hold it there for a few minutes.

      The point of seasoning is to polymerize the fat, which only happens above the smoke point. You get a dry brownish polymer coating on the metal. It shouldn’t be wet or tacky. If it’s either then there was either too much oil or too little heat.

      If you already have a good season on the pan and scrubbed it clean, it’s fine to lightly coat with oil for storage if you want. I generally use detergent and a very stiff brush, and wooden spatula for burnt on bits. Then towel dry and that’s it. But if it’s very humid or if I won’t use the pan for a while, then I do heat it a bit to ensure dryness and then coat with a tiny bit of oil.