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.
This, but you should heat it until it just begins to smoke, then turn it off and let cool. The seasoning is built up by the polymerization of the oil. If done correctly, it will eventually build up a ceramic-like coating that is non stick. This is why the detergent myth doesn’t matter. You aren’t soaping away a polymerized coating out of the pan.
You also just need to use enough oil to coat the pan. So save money on not wasting oil. I use a couple to half dozen drops and wipe it out with a towel. If the coating goes on too thick, it can get brittle and chip off in parts, leaving a craggy layer. The idea is to build up a tiny layer lots of times over the years.
Nb4 steel wool