I've been trying to season my 11 7/8" Matfer Bourgeat Carbon Steel pan, with mixed success. The first time I did it, I had this weird patch of my pan that wasn't very nonstick, so I scrubbed off the bad part and tried again.
The last time I did it, I added about 1/3 cup of soy oil (smoke point around 320F) to the pan and put it over medium heat on a gas burner for 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes, I noticed that the sides of the pan were pretty amber colored, but the middle was still kind of metallic looking. At that point, I dumped some oil out and let it sit at medium heat for about three minutes. I looked away for not more than 30 seconds and my pan had developed this black, carbonized, sticky film of oil on the middle and some of the sides of the pan. (Picture included)
I'm not sure how to proceed from here. I'm thinking I will have to clean it off the film. To do this, I'm thinking of heating the pan with water, and a bit of vinegar, before taking the heat off and adding some baking soda. Then I would hit it with scotch bright and steel wool (fingers crossed that should work). But from there, I don't know what I should do differently to get a even, amber seasoning to my pan.
Any suggestions for how to clean this off, and what to do differently in the seasoning proccess would be much appreciated.
Thanks :)
Update: I have looked around a bit, and I see that I should have:
- Used thinner coats of oil, let them cool, and repeat several times.
- Expect the actual color change to happen as the pan is cooling.
However, I wonder how much oil I actually should use for a pan this size. 1/3 cup is definitely too much.
