Carbon Steel Experiment

Carbon Steel is interesting because chemically, it is intermediate between Cast Iron and Stainless Steel. It has more carbon content than Stainless, but less than Cast.

This gives it characteristics that are somewhere between the two. It has many of the advantages of Cast Iron (including the seasoning non-stick). I was curious, and wanted to give some a shot. Generously, my wife gifted me a Carbon Steel pan for Father's day. Here's how the experiment went:

This is how the pan looked on receipt:

I had to give the pan and intense scrubbing with a coarse dish cloth, as they coat these in a wax to prevent rust before they reach the customer. The next recommendation is to heat them up extremely hot and burn all the remaining wax off, since it's unlikely you will have thoroughly cleaned it all off. I did this outside on a little portable induction cook-top that we had borrowed. You very rapidly see the wax starting to burn (and the colour of the metal starting to change):

It got to the above point where the base surface is essentially burnt clean, and progress started to slow down a lot. I had the idea to use my dragon torch (primarily used to burn garden weeds) to finish up the process. It was very effective:

And the final product. I think they call it "Blue Steel" at this point:

Then comes the seasoning!

And here is how it looked after the above process was finished:

It needed some more layering and consistency in the seasoning. Due to small amounts of oil burning from regular cooking, the recommendation at the point is to simply start using it!

After more than half a year of consistent usage, this is how it is looking now:

Performance is also much better - sticking is minimal, and clean up is very easy.

Some final notes. This was a fun experiment, and we will certainly be sticking with this pan for a long time. However, it became very obvious way most people stick with and use non-stick pans. The setup is quite the ordeal, and if you don't happen to have a torch lying around (and, I mean, who doesn't? 😉) it could be quite a difficult task. I think what we need to see is more manufacturers providing pre-seasoned pans for sale, so these steps can be skipped over.