What is the purpose of using potato peels for seasoning a cast iron pan?

Question

My first ever cast iron pan just arrived. The package contains following seasoning directions.

1. Wash with clothes detergent (not soap or dish detergent) to remove the rust protection coating.
2. Wash thoroughly with warm water to remove detergent. Dry pan.
3. Fill the pan with fresh potato peels. Pour sunflower oil or rape oil on them, until it is almost full with oil.
4. Leave the pan with the potato peels and oil for an hour on the next-to-highest setting on the stove top.
5. Throw away the potato peels and oil, dry the pan with kitchen paper
6. Coat the pan with a thin layer of sunflower or rape oil.

Not only don't I want to spend the afternoon peeling potatoes and then throw away most of them (I cannot eat the amount of potatoes needed for these peels), but even the positive amazon reviews for the pan all warn before the stench the charring peels produce during the seasoning: It lingered for about three days although I changed the fume hood filters, but it is a small price to pay for such a great pan. For me, it is a big price, because I have no fume hood, and there is no door between the kitchenette and the living room/bedroom. I looked up advise on seasoning pans, hoping for some trick, and found this question where the accepted answer doesn't include potato peels (in fact, no answer mentions them).

Now I am unsure whether to use them. On the one hand, I don't want to deal with the side effects. On the other hand, a producer is supposed to know what is best for his products. I don't want to get poisoned by an anti-rust coating residue that would have been rendered harmless in a chemical reaction with potato peels. Besides, I can't use the seasoning process outlined in the question I linked, because my pan doesn't fit in my oven.

I guess it would be easier to decide if I knew of their purpose. Does any of you know of using potato peels for seasoning pans, and can you tell me why they are needed? Or is it just an urban legend the ignorant manufacturer printed in the manual (the pan is not a well-known brand, maybe some hardware manufacturer decided it will be easy to add pans to their product line and made them without gathering enough know-how).

Asked by rumtscho

Answer

I personally had never heard of it, but after doing some research online, I found another set of instructions that called for boiling potatoes in the pan before seasoning:

After boiling potato peelings for 15 minutes, the skillet had a nasty slurry of grey looking sand in the bottom Once the skillet was heated, the pores were opened, and the starchy/water mixture was able to draw out oils and dirt that I was not capable of getting to through normal washing. I fully do not understand the science behind why the starch/water mixture did this, but the experience was enough to convince me of the need to do this. So much in fact, that I did this process twice on each skillet.

I read a few too many web pages while researching this, and didn't save all of the links, but I did notice a few things:

1. Some of the posts kept switching between saying cast iron and carbon steel; both are typically seasoned, but they're different materials, so I don't know if it's recommended for both, or if people were mixing things up. (I only have one carbon steel item, a wok, which I got second hand, so had already had its first seasoning).

2. Some of the posts mentioned boiling potatoes for 15 minutes, other mentioned frying potatoes as the first thing to be cooked in the pan (in oil), some mentioned cooking them 'til they burn. The boiling potatoes ones also mentioned it works for cleaning stainless steel pans.

3. Some mentioned peels specifically, others say that you can use any part of the potato ... if it's the starch that's of interest, I'd think the middle would actually be better, but I'm guessing that the peels were considered waste, and so considered a less valuable item; I'd be inclined to just use one potato, dispatched with a peeler, if you were trying to avoid wasting potatoes you weren't going to eat.

Answered by Joe

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No oil on non-stick pans?

Question

My boyfriend is convinced that a non-stick coating on a pan (Teflon, seasoned cast iron, eco-ceramic, what have you) is equivalent to eliminating the need for using any cooking oil whatsoever.

Is this in fact the case? I'm fairly sure that it only reduces the amount of oil necessary to keep things from sticking, but I'm having a hard time proving this (other than the empirical tests that keep failing). Essentially, he is a huge fan of fried eggs, but is trying to avoid the eventual heart attacks.

Asked by Hannele

Answer

There are two parts to this question, the stated part, and the unstated "are you really frying an egg if there is no oil?"

For the first part, most manufacturers of non-stick pans claim that their product makes oil unnecessary, and generally I've found that to be true. A little oil helps, but "necessary" might be a stretch.

To maximize your non-stickyness of a non-stick pan, you should always preheat the pan before adding the food, at least to 250F or so. Preheating causes the teflon to expand a bit, closing up pores and micro-scratches in the surface.

It is also common for oils from the past to form a polymerized layer on top of the teflon, making the pan more sticky. This is actually worse when you use aerosol spray oils, because the tiny droplets hit the pan and very quickly polymerize to form a slightly sticky layer. This layer is similar to the one you intentionally create when seasoning a cast iron pan, but in this case it is not helpful. All-Clad recommends periodically cleaning teflon pans with a light scrub of baking soda and water to remove that coating of oil. It should bring back the maximum slippery of your teflon.

When cooking protein-rich foods, you can also minimize sticking by letting the food cook a bit before attempting to move it. The loose, floppy denatured proteins in an egg are extremely sticky, but when they coagulate (set) from cooking, they become less sticky. It may seem impossibly sticky at first, but may release on it's own after a minute of cooking.

As to the second, unstated part, oil provides flavor, and is also a heat-transfer vehicle. When the food is on the pan, if you looked at it with a microscope only a small portion of the food is actually in contact with the pan. Those areas will get heated more, and other areas will get heated less. A little oil fills those gaps, causing more even thermal contact, which allows fried food to fry, rather than just get burned in some areas.

It is really a matter of taste whether the flavor of the oil and the way that it changes the texture of the food is appealing to your boyfriend. I wouldn't like it without any oil, but if he does, well, so be it. If he doesn't really like the taste, but is concerned about health, I'd suggest using a little olive oil - it has no cholesterol, is low in saturated fats, and has a good flavor. Different than butter, but still very enjoyable.

Answered by Sam Ley

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What oil is best for seasoning a cast-iron skillet

Question

I just cleaned up a rusty cast-iron skillet and I would like to season it. The thing is that I don't have lard handy and I'm wondering whether any of my other oils and fats would do.

I have: canola, olive, sesame and almond oil.

Also, I've heard that appying the oil and reheating multiple times improves the seasoning. Is it true? How many times does it make sense to repeat the process?

Asked by ddimitrov

Answer

This question has been answered several times as part of more general questions about seasoning. See the (closely) related links in the related questions list. This one in particular: What's the best way to season a cast iron skillet?

Specifically about oil- you want to use an oil that has a high iodine value: http://www.journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_yield.html#highiodine

Of those you listed canola (rapeseed) would be highest. If you can find soybean oil it would be even better.

These oils polymerize more easily. To create an even coating with good adhesion, multiple thin coats work well. I have read of people doing as many as 6 coats but, in my opinion, you should do at least 2 or 3.

Answered by Sobachatina

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Left my cast iron on the hot burner, now what?

Question

So the other day, while baking off excess water after washing, I spaced out and forgot it was there and headed upstairs for say, an hour. When I got back down the pan had a white-ish ring in the center. After cooling and scrubbing it down it appeared that the seasoning had been vaporized in the area that has the ring.

I oiled the pan to prevent rusting and haven't gotten back to it in a week or so.

My question is: Should I remove the seasoning from the rest of the pan or should I just re-season the whole thing? If I should remove the seasoning, what is the best way, I think I read some on here but I haven't been able to get back to it. I recall possibly using the clean cycle of the oven?

There's plenty of info on here about seasoning so don't worry about that!

Feel free to make jabs at the space cadet too, I beat myself up about it until I realized the pan wasn't completely ruined!

Answer

Personally, I'd just season the pan a couple times to cover the spot; it seems excessive to strip off all the other seasoning and start from scratch unless the pan is really deeply rusted.

Other people may feel differently, of course; there are as many opinions about caring for cast-iron as there are people that own it.

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Wok preparation and caring

Question

What is a good technique for initially seasoning a wok, keeping it seasoned, and preventing rust?

Answer

Make sure to seriously wash the wok before initial use. Scrub it with hot soapy water and dry thoroughly.

After drying, place the wok over the stove on high heat until it starts to smoke. Rotate the pan so that all parts of the inside are exposed to high heat. Then rub the wok with oil on a paper towel.

After this, try not to scrub the wok. A rinse and rub down are usually all that is needed to clean it up. Always rub the wok with a little bit of vegetable oil after washing/drying. That will help to prevent rust.

And the most important factor of seasoning a wok is to use it. It's definiteily my most used kitchen item, and it's just getting better and better with each use!

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