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I'm hoping some of the cooking experts on here can help me.
I've always struggled to get a good season on my frying pans. Now, I've never tried really all that hard before, and I also don't typically wash my own dishes or have exclusive reign over my kitchen stuff. My roommates used to share my stuff, and now my GF usually does the cleaning up.
Obviously, I don't try too hard to keep soaps and abrasives off the pans, which I guess are the big #1 no-nos.
I'm trying to work on a pan now to give it a good season. It has a bit of a brown tinge to it in places now just from my older abuse, and I've been working over the past day or two to consciously put vegetable oil in it, heat it until smoking, then let it cool, and repeat. At the end of 3 or so cycles of this, I wipe it mostly down and leave some oil in there.
Last night I fried some chicken breasts with a dill yoghurt marinade, and the chicken browned very nicely and the marinade reduced to a nice dark brown as well. A pretty solid success, with not much sticking.
Still, there was some sticking. I tried to clean it up a bit just with hot water and a spoon with mixed results. I finally did have to take the sponge to it and give a pretty good scrub. Now my pan still looks kind of dirty, with scrape marks where I applied the spoon. Still, I kept the soap off, and then did another round or two with the heat and the vegetable oil, and I just did a pretty minimal wipedown afterwards to leave a bit of oil on overnight.
Am I on the right track here? Is the dirtyish-brown look OK? How do you guys clean out your pans? Should I be cleaning up right away, or is it ok to let it sit for a while (say, to eat) before cleaning? And is it OK to take the soft side of a sponge to it under hot water? Is it OK to boil water in it to help clean it? Any other tips/suggestions?
I've always struggled to get a good season on my frying pans. Now, I've never tried really all that hard before, and I also don't typically wash my own dishes or have exclusive reign over my kitchen stuff. My roommates used to share my stuff, and now my GF usually does the cleaning up.
Obviously, I don't try too hard to keep soaps and abrasives off the pans, which I guess are the big #1 no-nos.
I'm trying to work on a pan now to give it a good season. It has a bit of a brown tinge to it in places now just from my older abuse, and I've been working over the past day or two to consciously put vegetable oil in it, heat it until smoking, then let it cool, and repeat. At the end of 3 or so cycles of this, I wipe it mostly down and leave some oil in there.
Last night I fried some chicken breasts with a dill yoghurt marinade, and the chicken browned very nicely and the marinade reduced to a nice dark brown as well. A pretty solid success, with not much sticking.
Still, there was some sticking. I tried to clean it up a bit just with hot water and a spoon with mixed results. I finally did have to take the sponge to it and give a pretty good scrub. Now my pan still looks kind of dirty, with scrape marks where I applied the spoon. Still, I kept the soap off, and then did another round or two with the heat and the vegetable oil, and I just did a pretty minimal wipedown afterwards to leave a bit of oil on overnight.
Am I on the right track here? Is the dirtyish-brown look OK? How do you guys clean out your pans? Should I be cleaning up right away, or is it ok to let it sit for a while (say, to eat) before cleaning? And is it OK to take the soft side of a sponge to it under hot water? Is it OK to boil water in it to help clean it? Any other tips/suggestions?