Seasoning is the process of treating the surface of a cooking vessel with heated fat in order to produce a corrosion-resistant and stick-resistant coating. Seasoning is required on cast-iron cookware and carbon steel, which rust rapidly when heated in the presence of available oxygen, notably from water, even small quantities such as drippings from dry meat. Food tends to stick to unseasoned iron and carbon steel cookware, both of which are seasoned for this reason as well. Some cast-iron cookware comes from the manufacturer pre-seasoned; most requires the user to season it. Stainless steel or cast aluminium do not require protection from corrosion but seasoning may reduce sticking. Other cookware surfaces are generally not seasoned.
Methods of seasoning
Food sticks easily to a new bare metal pan; it must either be oiled before use, or seasoned. The coating known as seasoning is initially created by a process of layering a very thin coat of oil on the pan. Then, the oil is decomposed on the metal's surface with high heat for a time. The base coat will darken with use. This process is known as "seasoning"; the color of the coating is commonly known as its "patina". To season a pan, the following is a typical process:
cleaning the cookware to remove residues from manufacturing or manufacturer-applied anti corrosion coating and expose the bare metal,
heating the cookware to generate the seasoned coating.
If it is not pre-seasoned, a new cast iron skillet or dutch oven typically comes from the manufacturer with a protective coating of wax or shellac, otherwise it would rust. This needs to be removed before the item is used. An initial scouring with hot soapy water will usually remove the protective coating. Alternatively, for woks, it is common to burn off the coating over high heat to expose the bare metal surface. For already-used pans that are to be re-seasoned, the cleaning process can be more complex, involving rust removal and deep cleaning to remove existing seasoning and build-up. Once the pan has been heated, dried, and thinly layered with oil or fat, it is placed in an oven, grill, or other heating enclosure for the oil to be decomposed on the metal's surface. The process of seasoning is dependent on the oil, temperature of the enclosure, and the duration. The precise details of the seasoning process differ from one source to another, and there is much disagreement regarding the correct oil to use. There is also no clear consensus about the best temperature and duration. Lodge Manufacturing uses a proprietary soybean blend in their base coats as stated on their website. Others use lard, or animal fats. The temperature recommended for seasoning varies from high temperatures above to temperatures below. Some say that a temperature around the smoke point of the oil or fat should be targeted since this will allow vaporization of the lighter hydrocarbons from the oil, leaving behind heavier molecules for optimal polymerization or carbonization to occur. And, there is also no consensus on the correct duration of heating: from half an hour to an hour is often recommended. Seasoning a cast iron or carbon steel wok is a common process in Asia and Asian-American culture. While the vegetable oil method of seasoning is also used in Asia, a traditional process for seasoning includes the use of Chinese chives or scallions as part of the process.
Surface chemistry
In seasoning a pan, the oil undergoes a conversion into the hard surface of the seasoned pan at the high temperatures of cooking. When oils or fats are heated in a pan, multiple degradation reactions may occur, including: decomposition, autoxidation, thermal oxidation, polymerization, and cyclization. Often seasoning is uneven in a pan, and over time the distribution will spread to a whole pan. Heating the cookware facilitates the oxidation of the iron; the fats and/or oils protect the metal from contact with the air during the reaction, which would cause rust to form. Some cast iron users advocate heating the pan slightly before applying the fat or oil to ensure that the pan is completely dry. The surface is hydrophobic and thus highly attractive to oils and fats used for cooking and thus when used with a layer of oil prevents foods, which typically contain water, from touching and cooking on to the hydrophilic metallic cooking surface that lies beneath. The seasoned surface will deteriorate at the temperature where the coating breaks down. This is typically higher than the smoke point of the original oils and fats used to season the pan. Thus old seasoning can be removed at a sufficiently high temperature, as found in oven self-cleaning cycles.
Care
As with other cast iron vessels, a seasoned pan or dutch oven should not regularly be used to cook foods containing tomatoes, vinegar or other acidic ingredients, as these foods will eventually remove the protective layer created during the seasoning process. Cast iron ovens are best suited to cook food high in oil or fat, such as chicken, bacon, or sausage, or used for deep frying. Subsequent cleanings are usually accomplished without the use of soap. Detergent soaps and dishwashers can remove the seasoning on cast iron, so some cookbook authors recommend only wiping the pans clean after each use, or using other cleaning methods such as a salt scrub or boiling water. The protective layer itself is not very susceptible to soaps, and many users do briefly use detergents and soaps. However, cast iron is very prone to rust, and the protective layer may have pinholes, so soaking for long periods is contraindicated as the layer may start to flake off. Unlike non-stick coatings, where metal implements are not used because they damage the surface, seasoned surfaces tend to be self-reforming, so metal implements can be used. Of course, metal instruments can be used to scrape food off the pan much more effectively than the softer utensils used with non-stick pans.
Bluing
In the process of bluing, an oxidizing chemical reaction on an iron surface selectively forms magnetite, the blackoxide of iron. Black oxide provides some protection against corrosion if also treated with a water-displacing oil to reduce wetting and galvanic action. Bluing is often used with carbon steel and cast iron pans in conjunction with seasoning.
