You’ll not find a teflon pan in my house because, frankly, there’s no need for the fragile fluoridated nonsense in my haute cuisine – I use the original polymerized cookware – cast iron[1].

Little did you know (or maybe you did) that the seasoning of a cast iron pan is actually polymerized fat.  The polymerization process is brought upon by oxidation (likely facilitated by the iron) and unsaturated fats.  The literature (R) is not filled with the exact mechanisms of the process by which this polymerization occurs, but my chemical intuition tells me it has something to do with an initial epoxidation of the unsaturated fat with molecular oxygen and iron followed by a homolytic ring opening and subsequent radical polymerization.  This is a guess, it may be a wrong guess, but it seems reasonable – particularly since Fe2 species are known to epoxidize olefins…

yeowthatshotThe reaction is easy enough to initialize.  Simply take a cast iron skillet and apply a layer of vegetable oil to the surface – essentially any oil liquid at room temperature will suffice, though I use olive oil[2].  A thin layer, once applied, can then be heated for a while at an elevated temperature in the oven.  I find this to be tedious since ovens, with the notable exception of the cleaning cycle, do not get hot enough.  Since I generally purchase preseasoned pans, the locus of most of my wear in on the surface (and not the sides) thus I apply oil there and heat on the stove top until the surface begins to smoke (the smoking point of the oil)  at this point, I’m assured that something is happening.  With the oil applied here, that temperature was around 430 degrees Fahrenheit (sorry non-Americans).  The pan is then allowed to cool to room temperature.  The pan can then be taken to the next step without further purification.

Nevertheless, the polymer settles itself into the various fissures in the iron surface and prevents oxidation and provides a waxy layer that provides a decent bit of nonstick protection.

thatsjustfine copyOf course, if you don’t need to season the pan, then don’t.  It’s perfectly acceptable to clean a cast iron pan simply by refluxing water in it vigorously and pouring the contents into the sink and scraping whatever is on it off as well as you like and then drying it again on the stove.

Indeed, using soap is not advised since, while most buffered dish soaps aren’t harmful to the polymer these days, they can get stuck in it providing a disgusting soap flavor to food.  Really, if there was any pan that actually benefited from you NOT cleaning it, it’s cast iron – which provides a great excuse for not cleaning a 10-20 pound pan.

On the other hand, rust is the enemy of cast iron and once rust begins to develop, it needs to be sanded off and reseasoned, since our seasoning doesn’t stick to the rust, which doesn’t stick to the unoxidzed iron very well at all.

[1] I actually use stainless steal pans 99% of the time.  The trick to using stainless steal is to heat the pan up well before putting food on it.  The Leidenfrost effect prevents sudden sticking to the surface and, if anything does stick, just deglase it with some wine and reduce – instant delicious sauce.

[2]  Extra virgin, to be exact.  Purists will tell you not to use olive oil because it has organic shit in it aside from just oils.  I don’t find this to be necessarily a problem and it doesn’t alter the ‘flavor’ of the pan.  It does, however, provide a nice seasoning with only modest heat, thanks to a relatively low smoke point.