I completely stripped the seasoning off of two pans with the intention to start the seasoning process over from scratch. One pan I had messed up the seasoning (skillet) and the other (sauce bowl) was on clearance because part of the seasoning was scratched and was an "easy" fix.
I used the oven cleaner method and finally got everything down to the bare metal. I went to wash everything off and did a vinegar rinse to neutralize the oven cleaner and rinsed everything in cold water.
Initially, I tried drying the pans in the oven before applying any Crisco to start the seasoning process, but the flash rust got to the pans first. I started completely over again from square one repeating the oven cleaner method. I had read that you can do a quick dry and apply your oil pretty much immediately then place the pans in the oven to dry at a lower temperature. Tried that and began the seasoning process by wiping off any excess oil and baked the pans at 450 deg for about 1 hr. After the pans had cooled, they came out looking brown, almost like flash rust stuck through the seasoning process as opposed to the beautiful iconic black everyone thinks of.
My question is – did I miss anything or do something wrong in this process? I had watched so many videos and read so many blogs and I thought I had followed along pretty well yet my results didn't match anyone else's.
Best Answer
The brown stuff is presumably polymerized oil, AKA "seasoning". At sufficient thickness, it appears black (but blackness is unnecessary for it to be effective as a surface treatment). I don't see any sign of rust in those pictures.