Please before you mark this as a dupe, I did refer to this stackexchange question.
I have a Matfer carbon steel that won't hold seasoning at all.
I first attempted the Cooks Illustrated flaxseed oil technique.
I was very careful to follow the instructions carefully. I got a nice root-beer colored seasoning that looked tough but food stuck to it like there was no seasoning at all and it came right off.
I redid this several times, each time I:
- made sure each coat was very very very thin, wiped all but the sheen off
- baked the pan for a full hour each coat at 500F with full hour cool-down
- ensured each coat was not tacky
- applied 5 to 10 coats
- used very fresh pure flaxseed oil
- Completely cleaned the pan of seasoning between attempts with ovencleaner and scotchbrite
All very time consuming and ultimately ended in failure.
I also referred to this article and followed the tips there.
I additionally followed everything on this stackexchange article.
I just can't get this to work. I also tried a traditional seasoning. That doesn't stay either.
I use wooden utensils. The food just sticks and pulls the seasoning right off. I don't ever wash the pan.
One other thing I've noticed – on subsequent seasonings, no matter how thin I have the flaxseed oil on the pan, at the end of a baking cycle, it appears to pull together into little droplets. Even with the oil practically wiped off the pan with just a nanometer thick coating. I'm wondering if the oven cleaner messed up the pan or something. It didn't do this when I first had the pan (though the seasoning still was a failure)
Any ideas? I'm about ready to send this pan to goodwill.
Note I have no problem keeping seasoning on a lodge cast iron pan.
Best Answer
Before you go scouring your pan with steel wool.
When you said you followed the instructions, did you follow the manufacturer's instructions, or some other website?
Because although random websites might have good advice on building up the seasoning, they don't know how the pan was treated by the manufacturer, and what needs to be done to remove the protective layer that they put on it.
As you said this is a Mafter, their instructions are on the warranty page: