STEEL FRYPANS: All you want to know about
Perfect for Grilling, Searing, Browning, Frying
These timeless pans are ideal for High-temperature cooking. By reaching quickly and sustaining high temperature, Iron Frypans are simply the best and first choice of a Chef to sear and grill steaks, caramelize meat juices, onions and vegetables, brown potatoes, or perfectly fry fish. Steel pans are not a Chef choice to stew or slow cooking dishes.
de Buyer Steel Pan Collections Differents
THE THICKEST, THE MOST ROBUST & HEAT POWER MASTERING vs THE THINNEST, THE LIGHTEST & CHEAPEST
Using Tips for Steel Pan
Seasoning ~ My Iron pan blackens. Is it dirty?
No, it is not dirty. The blackening of a Steel pan is a natural phenomenon called “Seasoning”, and that’s excellent. The darker it becomes, the better it is to get natural nonstick properties from your Steel pan and to protect it from oxidation (rust). In other words, the more the pan is used, the better its performance. All bacteria have been killed by the heat, so you don’t have to worry about that.
How to Season and Clean my Steel pan?
Seasoning will come naturally with time. The more you use your pan, the quicker it will be fully seasoned. That said, there are some MUST DO, and MUST NOT DO to maintain the Seasoning.
MUST NOT DO
Never wash in a dish washer, never wash with Soap or Detergent, don’t cook acid stuff (use of lemon,tomato,vinegar…) within your steel frypan. Doing this will not break your Steel pan, don’t worry, just dissolve your seasoning. You will then have to start again the process.
MUST DO
Before first use
Clean the frying pan with very hot water and a sponge. For Mineral B, you can rub it to remove the excess of bee wax. Then heat it up quickly to dry it. After that, use a paper lightly soaked in vegetal oil to grease it inside and outside and set it in a dry place. This will prepare the seasoning and protect it from rust.
Cleaning After use
1)Rub well with a sponge or a metallic brush if necessary, to get rid under hot water of any residues.
2)Fill your pan with water and boil it to eliminate greases.
3)Rinse and dry with a tissue to clear the last deposit.
4)Light grease it again with a paper lightly soaked of vegetal oil before setting it in a dry place. When your pan will be well seasoned, this won’t be necessary anymore.
My Frypan is rusted – what should I do?
Not fully seasoned Steel frypans will naturally rust with humidity because they contain > 99% of Iron. Iron is a natural, non-toxic and needed Element for our body. So first, don’t be scared, rust is not dangerous for your health, it is just not pleasant for the eyes. And that’s easy to get rid of it.
If your pan is already well seasoned with just a superficial rust spot, we recommend to just rub the spot with a metallic brush under hot water to avoid dissolving your full seasoning.
In other cases, there are several technics to clean the rust:
1 – Use of natural and soft acid method: fill your rusted parts with Lemon juice or Vinegar for 1 night, you
can even salt for better result. The day after, the next morning, rub the rusted part with lemon skin or a Metallic brush.
2 – use of Potatoes + baking soda (or soap). Cut 1 potato in 2. Cover the cut part of the potato with Baking Soda and rub your rusted part with that. Rinse and do it again and again until the rust disappeared.
3 – For deep rust, start by rubbing with salt and paper or with a Metallic brush + dishwashing liquid.
Brand new pan received with rust?
Even though our warehouse uses the highest standards to preserve our products, Asia is particularly humid and some new steel frypans may oxidize lightly despite de Buyer engineered clever and proven processes such as bee wax to protect it. You know now rust is not dangerous and can easily be cleaned. The seasoning process will protect your pan from it later. We would therefore be grateful that you avoid returning your new steel frypan because of light rust.
Nonstick tricks of Steel pans
Seasoning your pan will develop a natural nonstick property. Here is an additional trick : make sure your pan is heated up enough before placing your food there. It means you should start with a more powerful heat (without burning) then reduce the power, and not the opposite. When heated up enough, your steel pan will quickly sear your meat, fish or egg. When well seared, your food should not stick. If sticks, it’s probably that it is not seared enough, or you started before your pan was heated up enough. How to know it is heated up enough? Drop water drops on the pan: if they act like balls rolling on the plate, it’s good!
Why is my iron pan curved?
All de Buyer iron pans have a slightly convexly curved bottom to guarantee a great stability when they are used on powerful heating sources (especially on induction). This convex curve prevents pans from deforming and doesn’t spoil their cooking properties.
Induction hobs showing an exceptional heating performance, when using an iron pan, it is necessary to:
- cook at a medium temperature,
- avoid using the powerboost function,
- avoid over-heating your iron pan while it is empty.
These precautions are essential for pans from 26cm of diameter to avoid deformation.
de Buyer Cookware Materials Differences
