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.