Oh-oh

W

W. Hilditch

Active member
My BSR chicken fryer had good, but thin seasoning. A few days ago I cooked some seafood gumbo in it after cooking some roux (2 1/2 hours) and the next day a batch of chicken jambalaya. Tonight I cooked a small batch of spaghetti sauce in it. My chicken frier is not happy.

Much of the seasoning is gone or light colored. Even my dish washer (SO) noticed it was sick looking. It needs bacon. In the morning it will get a mess of bacon after some popcorn.

Hilditch
 
Sounds like a pretty rough fix Mr H. You are going to have a bunch of bacon and popcorn eat afterwards and who wants to do that?:chuckle:
 
W. Hilditch said:
Tonight I cooked a small batch of spaghetti sauce in it. My chicken frier is not happy.

Much of the seasoning is gone or light colored. Even my dish washer (SO) noticed it was sick looking.

Hilditch
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I guess that's why many folks don't recommend cooking acidic foods (tomatoes/tomato based sauces/etc.) in CI.
 
KevinE said:
I guess that's why many folks don't recommend cooking acidic foods (tomatoes/tomato based sauces/etc.) in CI.
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I'm one of those folks. Even have litmus paper but didn't use it. I'll stick my neck out for an occasional acidic dish, but this time I stuck it out too far by not testing a can of Cento crushed tomatoes and 3 acidic dishes in a row. I was hoping my meats would would balance but no go.

I think I'll just stick with an occasional batch of chili in my better seasoned DO.

Hilditch
 
No….. unless you find yourself reseasoning. If you have to reseason your seasoning wasn’t up to the job, you cook a lot of acidic foods or you did something stupid. Like I did here. An occasional acidic dish will not noticeably affect a piece with good seasoning used to cook more alkaline foods too.

If you decide you need a new 8 or 10 quart pot or kettle mainly to cook marinara sauce and chili, ceramic coated should be on your option list. Or maybe even if you need a sauce pan.

My goto sauce pans are Descoware because they see more boiling and acidic foods than seasoning building action. I even made a whisk from bamboo skewers so as to not mar up the cooking surface with a metal utensil. My uncoated DO gets the chili as it has good seasoning from being used to cook other things and it tastes better, but it does not do spagetti sauce.

Hilditch
 
For all those concerned about the seasoning in my chicken fryer I’m happy to report it is recovering nicely. It cooked popcorn, bacon, sausage patties and hamburgers before an oven hour at 450°. Then it cooked sausage, popcorn, ground beef and eggs before being washed, coated with canola and spending another hour in the oven. Soon a couple of deep fries and all will be well.



Hilditch
 
I recently bought a Wagner deep fryer. I seasoned it 2-3 times.. It now is dedicated deep fryer. It sits full of lard.

Does deep frying add to the seasoning layer??
 
Just for my education, how would deep frying add to seasoning. I though seasoning was thin layers of oil burn into a solid layer. I wouldn't initially think the act of deep frying would contribute since the oil would get a chance to get over its smoke point in a thin layer.

Thanks

Adam
 
This is true, but every time you cook with your iron, you add heat and oil. The heat opens the pores and oil works it's way deeper into the pan and/or seasoning. And while you're not smoking the oil while cooking, the iron underneath is pretty hot. It's the depth of the oil and the subject of your cooking that keeps the oil from smoking. If you only had a thin layer of oil, it would smoke.

Scott
 
That cast iron is porous, and with pores that open and close with heating and cooling, is an often repeated myth. What voids there are in the structure of the iron are microscopic and filled with a crystalline carbon, graphite. Some of the graphite at the surface may be lost due to polishing or chemical action but we are only talking microns into the surface. Since seasoning is a combination of polymerized fat and carbon from the food being cooked in it, the addition to the seasoning layer via deep frying should be negligible if any.

See also: http://www.castironcollector.com/myths.php
 
Doug, can you please explain how deep frying would add to the seasoning then? I ask not knowing and seeking your knowledge
 
I’m with Scott. This is the bottom of my 1 gal. deep fryer heating element and frame.



Note the brown on the heating element covers and SS frame, especially in hard to clean places. That is where some of the oil got well over 400° F. The main body of oil never gets over 375°. The brown is seasoning. Most of what you see is very serious seasoning.

Now to the chicken fryer. The burner flame is 2,100° F +/-. The bottom of the fryer is 500° +/-. With a pint of oil in the fryer, the oil touching the bottom is as hot as the bottom before it dissipates the heat to the rest of the oil. Even if you are deep-frying at 350°’ish if you have a piece of chicken touching the bottom of the chicken fryer and don’t move it around it will burn where it is touching because that spot is 500°. That is also why they have trivets for DO’s.

It is that thin layer of very hot oil touching the bottom that creates another layer of seasoning, and it will work it’s way up the sides as the iron get hotter than the smoking point of the oil.

So I say yes, deep frying adds seasoning and can help even out what is already there.

Hilditch
 
As I said, negligible. Cooked-on oil without a carbon component doesn't really compare to an established long term seasoning.
 
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