Oh-oh

[KevinE]

Not disagreeing with you, Doug, but I'm not quite following, either. If I recall my organic chemistry from the 80s, all oil has a carbon component.

 

[Doug D.]

I'm not saying it doesn't. I'm saying that the long term seasoning we aim for-- durable, non-stick and black-- and achieved through regular cooking use, is not the result of just baking on layer after layer of just oil alone.

 

[W. Hilditch]

I guess it's good that the foods I put in my fryers all have carbon in the starches, sugars and fats to build that seasoning.

Hilditch

 

[ChadVKealey]

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

Not being argumentative, but wouldn't heat close the pores? I mean, iron, like most solids, expands as it heats. If you have a bunch of iron molecules with itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny spaces between/among them (pores), then as those molecules expand, they would fill in the spaces between them (close the pores). Aside from the science involved, this is how Alton Brown explained why pre-heating is even more important when cooking eggs in cast iron. If the pan is cool (or just not hot enough), the protein strands can sink into those pores and grab hold (aka: "stick").

 

[W. Hilditch]

The molecules are not supposed to move in cast iron, but they do expand. Lets say there is a surface flaw or pore the shape of a V in the surface. As the cast iron expands with heat, the upper edges of the flaw are pulled farther apart for a wider V as the expanding molecules below it push up and the side molecules expand out from the center. Remember this expansion is .00058” per inch so it is hard to see.

As the iron molecules expand they actually takes the spaces with them to maintain density.

Wood can go against some logic also. Drill a 15/16” hole in a 2 x 4”. Soak the wood in water for 2 days and the hole gets larger. Put your 1” dowel easily in the hole and let it dry a week or more. The hole shrinks around the dowel. Now you know how they made wagon wheels without Elmer’s.

Hilditch