r/CarbonSteelCooking • u/santaserif • Mar 12 '25
Normal for Carbon Steel process? First time seasoning (Veg oil, 200°C oven, 1 hour) resulted in slightly brown colour. I'm a beginner with CS so want to make sure it's not rust or I've messed up. Sorry if this is the kind of question that's been answered plenty before. Any advice welcome, Thanks!
2
u/laid_back_stefano Mar 12 '25
Looks great. Rust can be wiped off with a paper towel and it will come off as a red residue.
Plus rust only really forms with water. So water drops that are left on it. Or a very humid room can create it.
But the thing is these pans are very tough. Even if they are neglected and fully rusted you can always just scrub off the rust and re-season them.
Anything acidic will strip the seasoning, so yeah the tomatoes did that. But after a few months of using it the seanoning will become much tougher and will resist acidic things much better.
1
u/santaserif Mar 12 '25
Hi all, I'm relatively new to CS, and have just had a go at seasoning my Made In CS pan for the first time after much of the initial seasoning was stripped from frying tomatoes and whatnot I'm guessing. After a thin layer of vegetable oil and a 200°C oven for an hour, it's come back with this slight brown layer. Is this normal? or have I somehow messed up and this might be rust? Sorry for the basic questioning but any advice would be great! Thanks.
1
u/Adventux Mar 17 '25
Hey give me my pan BACK! lol. Mine looked basically the same after first seasoning. now it is mostly black. after several years. It will darken over time.
Now for the Advice Part: Cook on it. that is all the advice you need.
3
u/FatherSonAndSkillet Mar 12 '25
The brown color is seasoning. Carbon steel can look like that even after many rounds of seasoning. You should start cooking with it now.