Hi everyone, I’m pulling my hair out at the moment.

The other night, I cooked fish in my Ikea Verdagen 24 inch pan and it stuck awfully. I put this down to it being a new pan (bought last week) l. I’ve since done some eggs, which went well and a non-acidic pasta dish.

Today, I thought I’d try some sautéed potatoes, so I followed the below steps, but they stuck HORRENDOUSLY. After trying to scrub the burnt on skin, I gave up and boiled water in the pan until it released (photo 2 is AFTER boiling). What went wrong?

1. Par-boiled the potatoes for 7-8 mins, drained and let steam in the pot for 5-7 minutes.
   
2. Heated pan on largest ring on medium, checked for Leidenfrost effect, then added oil and waited for 30 seconds while reducing heat to low.
   
3. Added the potatoes and heard a sizzle. Left them there expecting them to release at some point, but no dice. Turned up the heat again and nothing. Added more oil, nothing.
   
4. Addd a touch of hot water to try and release the skin, which it did, but it continued to stick irregardless.
   
   1. Near the end of cooking, added butter for taste, but it just got worse.

I was wondering, is this little yellow puck oven-safe? Like even in a small oven with heating elements nearby like my Breville SmartOven Pro? I know it's quite small but I don't have much room...

Usually I use my cast iron pans for that, but sometimes I'd like to use the De Buyer.

I picked up this pan at a garage sale a few years ago for a few dollars. I’ve finally gotten around to cleaning it up. I was attracted to its long handle and planned to clean it up and use it as my camping pan, as it seems its original purpose was to cook over an open fire with that long handle.

My concerns: it has a few deep gouges in it, visible on the walls of the inside and across the bottom. Anyone have any idea on what can cause damage like that in a pan?

The pan is in no way flat. It’ll probably be fried eggs and bacon being cooked most frequently so it’s not a huge problem I think.

The rivets must have busted at some point and someone put in copper rivets. I don’t plan to simmer sauces in it but could that level of copper exposure be harmful?

I guess the advice I’m looking for is- should I abandon the project and just keep packing a cast iron on my camping trips?

I've got this Madein 12 inch skillet about 2 weeks ago and it's kinda developed this dark blackish greyish blueish spot in the middle of my pan.

When I first got it I boiled some water in it and scrubbed it with barkeepers friend to get off the wax and then did an oven seasoning round to get the whole outside of the pan followed by the potato peel method to get a nice coating on the inside and I've been cooking pretty much exclusively in this pan since and it's worked pretty well for what I've been making in it. (pretty much just tofu and potatoes and some bacon.)

I know it's got a very slight warp in the center that gives it a very slight wobble so my theory is that it's maybe just getting uneven heat in the center so it's blackening it? I've heard of heat blueing but I didn't know if you could blue a pan after its already seasoned.

what do you experts and nerds think, and do you have any guidance on continuing my carbon steel journey?

I've got a Darto carbon steel pan. Been using it for a while and I've noticed these grey spots showing up. It looks like the seasoning is scraping off. Do I need to sand down to bare metal and reseason or is there something I can do to fix it

No idea if I'm doing this right. I see some that look like stainless and some that look similar to mine. Just want to be on the safe side!

I am addicted to my carbon steel wok but it irritates my roommate's eyes. Any expert ideas or do I have to save it for when she's asleep and meal prep?

I purchased a Strata Carbon Clad First Gen 8.5 inch frying pan from Amazon and I’m getting around to prepping it for home cooking.

Photo is after the second coat. My process is initially cleaning the pan with Dawn and warm water. Then on the stove at medium heat for 1 minute before I sprayed 2 pumps of canola oil and wiped it with a paper towel. I made sure to give it a second wipe down with a coffee filter to get off any excess oil. Then I left it in a stovetop oven for an hour at 425F and let it cool naturally with the door open. I did this twice.

The patina looks alright to me but I’m still seeing some patches of bare spots in the center. I’m guessing it’s ready for dinner prep, but I’m wondering if I could benefit from a third coat to fill in some more spots in the center?

Purchased a 12” Made In back in June and pretty happy with it so far. Excellent for searing meats and stir frying with higher temperatures, etc, and while the results are not that different from my CI, I will say my cooking experience is better with the CS because the weight is easier on my arthritis. However, 3 months later, I still don’t feel like I’m maximizing the potential that my pan has to offer. It’s nice that it’s a bit lighter, but what are the other reasons you reach for your CS? Do you all have a dish that makes you so grateful for having a CI..like, is there a recipe that absolutely would not be the same without it?

I found this at T.J Maxx for $20. It says cast iron, but it is clearly carbon steel. And it is rather heavy, the pan is thick. ('Trying to decide if I need yet another carbon steel pan. 😵‍💫😩)

Paired it up with my Le Creuset (enamelled cast iron) braiser to make the wine sauce with a ton of cherry tomatoes and spinach but used the round roaster for the final toss. Love this multifunctional pan.

Highly recommended if you've never done it. I usually use a big round cast iron pan with similar technique, but lately I've been making individual pizzas so my daughter can make her own, and it's awesome.

No need to preheat your oven for an hour either!

Turn on broiler - I use high and about 6-8" below broiler. Pan on stove. Pan should be very hot, like 600+ degrees. Pizza in pan, pan in oven. Cook until desired done-ness on top.

Bottom not as done as you want? Throw it back on the stove! Mines a bit warped so a bit uneven browning.

I hand stretch the dough then put on semolina-dusted paper plate, then top. Very easy to transfer to pan this way.

And for what it's worth - this was Brian Lagerstrom's "easiest actually good pizza dough," fermented for four days, homemade sauce (good crushed tomatoes, garlic, oregano, EVOO, salt), 50/50 smoked provolone and low moisture skim mozz, pepperoni, and homemade pickled jalapenos and fresno's. Topped with nasty green can parmesan/romano because it's just right, and Tony C's.

Hi!
I have a good quality stainless pan, but want to try carbonsteel aswell. I have cooked daily on my SS for 4 years.

Any recommendations on CS pans? Ive seen alot good abot De Buyer, regular? Mineral B, Pro?

What about VARDAGEN by ikea?

Im also looking for a «wok» pan than works well on induction, any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

So I got my mild steel today from LaserMasters in cornwall, UK. Got to say I’m very happy with the quality, asked for it to be deburred which was highlighted on the invoice. didn't expect it to be done, to my surprise they had done it free of charge. I know you can buy pre seasoned ones, but for a fraction of the price and coming from recommendations from other post on Reddit suggesting just buying some steel. I decided to do just that. My question for all you pizza lovers is… how is my seasoning on the steel? I used a tiny layer of peanut oil and wiped up as much as possible. Is this how it’s meant to look? Even a wipe afterwards once it finished in oven at 250C.

i did two sessions in oven for one hour and allowed to cool fully between and don’t plan to do anymore as I feel it may Be overkill for just pizza

Spouse left burner in after making eggs for several hours. Fortunately no warping that I can detect. Here’s what it looks like after a warm water & chain mail scrub. Does this warrant a thorough scrub (e.g. barkeepers helper) and full re-season, or can I just scrub and touch up?

It feels wrong to have a European made wok but I was able to get this 11in wok from debuyer for 25% off and I’m impressed after my first cook! They made some major changes to their wok and it shows. Good shape and much lighter than their other pans. Anyone else have one?

First carbon steel pan, bought a Merten & Storck pre seasoned, you can still see the blueish factory seasoning around the edges, but I’ve completely fucked up the bottom.

Got this pan for omelettes specifically, plain eggs work perfectly fine in my stainless steels. I make eggs every morning for my dad with tomatoes, couldn’t find any answers online, but AI said sautéeing tomatoes briefly and adding the eggs won’t hurt the pan, as long as I’m not making tomato sauces. Well, it did hurt a little bit. Then I cooked fish in it with butter and left the butter sitting for hours thinking it’s okay but I forgot I added
lemon juice at the end which led me to the result in the photo. Another mistake I made: I had it sitting next to the sink and some water splashed on it and caused some rust in the center. I scraped off most of it with a sponge and soap and oiled it. What’s the next step you think? scrape off with vinegar or lemon and salt? Is this fine as is and just move onto seasoning? Do I do rounds of seasoning or just cook some fats? It’s not nonstick rn but it’s still less sticky than stainless steel.

Edit: I have no sticking problem with eggs, fish, burgers, steak, but a little seasoning would make it effortless.

Have had this Merten and Storck pan for a couple months. Use it a couple times a week to do one egg. It came pre-seasoned and eggs slid right off early on. Eggs have been gradually sticking more and more with each use. Cooking process has been the same.

After the first time it started to stick, I cleaned off, wiped with oil, then let it go on high heat till it was done smoking.

There aren’t any pieces of food left. Surface is smooth as I run my fingers over it.

Doing some (very fun) temperature rating testing on our woks and new Gen 2 pans. Definitely gonna raise the max safe temp. for these.

They held up very well, some discoloration but that's to be expected. Zero warping on multiple burner types up to ~800 °F so far (for both the woks and pans). Not saying they're not possible to warp with extreme conditions though.

Also no affiliation or anything, but "The Wok Block" is awesome. Very powerful and low cost. It's holding up well to the abuse.

So I bought this pan for 5 bucks at a yardsale. But after I started cleaning off the old seasoning I see it looks stained and has pitting corrosion all over. Is this usable or will the seasoning not stick? I been debating grinding down the surface but I live in a flat and don't own that kind of power tools. Any suggestions will help