Season ONCE or a season a BUNCH? How to Season a De Buyer Mineral B Carbon Steel Skillet

Last year I purchased 3 carbon steel skillets. I watched YouTube videos...unfortunately, they were not YOUR videos.😅 Instead, I listened to a youtuber who insisted that we needed to "season" our pans repeatedly, until they were totally black all over. (I was such a fool; I guess I spent over $`100 on seasoning these skillets. My electric bill went through the roof! And the finished peeled off when I began to actually cook with them.) Beware of folks who want their pans to 'look pretty " rather than allowing them to develop the patina of a well-used pan! So I began to follow your system; just USE them, and they will become nonstick. All of my pans now pass the "egg" test. Thanks for your sensible advice.

In initially my sons and I nicknamed the new de Buyer 'Mr. Sticky'. After an initial oven seasoning, I did the egg test and got a slight sticking in one spot. After day 3 of use, we have renamed 'Mr. Sticky' to 'Mr. Crispy'. My wife came home from the butcher with 2 x 1 1/4" Rib Eye steaks on Friday. With a bit of coaching, she was able to create 2 restaurant quality steaks on 'Mr. Crispy' and then finished them in the oven with an electronic thermometer. She could not believe the results. Since getting the pan, my family has doubled its egg consumption because the de Buyer excels at egg dishes of all kinds. Perfect for steaks, chops, eggs, and hash browns so far. My oldest son has been asking for extra bacon every morning since I switched to this pan as it finishes so well. One kid likes extra crispy bacon and the other wants only a hint of colour on his. I do separate batches and I really like the control that I have with this pan. My pan has the ordinary handle so it goes in the oven easily. I have found that I need a little more heat than I would with my other pans to keep things from sticking. Just about the right thickness. It takes a while to warm up but retains its heat well. I did managed to cool it off when I put too much food in it and in that respect it reminds me of using my wok. It is not overly responsive and takes a while to increase or decrease the heat, which actually makes cooking more relaxing in a way. Overall it is a great pan in my humble opinion. I have formed my own opinion on seasoning and I don't think colour is the most important factor. The seasoning just has to make the pan stick resistant and not necessarily turn it black. Since getting this pan, I have been able to rest up my cast iron pans. I have stripped them both down to shiny silver metal using oven cleaner and a very aggressive wire brush on an electric drill. After an initial seasoning, both are performing perfectly. They are not black, just well seasoned. They used to be black but it was mostly carbon and crud. The heat was not being transferred to the food. Thank you very much for your instructive videos. They have really helped me and my family bring home cooking up a notch.

Thank you. I always appreciate straight to the point information.

I bought 2 de Buyer Mineral B pans (20cm and 26cm). One I seasoned 4x (with a beeswax and oil mix). The other I seasoned 1x (same mix) and started cooking. I have a ceramic/electric hob which might be a factor.The 4x pan worked magic, got better each time I cooked with it. The 1x pan needed scrubbing after cooking which wore its seasoning away - so I ended up redoing a 4x protocol similar to the other pan. Now it is doing great too. So Scott - I hear you about too much seasoning and not enough cooking, but maybe 1x is not always enough!

I have tried every method of seasoning a carbon steel/cast iron pan there is. This is without a doubt the best method of them all. I messed up the first time I tried, then watched your video again to realize I had done it completely wrong. Even without re-stripping the pan, I used your method correctly, and voila the smoothest, slickest surface I have ever gotten, and in only 1 application. Skillet is an 11 in Matfer btw. Your method uses more oil than others, but It's worth it. The results are unparalleled. Thank you.

Yep that is the way to do it. I did pretty much the same thing on the last skillet I bought, done in less than an hour. I like blinzes so I got some. put some butter in the pan with a little peanut oil and got my blinzes going Damn they cooked up better than fine. There was a bit of a learning curve with regard to heat management, the pan like the heat a tad off the middle of the knob. It's been a go to for the gee 20 years I have it. Its a pan I got out of a restaurant supply store, I had a friend in the business and he got it for me. I think it was 12 bucks a the time.

I did my Mineral B Pro skillets by putting them in an oven and letting it preheat to 250 degrees, then putting Buzzywax on them and baking at 475 for an hour. I repeated this 4 times, and they've been great. I have an old fashioned electric stove, so I wasn't confident that seasoning on the eye like the instructions say would even work without the flame underneath.

That new DeBuyer pan is a nice looking pan.... Your jet black well seasoned DeBuyer pan is a damn fine looking pan. As usual great video/content.

I've watched probably hours of your videos at this point. Been working on my pan. I finally built up the courage to cook a hockey puck egg this morning. I cried tears of joy on my eggs. You've changed my life. Thank you.

@UncleScottsKitchen I thoroughly enjoy your videos but have yet to see you address: tempering the steel of the new carbon steel skillets to prepare that skillet to accept the seasoning process more effectively. We do that with our new carbon steel woks.

Another great video. Based on your advice, I’m playing on buying the mineral b pro for my mothers birthday as she loves her morning eggs.

Nice video Keep them coming!

Thank you for the vid. Do you also season the outside of the pan with oil to avoid rusting?

I just ordered one👍👍

thumbs up for De Buyer 🙂

Once you're done cooking, I've found using a simple brush with hot water to scrub the pan is best. Throw it on the burner for a few minutes afterwards to dry and you're good to go.

Nice!How many times i have to do this? How i have to clean the pan after the cooking?did you preheat the pan before add the butter? Thanks nice presentation

Hi Scott. Am curious about the bottom side- the part that touches the flame. What is happening seasoning wise here? I imagine this needs seasoning too as it is the same material and prone to rust just the same?

Hi! Do you ever consider bluing your pans? If not, why?

thanks