John:  Did you use anything besides steel wool?  

 

John and Nebby:  Did you clean it with BKF, soap, or something else when you first got it (before seasoning)?  

 

So I decided that maybe I scrubbed it enough with baking soda, vinegar, salt and oil to get off the soap residue and decided to just trying seasoning it again (2 x 1 hour in the oven with a layer of Crisco each time).  I'm not sure that was such a good idea.  There is quite a bit of sticky residue (more than the first time).  I also ordered another pan in case I totally fuck this one up (which maybe isn't possible if one is willing to scrub a lot and start over again).  I wonder if I should keep seasoning or strip it and then season. 

 

Here is a picture of it now. 

 

I scraped it with a plastic spatula, then steel wool under hot water, and got it down to metal, at least on the bottom. I still see seasoning on your bottom. (That didn't sound right!) Then very briefly with soap and very hot water rinse and then immediately dried it and heated it up to season again. That worked well for me.

Ben, how did your pan turn out?

Can't seem to edit in Tapatalk, but reread your post, and see that the pic was after retrying. I'm no expert, but that looks pretty thick and uneven, similar to my first attempt which failed. And that was also a little sticky. Maybe too thick with the Crisco? I just found Flax seed oil much easier to apply a really thin layer, which resulted in a very thin, hard, bonded layer. Maybe better for the unexperienced?

Here's mine now after a few uses. Still a small fleck or two that came off, but much better than after my first attempt!

That's good to know, thanks!

Cooked some eggs on it this Am, but they stuck really badly. Do fried eggs usually slide off easily? I used medium-high temp, is that too high?

Tried seasoning mine yesterday, using coconut oil. Didn't go that well, I will probably get some flax seed oil or Crisco or something and try again next Friday.

Yes, oil. What temp do you use for fried eggs?

Your pan is just fined Shelly, really no reason to be discouraged.

 

Ok, I'll keep going.  I was afraid that if the seasoning built up too much then it would flake off in one big piece.  Maybe I'll even try cooking some food I plan to eat one of these days.  

 

By the way, I have some high heat refined canola oil (up to 450F).  I suppose I need to put the oven over 450 to season with that stuff.  

Mine looks a bit splotchy when I put too thick a coat on it, but otherwise I think it's turning out alright. I'll get a picture of it later...

Heat it up until it just starts to smoke?  Would 15-20 minutes of smoking oil be enough?  

I just religiously cook bacon in my cast iron skillet and count that as the seasoning process.

On gas, low.

Wow, I've never fried an egg on low. I'll try it next time. I also wish I had a gas stove. Oh well.

I actually seasoned mine the second time around on the stove, because I was short on time, and I liked the result. I did have to stand there watching it, but it goes pretty quickly.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/605058

 

Now I know more about fried eggs than I wish to.

I usually fry an egg on lowish but I use a cast iron pan and I use butter.

Good stuff, thanks!

Fried up some eggs on low this AM, and those eggs slid right off the pan! Fantastic! Also, the eggs were nice and soft.

 

It's funny, I had a cast iron pan a decade ago and never got around to using it before Anne tossed it for being too heavy to use. When I fried eggs on medium or low, the egg just sat on the pan laughing at me. So I turned up the heat, and it fries, but always, always sticks, no matter what pan I get. Even non stick anything would be good for a few weeks, then start sticking. I've been through numerous pans that I didn't like and finally settled on buying whatever decent non stick was on sale and knowing I'd toss it in a year or two. 

 

This pan is heavy, but not unusably heavy. It conducts heat really nicely, and food releases so nicely from it. Even when I seared the chicken breast last week, it was nicely browned, but released off the pan so easily. I'm really looking forward to trying out some steaks and chops. I have to agree, this is a great pan, probably the best I've owned, and for what I paid, it's such a great deal. 

 

It's taken some time learning to adjust heat and getting it seasoned, but I suspect this will be the pan that I finally love, and it's so solid, I bet it'll last a lifetime!

Had some fried eggs this morning as well, cooked with rather large amount of butter as usual.

Amazon has the Philips Fidelio X1 on sale for $149.99 (today only):

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B3QD94O/?t=slickdeals&tag=slickdeals&ascsubtag=Swv7LoNEEeO73vLLArRDVQ0_ML1w3_0_0_0

 

The above link does NOT have the Head-Case redirect thing.  I think you can use the link provided here and search for the X1 once you get there:

 

EDIT: It appears to be sold out now.

Edited January 22, 201412 yr by cclragnarok

Amazon has the Philips Fidelio X1 on sale for $149.99 (today only):

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B3QD94O/?t=slickdeals&tag=slickdeals&ascsubtag=Swv7LoNEEeO73vLLArRDVQ0_ML1w3_0_0_0

 

The above link does NOT have the Head-Case redirect thing.  I think you can use the link provided here and search for the X1 once you get there:

 

EDIT: It appears to be sold out now.

 

Sold out through amazon already, it seems.

 

EDIT: yep, Amazon replaced that Gold Box deal with some other "Philips O'Neill CRASH Headphones" due to x1 being sold out.

Edited January 22, 201412 yr by screaming oranges

$199 for Belkin Thunderbolt Express Dock ($299, $100 off in cart). Requires OS X 10.8.3 or later.  

 

http://www.belkin.com/us/F4U055/p/P-F4U055/?text=Save100-Jan-thunderbolt-F4U055ww-page&utm_source=cj&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_content=SSave100-Jan-thunderbolt-F4U055ww-page&utm_campaign=cj-Save100-Jan-thunderbolt-F4U055ww-page&ref=CJ#

Edited January 24, 201412 yr by blessingx

^ any HCers have experience with that hub or any other TB hub for that matter?  My experience with FW800 hubs has been lousy at best.  I'm curious how video + ethernet + USB at the same time hold up via a TB hub.

Even at that price, I would get the Caldigit dock which does not require OS X 10.8.3 or later.

I'm running 10.8.5, so that part is not an issue for me.

The Caldigit doc has been rock-solid for the last 3 months. I run a virtual windows machine in Parallels using an external thunderbolt SSD drive and it is awesome. The only FW I have used was a thunderbolt to FW adaptor to move files off of a FW drive to a USB 3.0 drive and it worked fine. For me the Caldigit docks HDMI port for video was much more useful than a FW port.

A Belkin arrived today for work (why I looked that that sale was still on for home), but I don't have 10.8.3 yet so can't use. That may change next week. I guess it comes down to port choice, but FW is more important than HDMI for me. Or put another way with Apples current offerings your next machine is much more likely to have HDMI than FW. Course those with several monitors.