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Comment by bluthru | Hacker News Reader

You can season stainless steel pans to a degree by bringing oil up to its smoke point. YouTube has some tutorials.

Have you had good success? To me it’s still a grab bag with this method. So much so that I still keep a non-coated anodized aluminum nonstick pan around just for eggs. Everything else into the stainless or enameled cast iron.

I recently switched fully to a non coated iron pan and can't be happier. The trick for the right oil-coating is to apply oil with low smoking point and then to remove it almost completely with a cloth. When the pan looks dry again, briefly put it on the stove over high heat and after 3 minutes it is perfectly burnt in. Let it cool and repeat 3-5 times.

Pan will end up fully black. I had a previous attempt where I used too much oil (then the coating ends up sticky and it smokes during the heating) the pan must really be dry again. There will still be enough oil in the surface. Used flaxseed oil.

I tried it according to many of the video tutorials and it doesn't really work. It just smelled up my kitchen with oil smoke, and made my pan look amber-ish but not non-stick. Also whatever coating that created, it gets ruined by cooking.

Just use some oil and high heat before putting things in. And use a Teflon pan for more delicate things that don't need to be seared.

The coating needs to be very thin. I think of it more as filling in little scratches and then polymerizing to create a smoother surface. I still use oil/fat when it's time to cook.

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