What's for Breakfast?

I made these pumpkin waffles and pancakes a few days ago to test out “pumkinization “ modifications to my standard recipe for use in a pumpkin themed chicken and waffles dish for our upcoming annual pumpkinpalooza dinner. They turned out well and I froze the remains and popped a couple into the toaster this morning. Maple syrup and life is good. 

Did you recently reseason your black steel pan?

I want to eat breakfast with you guys!!!

I made these pumpkin waffles and pancakes a few days ago to test out “pumkinization “ modifications to my standard recipe for use in a pumpkin themed chicken and waffles dish for our upcoming annual pumpkinpalooza dinner. They turned out well and I froze the remains and popped a couple into the toaster this morning. Maple syrup and life is good. 

Looks amazing Mark !!

Did you recently reseason your black steel pan?

I screwed it up with excess heat and have been having trouble - can you give me any tips?  Should I re-do the potato skin thing??

Hard to tell from a picture. But just one tiny section appears to have seasoning. That's what prompted my question.

Yes start over, but first do everything exactly wrong to strip it of the seasoning. Get it hot and put it under cold water, then use steel wool and detergent. If that tiny section insists on staying put don't argue with it. Then re-season it with potato peels, salt, and oil. But there are other ways. But the mentioned method is dead simple and hard to better. But there are other ways.

When working on seasoning the pan I get it smokin' hot and then with a very sparsely oil moistened paper towel give it a wipe down. Less oil works so much better than too much so I really mean a sparsely oiled paper towel. Just a few drops is what works . Too much doesn't do anything at all but keep the pan from rusting. So very little oil (drops) on the wadded up paper towel gets it done. Then after it cools I bring it back up to smoking. Wipe and cool it again and repeat with the same paper towel. Do that as many times as makes you happy. But just a few times works and then use it and build seasoning from use.

I'd take a picture of my pan but it's late. But it's the reason they are called "black steel pans". It's black and nothing sticks, I still need to use oil or fat though. Geez, I love that pan. It almost never leaves my range top. I also never use it for anything that spews water. The SS or PTFE pan get those job. It took me awhile to realize what couldn't go into the black steel.

Hard to tell from a picture. But just one tiny section appears to have seasoning. That's what prompted my question.

Yes start over, but first do everything exactly wrong to strip it of the seasoning. Get it hot and put it under cold water, then use steel wool and detergent. If that tiny section insists on staying put don't argue with it. Then re-season it with potato peels, salt, and oil. But there are other ways. But the mentioned method is dead simple and hard to better. But there are other ways.

When working on seasoning the pan I get it smokin' hot and then with a very sparsely oil moistened paper towel give it a wipe down. Less oil works so much better than too much so I really mean a sparsely oiled paper towel. Just a few drops is what works . Too much doesn't do anything at all but keep the pan from rusting. So very little oil (drops) on the wadded up paper towel gets it done.  Then after it cools I bring it back up to smoking. Wipe and cool it again and repeat with the same paper towel. Do that as many times as makes you happy. But just a few times works and then use it and build seasoning from use.

I'd take a picture of my pan but it's late. But it's the reason they are called "black steel pans". It's black and nothing sticks, I still need to use oil or fat though. Geez, I love that pan. It almost never leaves my range top. I also never use it for anything that spews water. The SS or PTFE pan get those job. It took me awhile to realize what couldn't go into the black steel.

Thanks for this Brian, I bought that pan and a bigger one (matfer bourgeat) after reading your posts on them and I've been really happy with them.  I hardly touch my cast iron anymore.  The season was coming along nicely on that pan and then I left it on heat and got distracted.  Dang.  I'll begin again.  Good news is the bigger one is great too.

The way I handle the pans is, if in doubt re-season it. It's simple enough. New seasoning is a slight brownish tint to the battleship grey steel.

We know what we're talking about, but I should take a picture of my pan that's fully seasoned for folks coming to this late. The following is for them. I hope to remember to take a picture for them.

For those folks, CI has some issues. One being the seasoning is the same color as the pan. Try seeing the light brownish tint on black CI, that's impossible. No such issue with steel. CI also takes 2x as long to get to temp' and is slow to react with a change in heat. No such issues with steel. It's a chefs secret, and those of us who like to think we can emulate chefs. (that would be me but frankly, I'm no chef)

Marko, I have 3 of them. The 14" weighs pretty much the same as the same CI pan, but has the advantages I already mentioned but it's a major PITA to season. I don't use it very often. I have the 8" that sits on my range top and is used 99.9% of the time that I can use steel. Then I have the largest crepe pan Matfer made at the time (6'?). It was my test pan that sold me on the others. But it too gets rarely used today. Nothing wrong with it, but the 8" is just the everyday pan. Eventually I'll screw up and remove the seasoning on it with something ejecting too much water and need to re-season it, but I bet I haven't done that in 1.5 years. Fingers crossed that that stretch continues. But using the paper towel method re-seasoning is super simple. Fried eggs tell me if I've been successful in the seasoning of the pan. If the pan doesn't smoke the seasoning won't polymerize and that's what we want.

More of a brunch, really.
Soup, Sandwich, and a Rainbow.



Soup: chicken, red, green, and yellow peppers, onion (probably?) plus some leftover pasta that continued to absorb liquids, so not much broth was left.
Sandwich: a multi-grain "Protein Bread", mayo, mustard, Black Forest ham, Swiss cheese, iceberg lettuce.
Rainbow: provided by a chandelier crystal hanging in the window.

I jokingly refer to my typical breakfast as "my morning bowl of gruel." In reality, I really enjoy oatmeal, and found I can make it quickly enough in the microwave and NOT have a slimy texture to it, as I find the packets to have. I use the old-fashioned oats, some water to, raisins, banana, frozen wild blueberries, or just plain. 4 minutes at 50% in our microwave and I have a nice, hot bowl of gruel to start my day! I add a splash of 10 of milk, maybe a sweetener, and slurp away as I peruse the forums.

This is today's bowl, with some sort of special raisins my wife got me for Christmas. 



If anyone has a favorite hot cereal recipe, I am all ears!