Oil Beads on the Skillet #5

[Mike Shonfield]

Wow!  I read about this a few months ago on this site and now it has happened to me.  (The Otis Phenomenon)

I recently put another coat of seasoning on my #5 Griswold fry pan I had been using.  I now season using high heat  (450) and grape seed oil.  I get a nice black shinny hard surface.

I went to use the pan today I put a few drops of canola oil in and it just beaded.  I wiped with a paper towel but could not cover the whole pan.  I made the mistake of cooking my eggs anyway and they stuck.  Stuck so hard I could not get the residue off with hot water or salt or brush or plastic curly cate!  I decided to clean down to bare metal and re-season over again.

But I usually season a pan 2 or 3 times by putting oil on it while hot and putting it back in the oven for another 1/2 hour.  I cannot do this this time.  After the first season I cannot rub oil on the pan again.  Weird!

I have seasoned several pans this way and have never had this problem.

I guess I just need to use the pan for oily cooking until it fixes itself.

Previous Link   http://www.griswoldandwagner.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1215286218

[Ron_Wheeler]

Mike, sounds like the cast iron seasoning Gods are angry, you might want to go to church tomorrow.  ;)

Wonder if it has anything to do with what was cooked in it last?  I remember that other post and I think Jesse also experienced the beads once.  Strange!

[Mike Shonfield]

Ron,  I can't afford church.  Last time they asked me not to take money off the plate.  I said well how am I to get home, walk?  I was just taking bus fare.  I mean why did they pass it around anyway? ;D ;D

No, it was a freshly seasoned pan and had never been used.  Maybe oil is like salt and I should throw a little over my shoulder when I spill it.  :)

[Jeff Seago]

I have experienced this very same problem.  My solution was to take 0000 dry steel wool to the dry pan.  This worked very well.  I scrubbed it pretty good.  I thought that the initial seasoning created, for reasons unbeknown to me, a situation that just simply repelled the oil.

As for when things stick.  I have had luck with boiling water in the pan, letting it cool, and then scrubbing it off.  

I hope this will help.  I know that there are more solutions to your problem because "There is more than one way to skin a cat!"  

[Mike Shonfield]

No I don't want to scrap anything off.  The high heat and grapeseed oil (highly unsaturated oils give more polymer) gives a hard, thick polymer finish which I wish too leave on.  It just never gave me the beading oil problem before.

I solved it by cooking a rue (oil and flour) until brown and then washed the pan with hot water.  It is fine now with a nice black mirror finish.

[Jeff Seago]

No I don't want to scrap anything off.  The high heat and grapeseed oil (highly unsaturated oils give more polymer) gives a hard, thick polymer finish which I wish too leave on.  It just never gave me the beading oil problem before.

I solved it by cooking a rue (oil and flour) until brown and then washed the pan with hot water.  It is fine now with a nice black mirror finish.

Sorry Mike,

I forgot to mention that I reseason the pan when I finish with the wool.  I usually do all of mine twice and have had this problem before.