Seasoning and Care

When your pan arrives, it should be washed with soap and water, then thoroughly dried. In order to get the carbon steel ready to cook with, it must be seasoned. If you aren't able to season the pan right away, give it a light coat of cooking oil with a paper towel and hang it on a nail.  

The Big Mother Pan is made from pressed carbon steel, so rust can form on an un-oiled and unseasoned pan. If this happens, it's easy  to clean using vinegar and paper towel. Once the pan is properly seasoned and stored away from a water source, rust will have a difficult time forming. If it does, it can always be cleaned and/or lightly buffed from the pan. 

Initial seasoning should be done with successive layers of cooking oil, either over an open fire/ bed of coals or a large outdoor cooking flame. Using a paper towel, coat the the inside face of the pan very lightly with cooking oil. As it heats, you'll see the steel start to turn light brown at first, then, as additional layers of oil bond with the steel, it will become darker and darker.  We recommend a minimum of three applications and "searings" of the oil in the pan. As you cook, the surface will develop an even deeper colouring. 

After each camping trip, the pan should be wiped down with a paper towel dipped in the same cooking oil to prevent rusting. Dad kept his pan hanging on the garage wall, lightly oiled and wrapped in an orange garbage bag.

For those of you interested in learning more, Wikipedia has a good article on the process.