February 13, 2024 - 5:59pm
Prepping / seasoning new baking steel
I just found a good-size sheet of 1/8" steel in the back of the garage, and am in the process of cutting off pieces into sizes useful for my ovens, using a table saw and metal-cutting blade. It is slow going but it works. I just tested a 9"x10" piece in one of my countertop ovens and it definitely stabilizes the temps in the oven.
It has a little rust along one edge that I need to get off. Beyond that, any suggestions on prepping or seasoning the surfaces?
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My steel came pre-treated and i haven't needed to do anything to it. I would think that you should season it like a cast iron or carbon steel skillet. That means very thin coats of some cooking oil baked in an oven. It's often been written that an oil with a high smoke point should be used, but this misses the point. You want to polymerize the oil to produce a tough, plastic-like coating. Its smoke point is not very relevant and indeed a lower smoke point would help create the coating at lower temperatures.
I use light olive oil (not extra virgin) in a 450 deg F/230C oven and get good results with my pans. The key is to use the thinnest of coats otherwise the oil tends to pull itself into beads - not a nice uniform coating like you want. I like to preheat the pans (not necessarily to the full baking temperature) before coating them with oil - this reduces the beading tendency.
If you have a good bandsaw or jigsaw you might want to cut a slot near one end to provide a handhold. Otherwise these sheets can be hard to carry around (though mine is heavier than yours since it's 1/4 inch steel).
BTW, you can season a stainless steel pan the same way and it works pretty well.
TomP
That's pretty much what I was thinking, though my thoughts were going with something like peanut oil. I put the steel in a countertop electric oven tonight, and measured inside air and steel surface temps. The steel was measuring a good 75º hotter than the air averaged, the latter was just a tad below what the set temp was.
Yeah, this first one (about 9x10") weighs a bit over 3 lbs... quite manageable.
I rarely (as in, years/decades) have had to reseason a cast iron pan. And I've never seasoned a stainless one.
Thank you for sharing all of this information! I remember when I got sucked down the cast iron rabbit hole and it took me a long time to learn a few of the things you’ve listed here.
If you don’t mind sharing, how is your experience with baking on your steel?
Kevin
I realized after posting that it is inconsiderate to start unrelated conversations on someone else’s post! Sorry!
I think it's relevant, since the OP is going to use his new steel for baking bread.
I went through a progression years ago: first a pizza stone. Then a layer of quarry tiles on top of the stone. Finally a baking steel. At each step I got better rise and crust. This was with various gas and electric (non-fan) (US) ovens. So I'm convinced that a baking steel is a good thing to use. Note that my steel (from King Arthur's) is about 1/4-inch (6.4mm) thick - by eyeball, not measured - and it's heavy. I haven't used a thinner one.
The main disadvantage is that it takes a long time to become fully heat-soaked while the oven is preheating. I think for bread baking temperatures that it should be heated for at least an hour for best results. In practice, I usually turn the oven on after I've shaped my loaves. By the time they are ready to bake the steel and oven have been well heat-soaked. Of course if the bread takes two hours to proof then I've been using more energy than needed...
Even without a steel, don't overlook the value of letting the entire oven get fully heat-soaked. Just because the oven thermostat thinks it's been preheated doesn't mean that all parts of the oven are actually up to temperature yet.
Lately I've been turning the oven off when I put the loaves in. The steel keeps pumping heat into the loaves, but the outer surface of the loaves doesn't heat up quite as fast. I leave the oven off (well, set at 300 deg F/150C) for 7 - 10 minutes and then turn it back to the target setting. The breads bake at least as well or better than with the heat on all the time, and the overall baking time doesn't seem to get increased.
One practical matter about steaming your oven that I have never seen discussed is the temperature drop on and around the steaming pan. My setup is that on a lower rack, just above the heating element on the bottom of the oven, I have a cast iron pan filled with rocks. I pour water on them right after loading the loaves into the oven.
This is pretty standard, but what happens at the pan? I tried to make more steam, since my oven doesn't hold it in for long. But when I poured more water into the pan it didn't make more steam - the water just sat there. The steam pan stays too cool to generate more steam for a long time, and it's right under the baking steel. The large heat capacity of the steel protects the bottom of the loaf from this large temperature drop and keeps pumping heat into the loaves.
If you have a different oven design or method of generating steam these factors may play out differently.
TomP
If you are using something from an unknown origin in a cooking, make sure you remove any contamination before you season it.
Remember, many coatings, oils or even random industrial materials that may have spilt on it have no place in a kitchen. When you can't be sure, then it is usually better to opt for something where you know the providence.
This steel was part of an outdoor sign for a long-defunct art gallery, and it has some kind of coating (varnish?) to protect it from the elements. Before seasoning, wire wheels and sanding discs are the order of the day.
I'd take a sander/grinder and remove any surface material/coatings. Once I was down to bare metal I'd give it a thin coat of rapeseed or olive oil and stick it in a 400 degree oven for 30 or 40 minutes. cool, coat and do it again before using. At least that is what I did with mine.
lots of sanding required. Then 2 coats of pnut oil @ 450º, did not let it cool down in between... 2nd coat was thicker than I wanted but it was hard to control on a hot plate. Now just waiting for an opportunity to use it.