Wilbur McGillicuddy

sorry - here's the pic

Hi,

Bought this small potted palm last spring. It did fine on my porch (Virginia) during the summer and fall, but developed these brown tips over the winter. It has been outside for a few weeks getting partial sun and the brown tips seems to continue to spread. Any suggestions? I keep it watered, although haven't fed it. Any ideas what causes the brown tips in a palm?

Well my lawn is mostly hardy weeds so you'd think they could stand up to some pee

Thanks for the info. In my case I probably would not notice the dog going such that I could flush the spot with fresh water. I'm out doing my chores and he's helping by sniffing things and chasing butterflies.

I have a radiant surface so the heat should be uniformly distributed, and I always preheat the pan around a 4 (out of 10) and usually end up cooking around a 5. This is enough to get the oil just smoking before I add my food to the pan.

I've considered doing a second layer of seasoning since I took this Lodge pan down to smooth metal. You know, preheat it with a little oil, then wipe it all out except the sheen and let it polymerize at 300 for an hour. I've wondered if I was simply cooking on too thin of an initial seasoning and getting some stickiness with certain foods. So perhaps another layer if done properly would help?

I've also wondered just the opposite - maybe I'm just being too anal and obsessing over the cleaning. But I do this because I know a second cooking on top of existing sticky burns will only lead to gumminess that wears off and leaves bare spots.

Well, that sounds like good advice and not too much different from what I do. If I can get away with a wiping out then that is all I do. Usually that is all that is needed after some eggs or veggies.

I guess I just don't understand how that nice black mottled patina starts to appear...what is it? Baked on grease? I know heating the pan up real hot with too thick a coat of oil will just create a tacky film that comes off quickly.

My dog pees in the yard all the time, usually no big deal. He doesn't seem to have any favorite spots. But sometimes I get a big brown spot that looks like I sprayed grass killer right on it. What is the best way to rejuvenate this spot? Should something else be sprayed/poured down to try and flush away whatever killed the grass?

Why sometimes and not other times? I'd have no grass anywhere if dog pee did this every time

Hello!

New user, first time post. I have an interest in a lot of the sub-forums here so hope I have found a good place to start with this question...

I've been a bit obsessive lately with getting my new frying pans seasoned. And I've done a lot of research, ready websites and watched videos. Paul Wheaton's website has been helpful and I find his information practical and useful. But that said, my efforts at building up seasoning are getting me nowhere.

I sanded my Lodge 10" and 12" pans almost mirror smooth. I did a 500+ degree burnoff to clean them up, then a couple cycles around 300 with very, very thin coats of vegetable grease to get that first layer of seasoning. They came out looking great and that initial layer has held up. I also cooked down some pork fat one time for the heck of it after the initial seasoning, wiping it clean when done.

I then proceeded to use the pans for various meals. Eggs do wonderful with a bit of butter. I fried some fish in a thin pool of peanut oil. I pan seared some fish. I sauteed some vegetables a couple times in butter and/or oil. Cleanup routine is to avoid water unless needed, and when so just quick rinse in hot water. Generally just a wipe down of a warm pan with a paper towel to wipe out excess oil and/or debris. Then another wipedown if needed of a thin layer of oil. Things go fine cooking these types of foods.

But bacon or meats, like a pork chop, usually stick a little bit here and there and leave a very thin layer of scalded debris in isolated spots. Half of this scalded remnant will scrape away with a Lodge scraper but never gets back to the previous slick oiled surface. I usually scrub at it repeatedly with a spatula, Lodge scraper or my fingernail. I worry if I leave it then it will become the cause other food to stick on the same spot. I know sugars in bacon can contribute to this but my bacon doesn't mention sugar in the curing agents. And a pork chop doesn't have it. I even put a thin wipe of oil in the hot pan before cooking the bacon this morning and it still stuck here and there.

All that said...my seasoning is not building up. At best I feel like all the seasoning I have is the original thin layer that I polymerized on at 300 during the initial seasoning. Whenever I wipe the pan clean it always looks the same and I don't get those dark areas starting to build up. Borrowing from Paul's great website is this pic of his showing dark areas building up. Mine doesn't do that - mine looks like that pan minus the dark areas. Any thoughts on what I should be doing differently? I'm hesitant to cook more meat because of how I get a little sticking, and fear my cleanup process might be preventing the buildup I seek?