Dan,
Lots and lots to talk about ....
I have now seasoned a bunch of stuff. At one point i put an aluminum cookie sheet in the oven to catch drippings. About ten minutes into it, I noticed some brown puddles on it. Oh no! I pulled it out and put foil down instead.
I spent 15 minutes trying to scrape off the brown puddles. I had to give up on that. I'm guessing that this is polymerized oil, right? You would call it a dry polymer?
These brown puddles were super smooth. And super hard. I'm guessing this is what we're going for?
So then I thought I would go ahead and put a polymerized coating on the whole cookie sheet. It came out all mottled/spotty. The first puddles were nice and even. I wanted the nice even layer over the whole thing but got this .... spotty stuff. What happened?
I seasoned my favorite skillet three times. Organic shortening smeared on in a thin layer with the skillet upside down in the oven. 500 degrees for two hours each time. Each time, the seasoning was really mottled. I then used it a lot hoping for the carbon layer to build up. But it didn't really - (might be my fault - the stuff I was making sometimes stuck). In fact, the bottom started to appear gray - the color of the iron underneath. You could kinda tell where the seasoning had come off in big patches.
So then I tried to make sure to add a carbon layer. I put about two tablespoons of organic shortening in the pan and kept it smoking for about an hour - moving it around frequently. It turned yellow, and then brown. It started getting sticky and thick. I was moving it around with my stainless steel spatula. I kept wiping that off periodically because I was worried it might stick. After an hour I turned off the heat, waited for the smoking to stop, and wiped out the excess goo.
When the pan cooled, the residue that was left behind was sticky. And you could still see where the seasoning had come off, although the surface was noticeably darker.
Later I fried a couple of eggs in it. The surface was so slippery I was having a helluva time getting the eggs onto the spatula!
So this must be the "sticky polymers"
If I were to put this pan in the oven now, with the sticky polymers, would they turn into dry polymers?
My "Organic Shortening" is apparently "mechanically pressed organic palm oil" - how does this stuff compare to lard or other shortenings?
How do you feel about using bacon squeezins (collected bacon drippings) for seasoning? I've read that some folks say it is bad because it will contain a lot of salt.
Is making the roux good because of the flour? I'm guessing that the flour adds carbon.