Nothing short of steel wool is going to affect the patina.
Actually, if you throw it in the oven and set it to self-clean it'll strip the seasoning right off. I've done it with my cast iron pan before. Washes completely clean and ends up gun-metal grey; a non-oxidized pure iron surface. This is a great way to start over with the seasoning process if you're unhappy with it.
Yes, if you happen to own an oven that has this feature. It's not exactly common.
Edit: because of course I triggered a storm. Maybe it's common elsewhere. I've lived in few EU countries, rented then owned a few houses, exactly only one of them had an oven with the self cleaning(by heating up to like 500C) feature, I don't think we ever used it. When we bought our current oven none of the ones we looked at had that function. A fancy Candy we looked at had a function where it cleans itself with steam(where you fill up a provided container with water and then it heats it up to fill the oven with steam and in theory that softens the gunk. No idea if that actually works).
If it's common where you live, then my apologies for this comment.
Not sure where you're writing from, but it's very common in the US. This article (https://www.thekitchn.com/why-you-should-almost-never-use-th...) quotes someone who works for an appliance store in Cincinnati who says it's difficult to sell an oven without that feature. And as others have said, every oven I have every owned (or that my parents owned when I was around and capable of forming memories) has been self-cleaning.
Maybe it sounds fancier than it is? Is not like it has a little robot that cleans the oven. It's just a mode where the oven can get the internal temperature very high (up to 1000 degrees F according to that article) that just incinerates any organic material stuck to the oven walls.
Its not fancy, but I guess it requires a bit more resilient engineering/materials than 250C ovens. Its definitely not a norm in budget/medium priced ovens in Europe, even for new. I mean brands like Bosch mostly don't have it here, I never had one (house, 2 apartments, couple of rental apartments all with full kitchen, kitchen < 10 years old).
Mine doesn't, but that's because it's too fancy, and has a special coating on the inside that's supposed to make stuff just come off. Freaking Whirlpool. It doesn't work.
Really? I figured most ovens had a self-cleaning option... I did this trick to recondition several cast iron pans and it works great, but be prepared for massive amounts of greasy smoke.
Afaik it's just not a thing in europe. Only high end models have it, and even then it's an optional feature that costs extra. Even in a kitchen I rented where just the sink faucet did cost 1000€ the self-cleaning module of the oven was not installed.
Just a random thought (lived both in the US and in the EU): could it be that US ovens are more often gas ovens while in the EU it's mostly electric? (might be easier to get higher temperatures with gas).
Couldn't find statistics on this with a quick search...
It's the opposite... my oven in the US doesn't have the cleaning thing, turns out it's because it's gas only. The gas stovetop + electric oven version of this model has it. Seems to be a thing even with other manufacturers and models.
I’ve lived in the US and EU too. My experience was we have fan assisted ovens in the EU whereas ones I saw in the US had a top and bottom element with no fan assist.
Fan assisted ovens are also called "convection ovens." They certainly exist in the US, but I think they are more high end? I personally have one, it also has a self-clean function. The stove part is gas but I think (?) the oven is electric.
Yes it is, it's marketed as 'pyrolytic', it's the norm above roughly £350 and unusual roughly below.
But yes, it is just an element that can go hotter and a shell that can withstand it. Ovens are incredibly overpriced for how rudimentary they are IMO. Ripe for 'disruption' if you had something non-bullshit to compete on but price - sizing is already standardised.
`pyrolytic` does not exist as a keyword for ovens in my country. I just checked at the biggest retailer for such stuff.
The cleaning module of the one oven I'm aware of that had that option was more than just a heating thing. The manual talked about foam and how to refill it. Different countries, different mechanisms I assume.
I've tried this a few times and none of the ovens I've had over the years have been successful in removing seasoning with their self-cleaning, so at this point I'm trying to find a machine shop that will be happy to bead blast it and mill the surface flat again. So far, most shops have given me quotes in the hundreds of dollars so I've been waiting until I meet someone that has the capability to just do it in their garage.
Most new cast iron cookware now has a raw surface with lots of pits and bumps from the casting process as well, which doesn't seem to get nearly as smooth and non-stick as "vintage" cookware.
Since quarantine life, I've been cooking multiple times a day. My oven's self-clean makes my pans look exactly like new. Takes all of the black off leaving them with a shiny, silvery shine. I then have to season them to regain a nonstick coating as good as any Ceramic/Teflon pan that I've used.
As far soap. My experience is that it definitely damages the nonstick coating, depending on how much you use. You can get by with a soapy sponge, but putting detergent directly on it and the nonstick coating will be lost.
The best way to avoid need to avoid soap or scrubbing and re-seasoning is to put hot water in the pan while it's still hot and scrape. Meat is the worst for leaving a coating and this technique removes 99% of it.(If not blackened use that water for a delicious sauce with all the best flavors of your cooking). This routine allows me to use the same pan for months without a deep cleaning.
I have tried to put cold oil on after heaving soaping, but I'm not happy with the pan until I season it with high heat. The only reason I'd do it for rust and still would pan on seasoning it properly later.
The biggest difference I've found (moreso on stainless steel than cast iron) is food weight: which is to say, time food is left without moving.
Which makes sense. Essentially burnt-to-pan bits are food-pan interface, as opposed to food-oil-pan interface.
Give enough time, heavy food displaces oil and comes in direct contact with pan. Given enough movement, oil is able to reimpose itself between the two.
I used a propane grill and it was very, very effective. I removed the grates and (if I recall correctly) rested the pan on the heat deflection sheets. I left all burners on for about 2 1/2 hours. After cooling, the previous coating was reduced to a thin dust. After blowing it off, the pan was gun metal grey.
I then used a cheap corded drill and inexpensive flap wheels and similar attachments from the hardware store to make it smooth, wearing an N95 mask to protect my lungs.
Self cleaning should reach a high enough temp for it, because most of what you use the self-cleaning to take off is effectively seasoning. If it's not getting hot enough, use something else to get it hot enough (blowtorch, maybe).
For smoothing out the surface, you could just use a flapwheel. You can get them for angle grinders. This will also take off seasoning if necessary (but it's a bit worse for the pan if you're not also trying to smooth it out). Be sure to wear a respirator and googles if you're doing this.
If you're planning to re-season an old pan, easily the best way of stripping off old crud is caustic soda. Leave the pan in a bath of caustic for 24 hours, then scrub with wire wool.
Voila - a clean iron surface. Use rubber gloves, and wash off any splash with lots of water - caustic soda is nasty stuff.
I use flaxseed oil. It works. Unless you have an awful lot of pans, your small bottle of flaxseed oil will only be 10% used by the time it goes rancid; swallow the cost.
I've tried this on a goood carbon-steel omelette pan. The result was mixed; a grubby-looking polymer layer that comes off in the wash, but a pan that still works well, and has reasonable non-stick properties. I suspect that with carbon steel, the oil only needs to get into the pores in the metal, and doesn't need to form a layer on the surface at all.
But my best experience has been with cast iron: a mexican comal, to be specfic. I stripped and seasoned my comal about 8 years ago, and the finish is still flawless.
Actually, if you throw it in the oven and set it to self-clean it'll strip the seasoning right off. I've done it with my cast iron pan before. Washes completely clean and ends up gun-metal grey; a non-oxidized pure iron surface. This is a great way to start over with the seasoning process if you're unhappy with it.