How to Season a Copper Pan
Knowing how to season a copper pan is valuable knowledge to have. Red copper pans are a piece of advanced cookware that is often recognized as the direct enemy of the ceramic pans since these variations of coppers are capable of providing good support on the cooking experience by eliminating the annoying situations where some kind of food gets attached or stuck to the pan.
With these red copper pans that will not happen. This means that they are non-stick approved, excellent for those that don’t want to waste any time trying to remove the attached food. But are red copper pans toxic?
Another good thing about red copper pans is the fact that they are claimed to be scratch proof depending, this is important because when some cooking materials get scratched, they become unsafe. A good example to read is, is ceramic titanium safe?
Red copper getting scratched depends on the situation and how well the owner applies the maintenance, but wait, maintenance in a cooking pan? What does that even mean?
It simply means that you need to season a pan. Seasoning a pan gives it a protective layer as well as increasing it’s non-stick properties. Below we will be covering the best technique for adding season to a red copper pan, although you can apply this to any copper pan, the process will take around 20 minutes.
Why Seasoning is Required in Red Copper Pans?
Pan seasoning is generally known as the process in which someone will be coating the metal surface of the red copper pan with a thin layer of oil to completely seal the small pores that are not completely visible by the human eye and also to significantly reduce the percentage of ending with a tucked food on the pan surface. The reason why oil is used in this procedure is because the oil is perfect to carbonize those small pores which will lead to major protection against rusting and pitting in the future.
When it comes to red copper pans it should be mandatory to make a seasoning procedure since the non-stick coating will be perfect for maintaining the great reliability and consistency of the equipment which means that the claimed performance overall will be as good as new, and also, it’s good for those that want to use their red copper pans for a long time before switching to another set because seasoning increases the durability and life span of the pans, so don’t lose momentum and stay a little more to see how to do everything, let’s begin.
Required Materials and Ingredients:
- Red Copper Pan: It shouldn’t be even named but certainly this procedure can be applied to other types of pans, you just need to check for certain information depending on the surface of the pan.
- 1 Tablespoon of Preferred Oil: The most recommended oil for seasoning is the vegetable oil, however, you can use others (not olive or butter oil) in case that you are short of that supply, also remember that you will not be frying anything, just a little amount of oil will be more than enough, follow the instructions.
- Clean Water: It’s important that you check that your water is completely clean, you don’t want to add more small pores to the equipment after you worked so hard on seasoning it.
- Mild Dishwashing Soap With Warm Water.
- Paper Towel and Soft Clothes: A Paper towel will be used to spread the oil through the surface of the pan and the soft clothes will be to finish the procedure by gently washing the red copper pans, avoid at any cost those that use microfibers, it should be soft clothes like the used for babies.
- Stovetop or Oven: Used for a certain part of the procedure where you will be pre-heating the oil that was applied on the red copper pans just a little to add more conviction to the surface which will help with the reliability and efficiency overall.
How To Season a Copper Pan:
Seasoning is not so difficult, in fact, is something that you will be grateful for in the future since it can be applied to different cooking equipment that you will use a lot of times, however, the first time will be indeed something to be aware of since you are in a new experience, but hey, don’t be scared of this, it can only go one way, you won’t mess this up by any means, so, let’s get started with the first step.
Step #1: Gently Wash the Copper Pans.
The first step will be the easiest one since you just need to gently wash the red copper pans with some lukewarm water and dishwater soap, easy enough, right? However, you need to be avoiding any kind of scrubbing movement at all since this will cause problems like abrasion in brand new red copper pans if you exceed the scrubbing, so keep an eye on that before damaging the surface.
Instead of scrubbing, you can use something more useful such as a soft cloth that will be the one that will make the soap go away from the red copper pans, and also it will allow it to be completely dry before continuing to the next step where things start to get heated. Make sure that the pan is completely dry and free of any soap residues, otherwise, problems could happen further in the seasoning.
Sep #2: Coating the Copper Pan with Oil.
After washing the copper pan with some water and soap, let it rest and then proceed to apply 1 or 2 tablespoons of oil for your preference this is the crucian part to season it, however, it shouldn’t be either olive or butter oil since they tend to smoke faster, so you should select vegetable oil or others options besides those two. Then you will proceed to put the oil in the surface of the copper pan, use the soft cloth to pass it thought every part f the surface gently as ever.
Also, you should keep in mind the previous statement of the oil, you want the type of oil that doesn’t burn out too quickly since the whole purpose of the procedure will be destroyed, also in red copper pans seasoning does need to be too strict since red copper is more resistance and “seasoning-friendly” than other types of metals used for pans, so be careful.
Step #3: Heat the Oiled Pan in your Stovetop or Oven.
The good thing about the step #3 is the fact that you have two options overall to season the pan, the first one is using an oven that was already preheated with a certain level of heat and temperature to season the pan, and the second one is relying on your stovetop to heat the oiled pan to season the pan, don’t worry about selecting one of these two alternatives since the results will be pretty much the same thing, just be careful if you use the oven, use some protection in your hands before taking the red copper pan.
Oven:
In the case that you decide to use the oven, the procedure is easy, you just need to preheat the oven by using 300 Fahrenheit and place the pan in the oven, then proceed to “cook it” for at least 15 to 20 minutes with that temperature and heat that will allow a good seasoning process after some minutes, after the timer is finished, get it out of the oven, remember to follow the security measures.
Stovetop:
Now, if you would like to use your stovetop then everything is even easier, just put the stovetop to medium heat before putting the red copper pan on it, in this way everything will perform better and more reliable, efficiency matters you know? Place the pan in the top of the stovetop and then let it heat until begins to smoke, then proceed to take it out and let it rest.
Step #4: Final Measures and Recommendations.
The last step is just something to give advice and recommendations, the procedure of seasoning by itself ended successfully at step#33, for that reason, you now just need to let the oil dry completely, and it has to be completely dried there is no other way in doing this if you want good results overall, then after some time (some minutes) proceed to wipe the remaining residues of oil by using a soft cloth and gently pass it thought the surface or where the oil was applied, then that’s it! The procedure successfully completed.
Your red copper pan will be better than ready for every cooking lesson or experience that you may have in mind, now you just need to look for some tasty recipes and thinhs like that, and also, keep in mind that consistency is what matters, for that reason you should season your pan at least 2 times per year, in this way the red copper pan will be efficient as ever and the maintenance will be good overall.
Conclusion – Is Seasoning your Red Copper Pan Worth the Time?
It may be true that red copper pans are most non-stick than other metals that are used in pans, however, this result will be only a complete success if you apply a good season to the surface of the pan which is made fully of red copper, and that means that those small pores will act stronger than ever, you must stop them to count wit a good performance overall, for that reason, seasoning is better than worth it, seasoning should be a standardized procedure since it helps a lot in the kitchen by helping to expand the lifespan and durability of the pan, keep that in mind.
