Generally I do steaks to about 138-140F. Let them sit in the tub for a couple hours, and they will be a consistent temp all the way thru of medium rare. Pull them out, pat dry, little kosher salt, and sear em in the hot skillet.

 

Here's a great chart I've been using.

If you say so.

A lot of people just don't know how to use them.

Yes, many here have been talking about varnishing their pans. When you goober linseed oil (flax seed oil) on a pan and expose it to heat, you are putting a coat of oil varnish on your pan, whether you realize it or not. Varnish is relatively delicate and doesn't tolerate extreme heat very well.

Seasoning need not be varnish. And no voodoo ritual is necessary is necessary to get it. There is a better way. But that takes opening your mind to things you have probably never considered. But this is arfcom, where free thinking is treated with derision . . .







LOL.
 

If you want to call the seasoning you get using flax seed oil a varnish....You can call all polymerized oil Varnish....Until you can tell me the difference between "seasoning" and "varnish"....I have no clue what the tell you.

I've got a Lodge cast iron pan that I "varnished" and it functions fine and none of the "varnish" comes off regardless of how tuff I am on it.  

It is varnish. You can call it some voodoo term all you want, but it is just varnish.



Varnish does function fine. You could paint the pan with varnish finish and bake it, and you would get the exact thing you mistake for seasoning, with virtually no effort. And that painted-on varnish will function fine, too, until you get it really hot—same as for your voodoo "seasoning."







 

Flax seed oil is not varnish.  This is a fact.  You have the whole internet as your tool.  Provide one reputable link that refers to Flax Seed Oil as a varnish.  All seasoning is polymerized oil/grease/fat.  All seasoning will burn off if you get it hot enough.....Run any pan through the self clean cycle in your oven and the heat will destroy the "varnish", or "seasoning".

You are mistaken. I build muzzle-loading rifles and use flax-seed oil finish on top of shellac as a matter of course. Put it in the sun, and it turns to varnish. This is old-tech. It far predates the innerneck. Linseed = flax seed, and if you heat it or put it in the sun, it hardens into the substance that we now call varnish. I am sorry if the truth up-ends your little narrative, but it is what it is.

 



Your little example of the self-clean cycle proves my point. Do the same on a stove-top burner, such as when you are making an Alton Brown steak, and you will see what I am talking about.





Seasoning need not mean varnish. There is a better way. Varnish ain't it. Believe me or don't. I don't write posts like this for dolts who are unwilling to consider alternative ideas. I write posts like this for the few who are open to different ways of looking at the whirled.






I can't make you something you are not.




 

I've seasoned cast iron and carbon steel with flax seed oil, crisco, vegetable oil, canola oil, bacon grease, etc etc etc.  I'm not a linseed oil is the ultimate person and everything I post is from experience.  I've seasoned new and old cast iron with flaxseed oil and ended up with great results.  A lot of people.....including people on this forum have had perfectly good results.  

I challenge you to find evidence of your claim that flax seed oil is somehow different than any other oil/grease when it comes to seasoning a cast iron or carbon steel pan.  There are plenty of articles that google will easily find that support my perspective.

notice this dolt has not once mentioned a better way than flax, no I mean linseed oil?

thank you for all those in this thread with meaningful info.

Any recommendation for a steel fry pan like this but with high sides, kind of like a wok? I would just get a wok but I have a crappy glass stove top and wouldn't really get any benefit from using a wok unfortunately.

http://www.amazon.com/Carbon-Wok-Helper-Handle-Bottom/dp/B006U8B9H4

That or any flat bottom carbon steel wok should be GTG

That would work but my stove top has pathetic heat output so I don't think I really need a wok. I'd rather have a steel frying pan, I was just wondering if there was one with slighter higher sides to help keep me from making a mess with rice or veggies, as I'm sometimes apt to do.

http://www.bakedeco.com/detail.asp?id=12954&categoryid=177

This is the best I can find