Seasoning a Grill, Oil or no oil

enricocoron · Mar 24, 2015

So the sales rep at Yoder says not to use oil to season my Q, despite seeing numerous suggestions to use a high quality vegetable oil such as peanut oil. He says that the sugar in the wood is what will season the grill.

Thoughts?

wayne77 · Mar 24, 2015

Oil just speeds up the process a little. Doing it his way would work fine. The more you cook on it the more seasoned it will be and that will take time.

dwfisk · Mar 24, 2015

Don't mean this to sound flippant but I disagree with the Yoder guy. If you "season" with just the smoke from a wood fire, the steel will get black and not rust but IMO that will result in a very dry patina (seasoning) and prone to "flaking" off. Some kind of oil (I use a light coat of canola or peanut) ensures the patina will be moist and actually penetrate into the steel. As wayne77 suggests, the more you cook with product in the pit the better your patina (seasoning) will get. Just my $0.02.

bbqwilly · Mar 24, 2015

I always season my cookers with oil.

enricocoron · Mar 24, 2015

Cool, oil it is. I didn't realize it was to protect it.

Sounds like seasoning to a pit is akin to passivating stainless steel with an acid to protect it.

Rag · Mar 27, 2015

The Yoder guy is right. Nothing is going to penetrate the steel. That is why an engine running dry of oil seizes. Smokey cooking grease will coat the cooker just like restaurant exhaust fans get.
Cleaning a cooker consists of gunning the temp up to max allowing the gunk to flake off.
Bottom line, just use it.

Joe Black · Mar 27, 2015

Seasoning

Enrico, I would use oil for seasoning as it will provide a barrier in case you get some bad wood. The oil also will attract smoke from your later cooks.

I would hold off on pickelling and passivating until you have a SS cooker.

16Adams · Mar 27, 2015

Three cooks with hickory and high moisture meats and it will gunk up. I've used oil, I've not used oil, but I slways season a newbie with hickory.

nmayeux · Mar 27, 2015

I use oil/Crisco to season just like you would a cast iron pan. The wood will do it for you, but for the times before and between cooks, the oil prevents rust. I do use Pam for the hard to reach places, but will not use it on the outside as it can get sticky.

No matter what you do, after regular use, you will get a build up of creosote on the inside. You can always tell a well used pit by the buildup. Scrap it when it starts to flake so it doesn't fall on your food, and it'll build a new layer.

Seasoning a Grill, Oil or no oil

enricocoron

Well-known member

wayne77

Full Fledged Farker

dwfisk

Quintessential Chatty Farker

bbqwilly

Babbling Farker

enricocoron

Well-known member

Rag

Is lookin for wood to cook with.

Joe Black

Babbling Farker

16Adams

somebody shut me the fark up.

nmayeux

Babbling Farker

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