Author Topic: Blackened DD pans (Read 3994 times)

mykall · « **on:** May 04, 2012, 10:10:45 PM »

I see these in vids from time to time but I don't believe I've seen pans like that for sale. What gives on this? Conditioning....or pans of such a type that they eventually get that way?

Garvey · « **Reply #1 on:** May 04, 2012, 11:10:17 PM »

Seasoning over time. Try eBay if you really want one. A lot of people swear by the black coated PSTK pans from pizzatools.com, too. Other brands exist, too, that are black/anodized. But if your talking about a restaurant pan, it's most likely seasoned to black over hundreds of uses.

mykall · « **Reply #2 on:** May 05, 2012, 01:47:37 PM »

Quote from: Garvey on May 04, 2012, 11:10:17 PM

Seasoning over time. Try eBay if you really want one. A lot of people swear by the black coated PSTK pans from pizzatools.com, too. Other brands exist, too, that are black/anodized. But if your talking about a restaurant pan, it's most likely seasoned to black over hundreds of uses.

Ok...but are these a type or any aluminum that just goes to black over time. I've got a couple of DD pans one is non-stick which I don't use much and the other is Aluminum. I see dark pans that look like blackened but I think they're non-stick Teflon.

BDoggPizza · « **Reply #3 on:** September 14, 2012, 05:26:30 PM »

These are exactly what you want. The black PSTK pans. They are awesome!!!

http://www.pizzatools.com/Deep_Dish_Stacking/30873/subgrouping.htm

BDogg

FLAVORMAN · « **Reply #4 on:** September 14, 2012, 06:56:45 PM »

Those are the pans we use PTSK 14 inch...how do all of you clean them? Not the crisp bottom vs old plain Aluminum...wondering if we should just wipe them out vs washing with soap and water....

PuRowdy · « **Reply #5 on:** October 01, 2012, 11:51:22 PM »

I have 3 of the black preseasoned PSTK pans. Just got them in the mail a couple weeks ago. They were a great purchase, turning out the best pizzas I've made yet, highly recommend them.

As for cleaning them to try to continue the seasoning I will just wipe it out with paper towel as much as possible and occasionally run some water through them. Haven't used any soap on them yet and just slightly oiled them the first few times I baked in them per their instructions.

Chicago Bob · « **Reply #6 on:** October 02, 2012, 11:04:00 AM »

Quote from: FLAVORMAN on September 14, 2012, 06:56:45 PM

Those are the pans we use PTSK 14 inch...how do all of you clean them? Not the crisp bottom vs old plain Aluminum...wondering if we should just wipe them out vs washing with soap and water....

Do like the pizzerias do...knock any crud off it and it's ready for reuse. Why would you want to wash off the "seasoning" you have going on there.

rcbaughn · « **Reply #7 on:** October 05, 2012, 05:57:10 AM »

Here's some I found. I don't know if this is the degree of black that you're talking about, but I'd like to have one of these pans to give it a try for sure. Guy says he doesn't wash them so I bet they'd bake up a pie well.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chicago-Style-Seasoned-Deep-Dish-Pizza-Pan10x2inch-buy2get1free-/261041883588?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cc74f09c4

Chicago Bob · « **Reply #8 on:** October 05, 2012, 09:46:55 AM »

Quote from: rcbaughn on October 05, 2012, 05:57:10 AM

Here's some I found. I don't know if this is the degree of black that you're talking about, but I'd like to have one of these pans to give it a try for sure. Guy says he doesn't wash them so I bet they'd bake up a pie well.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chicago-Style-Seasoned-Deep-Dish-Pizza-Pan10x2inch-buy2get1free-/261041883588?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cc74f09c4

$20 bucks a pan...yikes!
Found this deal...$5.75 per on a lot of 12. I'll buy em and ship to you if I can get a few members to commit to a couple.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USED-12-x-2-DEEP-DISH-PIZZA-PAN-LOT-12-/150886039314?_trksid=p4340.m2109&_trkparms=aid%3D555001%26algo%3DPW.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D117%26meid%3D2527190012287615528%26pid%3D100010%26prg%3D1065%26rk%3D2%26sd%3D261041883588%26

CDNpielover · « **Reply #9 on:** October 06, 2012, 11:53:15 PM »

Quote from: Chicago Bob on October 05, 2012, 09:46:55 AM

$20 bucks a pan...yikes!
Found this deal...$5.75 per on a lot of 12. I'll buy em and ship to you if I can get a few members to commit to a couple.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USED-12-x-2-DEEP-DISH-PIZZA-PAN-LOT-12-/150886039314?_trksid=p4340.m2109&_trkparms=aid%3D555001%26algo%3DPW.CURRENT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D117%26meid%3D2527190012287615528%26pid%3D100010%26prg%3D1065%26rk%3D2%26sd%3D261041883588%26

Hey Bob,

I would take 1 and maybe 2 of those pans, let me know if you order them.

vcb · « **Reply #10 on:** October 07, 2012, 06:16:36 PM »

I've been working on an article for RealDeepDish.com on deep dish "hardware",
and naturally it will have a section on "seasoning" deep dish pans.

In other locations in the pizzamaking.com forum, we've had discussions on the best way to achieve a darkened coating on our pans.
Part of the problem is that there are many styles of pans available, including non-plated bare steel pans, which you can sometimes find at a restaurant supply store, often pre-treated with a mystery coating that needs to be pre-baked before you use it. If you have a pan that hasn't been pre-treated, you might want to try seasoning it yourself.
Most recommend adding a light coating of oil (with a high smoke point) to the pan, which would then be baked empty before first use. Repeat the oiling and baking until the pan darkens, or just keep using the pan to make pizzas.

I think it was Loo Waters who suggested using tomato sauce or something with sugar in it to more quickly blacken the outside of your pans. The concept being that sugar and carbohydrates would more effectively burn and turn into carbon (aka blackened). Once you've blackened your pan this way, you could use light coatings of oil to keep the pans seasoned.

I suppose you could just candy-coat your pan with oil and sugar, and then just caramelize the heck out of it on your bbq grill until it blackens into a layer of char. Let it cool, wipe it out, oil it, and rebake.

However you season your pans, I recommend seasoning your pans outside in your bbq grill unless you have really excellent oven ventilation, because burning things makes eye-burning smoke that can smoke up your home for months.

Your other option (besides buying someone's pre-seasoned pans on ebay)
is to buy the various pre-blackened pans with proprietary names like PSTK (Pre-Seasoned Tuff Kote), BlackBuster or Bakalon.

I am curious, however, about the sanitation methods for blackened pans.
Because seasoned pans are supposed to be cleaned with hot water and never soap, what would be the proper cleaning, drying, and storing method for blackened deep dish pans?
If one of us were to run a deep dish restaurant in Chicago, for example, how do we keep up with the sanitation codes if we choose to go with our seasoned pans instead of the industry-coated ones I listed above?

Chicago Bob · « **Reply #11 on:** October 07, 2012, 06:57:37 PM »

Nice write up Ed. I'm curious, do you feel there is an advantage of seasoning your own light colored pans versus just buying a dark anodized pan?
Not sure about the water only cleaning. Back in the 70's at pizza joints I worked at(can't recall ever seeing a heath inspector)we would fill the sinks up with soap and water and have at 'em maybe once a year. These were thin crust pans though.

vcb · « **Reply #12 on:** October 07, 2012, 08:05:57 PM »

Quote from: Chicago Bob on October 07, 2012, 06:57:37 PM

Nice write up Ed. I'm curious, do you feel there is an advantage of seasoning your own light colored pans versus just buying a dark anodized pan?

Good question. Buying a dark anodized pan (or any anodized or coated pan) is probably more convenient, but I don't have enough experience to know whether there's major advantages other than the obvious ones:

Pre-seasoned/pre-coated pans are pretty much ready-to-go from the factory, and will probably be more consistent if you have multiple pans.

Seasoning your own pans will be only as good as your seasoning methods are, can take a long time to develop a good coating, and may not be consistent across all the pans you season, but might be better in the long run for flavor.

Quote

Not sure about the water only cleaning. Back in the 70's at pizza joints I worked at(can't recall ever seeing a health inspector) we would fill the sinks up with soap and water and have at 'em maybe once a year. These were thin crust pans though.

I'm in the middle of a taking Serv-Safe sanitation course. It's possible that it's something as simple as 450+ degree temps will kill anything that might be on the pans, but I will ask my instructor next week about seasoned pans if I get the chance.
If anyone knows about this, I'd appreciate hearing your experiences with pizza pans and sanitation methods.

Chicago Bob · « **Reply #13 on:** October 07, 2012, 08:27:05 PM »

I had an IL. food handlers license( all restaurants were required to have at least one employee licensed)but that was like 40 yrs. ago.

I believe you are correct along the lines of high heat baking. If you think about it...how many prof. kitchens scrub squeaky clean every last roasting pan? Obviously, places like Geno's, Uno's etc. are allowed the crud left on the OUTSIDE of their pans. The history I mentioned I had with soap was basically for helping to clean the insides. Although I don't see what harm it could do using soap on a DD pan...it's not gonna wash away your seasoning.
I use the Chicago Metallic anodized DD pans and would not want to bother with trying to "precrud" the outside of a plain type of pan.But those crud pans do look cool though...so to each their own IMO.

pizzaneer · « **Reply #14 on:** October 07, 2012, 08:46:08 PM »

From my experience working in a DD pizza place, we never washed them things. If they got cruddy, they were tossed into the bottom oven for a few days, then cooled and scraped out and reoiled. Soap never touched them. I treat my cast iron the same way, and it's black as a black cat in the Vietnamese jungle in the dark of the moon on a foggy night.

Chicago Bob · « **Reply #15 on:** October 07, 2012, 09:27:00 PM »

Quote from: pizzaneer on October 07, 2012, 08:46:08 PM

and it's black as a black cat in the Vietnamese jungle in the dark of the moon on a foggy night.

Your pan scares me.... $:-\$

CDNpielover · « **Reply #16 on:** October 09, 2012, 11:42:05 AM »

FWIW...

my brother worked at Pizza Hut when he was in high school, and he said that they never washed the personal pan pizza pans. He said that most of them even had mold etc. growing in the bottoms, but that none of the employees cards enough to wash the mold out.

Jackitup · « **Reply #17 on:** October 09, 2012, 12:11:07 PM »

Well seasoned does not equal dirty. My dad would slap you right out the kitchen you hand him a dirty pan. I have 2 30yearold cast iron pans that my wife won't touch because she'll use soap. My pans are well protected by me, some say over protective. They are taken from use and are still quite hot and get scrubbed with hot water and a coating of lard before putting up NO SOAP, Too season a pan, several light coats of lard and trips to the oven. After several trips you have a small start. Mine are 30 years old and are just about right, black as tar and slippery as any high end superslickhi buck pan. And if needed, once in
awhile, they get soap because they just got crappy but then it's an afternoon re-seasoning again. NO DIRTY pans in my house, used and seasoned proud of them and they ARE clean!!! Seasoned pans have NONO leftover food stuff in them, that's just nasty!!!

jon

pizzaneer · « **Reply #18 on:** October 09, 2012, 12:56:52 PM »

Sounds like we're on the same page Jon. I went in the house the other day and found my smallest cast iron pan in the sink with eggs stuck to it and soapy water in it.

Not a happy moment.

She's been banned from the kitchen for a while.

garyd · « **Reply #19 on:** October 09, 2012, 04:22:42 PM »

I bought a couple of very cheap 9 inch steal cake pans at Walmart and coated them with Crisco and baked them in my outdoor gas grill for an hour and blackened them completely inside and out and they work great! I wish they sold some bigger ones.