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| Prepping the pit for first fire and seasoning |
I found a lot of conflicting information on just how to go
about this so I figured that since it was just good ol’ steel, (the body of the
cooker is made from ¼” rolled steel, not pipe or a tank), I would treat it
basically the same way I did with new Dutch Ovens. Looking at the pit and components, including the grates, it was
all new steel. Some of the things I
read said to start by washing everything off, preferably with a pressure
washer, but I had some reservations about that.
In my job, the equipment we use is made from many different
types of steel, from your basic black iron up to high-grade stainless
steel. One of the things I have seen in
our equipment is that heat, steel and water can sometimes not be the best of
friends. If the water used has some
variations of particulates in it, it can be bad on steel and start the rusting
process.
So, I decided to forego any sort of washing. I began by using a soft steel brush and dry
scrub the entire inside including the grates.
Once that was complete I used light canola oil and wiped everything
down. I continued wiping the surfaces
until the towel stopped picking up small bits and was fairly clean. I gave it one more good wipe down with a
heavier amount of oil and let it sit.
As a side note I feel I must mention that I did scrub the firebox with the
wire brush but I only put one very thin layer of oil on the surface. No real reason other than I figured since it
was going to be seeing a lot of heat and no food there was no real sense in
doing it.
Now that I felt good that the interior was clean it was time
to fire it up. When I have seasoned
Dutch Ovens I have always used a good amount of heat for the first burn so that
is what I did with the pit. I loaded up
a full chimney of coals and got them going.
Once they were ready I dumped them onto the grate in the firebox. Once that got going I loaded the chimney
with another half load and got it fired up and dumped it on the grate when it
was ready. I didn’t want to use wood
for the first fire since I wanted to just go with heat, not smoke. I will mention that I did not use starter
fluid for the charcoal and to this day I have never used it to fire the
pit. I read on numerous sites that if
you use lighter fluid it can have an affect on the pit and leave a residual
smell and taste. Whether that is true
or not I cannot say, but I went with the better safe then sorry principle and
have just never used it in the pit….ever.
Once the temp began to rise I closed the doors on the pit
and let it go. After a short period of
time the oil started to smoke and we were on our way. The smell wasn’t too bad but it wasn’t that great either, just
like doing a Dutch Oven. I watched the
temp gauge and at one point the temperature of the pit got up to just over 400
degrees but only for a short period of time.
It took about 2 ½ hours for the coals to burn down so I let it cool
overnight. The next day I wiped the
inside down with a heavy layer of oil and repeated the process again. This time the smoke and smell wasn’t as bad
and I was able to get the temp over 400 degrees for a longer period of
time. I was hesitant to get the temp
much higher as I was not sure if it would warp the metal or cause some
unforeseen damage. Once again I let it
cool and sit overnight. The next day I
opened the pit to find that the metal had turned black, just as I had wanted it
to. Everything looked great. One more wipe down of the interior with a
VERY light coating of oil and we were ready to roll, it was time to see what
this thing could do.
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