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Who here does the cast iron thing?

Rooney77

Bearded lady
Joined
May 20, 2020
Member Number
494
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313
Loc
TX
I have a skillet/griddle/thing that's been floating around for a while and I'd like to get it usable for camping or on the grill. As you can see it's got some surface rust. Where do I begin to bring this thing back to life?

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I'm not an expert, but when I accidently left a cast iron pan outside for the winter I soaked it in 50/50 water vinegar for a few hours. Rinsed and scrubbed, then oven to dry after. Once it was dry I wiped it down with vegetable oil and back in the oven for an hour. Correct? no idea. Worked for me though.
 
Steel wool and elbow grease. Shine that bitch up, wash with warm water and light soap, dry thoroughly, oil it VERY lightly, bake in the oven for an hour, then cook a few pounds of bacon in it. Done.
 
I seared some prime Ribeye Caps in a friend's very old cast iron skillet over the weekend and it was twice as heavy as any cast iron skillet I have of similar size. What's the difference?
 
That doesn’t look too bad off. You could get it white hot on a burner, and see if the rust pops off. Then, reseason it in a oven.

I brought these back from life using a warm water/vinegar bath, and a wire brush. It took a couple of rounds in the bath to break the rust loose, and get them completely clean. I seasoned them in the oven using grape seed oil.

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I rescued this pan years ago from a abandoned cowboy cabin in Nevada. It was rusty and half full of rat shit.

I fired up the angle grinder with a wire wheel and put the hammer down on it. Then it was stiff bristle brushes with hot water. I also did the same with rubbing alcohol. After that I did some googling on seasoning cast iron (that other site has some great info also) and spent two days seasoning it correctly.

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You could scrub that, or put it in your oven on self clean to strip it. What I do (because it's what my papaw did) build a good hardwood fire and toss it in. Then wash and heat dry. Then coat with oil and heat till it smokes. Wipe down and store. The new hotness for seasoning is flaxseed oil, but I use bacon grease cause that's what I got.
 
You could scrub that, or put it in your oven on self clean to strip it. What I do (because it's what my papaw did) build a good hardwood fire and toss it in. Then wash and heat dry. Then coat with oil and heat till it smokes. Wipe down and store. The new hotness for seasoning is flaxseed oil, but I use bacon grease cause that's what I got.

Self cleaning is a great way to wreck your oven.
 
I'm not an expert, but when I accidently left a cast iron pan outside for the winter I soaked it in 50/50 water vinegar for a few hours. Rinsed and scrubbed, then oven to dry after. Once it was dry I wiped it down with vegetable oil and back in the oven for an hour. Correct? no idea. Worked for me though.

I showed my wife the pics and she said pretty much the same thing other than she said she would use olive oil instead of vegetable oil. We have some cast pans that we dug out of her Grandma's barn that were in similar shape and this worked for her.
 
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Steel wool and elbow grease. Shine that bitch up, wash with warm water and light soap, dry thoroughly, oil it VERY lightly, bake in the oven for an hour, then cook a few pounds of bacon in it. Done.


This!^ was going to pretty much post exactly the same thing.
 
Sandblast it, drop it in the peanut oil for about a half hour after you deep fry some turkey's here in couple months. Wash it off with hot water. Elbow grease, my ass. Work smart not hard.
 
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That thing is too far gone to ever cook on again. Send it to me for disposal.

lol, true. Like AK_F250 says, just a bit of soak and scrub to remove loose rust. Anything other than that is overkill. You are cooking on baked fat, not the pan.

I'm not an expert, but when I accidently left a cast iron pan outside for the winter I soaked it in 50/50 water vinegar for a few hours. Rinsed and scrubbed, then oven to dry after. Once it was dry I wiped it down with vegetable oil and back in the oven for an hour. Correct? no idea. Worked for me though.

I don't cook on cast iron anymore and let them all go. I would take that griddle though, possibly the only thing CI is good for.

I switched to second-hand store pans. Like my Wear-Ever captured-bottom teflon stainless pan that I scrubbed the teflon out of and seasoned. It's magic, better than CI in every single way, weight, heat distribution, cleanup, the seasoning lasts longer, and it is less sticky (possibly because it's like old school CI, not rough like Lodge). See Stub's bottom pan? My pan is like that except better in every single way, including care. You don't have to have them bone-dry, they never rust.

Seasoning is seasoning.

For my other pans, I have been finding Revere Ware copper-clad stainless steel. I have a 1qt saucepan, a dutch oven, and a 10" frying pan. None cost me more than $3.99, they are already 60 years old and will last until doomsday. They are superior to recently made All-Clad memeware of course, and they have Grandma's love in there somewhere. I don't season those, they occasionally need a few seconds with a brillo to clean up. They also don't go in the oven, they have Bakelite handles which are durable and it can be done, but I consider them museum pieces as my frying pan especially seems to be from the 1940s.

Yes my saucepan and frying pan are dirty, just showing what they are.

CI is yesterday's news, Goodwill pans are where it's at.

The only 2 CI thing I will ever own again are a griddle like yours, and a dutch oven for burying in the fire. Again, captured SS pans are superior for camping use especially b/c of weight. And their handles tend to be longer. I have thought about also getting an aluminum camp pan with the really long handle, again seasoned, I don't cook food in aluminum. Again lighter and just overall better than CI, which is a meme.

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Yes I am a pan hipster. My second-hand pan collection is better than any CI or SS collection.
 
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I use the le creuset stuff daily. It’s coated cast. My normal cast pans get used maybe once a montg
 
You could scrub that, or put it in your oven on self clean to strip it. What I do (because it's what my papaw did) build a good hardwood fire and toss it in. Then wash and heat dry. Then coat with oil and heat till it smokes. Wipe down and store. The new hotness for seasoning is flaxseed oil, but I use bacon grease cause that's what I got.

The flaxseed oil worked well for me.

I use my BBQ for the first heat, get rid of shit on the pan, cycle. Getting it up to 500* and letting the pans cook is the first step.
 
We cook on cast iron daily....hit it with your 4-1/2" angle grinder with a wire wheel to clean it up. Then re-season in the oven. It'll be better than new.
 
I use hot oil and kosher salt to maintain pans or return the flavor to neutral, also had success rescuing pans with this.
 
Scrub it down with steel wool with a little water and dish soap, rinse thoroughly and dry on the stove. Let it cool. Rub a little flaxseed oil (largely an unsaturated fat with high smoke point which will create a polymerized nonstick layer) over the entire pan. Wipe it dry with a dish towel. Heat your oven to 465–slightly higher than flaxseed smoke point. Place it in the oven for 40 minutes. Let cool, and repeat the oil down and oven. Your iron is seasoned and good to go. Most things I cook I just use a dry dish towel to wipe clean. If there’s burnt stuff that does not wipe off, ball up a wad of aluminum foil (soft enough not to remove the polymer layer) and a bit of water and scrub. Dry on stove, cool, and coat again with a light layer of flaxseed.

I fry eggs with just enough butter to coat the pan and they slide right out of the skillet, no spatula needed.
 
I have a cast iron griddle that I use on my grill. It's fucking awesome. I clean it while it's hot and wipe it down with avocado oil.

Best thing in the world for making breakfast when camping.
 
I use hot oil and kosher salt to maintain pans or return the flavor to neutral, also had success rescuing pans with this.

This is how I clean mine after use. If they get really nasty, I will wash them with hot water, then oil and scrub with salt.
 
We dabble a little bit

This thread reminds me that I need to deep clean my Okie grandma’s cornbread iron before the weather cools and I start craving her “Portagee beans” :homer:
 
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