Rescuing Cast Iron

Cast iron is an amazing cooking surface. Heavy and thick, it acts as an amazing heat reservoir and is excellent for searing steaks and other fine meats at your disposal. 

Many a time, an unskilled, forgetful, or uninformed aspiring chef will let the pan soak, leave it in a moist place, or even accidentally run it through the dishwasher. Lo! Ruin and shame! Avert thine eyes!

But no longer!

Bring out the maimed and sad pans from deep within your cabinets! Cast (iron) away your shame! 
We can fix this. It'll take some elbow grease, and time. But you'll be back on the cast iron horse in no time.

(This particular pan met its rusty fate when a wet mixing bowl was left on top of it and ignored for a week or so. View my shame, and learn from my mistake!)

Step 1 What You'll Need

You'll need a solution to loosen the dirt/debris, something to buff away the portions where rust has eaten away at the metal, and something to restore the cast iron seasoning. 

• Vinegar
• Lard or Shortening 
• Scouring pad
• Cast iron pan in need of restoration
• Elbow grease (Now with 100% more elbow!)

Comments

[amnartist]

Okay everyone, I have a couple of questions for you. I've read a few 'how to season' etc, cast iron cookware. I have 6"&10" skillets (not even sure where I got them). I took them out and they were seasoned but I did a little more just to be sure. What's the point of all the work and energy used(electric oven) to season and maintain them. I have non-stick coated cookware I've used for years that work just fine. And I'm not interested in health issues with them at the moment. My mom cooked with Teflon cookware since it first came out and at 89 when she passed, it didn't cause her health problem. The sizes of my cast iron skillets are not very good for most of the daily cooking I do. But I did fry sausage patties in the 10" and you know the darkish grease that seem to follow cooking them, I wiped and wiped but still I get that dark grease on my paper towels. Not sure if I would want to use it for anything else. Also, I used the 6" to melt butter(very handy might I add) but even after wiping the pan out, what's to keep from the excess butter from seeping out and going rancid? I won't be using these every day and I wonder if the grease/butter/lard will go rancid and make us sick eventually. Sorry this is so long, no other way to explain. Thanks!

[joseamirandavelez]

OK so once you grease it? Where do you store it??? I mean, it have grease on it, Its a bug party environment...

[jonny-2-cents]

I usually just keep mine on the stove-top ready to use. Also instead of using lard as a final coat I usually just do a light coating of vegetable oil and I haven't had any bug problems as of yet. Even if you do...protein! Yum!

[MysticHobo1982]

A quick word of warning if you are going to run your pan through an oven's self cleaning cycle: Wipe any grease or oil out of the pan first it can and will ignite in an 800 degree oven.

I know from experience though I will claim it was not my fault: I was cleaning the kitchen at work and turned the oven on to it's self clean cycle not knowing that some idiot co-worker had decided to stash greasy cast iron pans in the oven instead of cleaning them properly and putting them away.

Of course there wasn't much I could do about the fire in the oven except let it burn out since the oven automatically locked when the cleaning cycle was running.

[Tim Temple]

Actually, the self-cleaning temp is about 450 degrees. Not quite enough to ignite paper... That's why it needs to run for one or two hours instead of ten minutes.

But some blame fool would open the oven to see how things are going and blister their face & frizz their hair. Gotta make 'em lawyer-proof.

[skrubol]

800F~=450C

[LynxSys]

I wonder if that's why the door automatically locks? My experience has been that a fire in a heat-resistant container (like an oven) is often best left to simply exhaust its fuel. Opening the door tends to provide more O2, which makes the fire want to come out and be social. There's also the added risk of exposing the fire to more potential fuel (such as yourself).

That said, I've noticed that most of the advice online suggests that you open the oven and smother the fire with a lid, sand, or baking soda (don't use flour!). I suppose that approach could reduce damage to the oven, but it also exposes you to the fire. Does anyone have a definitive answer as to why one should or shouldn't open the door?

[skrubol]

I think the primary reason for the door locking is that air at that temperature can pretty easily burn your skin and eyes.

[kenbrbkr]

If something inside the oven catches fire leave the door closed. Turn the oven off. Consider calling 911. So what if it damages the oven. If you open the door the inflow of air can cause the fire to flash faster than you can cope with and you may well lose the whole house.

[articice]

Yes! Excellent instructable, cast iron pans are great, serve you long and well (but are bad for business, hey).
Compared to them, teflon-coated ones are cheap, easy to destroy and probably slowly poison your food with fluoride in trace quantities (that's only my guess).

I'm from Ukraine - a country with a long history of cast-iron kitchen utensils;
I think it's possible to use vegetable (sunflower) oil only for pre-coating, especially if the surface is porous enough (at least that's what was written in the instruction to my new frying pan, and it works well for several years now). The key here is to start nicely and further maintain the surface in a good condition.

A little word on how it works: Not quite sure, but IMHO molecules of fat get stuck in the metal pores as it expands from heating, and the final surface resembles a lipid monolayer (like that in the cell membrane, half of it), with the hydrophobic tails of molecules facing upward, creating a perfect non-sticking cooking surface. Please read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipid_bilayer for more info ;)

[sarawelder]

I use crumpled aluminum foil ( re-use really) with salt. No washing at all. I reckon that salt kills most things as it is used to preserve food like meat anyway.... and with the crumpled aluminum it is a great scrubber. very non-toxic...that way the gunk is gone and no need to preseason .

[DIY-Guy]

May I suggest using a different metal than aluminum? It's rumored to contribute to alzheimer's disease.

[articice]

Listen to the pieces of advice from mwseniff,
but still, meanwhile avoid aluminum in your food, fluoride in your water,
and prefer cast iron pans (not teflon-coated).
Cheers ;)

[graydog111]

I read that somewhere but I forgot ........what were we discussing.

[mwseniff]

The aluminum and Alzheimer syndrome connection was debunked many years ago. I pay close attention to Alzheimer related stuff since my father was stricken by that horrible disease and we had to watch his slow deterioration (he fortunately died of an aneurism before he required institutionalizing ). If you are concerned about Alzheimer Syndrome use your brain, do word puzzles, play a musical instrument, eat food made from scratch and pray they find a cure soon. There is no disease more horrible in it's effect on the sufferer and the people around them.

[Sergei-]

Nice quick tute except for the lard it will go rancid if its not a vegetable based oil and looks like when you first got it you didn't try to take of the factory coating on the cooking area

When you first buy cast iron you need to take as much factory coating of as you can where the cooking surface is and do the seasoning before first use or you get it in your food

The coating is there so it doesn't rust before you buy it and should never be used straighr of the shelf

[mailmam71]

We have a wood burning stove, I took a couple of neglected, rusted, crusted cast iron skillets and put them in the ashed after it had burned down and left them over night. The next morning, all the crud knocked out, I greased them up and they are some of the best I have. Pretty easy also, you could do it with a woodpile fire outside.

[mikes686]

I remember my grandmother refreshing old cast iron pans and dutch ovens inside of her wood-burning stove, then cooking bacon and salt pork and leaving a greasy residue in the pans.

[servicetechase]

You make it sound so easy, but some of the pans I have bought would never get clean this way. I know because I have tried. Most cast iron pans that have years of built up gook take many steps of cleaning in order to get down to the metal. Using metal pads leave light scratch marks on the cast iron which do not cover with just a lard covering. The older pans with the smooth finish like Griswald or Wagner look really bad with marks all over them.

[Bruce Ratcliffe]

Theabion,
Congratulations on the PUNniest instructable. I love your style--combining humor and good advice. Keep up the good work!

[mariselita]

Really goog, but I have a question.. Since I can't put a pan with a plastic-like handle in the oven, what would be the equivalent time in a furnace?

[jiggy]

For old crusty new-to-me cast iron, I like to use a coarse grit sandpaper (somewhere around 80-120 grit) to take off absolutely everything and start from the bare metal. The fat used for seasoning still has ample nooks and crannies to stick to and you get a super smooth surface. I especially like to do this if the pan is Lodge brand. Lodge leaves the rough sand texture from the casting process. It's basically a way to duplicate 150 years of use in an hour or so.

You don't have to do this for old worn in pots and pans or brands that smooth out the sand texture after casting, but I do it depending on the individual pan.

[pgm8693]

I've found that the casting texture on the Lodge brand ironware works just as well as the traditional smooth surface.

I didn't expect that.

I don't like the sound of the spatula on the Lodge surface, so it's not quite the same user experience. But otherwise, I think they cook just fine like they are.

[jiggy]

Yeah, the surface works. I just prefer the smoother feel of it sanded down. I grew up using cast iron that had a smooth cooking surface and just prefer it over the rough.

I also find that I don't have to repeat the seasoning process as many times to achieve that true non-stick surface with the smoother finish. It might just be perception, but that's what works for me.

[pgm8693]

Smooth is good.

I gave the Lodge to my kid, kept the Griswolds and Wagners for myself.

I flash soak my pans while they are still hot. I wash with detergents and then dry carefully. To me, the important regular care thing is to get off all of the food gunk.

I think if you cover it in grease and bake it in the oven, you're just baking on excess oil.

I don't leave mine coated in oil in the cabinet. I think the oil can go rancid, and I don't want it attracting any dust.

In my experience, if your pans are clean, just about any cooking you do in them with oil is going to season them nicely. Maybe you have to throw out that first pancake, but the next one should be perfect.

The seasoning is usually still good after a soapy wash, unless you were boiling liquid, like poaching an egg.

[georgelstuart]

I agree, jiggy. As a matter of fact, I have done that with new cast iron as well, to get a nice, smooth cooking surface. Except - I used a nice flat diamond honing stone, but any smallish flat sharpening stone would probably work well too.

[emptymag]

As a long time cast iron user I too have learned how to care for the ONLY pans & dutch ovens I own. Just a simple suggestion today. I frequent many flea markets &/or yard sales during the summer. That's when/where I get my best deals on cast iron goodies. Often in TERRIBLE shape.
Please DON'T use oven cleaner on your items. Not good for you or the environment. Instead use your gas grill. So easy & it's outside! No indoor fumes or heat. Crank it up to HIGH, wait 5 mins & put your cast iron in upside down. Takes about 5-10 min. & it will be cleaned of all grease based crap. Let it cool & scrub with steel wool or a nylon scrubbie. Coat with a thin layer of lard, put into the preheated gas grill & wait about 10-15 min. & turn off the grill. After this 1st treatment you may want to do a 2nd. Depends on the user. I do a couple coats, to a very BLACK thick coating to achieve a truly non-stick surface. A non-toxic non-stick surface at that! Eggs don't stick to my fry pan! I LOVE my cast iron! (even though it does weigh a bit! LOL) Hope this helps.
Love your instructable. Thanks

[jayb1]

Here is an old Bushies trick. Bury in the back yard for a month or two. It'll come back to new. Take the handle off first... Duh!

[star folder]

For a reallllly rusty cast iron piece that can be picked up for less than a dollar, put your electric drill and a metal brush to work, then wash, and season. It will take using several times before it becomes a non-stick , well seasoned pan. As my children grew up using cast iron, they wanted what I had when they left home. I said, "wait till I am dead". Now we have been picking up yucky pieces, cleaning and using then until they are ready to be passed along.

[tjk1939]

A 4" angle grinder and 120 grit disc will do the trick fast. Then re season. I use this on new cast iron that comes not so smooth from the factory also.

[dkop1]

there's more than one good way to clean cast iron. I've tried multiple, and some worked better than others. I use a dremel with a brass brush to remove rust/other crap, then a steel scouring pad, followed by 000 steel wool. Then I season with vegetable shortening at around 450F. I prefer to cook bacon in a pan to season it, as I find it much quicker and it adheres better, but bacon is not a regular part of my diet. (I'll always love you, tasty salted pork belly...)

[ElectroFrank]

May I suggest using stainless steel scouring pads rather than copper ? It is harder, so will cut through everything faster, and not go blunt so quickly.

[Spokehedz]

Holy smokes that is a lot of lard! I think I could season 5 pans inside and out with how much you used there... If it works, it works--but wow.

Also, I do this outside on my grill as the temperatures might make some smoke and we want that outside not inside.

[theabion]

I did not use the whole block, haha. Illustrative purposes only.

[rmarkle]

I am one of those lucky people who has has her mother's cast iron. The thought of putting vinegar on it made me cringe, probably because I've accidentally stripped the seasoning off the pan and allowed rust to form also. What I did was jump right to the seasoning part, with lard and then a nice long bake in the oven, along with some potatoes or bread, or a cake. A couple cycles of greasing up followed by oven time does the trick for me. My mother once spoke of someone who had a pan so well seasoned because it was just wiped with a paper towel after each use.

[alastoc]

you could have just tossed the pan into an ouside firefor an hour . when cooled take minral oil and rub on it all over then toss it in the oven @ 250 for 2 hours to re season it.

[UKtheBUNNY]

People try to make this too complicated. To remove gunk from an unknown source and/or rust just run it through the oven cleaning cycle. Let it cool then wipe it down and re-season. Always use a stainless steel spatula with a flat tip and do not regularly remove the seasoning.

[theabion]

Depends on how rusty it is. If pitting has occurred, you're going to need to scrub- the oven cleaning cycle can't get into those pits and clean them out.

[UKtheBUNNY]

Cast iron is porous to begin with but if the pan is noticeably pitted you need to be very careful because you may end up cracking it. If you have any grease in the pores, which you would unless it was stripped before discarded or stored, the oven cleaning cycle will pull everything out and I mean everything. A very thorough cleaning with no caustic substances like lye.

[SandySTC]

I agree. It doesn't have to be tricky.