Hey everyone. Many of you will recall one of the most awesome threads ever to be posted on here by @Forged on Cast Iron. I can’t find that thread. My wife just got an old Dutch Oven and a skillet from a family that’s moving. I wanted to look up his instructions on how to clean the rust and re-season it.
Anyway, if the thread is gone forever, maybe @Forged or someone else can throw me a bone and help me clean these up.
Many of his posts have been deleted.
Love my cast iron skillet
I deep clean mine with salt and a scrubber, followed by a thorough rinse and drying. I season them by completely coating the pan with cheap oil and putting it in a low oven for a couple of hours.
Daily clean with salt and a dry wipe down, and a light application of olive oil to the cooking surface.
My husband will kill me if I use soap to wash it.
Only water he says.
In terms of preparation, he is doing various iterations of layers of oil than hot oven, than oil…
Use a course salt and scrub with half a potato to get rid of the rest, then clean thoroughly and dry. Coat with vegetable oil or lard then put in a hot oven for like an hour. After it’s seasoned never used soap to clean just scrape clean and coat with a thin layer of oil.
I believe he used the trash bag + oven cleaner or other chemical method to get pans ready to be reseasoned? Once it’s seasoned nicely again, we use a chainmail dish cloth and water to clean ours.
For rust you can use a 30 minute 1/2 water and vinegar bath. Scrub with soap and water and most of the rust will be gone.
Do not leave it in any longer than 30 min at a time as you can destroy cast iron. Hope that helps!
Cool, thanks!
Seasoning: heat the pan at 200 degrees for 20 min. Use your choice of oil and wipe it on the dutch oven then wipe it off.
Heat your oven to 400 and let it sit for 1 hour. Turn off oven until the CI is cool.
And for all that is Holy please use soap after cooking. You just dont want to scrub the seasoning off.
Use soap after cooking? I heard soap stripped the seasoning.
Soap and water with lightly washing will not take the seasoning off. Soap and scrubbing will.
If I have food that sticks I fill it with water and put it on medium with softens everything then I wash it with soap and water.
Seasoning cast iron is much like sobriety it’s a process that doesn’t happen over night.
He has returned!!!
Only to give advice on cast iron.
If your dealings with cast iron become so painful and you feel the need to change I can offer you my experince, strength and hope.
I gotta vote no soap. When I use soap, I strip all the seasoning off and re-season it. I clean with salt and a light water rinse. For some stuck foods, heating the pan and scraping with a hard plastic or wooden spatula does the trick.
I hardly ever get food poisoning! Almost never!
At least not in the last week!
It’s seasoning day!
Alton Brown had a great episode on Good Eats about caring for your cast iron. You might be able to find it online.
