Loco Gringo said:
pen said:
If you get an old one and are handy, they are quite easy to bring back to life using some oven cleaner, a scrapper, stiff brush, and a little effort. Then can be seasoned up on a gas grill on med-high coated in crisco and turned upside down and heated until they stop smoking. Repeat if necessary.
pen
Please elaborate on the process pen. Like how long would you let the cleaner work, rinse before scraping, wash after seasoning???
I'll start by saying this is one of those things where 10 people who use cast well, will give you 10 different recommendations. This is simply how I do it and has worked well for me.
Oven cleaner can't hurt the cast iron, so spray it on and let it sit up to the specified time on the can (usually up to 24 hrs) If you let it set that long, I usually will put it in a garbage bag or inside of a plastic tote to sit so that the cleaner doesn't dry too quickly w/ air exposure. Sometimes I'll let it sit overnight, sometimes 4 hours, sometimes 24, depends. If it is dry when I come back to scrape w/ a metal putty knife, old metal spatula, etc, then just spray some new cleaner on and give it another few minutes to reactivate. I'll also use a wire brush (like you'd use for battery terminals) for cleaning out the markings for the manufacturer or just general scrubbing. If you notice in my picture above, I'm using a DA sander on that bad boy! There are many options but you need to get the built up grease / seasoning off first if you want to start fresh.
I do that until I get all thick things off and end up w/ a grey piece of cast iron. At this point you can rinse it, wash it w/ an sos pad, pretty much anything you want since you've removed all off the old seasoning. Just make sure you wash it and rinse it well, towel dry, then place it on the stove for a few minutes to drive out any remaining moisture so as to not get surface rust.
Then I'll give it a light but even coating of either crisco or true lard. Then I place the pan upside down (so that no puddles from the grease can form) on a gas grill and fire at med-high ~ 500 degrees, until it stops smoking. Shut the grill off, let it cool on it's own then reevaluate if it needs to do the seasoning process again.
I seasoned that huge skillet 2x in one day. That was nearly 2 years ago and it's not looking like I am going to have to re-season again.
The best thing you can do for your cast iron is to bake in it. Biscuits are great, making homemade pizza's, even the store bought pop and bake crescent rolls, the quick meal chicken nuggets, or snack mozzarella sticks, etc, etc. Baking really helps to keep the seasoning up.
Once it is first seasoned, I prefer to make the first few meals be either baking as I mentioned or things like grilled cheese sandwiches or pancakes. I give it a few easy tasks like that before I throw bacon and eggs at it.
It takes a bit of effort to get them right, but once you do, they are priceless IMO. If cleaning is necessary other than just wiping it out w/ a paper towel, you can wipe the grease out and add a tablespoon or two of kosher salts and wipe around to clean. Or, just use warm-hot water and a vegetable brush then dry well. Once it is seasoned well, and I bake something like fish in the pan, I will put it in soap and water to clean. Once well seasoned, it isn't going to hurt the pan a bit to see some soap occasionally. If you do wash w/ the brush or soap and water, dry and warm the pan and give it just a quick shot w/ canola oil and wipe out the excess so it's ready for next time.
This all sounds much harder than it really is. But these things stand the test of time if treated well. I'm so used to being able to take skillets from the range top to the stove anymore, that I'd be lost w/ a non-heat proof handled skillet. So long as you don't do something really stupid, they will last a lifetime+++ (my kids get to eat meals out of one of their Great-great grandmother's skillets that has been in use for about 95 years, that's something to me).
Also, even with a brand new "pre-seasoned" pan, I wash the snot out of it and then give it the lard and go to the grill. Only pan I've ever had trouble with which is a modern pan, is the one that I started out using it w/ the pre-seasoned layer on it from the factory w/out adding my own right away. I ended up having to re-season that bugger 2 or 3 times a year before I got it right.
Also, it will take getting used to the temp settings of your stove top when using them for the first few times. I like using my IR temp gun I bought for the wood stove to help out there.
ETA, some will recommend simply throwing an old pan into coals in your wood stove to clean it and start fresh. While I might try that on a 20 dollar new skillet if it really had me frustrated for some reason, there is no way I'd do that to an antique. The smooth finish of the old pans is not they seasoning, they were made that way and nobody is doing that process anymore. Getting an antique and treating it well is something to cherish. Other people will prefer a low and slow seasoning approach with a lot more oil in the pan and upright but I never had luck w/ that.
pen
