Okay you walked into the local thrift store or the garage sale down the street and bought you first cast iron skillet or Dutch oven. It’s gunky covered in a half inch of ashy, greasy crud and the bottom is almost rounded from the build-up and the inside isn’t smooth and shiny. Did you just buy a piece of junk or can you really fix this thing? Odds are you can fix it and return it to its former glory. There are only a few things you cannot fix and I will go through those in a moment. You will soon learn how to walk away from damaged cast iron that cannot be repaired or rehabbed.
I do belong to several Facebook groups that advocate Cast Iron Cooking, restoration and the use of vintage cookware. All though most people don’t realize it they are helping save the environment through their re-use of cast iron cookware thus leaving a smaller carbon footprint. Sometimes however cast iron has been neglected and abused past the point of no return. Here are some scenarios of irreparably damaged cast iron cookware:
Overheated/Heat Damage: At some point likely a well- meaning person will tell you to throw your cast iron piece in a fire (bonfire, fireplace, woodstove) to clean the crud off, I am telling you now don’t ever do that. Why? There is no way to control or regulate the heat of these kinds of fires and they may become too hot and damage your skillet (or any other cast iron piece) beyond repair. Signs of this damage are cast iron that looks pinkish-orange or sort of like rust but no rusty residue. It usually also warps the piece. You can’t use this cookware anymore it is dangerous (warped pieces will not sit well on the stove and could slide off and hurt someone) and pieces damaged like this will not hold seasoning. Send this item to the scrap yard or use as a decoration, you cannot cook with it.
Cracked or broken pieces: Sometimes lurking under that crud is a crack or the piece that is plain old just broken. My mother tells a story back in the 1950’s her family lived in an old house with very little heat. She said her mother got up to prepare breakfast on a wood cook stove. She had a blazing fire in the stove. She pulled out her iron skillet from a cupboard and sat it on the stove. The skillet was very cold (almost like coming out of the freezer) and when the skillet hit the stove it popped with a loud bang and grandma’s skillet was now in two pieces. There is no fixing this, some will say they have had skillets successfully welded back into shape but I wouldn’t eat from them. Who knows what kind of metal was used to weld it with (I think that is called flux and it varies in metallic composition) and the question is the skillet/cookware safe to heat food in it? I would also dare to say it would never season properly as well. For obvious reasons I would not use an item with even a small hairline crack it is not safe, again send it to the scrap yard or plant something it.
Lead: Some older skillets, pots, ladles, gem pans, muffin pans, ladles, spoons have been used at some point to melt lead for ammunition or fishing sinkers. I’ve heard plumbers melted lead for pipe fittings or something in cast iron too. I would say to test anything that you are not sure of especially if you don’t know the history. Sometimes an item has also been painted and it would put lead in the cooking vessel as well. Tale-tale signs are sometimes a shiny metallic “glow” on the cooking surface but, that also can be an older item that was once chrome plated and this was common too, and not dangerous. The only way to be sure is to test for lead. You can buy lead testing kits at Walmart (in the paint section) or at many of DIY big box retailers. Lead poisoning is nothing to mess around with, test your items to be sure. If any item tests positive for lead DO NOT USE IT! Do not try to wash, burn or chemically remove lead from cast iron. You cannot remove it and in doing so could cause grievous bodily harm to you or your family. Contact your local health department on how to safely destroy or dispose this item. I have not had to do this, nor would I not want to knowingly let another person potentially use the item if I knew it contaminated with lead. I will admit this is very rare and I have only heard of it happening one time but that is enough for me.
Dirty, Rancid, Greasy: Okay this we can fix. Years ago and still today the myth persists that you should never wash cast iron. This is why you will find old vintage cookware crusted up on the outside and no clue of the maker or anything because someone only wiped the item out with a dry cloth or paper towel or cleaned with salt and oil (and many other ways). I am here to tell you most certainly can wash cast iron and you better if you expect me to eat from it. You will not harm a skillet or other cast iron cookware by hand washing with say Dawn and even using a SOS or Brillo pad or a stiff brush. If the item is properly seasoned this will not harm cast iron nor the seasoning layer. I am not saying you should soak it for hours in water and definitely don’t boil it out on the stove as some might have you to do. Prolonged boiling might soften the seasoning and make it sticky. Wash it promptly (after it has cooled) dry thoroughly with a towel. Sit it back on the stove and turn the stove on for a minute or so and completely dry the skillet. Then take a paper towel with some oil (Crisco Shortening, lard, bacon grease, coconut oil) and lightly grease the item and put it away until the next time or just leave it sit in the oven (when the oven is not in use). I will go over stripping re-seasoning the item here in a moment but if you’ve stripped it and seasoned properly do not allow any build up to accumulate on the outside of the cookware. This is very nasty in my opinion and dangerous as well. That will make the cookware wobbly and unstable on the cooktop or in the oven.
Spinners, Wobblers, Pitting: You will hear these terms when cast iron cookware is being discussed. Spinning, wobbling, rocking are due to the piece probably being warped (over heated) and if not really severe you would probably use the item for baking say cornbread as long as it isn’t discolored to the pinkish-orange color described above. Don’t pay a lot of money for these items because they are compromised and shouldn’t be used for frying or simmering items. Pitting on the outside is not much of a problem clean it well and season the item (unless really deeply pitted) will be okay. Pitting on the cooking surface if more than a slight pitting in a few places again renders the piece useless, slight pitting can sometimes be “filled in” with layers of seasoning but usually not. If you can have the pitting “ground” out you might be okay but again don’t pay a lot of money for these items they are damaged and not a preferred piece of cast iron.
Rust: Rust can usually be removed by soaking your cast iron in a solution of 50% White Vinegar and 50% water for a short time. Scrub up with a Brillo or SOS pad and repeat as necessary until you are back to the bare cast iron and then immediately re-season.
Stripping and re-seasoning: Keep your shirt on stripping your cast iron requires you to be fully dressed. When you get that older skillet or Dutch oven heaven only knows what “Gremlins” it contains. You’ve got the ghosts of everything that has ever been cooked in that skillet and never fully washed out. Seasoning layers soften and go bad after many years and need to be re-done. Who knows they might have let the dog lick the skillet clean a time or two.
Stripping can be achieved in many ways. Cast iron enthusiasts have many YouTube videos on building “E-Tanks” (electrolysis tanks) that somehow with the aid of electricity (from a car battery) and metal that is sacrificed (dissolved during the process) and some washing soda will over some period of time strip your cast iron down to the bare metal. I’ve got a few problems with this personally however you may not so if you want certainly investigate this method it might be right for you. It’s just not for me.
My problems personally are I don’t have any electrical know-how, I have one car battery and it’s in my car where it’s going to stay. I hear tell that if not well ventilated these things can either explode or emit poisonous fumes. I may be exaggerating a little bit but I don’t want my neighbors turning me in for building what they think is a Meth Lab in my shed or me blowing up something. I have other methods to employ good results in cleaning used cast iron cookware. Some people like to spray their cast iron cookware with yellow capped Easy Off (or a generic) oven cleaner and place in plastic trash bag for several days. While this method works it is messy and time consuming and remember that is lye you are working with (you’ll need rubber gloves). It usually takes a couple of tries to get the pieces clean. I don’t like lots of work that involves grease and lye and scrubbing.
My preferred method is placing in a self-cleaning oven (on the rack upside down) and allowed to go through a cycle. Now hold on, I know you are thinking she said don’t ever over-heat the cast iron. I haven’t had any issues with this type of cleaning and I have yet to warp or damage a cast iron skillet using this method. Usually one cycle is enough, just allow the piece to cool to room temperature scrub up in the sink and get ready to season the skillet. Yes, it’s going to smoke a lot and set your fire alarms off. Open the windows and run your exhaust fan and go have a drink on the porch. You will be left with a nice clean cast iron skillet and a few ashes on the bottom of your stove. If you don’t have a self-cleaning oven ask friends and relatives they may let you use theirs. Just warn them about the smoking and clean your mess up for them.
Seasoning: What is seasoning you might have asked yourself as I have been blabbing about it and not really explaining what it truly is. Seasoning is a layer of clean (fat) that has been polymerized onto the surface of the cast iron skillet or other cast iron cookware. This essentially could be likened to the Teflon placed on cookware (except it is not poisonous, and you put it there). This polymerized seasoning layer makes the skillet over time virtually non-stick. You can choose either and animal fat like lard or bacon grease or a vegetable fat like Crisco or coconut oil. Butter, margarine, vegetable oil (like Wesson Oil), and Pam spray are not good choices for seasoning. Once you have your skillet is clean and dry, take a paper towel or rag and lightly apply your fat as thinly and lightly as possible without missing a spot over the inside and outside of your skillet. Then take a new clean paper towel and wipe off most of the fat you just put there. I know this sounds counterproductive but you goal is to not have pooling sticky greasy mess of a pan smoking in your oven. You should have your oven on at about 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Put your greased skillet upside down on the top rack and have either a layer of foil or a pan underneath to catch the drips (there shouldn’t be much dripping if you did it right) and in about 30 minutes remove your pan (with yourself protected with oven mitts) and wipe it out. Again, lightly apply a little more fat put the skillet back in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove, wipe down (while hot) and then allow to cool. You might need to repeat this a few times or cook something like bacon the first few times in the skillet. This layer of seasoning with build with each use and always season the pan upside down as this helps preventing pooling of oil and uneven seasoning. Hopefully you will season your pans with love and caring too! Cast Iron has so much potential so lets keep these traditions alive for future generations.
Thanks for joining me today and I hope you come back to my blog.
May your New Year be blessed with good health and Cast Iron Cooking.
CIMM (Cast Iron Maiden Mama)
** I am not here to win any prizes on perfect grammar/punctuation and I am terrible at proof-reading my own work; my apologies in advance.
The Cast Iron Maidens 