Cast Iron Care

Went to a yard sale today and got 4 cast iron pans for 2 bucks. I need to do some cleaning but I am happy. Not often do I find the little ones.

 

Sweet! It is hard to find the small ones.

 

Have a few cast kettles but just for ornamental purposes. Put the twist wire cup onto the side grinder and hit the outside buildup this week. Have them all slicked up, re oiled, and hanging "purdy".

 

My new to me cast iron pans are now in great shape. I did have a whoops but @Brokor's guidance helped me fix it. I had too much olive oil on the pans (didn't wipe enough) and then I baked per instructions which made them really sticky. I have been oiling with bacon fat and coconut oil. I don't keep cooking oil or shortening in the house. I actually prefer the coconut oil.

 

I worked at a salvage yard for awhile and cast iron cookware came in that was covered with "foam". The foam was rock hard and you either used a hammer to chip it off (yes really) OR, since it was just grease that got burned on and foamed all over, you did what my grandmother did, my mother did and probably my great grandmother did, you built a fire (I had a wood stove at the house and it worked perfectly for this) and dropped it in and left it over night. The next day I would fish it out and wash it and then fry bacon, chicken, whatever that used oil, in it and it was good to go. I always washed them after washing everything else and never had a problem with sticking (always use oil!) or rust. I still have Mom's skillet and it was probably her mothers. The trick is to have a SMOOTH bottom! The new stuff is very rough (sand blasted? Sand cast?) and sticks horribly, but polishing it really helps.

 

My vintage Lodge pans have no sticking issues after a couple generations of use, but I have an unmarked 8" skillet that was still getting stuff stuck on the sides. I noticed that the bottom was jet black and smooth as glass after wiping on a layer of shortening and heating until smoking on the electric stove. Since the sides remained a lighter color I reasoned that they were not getting hot enough. The fix was simply to flip the pan over and use the largest burner to heat the pan until smoking. I could watch the cast iron color turn black during this process.

Since the pan has had this stove top seasoning it has been 100% non-stick and is a joy to use.

 

^^^This.
No need for soap, as the salt will remove any food residue from the cast iron.

 

I've been wondering about a couple things for a bit now, and I'm reminded every time I cook. First, am I just lazy, or does everybody slice off a hunk of butter from the stick and peel off the paper as you drop it in the frying pan? The whole unwrapping thing with the butter seems unnecessary when they are marked with measurements on the outside anyway. (Something that took me about 50 years to notice.)

My big question is what did our grandparents use to wipe off a cast iron pan after use? I use a paper towel, and my ancient Lodge pans come out looking like black glass again, but Grandma didn't have a roll of Bounty on the counter. I think maybe the good old dish rag. If it picked up any residual grease in cleaning the pan it could be washed out while doing the other dishes. This is just one of the things I'd paid better attention to as a child. Thinking about sustainability, and waste reduction.

 

Electrolysis is the best way to clean cast iron. But a lot of people are scared of the process.

For cast iron with just crud on it we have set up a lye bucket. 20% lye to 80% water. You can leave the cast iron in it for a few days and it will come out clean. For rust we set up another bucket with 50% vinegar and 50% water. Only leave the cast iron in for an hour or so or it will start damaging the piece. Once out of the buckets clean with a gentle soap like Bar Keepers Friend. Yes soap, but you don't usually do this. just the once. Rinse with really hot water. Dry on a burner and then season.

Remember Lye is a really strong base and will damage skin. So wear rubber gloves.

 

My grandmother wiped with a dish rag and when the crud built ip too much she burned it off in and outdoor fire and reoiled. She did thus about once a year in the summer

 

Monkey help needed. One of my favorite cast iron pans went camping and now has a bottom that is all soot. I want to remove the soot so the pan can be used for in-home again. I am getting soot everywhere. This soot seems never ending.

 

I got this #5 three notch Lodge pan today, 1960's to 70's manufacture. I had planned to gift it to someone, but now I'm thinking I might keep it for myself. ;-)

Quick cleaning with some salt, and a rinse in hot water. Dried on the stove and lightly seasoned with some butter and bacon before I made this omelet. I was just wiggling the pan to see if the egg was cooked evenly and noticed that it was sliding around the bottom of the pan. No sticking anywhere. Slid it almost to the pan rim to get this picture. You just can't beat the old pans.