How do you properly clean cast iron pots and pans?

Answer 1

This is how I clean mine. I run hot water in them and use oil and a scrubber. When all the gunk is out I dry them with a paper towel then put just a little oil in them and use another paper towel to rub it all over the pan/pot.

Answer 2

Wash them by hand in warm soapy water. Rinse well and dry. Air dry or with a towel. Oil the skillet with some vegetable oil, making sure you rub the oil everywhere really well. This is how I care for my iron skillets which have been handed down for 3 generations in my family, so we must be doing something right. My family seemed to like the old Crisco shortening for oiling their pans, but I think any cooking oil will do. If you always keep your pans oiled, stuff will be less likely to stick. Also if something gets burnt on them so bad that it won't come out by soaking in soapy water, you can burn the skillet. Build you a little fire in a BBQ pit or on the ground and throw the skillet in, let it burn until all gunk is gone, turning with fireplace tongs. Remove and let cool, wash a couple of times and re-oil the skillet. When you oil it this time, do it pretty heavy and place in the oven at about 350 for 30 minutes. Remove and lightly oil the skillet on the inside again. Hope this helps. Oh yeah, just for information, this process of washing and oiling your pans is called "seasoning".

Answer 3

NEVER use soap. Now that that's out of the way, you'll need to scrub all the gunk out of them after they're used. First boil water in the pan, the bubbles will loosen a lot of what's stuck to the bottom. Then, coarse salt (I use sea salt that I got at my local grocery store) with a paper towel works well as a scrubber to get the rest out. Then rinse with water. Once the pan is completely dry (putting it back on low heat will do this quickly) coat the pan in oil, mineral oil is reccommended by most manufacturers, but most anything will do in a pinch.

The NEVER use soap thing stems from soap's chemical properties and grease cutting abilities. Your good cast iron pans are 'seasoned', meaning they have a layer of oils that have adhered to the surface making it nonstick and making the things that come out of your pan inexplicably amazing tasting. Soap will cut right through this layer of 'seasoning'. In some cases leaving your food tasting soapy, and in others (if you scrub really well) making your cast iron pan about as fun to use as a brick. And then you'll have to go through the whole seasoning process again.

Answer 4

To clean, do it immediately after cooking while pan is still hot. Use hot water and a scrubb brush. Rinse. Put pan on hot burner to dry. When the pan is dry, put some SHORTENING not oil because oil will make it sticky, on a paper towel and quickly coat the inside surface of the pan while it is on the hot buner. Make sure there is not a puddle of grease. Then take off the heat and let cool. Store in a dry place, like your oven, when not in use. If you don't clean right away, put water in the pan and put on hot burner, let the water come to a boil and then clean. (This makes cleaning easier!)

Answer 5

You can use whatever scrubber or detergent. The key is NOT to rinse. Just dry them well. If you rinse, food will stick next time. I have iron skillets I like to bake cornbread in. About once a year, I do the process called 'seasoning'. I scrub them with steel wool, smear vegetable oil all over them , place them on a cookie sheet(to catch the melting oil) and put them in the oven on 350 degrees for about 45min to an hour. Make sure you are close by and if they start smoking too much, take them out. Then when I bake my cornbread, it just pops out with No sticking.

Answer 6

Wash them with the help of hand in heat soapy water. Rinse properly and dry. Air dry or with a towel. Oil the skillet with some vegetable oil, making confident you rub the oil everywhere somewhat properly. it extremely is how I guard my iron skillets that have been surpassed down for 3 generations in my kinfolk, so we would desire to be doing something precise. My kinfolk appeared to love the previous Crisco shortening for oiling their pans, yet i think of any cooking oil will do. in case you many times save your pans oiled, stuff would be much less possibly to adhere. additionally if something gets burnt on them so undesirable that it will no longer come out with the help of soaking in soapy water, you may burn the skillet. build you a splash hearth in a BBQ pit or on the floor and throw the skillet in, enable it burn till all gunk is long previous, turning with fire tongs. do away with and enable cool, wash a pair of situations and re-oil the skillet. once you oil it this time, do it exceedingly heavy and place interior the oven at approximately 350 for half-hour. do away with and gently oil the skillet on the interior back. wish this helps. Oh yeah, in basic terms for tips, this suggests of washing and oiling your pans is named "seasoning".

Answer 7

Oil is the key for getting stuff out. If you put oil in there while it's still hot, it'll come off even easier. You can take a cello pad and scrub it, then rinse with warm water. They always need to be dried right away to prevent rusting.

Answer 8

After use, wipe with paper towels, wash quickly without soaking, in hot suds, rinse; dry thoroughly at once, and wipe with a thin coating of fat or oil.
Stubborn cooked on or burned on food is best removed by soaking in hot water. Use a plastic scouring pad if necessary. Soak in a solution of 3 tablespoons of washing soda or baking soda per 1 quart of water to remove burned on food or grease. Do not scour off the seasoned finish built up on cast iron over long use. This necessitates re-seasoning of the pan.
Rust may be scoured with fine steel wool or scouring powder but re-seasoning of the utensil will be necessary.
To season cast iron:
Wash and scour with fine cleanser and steel wool. Wash and dry thoroughly. Rub the inside with unsalted fat or cooking oil and place on top of range on low heat or in oven. (250-300 degrees) for 2 to 3 hours. More fat may be added as needed. When finished, wipe out extra fat, wash in soap, and dry thoroughly. Store seasoned cast iron in a dry place. Do not put lids on pans when storing as this may increase moisture buildup.
If the pots have a lot of build-up from age, get a good fire going in the fireplace or outside,(remove any wooden handles!)and throw in the pot. Carefully remove after about 30 minutes, cool, wash with SOS, dry, rub with unsalted oil and bake at 250 for 3 hours to reseason it.
I found that even though I dried the pan after washing it I would sometimes find a little rust. Now after I wash the pan, I put it on the stove and let it heat until any water left in the pan has evaporated. Since I started using this process, I have not found any rust, and the pans are well seasoned.
SOAP and SOS ?!?!?!? Neither one should EVER be used on cast iron. After it's properly seasoned, all you need to clean it is hot water and a little oil. If you need more than that then it's not properly seasoned.
To clean rust from an abused garage sale find of a cast iron skillet I have had great luck soaking the item x24hrs. in a bath of 1 part molasses and 3 parts water. Clean with a bit of steel wool. (resoak as needed) Season and voila. Works great!

Answer 9

Getting Burnt-On Food Off
If you have burnt-on food on your cast iron cookware, here are some ways to clean it.

My aunt told me about these two ways:
(1) The best thing to do is to burn the skillet. If you have a fireplace (or furnace), let the coals die down and then place the skillet in the coals. It may flame up--but that's okay. Let it burn off the grease and the food. (be sure to move the skillet around in the fire so it doesn't crack). If you don't have a poker or tool to get it out, wait until the fire dies down and the coals are cool to remove it. Then wash all the ashes off and re-season the pan .

(2) If you don't have a fire, the second way to do it would be to get a pan bigger than your skillet and boil the skillet in the pan on the stove.

This doesn't work as well--it might get the food off but it won't clean the skillet (black specks) entirely. Either way you do it, you'll have to re-season the skillet .

Keith Moumblow, of Brigadoon Bed & Breakfast in Scottsboro, Alabama shares these tips for cleaning cast-iron cookware:
"When my skillet needs it, I stick it in the self-cleaning oven when that needs to be cleaned, too. You get two birds with one stone this way; hovever, I try to never let my skillets get really, really dirty.

After seasoning the skillet the first time, and after using the skillet, I use coarse salt such as Kosher salt, and scrub it around in the skillet with a paper towel. Dump the salt and rinse the skillet in cold water. Wipe dry with a paper towel (if you still get a brown stain on the paper towel, dump more salt in and repeat the process), and then wipe a thin film of olive oil in the pan. Stick the pan in a plastic bag until ready to be used."

Hope that helps some folks out there with cast-iron cleaning problems!

Cleaning & Seasoning Cast Iron Cookware



CAUTION: Wear rubber gloves and eye protection while doing this!!

Begin by spraying the pan with oven cleaner and putting it in a plastic bag for a couple of days. The bag keeps the oven cleaner from drying out so it will continue to work. After a couple of days, remove it from the bag and scrub it in a solution of dish soap/water. I use a brass brush purchased at a super market, or my favorite, a brass brush I purchased at Rite Aid Pharmacy in their automotive counter. This brush is marketed for cleaning white wall tires. It is just the right size for doing pans. If all the burned on grease doesn't come off, repeat the process, concentrating the cleaner to the areas not cleaned.

For bulk cleaning, you can prepare a soak of one and a half gallons of water to one 18 ounce can of lye in a plastic container. Lye like oven cleaner is very caustic and will burn you. Always wear rubber gloves. Mix enough in the plastic container to cover the items to be cleaned. Leave the pieces in the soak for about five days. Then scrub the piece. You can use the lye mixture several times. Do not use oven cleaner or lye on aluminum! It will eat the aluminum! Lye and oven cleaner will also eat the finish off wood handles and japanned pieces, and will dull porcelain finishes.

To remove rust, buff the pan with a fine wire wheel in an electric drill. Crusted rust can be dissolved by soaking the piece in a 50%solution of white vinegar and water for a few hours. Don't leave it more than overnight without checking it. This solution will eventually eat the iron! It is now important to neutralize and stop the action of the vinegar. To neutralize the acid action of the vinegar again apply the oven cleaner and let the piece soak over night. You can also soak the piece over night in an alkaline solution such as washing soda which is available in the cleaning dept of most supermarkets and also some hardware stores. The washing soda neutralizes the vinegar so it will not continue to attack the iron. Then scrub the piece in dish detergent and hot water before seasoning.

After removing the burned on grease you are ready to season the piece. Preheat the oven to 125 degrees. This removes any moisture in the oven which could condense on the cold skillet leaving a very fine gold or rust color. Then preheat the pieces in the 125 degree oven for about 15 minutes or until they are hot. After the piece is heated remove it and apply shortening. I prefer solid Crisco. Some prefer lard or bacon grease. Oil does not work as well as these three. Apply solid Crisco; it flows right on. Of course you have to use a hot pad or rag to hold them. Return them to the oven right side up and raise the temperature to 225 degrees. Leave them for 1/2 hour then remove them and wipe any pooling of the shortening, leaving the piece still shining wet. The timing is important here because if you leave them in the oven to long the shortening begins to thicken. Put them back in the oven for another half hour. When you remove them this time let them cool down a bit, but are still hot, then wipe them to a dull shine. The initial seasoning should be accomplished at the point, However, typical of cast iron cookware, the more you use it (and don’t abuse it) the better it will be. It is generally recommended that you cook fatty foods in the pan as this adds to the seasoning process.

I DO NOT recommend the following methods of cleaning:

* Throw it in a fire - The intense heat of a fire can severely warp or even crack the piece.

* Self Cleaning Oven - Although not as great a risk as throwing it in a fire, the intense heat of a self cleaning can warp a skillet. There is also a risk of warping the piece.

* Sandblasting - This is the cardinal sin for collectors. Sand blasting destroys the patina making the piece a dull gray color. Most collectors will not buy a piece that has been sand blasted.

After cooking in the pan, DO NOT use a detergent to clean it. That will destroy the seasoning. Put hot water in the pan and bring it to a boil. CAUTION: Do not put cold water in a hot pan! Let the pan soak for several minutes, then wipe it out with a paper towel. If something sticks, scrape it with a spoon to dislodge it. Do not use a brillo pad to scour it! An abrasive pad cuts into the seasoned surface. Then, reheat the pan and apply a fine coating of shorting, oil, or Pam. Do not apply enough to run. Just enough to wet the surface with a fine layer.

Answer 10

use some spirit of alchol may be ur aftershave lotion