I think I screwed up, I just got 2 cast iron skillets-used, well seasoned- and I?

Question

I took one that had all the black in it and sanded it down to the bare metal with wire brush and electric drill. Was I suppose to leave all that black crud in it or what. I haven't done anything with the second yet. What should I do and did I mess up the one?

Answer 1

Well, the good thing about cast iron is that it is relatively forgiving. I believe you can salvage it.

Smear a good coating of shortning all over the inside of the pan. Put it in your oven and turn the tempurture all the way up. Let the pan get hot until the grease starts to smoke then turn the oven off and let the pan just sit inside the oven until it is completely cooled off. Take the pan out and wipe it out with a paper towel. You may repeat this process several times.

Never put a cast iron skillet in the dishwasher. Just wipe it out or you can wash it with a mild soap and water.

P.S. Wash the second one with soap and water and leave the black on it.

Answer 2

The skillet that you sanded down is not lost! Wipe it out good with a paper towel, to get rid of any rust that may accumulate. Then oil the skillet good, both inside and out with regular salad oil. Put the skillet in the cold oven, turn the heat on to about 350 degrees F and let the skillet "cook" for at least an hour. Then, turn the oven off and leave the skillet in to cool slowly. This will bring back the seasoning. And, even though the black color may look unappealing, it is really harmless. The black color is the seasoning and helps food to not stick when cooking. One of the greatest advantages of cast iron cookware is the fact that it is almost indestructible!

Answer 3

You were supposed to leave it there. That is what makes it the original non-stick surface.

It is no harm, and may not have been a bad idea if you obtained it from someone else as there may have been something on it that you did not need or want, anyway.

It can be re-done by simply filling the pan with cooking oil and baking it in an oven for five hours at about 250 /275 degrees F.
Leave the oil in the pan overnight.


Alternatively, coat it with oil, (canola oil) using a brush, and bake it at a higher temperature, but not more than 350F, re-coating it every half hour, for three hours.

Note that most oils will burn above 400F, and some a bit below that, so you must keep your oven at max 350F.

In both cases, leave the pan in the oven to cool off overnight.


The next time you want it REALLY clean, just heat the oven to 500F and put the pan in there for a half hour. It will not smell great, but it will char all the surface and, once cool, it will all flake away.

Answer 4

You made a big BOOBOO! You can reseason the skillet you unseasoned, by coating it with lard(shortening) putting it in the oven at 350 for an hour and then reduce to 250 for 3 hours. Put a baking sheet under the skillet and turn it upside down on the rack above the sheet. It will take years to get back to were it was. After each use wash with hot water and scouring pad (only if needed) dry completely with heat and coat with oil. Never put you cast iron in a dishwasher, and do not use soap because it is not cast iron's friend. If it gets too gross once in a great while wash it in soap but make sure to reseason.

Good Luck
and my Gramma is turning in her grave....
Peace.

Answer 5

That soft whirring noise you hear in the background is generations of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers spinning in their graves. Sanding a well-seasoned cast iron pan is the equivalent of painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa!

All is not lost, but I'd be willing to bet that the second, unsanded pan is the one you'll reach for until the first pan achieves its former state of glory. Rub cooking oil into every inch of that poor pan until it's well-saturated, and bake it in a 500 degree over for an hour. Cool, and repeat as many times as it takes until food cooked in the pan no longer sticks.

And unless you want the Cast Iron Cookware Police on your doorstep with a warrant for your immediate arrest, never, EVER soak a cast iron pan in water. Wipe it out with a damp paper towel after using, dry thoroughly, and to be on the safe side, rub a little more cooking oil into the surface. That will prevent rust from forming.

There's one more thing you need to do: go to the nearest church, get down on your knees, and ask God to get you off the hook with Great-grandma. With any luck, she *may* forgive you by the time you get to Heaven! ;-)

Answer 6

There is a trick to maintaining cast iron cookware and that trick is known as "seasoning" or "curing." Your food will never stick to the bottom of the skillet or pot and the iron will not rust if it is properly seasoned. Plus the cast-iron cookware cleans up easily as well. Seasoning or curing cast iron means filling the pores and voids in the metal with grease of some sort, which subsequently gets cooked in. This provides a smooth, nonstick surface on both the inside and outside of the piece.

Every time, after I use my cast iron skillet, I do the following:

Let the pan cool. Wash it with dishwashing soap and water. Never soak or let soapy water sit in the pan for any length of time. Rinse thoroughly, then dry with paper towels.

A lot of people disagree with using dishwashing soap and water to wash cast-iron pans. A chef told me that if a health inspector ever found a pan that had not been washed with soap and water in his kitchen, he would be in trouble. Plus the grease that is left behind will eventually become rancid. You do not want rancid oil in your foods and body.

NEVER put cast-iron cookware in the dishwasher.


Place the cleaned cast iron pan on the heated burner of your stove for a minute or two to make sure that it is bone dry. While the pan is still hot and on the stove burner, lightly oil inside of pan (I mean a light coat) with a neutral cooking oil.

Neutral Oils - Use vegetable oils (canola, sunflower, etc.), shortening (like Crisco shortening) or lard for seasoning your cast iron pans. I recently experimented and found out that food-grade coconut oil/butter also works great.


Leave pan on the hot burner of stove for a few minutes. Remove from hot burner and wipe excess oil off the pan with a paper towel.


Store your cast iron cookware with the lids off, especially in humid weather, because if covered, moisture can build up and cause rust. Be sure that you place a couple paper towels inside to make sure that any moisture that forms will be absorbed by the paper towel. Never put the utensil in the dishwasher or store it away without drying it thoroughly.

If your food gets a metallic taste, or turns "black", it means one of two things are wrong. Either your pot has not been sufficiently seasoned, or you are leaving the food in the pot after it has been cooked. Never store food in the cast iron pan as the acid in the food will breakdown the seasoning and take on a metallic flavor.

If your old or new cast iron pans gets light rust spots, scour the rusty areas with steel wool, until all traces of rust are gone. Wash, dry, and repeat seasoning process.

If too much oil or shortening is applied to a pan in the seasoning process, it will pool and gum up when the pan is heated. In this case, the goo can be scraped off and some more grease rubbed over the spot, or the pan can be re-scrubbed and reseasoned. Heating the pan upside-down may help prevent gumming but protect your oven by using a foiled-lined baking sheet or aluminum foil to catch the grease. Seasoning at higher temperatures, approaching the smoking point, of the oil used will result in darker seasoned coatings in less time that aren't sticky or gummy.

Answer 7

Take some solid shortning, like crisco, and go over the entire pan, including the handle, preheat your oven and place the pan inside about 275 to 300 degrees for about 3/4 to hour. wipe off with paper towel, that should do it, you could treat it a second time if it's really bad. when ever you use it just wipe it out. The blacker it gets the better the pan and more seasoned it becomes,, I have several from my Grandma, they are about 75 years old their great.

Answer 8

not really, just re-season it.

Wash skillet in hot, soapy water. Rinse thoroughly and dry completely.
Apply a thin coating of melted shortening (Crisco, for example) or vegetable oil with a solf cloth or paper towel.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place skillet UPSIDE DOWN on top oven rack.
Place foil on a cookie sheet and place on bottom rack of oven. This will catch the drippings from the skillet.
Bake in oven for one hour.
Turn oven off. DO NOT OPEN. Allow skillet to cool down in oven (several hours). There may be a film on your cookware, this comes off after use. You will have to use it a couple times as a test.

Answer 9

You would have to re-season the one you sanded down. Since it is like new now, it will take a few years to get it good and black again. The other one, just give it a wash like you would a regular pan and it will be good to go. Do not put either in the dishwasher ever.

Answer 10

Linda F has good advise for you. Only when you clean them, if you use soap, use very little and a mild soap. Dry them and coat with cooking oil so they won't rust. A good seasoned cast iron will not rust as easy as one not seasoned.
If in case the one you have is one of the cheap ones made in China, them I'm not sure I would try to salvage the one you sanded.