Cast Iron Skillets!!?

Question

I recently bought two cast iron skillets at an auction. They weren't taken really great care of, but they look pretty good. How can I clean them to use them?

Answer 1

Exfoliate your iron pans. This is good for getting the little burnt stickies off the bottom of the pan. You will need kosher salt, paper towels and vegetable oil. First set the pan on an oven burner on low heat. Add only enough oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pan. Heat pan till warm to the touch but not hot, then add a generous amount of kosher salt. "Scour" the pan with the paper towels and kosher salt until the burnt stickies are removed. Wipe away excess oil and salt with a clean paper towel and rinse with water only. Dry immediately.

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 2

Put a small amount of water in them, one at a time and heat to boiling. Dump water and slightly cool pan with hot tap water. Get a Brillo steel wool (pink) pad the original NOT the oxy clean one, and scrub. Rinse well with hot tap water, you may need to use an old rag to wipe out the pink soap as you rinse. Once it is rinsed very well, use the stove heat to dry it. Once it is bone dry, keep the heat on high, use a paper towel and dip it into SHORTENING. Rub it around and cover all inside surface of the skillet. Let it "smoke" for about 3-5 minutes, it will smell, and then remove from heat. Store in a dry place, like the oven when you aren't using the oven. Every time you cook with it, clean ASAP with HOT water. If the food is really greasy, use just a little mild dish soap and a PLASTIC or NYLON bristled brush to scrub and rinse. Dry over heat and do the paper towel thing. You can take it off the heat once you cover the inside edge with the shortening from this point one.
As the skillet gets "seasoned" you will notice the paper towel doesn't look as dark as the first times you rubbed on the grease. DO NOT USE OIL after cleaning the skillet, this will make it sticky and you'll have to clean it before you can use it.

Answer 3

Unless you have a skillet you found at a yard sale or inherited, "seasoning" it probably won't do much. Old cast iron had a very much less "perfect" surface that that cast today, so the tiny cracks in it would readily suck up oils that you heated in it, which then formed a wonderful non-stick surface after cooling. You need never scrub such a pan, they will just wipe clean with a hot soapy cloth. If you HAVE an old pan that some idiot has scrubbed the seasoning off of, just smear the surface of the whole pan with olive oil, and bake the pan in a hot oven for 15-20 minutes. Allow it to cool, and repeat the process.

Answer 4

I heat mine up in the oven and then take a cloth with cooking oil and just rub it down. You'd be surprised how well that works. I bought a cast iron x-mas tree muffin pan, ( lol I got it at a yard sale for $1) and I cleaned it that way. It was good as new.
I also make sure after I wash them that I put them on the stove top for a couple mins until there dry. Then I wipe a little oil on them, not much, but just barely enough to cover the pan. They seem to say seasoned better that way.

Answer 5

If rusty clean them with medium coarse steel wool. Use hot water no soap. Then season the pan with oil in the oven.
Wipe oil on pan and bake for 15 mins at 275deg. Repeat about three times. Now you have a seasoned non stipk cast iron skillet.!!

Answer 6

If they are yucky, scrub them with a steel scrub pad like chore boy and get the scales out. Then use vegetable oil to change the rust9Iron oxide) back into iron. Just pour a few drops of oil in your pan and rub it in till the iron is the color you want. Season in the oven and you'll have a renewable nonstick surface on which to cook.
I switched to Mirro nonstick skillets to have a lighter pan.

Answer 7

Grab ans S.O.S pad and go to town on it. Once clean, dry on the cooktop. Turn off just before it is completely dry and let sit about 10 minutes. Come back, fold a paper towel into about a 2x4 rctangle, dip into vegetable shortening and wipe the inside and handle to reseason the pan. Once cool, put it away. This is what you are supposed to do every time you scrub the pan with soap.

Answer 8

Good god, used pans? Cast iron skillets cost almost nothing brand new. Why would anyone want greasy, rusty pans that someone may have peed in or worse?

Answer 9

Clean them with rags and heavy salt, and then dry them immediately. Reseason them and they should be fine.