I print some of the endless online discussions about cast iron care. The paper, the ink and the opinions make for an excellent mild abrasive that doesn’t permeate the pores or excessively damage the seasoning patina
Make sure to use food grade ink
I wipe any fat or oil with a paper towel into the trash. then I rinse it with soap and water and I have a regular plastic brush I use to wash it.
After I dry it off with a paper towel and heat it up and add some avocado oil then wipe the excess all around
Yeah this person knows what’s up. Don’t fall into the cast iron cleaning cult bs
I’ve been doing my best to follow cowboy kent’s method where if you can, while the pan is still hot, run it under hot water and scrape away with a wooden spatula or other flat tool. I’ve had great success with most cleanings and anything stuck on I just do as the other user said and scrub with a abrasive sponge and a little soap and warm water until I’m happy.
This is what I do too. If there is something really stuck on then you can put it back on the stove and add a little water which will sizzle and lift the rest up with minimal scraping.
yeah this is like running a flat grill in a restaurant
This is what I started doing a few months ago and it works great.
Soap and water. It’s cast iron, not silk.
Try not to use soap if possible, it can get into the iron since it’s porous and become a part of the “seasoning”. Same goes for mortar and pestle care
This is not the case for modern detergents, but is held over from when soaps were all made from lye. The polymerized layers of oil that you have will stay mostly in tact with some dish detergent and a light scrub sponge. After washing and drying mine off with a towel, I apply some oil and heat it on the stove for a few minutes to maintain the seasoning.
But absolutely mortar and pestle should never ever get soap, particularly something like a molcajete made from volcanic rock. I just wipe mine really thoroughly with a clean, damp cloth.
Edit: SMFH don’t mass down vote someone for having inaccurate information. Had they not commented, they wouldn’t have opened themselves up to the opportunity to learn something.
Yep. My pan gets hand washing with a few drops of soap after every use and it’s fine.
Lye, or sodium hydroxide, strips the seasoning layers. It used to be used in soap. People use it when restoring cast iron in the modern day to strip old seasoning off. Then they can start againt and re-seaaon!
I run my mortar and pestle through the dishwasher. It’s glazed stoneware, and is virtually non porous. Molcajete are an exception, but there’s not much good to be gained by having old spice and herb residue in cooking gear.
Interesting thanks for chiming in. I’ve only ever had a molcajete.
I have a marble one. Also can be washed, as it’s non-porous.
What’s the benefit of a molcajete, I wonder? Seasoning, obviously, but any others?
Afaik, it’s traditional to Central American (and maybe South American?) cuisine, but I don’t know any science-y aspects to it’s use. You make salsas and guac directly in it, and I can say they do hit different, but I can’t say exactly why.
Yeah I read something about those. Blends differently than in a blender. I buy that.
Perhaps the original reason was just that that type of stone was available there and this type over here?
victoria (cast iron maker that’s a above lodge but below others,) recommends using a little dish soap.
even if the soaps do remove some seasoning, you should have enough on there, and cooking with enough oil that it regenerates. That’s the secret to cast iron’s longevity, in point of fact. Every time you cook with it, you add some more to the seasoning. (it also can develop some marvelous flavors if you’re intentional in how you cook with it.)
What is above Victoria?
Depending on who you talk to? Lancaster and stargazer; and then there’s the heirlooms that are 100% worth hunting down (like the old wagners.)
If you’re looking for enameled cast iron, la creusette is top, imo. (Enameled doesn’t take seasoning, but the finish is much more durable than ptfe)
I would suggest Victoria being a good place to start; it’s not going to absolutely wreck the bank. Some of the Lancaster are lighter though making them easier to use… and my faves are some literal heirlooms from my grandma (which went back a few generations further,)
Nice, thank you. I just have a Lodge. Haven’t had any gripes about it, but curious what difference would come from leveling up
So Victoria has a smoother finish than new lodges- it’s not quite ground, stargazer is ground (like old cast iron used to be. This gets you to the smooth-mirror seasoning people cover with fewer cycles of seasoning.
IMO, out of the box, Victoria’s seasoning is basically right there because of ilthis where new-lodges have always taken a lot even if they say it’s pre-seasoned.
And if you ever feel the need to strip the old to bare metal… well. It’s going to take a weekend or two for a lodge. They’re still great pans, don’t get me wrong, and it’s not especially hard work just tedious.
that precisely decribes my scenario yes
I’m yet to decide if that gut biome is a nerf or a buff.
When I bought my house I discovered a treasure trove of old cast iron pans in the (very modern) oven. They all looked like this and smelled like rancid oil. It was not fun to deal with lol
Sounds terrible but also awesome if they were good enough to be used after cleaning. I know that smell though… terrible.
Honestly, I may have gotten lucky because I didn’t need to do much rust removal. Took them outside and hosed them down, then got to work removing the burnt in bits and evening out the seasoning. Took me about two afternoons per pan. One of the pans is definitely an antique, so I haven’t used it because it might have lead in it
If I am babying them, kosher salt and oil once it’s cool enough, then rinse & dry. Otherwise I scrape at it with the metal spatula then wash with soap and a scratchy sponge, it’s fine as long as you don’t soak them, and do dry them well after.
We do have a chainmail scrubber - my husband was soaking the skillets and killing the finish, he likes the chainmail scrubber.
haha tell him to stay over there with the washer machine
Wiping out? Like, entirely? Well, personal physical assault isn’t wise, so let’s take that off the table first. I wouldn’t suggest basic firearms, either: they’d likely just dent it or fly off and hurt something else.
Running it over isn’t likely to damage it too badly, and trying to drown it just leads to rust. I think it’d be hard to get an “accidental” fire to have a high-enough heat sustained for a long enough to kill it. Dropping it from a height might bend or dent it.
Honestly, I think your best chance would be some kind of high explosive. Not a dinky thing like a hand grenade - aside from being under-powered, there’s the extra shrapnel to worry about. Maybe some dynamite or C4, with a long enough detcord so you’re not near the explosion. Of course, that’ll likely just launch it upwards a bit, so you’d want to enclose it in something that ensures most of the damage is directed to the pan and not dispersed around the edges.
Maybe ask the police to do a demolition demonstration with their little self-contained units that they blow things up in, would that be feasible? How much do you hate this pan, anyway?
I’d suggest a furnace
I use chain mail.
I had to scroll way too far to find this. Chainmail, salt, water, wooden utensils, and whatever you season with (I use Crisco).
Reading comments in this thread reminds me why I don’t let anyone use my cast iron.
if you want to destroy the pan, yes
To be fair, that could just be how they interpreted the phrase “wiping out”
I don’t think its misinterpreted. I do the same thing with one of these to get stuck on food bits out:
I’m not sure how this could “destroy the pan” considering the stainless steel links have a Brinell hardness of 217 and the grey cast iron (the pan’s metal) has a Brinell hardness of 235, the pan will scratch the stainless steel links before the stainless steel links scratches the pan.
After that I wash out the path with liquid dish soap, then put the pan on the inductive stove to bring it up to boil away any remaining water on the pan.
To be honest I know nothing about… any cookware really (and a great many other things), and just took the comment above me at face value.
is that what those are called? i got some for my birthday and they are the coolest. the ones i have are dishwasher safe
I just make the pan hot and wipe it out with a paper towel quickly so it doesn’t burn the paper. If I made a sauce in it, a wet paper towel.
People are so weird with their cast iron care… I scrub it with hot water, a brush, and maybe some soap depending on how dirty it is. Then I dry it off LIKE A NORMAL PAN and heat a little oil in it again to keep it from rusting. The only thing you need to do different than a normal pan is get some oil on it and heat it up after washing. It’s a ferrous metal so it’ll rust if it isn’t protected.
Edit: for wiping out I just use a paper towel with a little oil on it
Modern soaps lack the phosphates that really mess with cast iron. I typically do this.
Little bit of water, heat on high until it boils most things off the pan.
Scrape with metal spatula and stick items.
Hit it lightly with soap and sponge.
Dry with paper towel.
Spray with oil.
Wipe oil all sides.
Only missing putting it back on heat after drying with a paper towel to boil off any residual water
I tend to use a paper towel with a little bit of canola oil, after hand washing it lightly with soap and water.
My cast iron won’t win beauty pageants, but they are functional equipment, not wall decorations.
I turn up the heat then throw water. It boils and cleanup with paper towel. Use tongs.
Probably a second cast iron skillet
We have a plastic scraper that gets anything off with a bit of water. Then I hit it with a rough sponge and water, towel dry, then stovetop dry. While still hot, I like to put a thin layer of Crisco on all surfaces with a paper towel and wipe any excess off. Having a well seasoned pan, warming up before cooking, and using enough fat or oil makes cleaning and maintaining a lot easier.
Scraping with plastic is a good way to create microplastics. Better to use a wood or metal tool
scraping with wood is a grate way to get, uh, sawdust.
And?
