Cast iron skillet thingy help

[Stratts]

Hi guys I have a cast iron skillet thingy that I got given and have never used.

It has sat in the garage and has now got a light coat of patina (or rust, lol!!) and I am not sure if it's useable now.

What should I do to, a) get it useable and, b) prevent the build up again in the future?

Cheers

Stratts

 

[sasquatch]

Just clean it up with a bit of steel wool or a scouring pad or sand paper as a last resort, wash it and oil it and use it. Best to season it in the oven after cleaning and keep it dry in future. No such thing as a cast pan being past it...

 

[Bucephalas]

If you soak it for a day in cider vinegar it will take it back to base metal, you can then season it as normal.

 

[Bucephalas]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ1lMxpqW3w

 

[Toddy]

Vinegar can etch holes into the metal though, so ca' canny with it. Acidic fruits aren't good in cast iron or aluminium either.

Scour it as clean as you can, green sink scourer and fairy liquid to start with. Brillo pad if it's really manky. Dry it off and put it on a slow heat on the cooker. Make up a mix of good edible oil and salt and rub that on the cooking surface and keep the pan hot. Rub it off with a kitchen paper towel, or a rag that's going out after you're done, when it gets stained, and do it again, and again, and again. Give it a last coat of oil and heat it up and then let it cool down slowly.
If the handle is oven safe then you can do all this in the oven, and you can leave the pan in there to cool down slowly and stay dry too. I keep the cast iron girdle (griddle for the English among us ) in the oven. It's handy, it gets regularly heated up and it stays sound

Basically you don't want to destroy the iron surface, but you want to build up a patina of baked on oil that protects and creates a non stick layer or layers.
Old pans, baked time after time after time and not scoured with modern detergents or washing soda built up these layers with use. That's kind of what we try to recreate.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Stratts]

Nice one thanks guys it's not too bad rust wise and is very clean as it aint been used!!

The whole thing is cast, handle included, so i'll be able to use the oven method. I'll get a pic up later and some after pics if I do it right, lol!!!

Cheers

 

[Jared]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqMhlsySdrM

 

[santaman2000]

If as you say the whole thing is cast then the oven is second best; best being an outdoor gas BBQ grill (and this is the ONLY time I prefer a gas grill over charcoal) Reason being because to properly season CI it needs to be SMOKING hot and that plays havoc indoors. Why does it need to be smoking hot? Because you're not just trying to built layers of oil (which you are, but not JUST layers of oil) you also want that oil carbonized to give the most nonstick surface and aid in the heat distribution/retention (CI is already highly regarded for this by itself) You know you've got it right when it takes on a blacker and blacker color. The slow heat method WILL work, but if you do it that way it will take years of regular use to get the result (after all, my grandparents never seasoned at all, they simply USED their CI until it became seasoned naturally) you can get in a few hours by forcing the seasoning with high heat.

Simplest way to clean an old or neglected piece of CI such as you describe is to burn it on an open fire before seasoning (if your oven has a "self cleaning" function, just chuck the CI in before setting it) Second best is the scouring others have reccomended but I'd avoid using any sops or dish cleaning liqids if possible as CI is pourous and it's all but impossible to get it all back out of said pores if you do it before they're filled with the seasoning oils (BTW those pores are the reason a new piece of CI takes so much oil to season; it permeates the pores and they can soak up a surprisingly large amount)

On that point you want to use a seasonig oil that has a high smoke point. Olive oil is good for cooking at low temps but won't really take the higher heat like. oh, say peanut oil. Use the best you can afford. Whatever the local chippie uses will probably work well IF they're using oil and not drippings.

 

[spandit]

Shove it on't fire wi' a bit o' fat & cook some bacon wi' it.

Only ever clean it with hot water, never detergent. Repeated frying will soon get it seasoned

 

[Toddy]

The reason for the fairy liquid scrub is that new pans are generally coated with some kind of mineral oil gunk and that really does have to come off first. Fairy's a detergent but it's about as safe as you'll get......they use it to depollute oil covered seabirds and mammals.
The subsequent oil and salt scrubbing removes the last of the gunk and the fairy.
Peanut oil's not that common here, I generally use sunflower when I do my pans and it seems fine.

Cheers,
Toddy

p.s. Cross posted with Spandit....if you like your bacon, well it's been used for the pans for centuries

 

[rik_uk3]

Use the tips given to restore it, then sell it and get a nice Tefal Red Spot one, non stick and no faffing about keeping it in working condition.

 

[Toddy]

Use the tips given to restore it, then sell it and get a nice Tefal Red Spot one, non stick and no faffing about keeping it in working condition.

I have an entire set of cast iron stuff, and tbh, the girdle apart, it only gets used when camping, with the car nearby and a group of folks.
By myself I don't bother with the cast iron; too heavy, too much bother to keep in order, can't leave food in the pot..... I might not be fond of the tefal stuff, but you have a point, Richard.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[santaman2000]

The reason for the fairy liquid scrub is that new pans are generally coated with some kind of mineral oil gunk and that really does have to come off first. Fairy's a detergent but it's about as safe as you'll get......they use it to depollute oil covered seabirds and mammals.
The subsequent oil and salt scrubbing removes the last of the gunk and the fairy.
Peanut oil's not that common here, I generally use sunflower when I do my pans and it seems fine.

Cheers,
Toddy

p.s. Cross posted with Spandit....if you like your bacon, well it's been used for the pans for centuries

TBH I'd never heard of "Fairy." I had just thought it was a Scottish term for dishwashing liquid until this post. Over here the soap they use for cleaning up animals after an oil spill is "Dawn." It's also a dishwashing liquid soap. I also use it to bath my dogs as it is also a flea killer apparently. I supppose it might well be the same thing only a different brand name for a different market? In any case I agree it may sometimes be neccessary to scrub with a detergent (especially if it's a new piece with said coating) but I'd prefer to avoid it otherwise.

Peanut oil is common enough over here but even so it's also expensive relative to other cooking oils. Therefore it's usually only used by professional fry cooks who re-use the same batch several times. Even so due to allergy concerns (more and more people seem to be allergic to peanuts) many are rerplacing it. Just checked the smoke point of both peanut and sunflower oils and they bot are a bit over 430f so as far as that goes they should be more or less interchangable.

 

[ged]

TBH I'd never heard of "Fairy." ...

http://www.fairy-dish.co.uk/

 

[rik_uk3]

I have an entire set of cast iron stuff, and tbh, the girdle apart, it only gets used when camping, with the car nearby and a group of folks.
By myself I don't bother with the cast iron; too heavy, too much bother to keep in order, can't leave food in the pot..... I might not be fond of the tefal stuff, but you have a point, Richard.

cheers,
Toddy

I have a few cast iron pots/pans which I to be honest just can't be bothered with. I've pretty much a full range of Le Creuset enamel/cast iron and they are a pleasure to use and easy to keep clean but...I'm a massive fan of Tefal stuff. I've had a Red Spot frying pan for at least ten years and its still going strong, quick swill with warm water and detergent and a wipe and job done its ready to use again. I remember the old Teflon pans and they were blooming awful, black bits in your food in no time! I can see the attraction of a big cast iron pot over an open fire at a camp, looks lovely but while my stainless steel catering pot is not as pretty it works very well. As I said in another post, I sometimes play 'Devils Advocate' but practicality rules my head, certainly with food

 

[Toddy]

Off Topic

I prefer my Denby stuff if I'm not using the enamelled trays, etc.; partly because they say it's made in the UK and the newer lecreuset is made in the far east somewhere, I believe, but mostly because it just works so well.

I usually use SS pots when I'm out, and for the dyeing, but I'm casting covetous eyes upon the enamelled kotlich stuff that JP mentioned. Relatively lightweight, ends up non stick like well used baking trays, spreads the heat well, robust enough for camp cooking, practical sizes, etc.. Jack wasn't impressed with the set he got, but Huon seems happy with his.
I need to clear kit though before I start buying any more though HWMBLT is grumbling about the workshop becoming a store room

Santaman, I think of Fairy as a pretty good, relatively safe, biodegradeable ( if not as quickly so as the Ecover, but more effective) household detergent. I'm kind of sensitive to most cleaning fluids, but this one causes me no bother, while others can have my hands in a fiery rash within minutes of using them. Dish is probably your equivalent

And on that note......back to the cast iron I don't think anything quite beats it as a frying pan on a campfire, or as a girdle (griddle) either



cheers,
Toddy

 

[santaman2000]

...Santaman, I think of Fairy as a pretty good, relatively safe, biodegradeable ( if not as quickly so as the Ecover, but more effective) household detergent. I'm kind of sensitive to most cleaning fluids, but this one causes me no bother, while others can have my hands in a fiery rash within minutes of using them. Dish is probably your equivalent
Toddy

LOL. You're probably right that it's safe. Just that I had never heard of it (or seen it on a store shelf. Dish sounds familiar but I still don't think I've seen it on a shelf . Who knows. Whatever works for you and is easily available should be fine.

 

[sasquatch]

It's all down to personal preferance but in my mind you can't beat cast at home or when camping without loads of hiking. If you're going to be mobile then a light cheap non stick pan is a must but if I could I'd cook on cast every time. I'm sure you already have modern non stick pans, try the cast and see for yourself how good it is when seasoned.

 

[santaman2000]

It's all down to personal preferance but in my mind you can' beat cast at home or when camping without loads of hiking. If you're going to be mobile then a light cheap non stick pan is a must but if I could I'd cook on cast every time. I'm sure you already have modern non stick pans, try the cast and see for yourself how good it is when seasoned.

Generally agree. However I've also found the older CI brands (think Wagner) are better than those available today, They seem as if they were finished smoother to begin with and had a generally better quality. Even within the same brand, some pieces just seem better than others. Knida makes the whole search and collect/use process a litlle more interesting.

 

[Toddy]

I have to agree. My old girdles are smooth, almost polished while the new one I bought is as rough as a badger's situpon. Still works very well indeed, but not quite the same finish, iimmc.

I met a metalworker at one of the reenactor's markets who casts iron for period stuff. He was a touch scathing of modern mass produced cast iron. He said that much of it was so full of impurities, was so poorly cast and finished, etc., that he'd have been ashamed to turn them out even as a young apprentice.

I'm not saying that all old stuff is wonderful and new is dire; just that sometimes having a good look and a think about it before buying, isn't a bad thing

cheers,
Toddy