Rescuing a ruined (?) cast iron skillet

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poachedpears

Assistant Cook
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Jun 5, 2016
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Singapore
Hi all

Seeking your advice on how to rescue a cast iron skillet grill pan with ridges (looks something like this).

After the first use (cooking steak), my well-meaning spouse gave it a scrub and left it soaking overnight in soapy dishwater and I haven't been able to recover it.

Anything that goes near it sticks like glue and it smokes terribly, even with chicken pieces (whether I use oil or not) on relatively low heat.

I've tried a few things (a) rubbing in coats of oil, (b) putting pan filled with oil in hot oven for an hour, and (c) removing excess fat with paper towel after cooking beef burgers and putting pan in hot oven for an hour, then leaving in cooling oven overnight.

I tried (c) last night and now the pan is just incredibly sticky.

Can anyone recommend a rescue?

Thank you!
 
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Welcome to DC. Sorry for your issues.

You may be better off stripping the pan and re-seasoning it. High heat is the best way to clean off the old/damaged seasoning. You can put the pan in the oven and run the self-cleaning cycle or put it in a gas grill on full blast to burn off the coating.

Once that's done, wipe it clean with a dry cloth and apply the thinnest possible coating of oil over the entire surface of the pan, inside and out. Then wipe off as much of that coating as possible. Place it upside down in a 375ºF-400ºF oven and bake it for an hour or more. Turn off the oven and allow the pan to cool in the oven.

Repeat.

Repeat.
 
Good luck! I am interested to find out how this works for you. I have one old cast iron pan that I need to do some work on.


Eat anything you want, but make it yourself.

Posting from the app.
 
Great advice. Just bear in mind that once your cast iron pan is properly seasoned, NEVER wash it. You disinfect it over a low flame and wipe excess oil away with paper towel. In any event, the pan will be disinfected and ok to use when it's heated and ready to use. Over time, it gets better with use. I have two old and trusted cast iron pans that have lasted me for over forty years and still going strong, and that have a surface that's almost like a non-stick pan, except that the surface heating is better distributed than a non-stick. Good luck - once you've rescued your pan, you'll have a friend for life!

di reston


Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde
 
Thank you all for your fast and very helpful responses!

What a great forum.

Will try Andy's suggestion let you know how it pans out... pun wasn't intended!
 
The only thing I would add to Andy suggestion is that if you strip to bare cast iron, you have have to season it more than once.

There are a couple of very useful videos on the subject at the Lodge Manufacturing website.

Mark
 
Absolutely right Markf - I would add, also, never put your cast iron pan anywhere near the washing up pile or even - heaven forbid - the dishwasher. That would remove the patina obtained by cleaning the pan with oil - I use olive oil - after each use. I then store my pans with a sheet of paper towel on top, so they don't get dusty, and when I heat them up ready to use, I bring them up to temperature gradually, to disperse the heat evenly. They actually become very close to 'non-stick' over a period of time.

di reston

Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde
 
...once your cast iron pan is properly seasoned, NEVER wash it...

I know it's 'conventional wisdom' that soap and water are anathema for CI but a well-seasoned CI pan will not be harmed by a little soap and water. Ive been doing it for years.

The only thing I would add to Andy suggestion is that if you strip to bare cast iron, you have have to season it more than once...

Seasoning three times was part of my original suggestion...
 
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Per Lodge, and I have done this for years, it's ok to clean seasoned cast iron with a bit of soap. I dry my pans and wipe with a fine coat of oil. I use corn oil cause it's cheaper than olive oil. One thing I did do recently was to buy the OFFICIAL Lodge cleaning brush. Cost $5. Used per their web site and it works fantastically.

I also agree with di Reston that you need to let it heat gradually and never use high heat. After 30 years of using cast iron, i never set my heat higher than medium.
 
I've never had a problem with high heat. I use mine to get a good crust on a steak by heating the pan over high heat, smearing a thin film of canola oil on the hot pan using a paper towel and adding the steak for approx. 3 minutes on each side. The pan cleans up quickly in hot sudsy water, dries over a burner on the stove and is ready for eggs in the morning.
 
Lodge recommends against high heat. So does All-Clad and, I assume, other cookware manufacturers. I have been using All-Clad, Lodge and other brands of cookware products for many years at every heat level with no ill effects I can discern. I don't know why they do it but it appears to be unnecessary.
 
Cast iron is also used over and in campfires, which are probably pretty high heat.

Another fan of the self-cleaning cycle in the oven.
 
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The problem with high heat is it can crack the pan. This is more a problem with older 'vintage' pans than nowadays as the iron can have inclusions. What you want to be careful of is major temperature differentials, so for an older pan if it gets very hot, putting a cold steak on it, *crack*, has happened to me.

This is not to say that you can't use a cast iron pan at high heats, and a modern one, given the quality we have nowadays (no inclusions which are pockets of different iron composition in the pan) are less, just you have to let it warm gradually, and cool gradually.

Unless it is terribly pitted almost any cast iron can be reclaimed. If it comes down to it scrub it with a wire brush! My fave dutch oven was a garage sale find, and it looked like a piece of rust in a pan shape. I got in and scrubbed it with a wire brush and hot water, and a little oo grit sandpaper from time to time. Took me forever and a lot of elbow grease. And speaking of grease, greased it up with duck fat, baked it in the oven overnight. did that again, then did that again. Cooked with it for a week (where it sucked) put it in the self- clean on the oven, and started the same process. after about three cycles of cleaning, and seasoning, it got reasonable. Right now it is wonderful. You have to have some patience, and every time you use it, scrub it with hot water, dry it, and crisco the crap out of it (I like to use vegetable shortening, when you are first seasoning animal greases are the best, but for day to day, nothing like crisco, and you can slather it on thick if you are leaving it a couple days without using it, and it won't rancid on you).

Take it camping, slather it up with grease and bury it in the fire. Serious.

Anyway, once you start to use it regular like, you will get past the awkward phase, and it will adjust a bit to your preferences.

And nothing will really be a deal-breaker, do I occasionally clean mine with soap? Yup, and I cook tomato sauce in it too.

Of course, after eleven years of seasoning, I could probably hide from a nuclear bomb in my cast iron if I was a foot tall.

Best,

TBS
 
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