Steve Kroll
Wine Guy
So at what point, and how does the pan look, when someone figures it needs to be 'stripped'?
This is probably a good candidate...
So at what point, and how does the pan look, when someone figures it needs to be 'stripped'?
I'm not understanding "stripping down".
I have my mother's CI which has had the bottom scoured on more than one occasion from a burn. The sides are pretty 'thick' with past meals but don't hinder the cooking ability. So at what point, and how does the pan look, when someone figures it needs to be 'stripped'?
These look like pans that have rusted? I have rusted pans on occasion (bad me) but I have just scrubbed (ok scoured) with steel wool and re-oiled. With use it has always come back.
I do have a huge deep almost cauldron that very early (wedding gift more than 40 years ago) on I actually etched/pitted the bottom of it by leaving a spicy tomato chilli in it over night (New Years Eve party). The pit marks make a rough bottom but it doesn't seem to affect anything I cook in it. Just annoying when cleaning.
Some of the pictures above, I'd ask around who has a sandblaster or beadblaster I could use.
It seems to me that could damage the surface and you would never get it seasoned again. All they need is a little steel wool, some salt and a lot of elbow grease. Or maybe a drill with a sander attachment.
I don't think you can ruin or disturb the seasoning potential of a cast iron skillet or dutch oven. At the worst case, you have to start from scratch, which means in my experience oil and a quite hot oven. That would be likely if you sand or bead blasted one.
Cast Iron is terribly forgiving. One has to try hard to mess it up.
Turns out - you can. The surface can be damaged, chemically and physically. Did you read the article Steve Kroll posted earlier? It's worth the time.
My problem is that my DD has been cleaning my CI because I have a lot of pain in my finger joints and wrists so I can't always handle the cleaning. I find there is a lot of build up on some of my CI. Mostly my grill pan in the ridges, my largest skillet and my DO. I showed her how to clean them but it seems that I can detect a smell and taste. If self clean is to hot can I bake them in a 500 degree oven for awhile to burn off the seasoning?
Not sure if 500ºF is hot enough to burn off grundge.
I want to clean these but people keep saying self clean is to hot and will ruin my pans. I will not use chemicals to clean so what choice do I have?