Use oven cleaner. Spray all over the pan and put it in a trashbag and leave out in the sun for 24 hours. Take out, and wash normally. All the crust as well as your seasoning will come off.
Then start the reseasoning process. Whatever you do, don’t take an angle grinder or sander to the cast iron. That is a great way to ruin a good pan.
Yes, the Lodge website has essential information about this. I have a relatively new Lodge skillet that has accumulated some bacon and sausage scum that makes eggs stick. I don’t want to re-season it, which would call for scrubbing off the current seasoning. Instead, I’m trying Lodge’s instruction for “sticky” residue:
My assumption is that this should enhance the seasoning while backing off what I suspect are cooked proteins.
Thoughts?
Here’s a post about my breakfast today cooked in cast iron:
It is ok to use light soapy water to care for the cast iron pans.
While the pan is warm (not hot) I will run some hot water over it and use a lite soapy water to get any of the bits off. Right after, I towel dry and then place on a stove on medium-high heat so that all the water evaporates. Then just put a light coat of oil on it and throw it in the oven at 350-400 degrees for an hour and turn the oven off and grab it out of there the next day.
I don’t mess with any of the seasoning on there, and actually do a light reasoning on it. But I also don’t cook on the food residue from prior cooks.
Beef tallow makes a good pan conditioner. I find that vegetable oil leaves a residue, which tallow does not.
Beautiful @Aawa. Seems like a perfect process.
Thank you @PaulL I’m thinking bacon grease which I have in large supply.
So, while reading this thread the other day at work, I came home and took a very good look at my skillet. I must admit that I had not been taking good care of it. So, I stripped it using the oven self clean method and started the process of re-seasoning. It now looks amazing. I’ll post my pics.
I have had good luck wiping out and rinsing my cast iron skillet with water. After this you can use a mixture of salt and oil and a scrubby(I use a kitchen sponge with a plastic scrubby or you can use steel wool) to get all the stuck on bits and stuff off the bottom of the pan. I then put the skillet on a hot stove to evaporate the excess water so the cast iron doesn’t rust, when cool I wipe it down with avocado oil removing the excess. Facebook has some great cast iron groups that might have some better tips too!
I love my Cast Iron skillets - have done most of my cooking on them for over 25 years - and was fortunate to learn early on that if you add acidic ingredients (such as tomatoes, or lemon juice, or wine) to your dish and let it cook a few minutes it extracts highly absorbeable, excellent iron and puts it into your food.
Once CI fell out of favor due to stealthy consumer marketing of aluminum (!) and teflon (!) options, the anemia rates - esp in menstruating or pregnant or postpartum women increased to be similar to very malnourished women.
In all the 25 years of cooking with CI, I’ve never once looked or felt anemic - but have advised a good number of others about improving their iron levels with CI (which never constipates, unlike typical nasty iron supplements).
On a different note: once I made the horrid mistake of adding stevia powder to a dish in my CI skillet that I like to sweeten a bit. The stevia took on a horrid metallic taste, and left that taste in the skillet even after a couple of cleanings and other cooking… because of CI’s aborbability which is usually great for spices but awful for stevia powder. Be forewarned!
My sister has this thing about using baking soda in the pans, I think to absorb the fat before cleaning. I have never heard of this. Has anyone else? Do you think it’s a good thing?
I avoid using baking soda in cast iron as it acts as an abrasive and will take some of the seasoning off the cast iron.
Food for thought. I kinda timed myself tonight. And I take as much time taking care of my cast iron as I do cooking my food in it. And I don’t mind one bit. I know I’ll have those skillets forever. Tonight while taking care of my skillets I was thinking about this thread and just had to try and revive it…lol
