We had an unfortunate incident involving bacon and our favorite cast iron pan earlier this week. Our sister site The Kithcn came to the rescue with a great how to on cleaning a cast iron grill plan. Our adaptation works well for everyday cleaning, we've found.
Green Tip: Use Kosher Salt to Clean Cast Iron
We had burned a strip of bacon, and it became, it seemed, permanently bonded to the pan surface. The Kitchn's instructions are for doing a really deep cleaning of cast iron and removing all the seasoning. We didn't want to have to re-season the pan, so, rather than making a paste of salt and water, we just tossed about a teaspoon of kosher salt into the pan and scrubbed.
A few minutes later, the pan was cleaner than it's been in a long while. Now we're cleaning the pan with salt every time: when the food comes out of the pan, we toss in a bit of salt, and when the pan cools down, we wipe it down with a sponge, then dry it on the stove.
We'd been holding on to Brillo pads for tough cast iron cleaning needs, but the salt works just as well, if not better. That's one more cleaning product out from under the sink!
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Salt is a great cleanup for a lot of things around the house. I find that it does much better at scouring pans for the stove, enameled tops, counter tops, and porceline than brillo or SOS does - with the added side benefit that it doesn't scratch any of these surfaces, it's a green cleaner, and it's very simple to simply rinse it away when finished.
view bfootnovellista's profile
great tip! We just got a cast iron skillet for our wedding a couple weeks ago. We haven't yet had an opportunity to use it, but when we do this will help us keep it clean when we inevitably burn something into it.
view Benjy's profile
Kosher salt and bacon. Who dreamt up that combo?
view cityofparis's profile
my grandmother taught me that trick when I got my first cast iron skillet a few years ago. I found that the corser the salt the better it is for scrubbing. also, be careful of using a sponge with soap in/on it - it can ruin the taste of future food. I use a hand towel to scrub with and just wash it afterward.
view Ari_B's profile
Crumple up some tin foil and use that to scrub the pan as well. Good way to re use it.
view falconette's profile