BeforeAbout a year ago, a friend of ours visited for an extended period of time. She did a lot of cooking (which we enjoyed thoroughly) and a lot of dishes. She even — bless her heart — washed our brand new preseasoned Lodge cast iron skillet. It looked ruined, so we tucked it away and tried to forget about it, until a few days ago ...
We finally decided that the stupid pan needed to be purged or salvaged. We called my mom to ask her how to reseason cast iron. She said something about bacon and fat and we (vegetarians) got a little worried.
Slightly daunted but hopeful, we turned to The Kitchn. Of course, over at the Kitchn there are some wonderfully simple, vegetarian-friendly instructions for seasoning cast iron. We carefully followed said instructions and they worked!
The proof? A perfect grilled cheese sandwich!
Related: Use Kosher Salt to Clean Cast Iron
Images: Stephanie Kinnear
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I just went through this with $5 cast iron skillet I found at a thirft store - but I used the technique described by America's Test Kitchen. Worked wonders!
Scrub with fine steel wool to remove rust and grime, add oil to cover the bottom, heat over medium heat until oil shimmers, let cool a bit, pour in a pile of salt, and using heavy gloves and paper towels, scrub with the salt and rinse. Repeat the oil/heat/salt until you get a nice black patina.
view redjet's profile
I wash my well-seasoned cast iron pans regularly with soap. I do, however, re-season them sort of regularly, maybe three or four times a year. And most of my use of the pans includes using oil or butter. But I'm just sayin', if the pan is well-seasoned enough, a little soap isn't going to ruin anything. As long as you rinse!
view RubyJane's profile
I agree with Ruby Jane. Sometimes you cook something a little smelly in a cast iron, but you don't want to remove all the seasoning. A little light wash with luke warm water and soap will help and not ruin it.
view jgphotomom's profile
Ok I think I screwed up big time!! My mom gave me a couple of skillets, ang I had a fire going outside. So.... I thought I'd put them in the fire for a few minutes and get the years of stuff off the out side. I only had the in the fire for about 3-4 min each side, and when they cooled they rusted imeaditly. I washed with hot water and a scour pad, then oiled, but still look bad. Is there hope? Can someone please help........
view factoryfk's profile