How I Clean and Re-Season Cast Iron Skillet

[Alabama358]

Prep time: 1-2 days


How to strip and re-season cast iron pans

Supplies:
- Gloves, 1 pair
- Safety Glasses, 1 pair
- Easy off oven cleaner, 1 can
- Trash bag, 1
- Stiff bristled Brush, 1
- Baking powder, 1 box
- 5 gallon bucket or wash tub, 1
- Spray bottle, 1
- Standard Vinegar, 1 gallon
- Flaxseed oil pure organic cold pressed
- Shop paper towels or good quality paper towels

DIRECTIONS:
*If your pan is in fairly good condition then you can skip directly to the 50/50 water vinegar bath, however the Easy-Off oven cleaner step makes removing the old seasoning much easier
** Mandatory.... when using the Easy off cleaner ALWAYS wear gloves and eye protection. The same holds true when handling and washing off the EO foam.

Part 1 - Stripping old Seasoning Crust/Rust
1. Spread plastic trash bag open, put pan face down in bag and and spray with Easy off oven cleaner.(Make sure when you use the oven cleaner that it is in a well-ventilated area, this stuff really stinks to high heaven) Don’t get stingy with the spray, really foam it up good. Flip pan over and repeat foaming application to the other side. Tie trash bag up and let it set for a minimum of 24 hours.
Pull pan out of bag (wearing gloves) and rinse old seasoning, crud/rust off with water. Give it a good scrubbing with the stiff bristled brush and dawn dish soap
* This step can be repeated if you have stubborn cruddy Seasoning on your pan

2. Mix 50/50 vinegar and water solution in spray bottle.
Put pan in bucket and spray down with the 50/50 solution and let it stand for 15 minutes and then give it a good scrubbing with your brush. Repeat two more applications and scrubbing
Rinse pan with water sprinkle pan with baking soda to neutralize vinegar. Then wash well with dawn dish soap.
Dry completely with towels and place pan in preheated 200-degree oven for 10 minutes to complete drying

Part 2 - Seasoning the Pan
1. As soon as the pan is pulled from the oven and is completely dry...Immediately and vigorously massage a coat of Flaxseed oil to the complete pan. (If this is not done immediately, flash rust will occur)
2. Let pan stand a few minutes and then take your paper towels and aggressively wipe the pan down. You want to try to remove all the oil (you won't be able to but try) there will only be a microscopic layer of oil remaining and this is optimal. If coats are too thick, they will flake off later and not be as durable. "Less is More"
3. Place pan in oven @ 450 degrees and let bake for 1 hour * CAUTION!!! the pan will be super nova hot... it actually scorched my regular pot holder... EXTREMELY HOT
4. Let pan cool to the touch (I set mine out on the BBQ grill to cool... that's when I scorched the pot holder)
5. Re-coat pan with flaxseed oil then vigorously wipe all oil off and back in oven @ 450 degrees for another hour.

Repeat flaxseed oil application and baking 5-6 times

If everything is done correctly you will end up with a nice dark durable semi nonstick finish for years to come and remember to use cast iron cooking best practices to keep the finish optimal.

*** when baking the flaxseed oil on it will smoke and is kind of annoying but that is the polymerization process to make a durable long-lasting Seasoning, so if you have a vent hood on your oven turn it on during this part of the process.

[DougGuy]

I wouldn't recommend flax seed oil. I used it once on some pieces I did and it flecked and flaked off. Too much work to see it go south, stick with tried and true crisco, or lard.

On flash rust, if you pull a pan out of a hot rinse, it will flash rust before you can dry it completely. I learned that you want a cold rinse for a final rinse, take the wet pan and wipe off most of the water, then immediately slather it with lard or crisco while it's wet. The little bit of residual water will evaporate right through the oil as you heat the pan for the first time, and you will never have flash rust.

Cleaning can be done with vinegar in 50/50 solution but you must be careful using this method since if left too long, the solution can actually cause pitting on the surface which you probably don't want to happen. There are other far more suitable ways to clean cast iron than this method.

Some use yellow cap EZ OFF and a trash bag, but better still use a plastic tote big enough for your iron, and about 5 gals of water. Get some 100% lye crystals drain cleaner from Lowe's or Home Depot, or your local hardware store and mix it 1lb to 5gals water, or 1/2lb to 2 1/2gals water. ALWAYS mix the lye with the water, NEVER pour the water onto the lye crystals. You can leave a heavily gunked up pan in a lye bath for a week or two and it will eat it right down to the bare metal, then take the iron out and scrub it with the brush and blue dawn or Barkeeper's Friend, rinse it and start it in the oven like I described above.

Lye eats black gunk, it will not touch rust. For this you would want to set up an electrolysis tank with a battery charger, I won't type out a book here but you can go to youtube and see any number of e-tanks in operation and there are tons of resources on the internet about what to use to build one, there are a bunch of good cast iron groups on Facebook.

What you DO NOT want to do, is any of the following: Wire wheel on a grinder or a drill. Sandblasting or blasting with ANY type of abrasive media, as this will change the surface of the iron and you could completely blast any collector value out of a 100yr old pan in a matter of seconds. DO NOT throw it in hot coals! This is an old wives way of cleaning cast iron, there have been thousands and thousands of skillets cleaned this way without failure but it often ruins the iron if it gets too hot let alone warps or cracks. Don't use the self cleaning cycle of an oven as this also can get too hot and once the cycle starts, you can't unlock the door and get the iron out. If the pan is really gunked up thick, you could set your oven on fire or your house!

I have found that a 2600# water only pressure washer can help clean cast iron without it leaving any tell tale signs as it doesn't alter or shine or change the normal patina of the surface. I use one along with an etank and lye bath, as each method seems to help the other one to clean the iron. Once you have cleaned it PROPERLY, then season it with several coats of lard or crisco at 450F (you need to get it to the smoke point of the oil at the very least) and put it to use in your kitchen.

[SeabeeMan]

For decent ones that just need a touch up, I scrub with Chore Boy while wearing leather gloves as I really try to scrape it clean and that stuff shreds your fingers. Anything worse and it goes in the blast cabinet. Wash well with soapy water, cold rinse, and I usually towel dry and may even hit it with a torch to really get the water off fast.

I have the same seasoning method, but I use coconut oil and put it on my grill. Rub enough on to be able to see it shine, that buff off everything I can. You nailed it: less is more. I'll usually make a day out of doing several pieces and I hit them once an hour as well, 6-10 coats. I have yet to have to re-season anything I've done with this method. Granted, I'm 37 and only figured out this whole cast iron thing about a decade ago, but it's going well so far.

[Winger Ed.]

I always wondered how it would work to clean one by putting it in a oven for its self cleaning cycle.

[Hutch556]

Great post, I do a very similar approach. I strip pans with easy off oven cleaner or soak in a lye bath. Once clean if there is rust on the pan I soak in a 50/50 white vinegar and water bath for about an hour or so to remove the rust. Then once completely clean into the oven it goes, 450-500 or so degrees for 30-60 min. I then pull the pan out and spray with Pam cooking spray. I then wipe off Excess With paper towels real good and repeat the seasoning a few times. I haven’t found anything to season better than Pam cooking spray (I’ve tried a lot too), it achieves a nice dark patina and the seasoning seems to bond well.

[fcvan]

I was given an old rusty skillet, left out in the rain a season or two. Anyway, I wire brushed it and seasoned to restore it. It is now a very good skillet. I always used bacon or beef fat before I learned that Lodge uses simple vegetable oil. I saw a great 'how it's made' video from Lodge, interesting stuff to watch.

Still, my brother trims the fat off Tri Tip roasts and gives me the fat. I cut it into small bits for use in cooking, but have also used it for seasoning cast iron. I'd get the iron hot and just rub the iron with a chunk of fat held with tongs. It's better to do so outside lest I give my wife fits with the smoke and smell. Come to think of it, I was recently given another rusty skillet, I think an 8" size. It will make a great addition for the camp box once restored. We just cooked some Tri Tip the other day, so . . .

[GregLaROCHE]

Nothing like cooking with cast iron!

[No_1]

Great post! There is always more than one way to skin the proverbial cat.

[Idaho Mule]

My wife is a cast iron collector and I have been designated as clean up guy. As DougGuy mentioned, I use the electrolysis method (just Google it) for cleaning and 3 cycles of Crisco to smoke point in the oven and cooling. Works great. The ones I get to keep are now in my home kitchen and camper kitchen. JW

[Jesse Heywood]

Learned a lot here. Never thought of oven cleaner, always used a chore boy. For oil I have used lard or coconut oil. And if you don't need to season the outside, I have had good results heating on the stove top.

Growing up we never seasoned, it was useless because mom insisted that we scrubbed and washed every time a skillet was used. So everything stuck. Dad would compensate by using plenty of bacon grease to cook with. I still remember at grandma's when mom insisted that I clean the skillet. Grandma would get upset, but didn't punish me when I told her it was mom's order (mom was her oldest). Grandma didn't believe in ever cleaning the skillet. After cooking she cleaned it with the spatula. A 3 pound coffee can with bacon grease was kept on the stove. Dad must have learned from grandma, his mother was in the scrub it every time camp.

My favorite lesson on cleaning cast iron came from an archeology professor. On the rare occasion that he cleaned cast iron he would only use a handful of dry sand and no water to rinse. Just wipe it clean.

[brassrat]

I wash every time with water and a dishrag. If something sticks I will soak for a little bit or boil with water. I get it hot on the gas stove and wipe with a paper towel and Aldi crisco and turn off heat. Never leave stove since I was drying and forgot it for around an hour with no destruction

[AlaskaMike]

Normally I'll just wipe down my skillets when I'm done, but if there's baked on crud that I want to knock off, then I'll just hit it with hot water and a plastic bristle brush. The plastic bristles work pretty well but don't harm the seasoning.

[LaPoint]

I've cleaned up really cruddy cast iron by glass beading or very carefully sand blasting them before seasoning them. I just use very hot water and a medium soft plastic bristle brush. After cleaning, if I won't be using it for a few days, I wipe down with a little veg oil then warm it up on the range top and wipe off excess.