Cleaning and Seasoning Cast Iron Pan in apartment

My mom gave me her cast iron skillet! I love it! In watching all the videos and reading the articles, I've learned alot! The info is fabulous!

The skillet is very smooth on the inside. So I am pretty happy with that, however there is alot of rust on the bottom of the skillet!!! How can I can rid of that, if I don't have a self cleaning oven or a place where I can throw it in a fire!? Fires in apartments, not such a good idea!

I've read as well that you should oil the outside of the pan as well. Will that not catch fire when you turn the stove on to use it again?

Any info you could give me would be really helpful!

Thank you,
Lisa

Do you have a charcoal grill? Burn off the rust in the coals, wash and dry it and coat it all over with oil or lard. Start a good pile of charcoal, when the coals are ready put the pan upside down on the grill and cook it like a steak. Let the fire burn out and it will be ready to go back on the stove. It may stick a few times till the seasoning gets good and black.

If you don't have a grill, I guess you could wire brush the rust off and bake the new coat of seasoning in the oven. Have fun either way.

Lisa Fatima wrote:My mom gave me her cast iron skillet! I love it! In watching all the videos and reading the articles, I've learned alot! The info is fabulous!

The skillet is very smooth on the inside. So I am pretty happy with that, however there is alot of rust on the bottom of the skillet!!! How can I can rid of that, if I don't have a self cleaning oven or a place where I can throw it in a fire!? Fires in apartments, not such a good idea!

I've read as well that you should oil the outside of the pan as well. Will that not catch fire when you turn the stove on to use it again?

Any info you could give me would be really helpful!

Thank you,
Lisa

Lisa, I would just get a stainless steel wire scrubber (like a billo pad that won't rust) and some olive oil (any oil will do, but try to switch to natural oils unlike things like canola that don't exist in nature). I would put it under the tap (GASP! Didi he say water and while the water was running, scrub off the rust. Them I'd get it on the burner and get it medium hot. You will have to test your system to figure out at what setting your stove and pan make the oil smoke (don't let it smoke!). Anyway, that's the setting to be just UNDER! Once the pan is hot, while wearing your oven mits, rub the pan down with olive oil inside and out with a rag. It has never flamed for me!

Now, as you use the pan and things get dirty and cakes on the sides, you can run your pan under the tap with the stainless steel wire scrubber and knock off the big chunks. The oil will stay on the pan since water isn't enough to rinse it off and the scrubber is just running over the surface and knocking off big particles. Once that's done, turn your stove on to the magic setting and heat it up again. Put more olive oil on it and it's ready to go for another week! I usually only have to re-oil the inside where the dirty work was performed, but periodically you might want to do the outside again.

Enjoy that Antique Iron!

love my cast iron pans but am a bit skeptical of using them with certain foods like tomatoes, soups, foods with water in them, etc..as I'm afraid I will ruin the seasoning..

Tell me, if you use cast iron pans for those foods, how do you clean them..and does it ruin the seasoning?

Brenda Groth wrote:love my cast iron pans but am a bit skeptical of using them with certain foods like tomatoes, soups, foods with water in them, etc..as I'm afraid I will ruin the seasoning..

Tell me, if you use cast iron pans for those foods, how do you clean them..and does it ruin the seasoning?

I cook all of those things in my pan and it's fine. I'd definitely say that you don't leave any of these foods in the pan after cooking. Immediately take the food out and either eat it or store it in another container. Acidic foods will, over time, start to leach a taste from the pan. I understand this to be the iron in the pan. There's also a concern that if you take multi-vitamins with iron in them and eat acidic foods from an iron pan and eat iron rich foods, that you could build up an iron level that ultimately gives you Alzheimer disease. It's a new study that's out.

So, I would use the pan and not take multi-vitamins. Eat better foods as an alternative to vitamin pills.

I hope this helps.

Brenda Groth wrote:love my cast iron pans but am a bit skeptical of using them with certain foods like tomatoes, soups, foods with water in them, etc..as I'm afraid I will ruin the seasoning..

Tell me, if you use cast iron pans for those foods, how do you clean them..and does it ruin the seasoning?

I find if I heat the dry skilet then add oil and then the food I can cook anything ...tomato sauces for hours , soups, skillet breads, and I often put the pan in the refrigerator with food and (slowly) reheat days later. We have used most of our iron for forty years , I wash with water then towel dry then slowly dry on heat...I have quit leaving them coated with oil because I didnt like how it would sometimes turn sticky and I think they are staying really well seasoned by just using every day...

I do cook tomatoes etc. in my cast iron but remove it right away. I find it picks up an iron taste otherwise (though perhaps my seasoning is not all it should be.)

Hi all,

Thanks for all in info so far! I hope this reply works! I'm not very good at these forum posts!!

I will try reoiling the bottom after I clean the rust off! As far as the suggestion of the charcoal, I don't have a balcony or a place to do that, but a great idea!

I don't want to play around the with pan too much because the inside is so smooth. My moms oiled it pretty well! I'm afraid if I start playing around to much I'll ruin the inside.

Still loving all the posts! Tonight I'm going to try searing HALIBUT! YUMMY! (But I'm going to us a plastic flipper tonight cause I haven't found a stainless steel spatula yet! SHHHH Don't tell anyone!)

Lisa