Restart a Cast Iron Skillet - food.straw.restart PEP BB

My mom gave me this small cast iron pan that belonged to my grandfather. I researched it and it is a BSR Century Series made in the 1960's.

To strip it and clean the rust, I soaked it in a 1:1 vinegar/water bath for 6 hours. Then I scrubbed with steel wool. This got off all the rust and some of the caked on gunk, but not all of it. Still I'm happy with the result.

To re-season it before it rusts again, I followed the instructions in the link below. First, I heated the pan over a burner on low, put a thin layer of sunflower oil all over it, then baked it upside down at 400 degrees for an hour. Then I turned off the oven and let it cool inside the oven. I did this process three times.

https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/how-to-season-cast-iron-cast-iron-conditioner-recipe?_hsmi=274463051

It's ready to cook in!

I restarted two cast iron skillets! My mom found these at garage sales. They had been neglected and then left outside for a few days and were in bad shape as you can see. I don’t have a self-cleaning oven, so I used a stainless steel scrubber, coarse salt, water, a couple of cautious splashes of vinegar, sand paper, and a lot of elbow grease to scrub them down to a rust-free, fairly smooth surface. I then rinsed, dried, and rubbed them with coconut oil. I put them (one at a time) in 450f oven until I noticed they were smoking, let them cool somewhat, wiped them out while the oil was still a bit hot, and melted in some fresh. The next morning, they passed the test! No-stick egg and a sausage cooked, with only a paper towel wiping to clean up. I expect with use and care they’ll be good skillets.

Hey, I got to do this a few months ago!  Instead of running the oven clean cycle, I just put it in my wood stove for a few burns and it turned out well.  The first set of eggs I cooked slid around just like when using Wheaton Labs pans :)

This pan was in the bottom of a friends' camping gear. Rusted on both sides, with some funky scale-i-ness on the bottom. I cooked it in the oven on self-clean mode.
Then I dusted off the rust. Scrubbed off more rust with a wire brush.
Finally, I wiped coconut oil over it a hundred times.

I found my "lost" cast iron skillet stuck under my wood cookstove. Yuk! Our southern humidity hadn't been kind to it.

cast iron skillet before restarting

bottom also in bad shape

First step was to clean off all the rust and mildew.

I scoured it with hot, hot water and a chain mail scrubber.

Then I wiped it out and let it air dry.

Conditioning was next. I read that flax seed oil is a good choice, so that's what I used.

I wiped it with a thin layer of flax seed oil

Then baked it in a very hot oven

Now it's ready to use again!

cast iron skillet after

cast iron skillet after

Needed to restart the seasoning on my cast iron pan after some neglect. Got it to a better place where it is no longer sticky to the touch and the patina is starting to come back on the cooking surface. A few juicy recipes and it’ll be back to rocking.
I previously tried to season it with leftover bacon grease and I did something wrong because it left it with a sticky film all over. This time I’m using a light coating of coconut oil. Came out much better.