hikingthehills
Full Member
How do yall clean them after cooking? I usually just use a wet paper towel. I have heard of some folks using soap and water.
Cast Iron skillets
- Thread starter hikingthehills
- Start date
T-Man
Elite Member
Depends how bad it is. Normally just wipe out with hot water and a paper towel, than rub a little oil on it. Soap can remove the seasoning. If it had alot of food stuck on it I pour some kosher or sea salt on it and scrub away with a dish rag then rinse and oil again. If it gets the point that rust hits it badly then it's steel wool/ SOS pad, and re season it.
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DIGGER27
In Memory Of
Love these things.
For certain recipes there is nothing better.
T-Man nailed it, re-season as often as necessary if you scrub them hard.
http://www.realsimple.com/food-reci...paration/cleaning-seasoning-cast-iron-skillet
For certain recipes there is nothing better.
T-Man nailed it, re-season as often as necessary if you scrub them hard.
http://www.realsimple.com/food-reci...paration/cleaning-seasoning-cast-iron-skillet
Lifemember
Junior Member
I use butter while the pan it still hot, then wipe out with paper towels, Still cooking with my grandmothers skillet.
hikingthehills
Full Member
I love searing a good steak in one, it smoked up the house so I started setting it on the top of the grill to do this. Almost black on the outside a still mooing on the inside.
bergie
Forum Supporter
Reef Runner
Forum Supporter
I love searing a good steak in one, it smoked up the house so I started setting it on the top of the grill to do this. Almost black on the outside a still mooing on the inside.
Gas grill, I assume ? How long do you pre-heat the pan, before you put in the steak, and do you grease the pan prior to heating ?
Oh heck, tell us exactly how do you do it ?
dirtykneese
Forum Supporter
I have very old cast iron. If they ever get to the point where you get some crud built up on them. I have a small camp fire. I toss it in the hot cools and burn the crud off. After it coold down, I clean it good than wipe it down with cooking oil and put it in the oven for about an hour at 300 deg. Should come out looking like a brand new skillet. I have done this with some I pick up at garage sales... KEN
T-Man
Elite Member
Geez Bergie.... Wouldn't want to be standing in that room if you ever had an earthquake hit.
Doubt you are ever lacking a clean pan.
BottleCapKing
Elite Member
I clean mine with water and coarse sea salt. After it is clean, it put it on the stove on a low heat just to make sure all of the water evaporates. I then wipe it down with olive oil. I never use soap of my cast iron.
Ace400
Full Member
Dawn is the only dish soap that will take the seasoning right off (It's the lye). I wash mine after every use. Sometimes soap, just hot water and a green scrubbie if there's nothing stuck to the pan. Dry it and oil it. Re-season often when new, eventually it builds up to a nice black non-stick surface.
Went to a lecture on them last summer, the expert recommended using flax seed oil because of the omega 3's and how they bond to the metal or something. Before the lecture I never cleaned mine with soap. Have been doing it ever since and they are MUCH easier to care for.
Went to a lecture on them last summer, the expert recommended using flax seed oil because of the omega 3's and how they bond to the metal or something. Before the lecture I never cleaned mine with soap. Have been doing it ever since and they are MUCH easier to care for.
Jason in Enid
Elite Member
I love using cast iron pans, but its a love/hate thing at work (fire station). Some people refuse to take proper care of them, so every time I come in and find them sitting dry and.or rusting it ticks me off.
When they are properly seasoned, all I use to clean them is a plastic scrubber and hot water. then I put it back on the stove on high for a minute to drive off any remaining water. Lastly I wipe it out with some veg oil and it good.
When they are properly seasoned, all I use to clean them is a plastic scrubber and hot water. then I put it back on the stove on high for a minute to drive off any remaining water. Lastly I wipe it out with some veg oil and it good.
bergie
Forum Supporter
Geez Bergie.... Wouldn't want to be standing in that room if you ever had an earthquake hit.
Yeah specially that number 10 been up there for a round 15 years. Highly unlikely to ever have an earthquake around here. Have to keep an eye on the wife when she using them might smacked me beside the head with one.
OneStudPuppy
Forum Supporter
Brand new virgin aka never touched soap ocello sponges and cast iron seasoning I buy off amazon..
Its a tube red and black label. Looked it up camp chef brand..
Although the quality of their cast iron has seemed to drop some.
I like their conditioner all natural things.
Small amount and coat it.
I also reseason or add seasoning to every cast iron I've bought
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hikingthehills
Full Member
Gas grill, I assume ? How long do you pre-heat the pan, before you put in the steak, and do you grease the pan prior to heating ?
Oh heck, tell us exactly how do you do it ?
I use a the small Weber grill, the one thats maybe 18 inches in diameter. I throw the skillet on there after the coals turn white and leave the skillet on for maybe 5 minutes. After that in goes the Dales low sodium marinated deer steaks. I keep it on each side for maybe 3 minutes then I pull them off and let them rest. They turn out awesome.
RaylandRat
Elite Member
You can scrub off the food residue with a cloth and coarse or Kosher salt as an abrasive. Rinse and dry on a low burner. Lightly wipe with your favorite oil or bacon drippins while it's still hot. Let cool, the CI will absorb the oil and it's ready to use.
Mud-puppy
Forum Supporter
Same here..or lard...like the kind that comes in a block, or any kind of fat that melts under heat....pretty easy overall...I dont get why on earth anybody would use a teflon pan...? Marketing I suppose...
Mud
flyin-lowe
Elite Member
I have cleaned, seasoned, and sold hundreds of cast iron skillets over the past several years. I also have a fleet that I use in the house and outdoors as well. 99% of time I put a little hot water in the skillet and use a brown plastic pampered chef scraper to knock off any stuck on food, then wipe it out with a dry paper towel.
DirtyKneese, I know many people will put a skillet in a fire to clean them and it will work. However I have also thrown out stacks of skillets that were ruined by fire. If they get too hot they will warp, crack, and turn the iron a permanent red color that cannot be fixed. So be careful, it would be bad to ruin a good piece. I have seen some very expensive pieces destroyed by a fire.
I have a large lye tank and a 55 gallon electrolysis set up I use for cleaning them when I get them to either clean for a friend or get them ready to season and sell.
One of my favorite things to cook is a nice thick ribeye steak. I put the skillet in my oven and turn the temp up to 500 degrees. After about ten minutes once the skillet get hot I remove it and set it on a hot burner. A little olive oil and drop the steak in and start to sear it. About a minute on each side then I throw it back into the oven for a couple minutes on each side. It will smoke but makes a beautiful crust on the outside and medium rare on the inside.
DirtyKneese, I know many people will put a skillet in a fire to clean them and it will work. However I have also thrown out stacks of skillets that were ruined by fire. If they get too hot they will warp, crack, and turn the iron a permanent red color that cannot be fixed. So be careful, it would be bad to ruin a good piece. I have seen some very expensive pieces destroyed by a fire.
I have a large lye tank and a 55 gallon electrolysis set up I use for cleaning them when I get them to either clean for a friend or get them ready to season and sell.
One of my favorite things to cook is a nice thick ribeye steak. I put the skillet in my oven and turn the temp up to 500 degrees. After about ten minutes once the skillet get hot I remove it and set it on a hot burner. A little olive oil and drop the steak in and start to sear it. About a minute on each side then I throw it back into the oven for a couple minutes on each side. It will smoke but makes a beautiful crust on the outside and medium rare on the inside.
Lifemember
Junior Member
Could not agree more, I even cook on the propane grill outside, don't like electric stove.
Mud-puppy
Forum Supporter
I hear you! If I ever build another house, my FINAL dream home, the primary cooking area will be outside! I can see this clearly in my mind...A great big grill area, oven, deep fryer, barbque pit, smoker, all sorts of hose bibs and tubs, fish cleaning and food prep, all of it covered!
Hanging cast iron pans, knives, and sundrys within easy reach off the cross members...An herb garden on one side and a vegetable garden on the other, a whole row of pricklypears on the southern escarpment, a row of black/rasberries/strawberries just growing like hell on the perimeter...a few handy sassafras trees, one mulberry off in the corner possibly...certainly a spice area and a small refridgerator/freezer and a old timey butter churn...a pellet gun handy, comfortable chair...canning supplies...My Grandpas old radio...
Yeah!..I can see it clearly! The only thing in the house would be a microwave and an electric coffee pot maybe!
Internal house stovetops are no place to try to cook, especially electric ones, a guy needs gas or a wood flame to do food justice!...especially bacon...or doing a whole rack of ribs, salmon, etc...Yeah...I can see it clearly...I'd sit out there all day long cooking, drinking, smoking..sharpening knives and listening to the radio...chewing on a sassafras twig and shooting at chipmunks...!
A nice brace of 'munks with a pricklypear/mulberry relish cooked properly in cast iron and stirred with a beechwood or maple spoon over an outdoor wood fire is really something extraordinary!...You just cant get those kind of eatings in a restaurant!
Its hard to describe, but y'all with a discerning palate know what I'm saying here...Mud
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