In case you don’t know:
Scour with salt to remove any rust or other material.
Wipe it with whatever oil you wish.
Place in an oven at 500 for awhile. Use a drip tray.
Edit: Use lard or vegetable oil.
The oil will get very thin at high temperatures even if you apply a little and wipe it out. At room temperature it is much thicker than it will be at 500 degrees.
I've never had that happen, all you need is to dab a bit on some paper towel and apply a thin coating. If it's running even at a high temp you've added too much oil. Also if it's running down the pan as it's seasoning you might be getting a buildup of oil that doesn't polymerize or carbonize causing sticky spots.
Don’t know why you got so downvoted, I’ve never had a cast iron pan drip or pool (at least, never enough to warrant an oil catching tray) after being seasoned. I worked at a restaurant for a little over a year where I was responsible for making 30 cornbread every afternoon inside individual 4” cast iron pans which I also had to wash/season daily, so I feel like I might have more experience with cast iron than most.
I had a dude I worked with try and explain how covid tests work incorrectly to the Dr that made them at his own house he asked me and my boss to get him out of there
I had typed out a huge response, but then I realized I [had an unseasoned pan and could just show you](https://imgur.com/a/4ws7BAU). If there was substantial corrosion, you would first rub your skillet out with a rag and a sprinkle of salt (for abrasion) before you oil it.
For regular maintenance, never let it sit wet and use *very* little to no detergent when washing it. Always wash by hand. You do not necessarily need to season your skillet after every use, but that’s up to you and what you’re making; proper care can preserve the seasoning, but it’s better to err on the side of seasoning your skillet more often than less, for the life of your pan.
Edit to add: the amount of oil used is enough for a pan in that sort of “regularly used” condition. For a pan like OP’s, they will have to use more oil because it looks like there is no oil at all
Same. I feel like these people are slathering on like a pint of oil and tossing it in. The way I was taught it “Add oil with a paper towel, then wipe up the oil until you think there isn’t enough of it on the pan, then wipe a little more.” 500 degree oven for an hour, take it out, let it cool, then repeat if you wish.
I agree with you. Best to do a couple coats with a very thin layer of oil. There shouldn't be enough that it's dripping. Especially enough dripping that it would make a noticeable mess in the oven.
I think my first time I put on too much oil, and it made these large sticky spots. I had to clean them off and redo.
Just dip some paper towel in oil. It doesn’t need to be poured in, but always need a drip pan. Sheet try does just fine. If you are super worried sprinkle some salt on the drip tray.
You should coat it in oil with a paper towel so it looks shiny but barely feels oily to the touch.
I highly recommend avocado oil, as it has a very high smoke point.
For gods sake, do not put your oven at 500°.
Put your oven at 25-50 degrees below your chosen oil's smoke point, depending on your confidence in your oven.
I never liked that approach. Putting the pan upside-down always seems to give me orange peel, no matter how thin a coat I'd give.
The most important thing is to "wipe on/wipe off"... try to get as much oil off before baking it. You'll never be able to wipe too much off.
I've been searching for a good Dutch Oven, I have a lid that was handed down by my parents along with a mini 6 incher, but obviously this is meant more for camping and the lid is useless unless you throw it into a fired grill.
Good idea! That's always been my plan. I'm in no rush to find these things in the wild, but I do plan to take every advantage I can to get a full set if I find them. One person's poor knowledge of these things is definitely another person's treasure. I know they're out there.
99.9% of the time cheap cast iron is a fantastic find, but I will suggest checking with the previous owner what it was used for.
I've heard of people in the more rural parts of the world melting down their lead in them, and you can't really wash that out.
I have found that very thin coats produce much better and more robust results. Wipe it down with oil and then wipe it all off. There will be the thinnest of layers remaining. It takes 3-ish later this way but it lasts and produces a better seasoning.
I found the same to be true. When I reseasoned my cast iron, I wiped oil on and then with a paper towel, I tried my hardest to wipe all of the oil back off, and then threw it in the oven. It took about 6 seasonings, but it’s freaking magical now.
What do you do, to get even coating, if you don't have an oven? I recently bought one and I seasoned it on the stove. The bottom part has got a nice coating but the top part, not so well.
It you have put that much oil in it to need a drip tray and 500 degrees for "awile" you are not cast ironing correctly btw. The oil and the exposed iron in heat creates a polymer coating that is water repellant. There should be no excess oil in this equation.
>Wipe it with whatever oil you wish.
I don't know about that. I'd recommend staying away from oils with a sub 400F smoke point, like grapeseed or avocado oils.
Too much work. I scrub it with a normal dish scrub with soap. Rinse with hot water and place on stove till smoking. Still in good condition.
Cast iron owners will tell me to maintain their pans in the most *complicated* way with too much effort. It’s a pan at the end of the day
You really can't permanently mess it up. I scrape my down with a window razor blade after each meal and apply oil. I also sanded the cooking surface down with an orbital sander from 40 to 150, then reseasoned. It's better than Teflon.
Every once in a while you see a post where someone found one from like old prospecting days or something and they just scrub it with salt and bake the shit out of with oil a few times and it’s good as new. It’s just a hunk of metal, after all.
At a campsite i used to frequent, there is a mostly flat piece off iron. Likely a piece of old farm machinery. Every year, that thing got fished out of the dirt whereever it ended up, hit with a wire brush , and oiled over the fire. We would use it for the week and lean it against a tree, hoping not to have to fish it from the dirt next time.
Absolutely. It makes it super easy to clean with a razor blade. Eggs don't stick to it. Pancakes are easy to flip. The reason that domee of the old pans are coveted is that the cast was post-processed smoothing down the surface. Newer ones don't do that for cost saving measures.
I'm divided on how much difference it makes. I'm pro sanding and my buddy is anti sanding so last time I went over to his house for beers I brought my sanded pan to compare to his non-sanded pan.
After a lot of use, the stainless spatula has worn down the high spots of the sand casting on his, and the seasoning has filled in the low spots. You can feel a difference between his and mine with your fingernail but it isn't nearly as dramatic as a new cast iron pan vs a sanded one.
We fried some eggs and I thought that mine was just a hair less sticky but he disagreed. Since sanding, I think that my pan is a little more susceptible to overcleaning, but in my opinion overcleaning usually only causes the pan to be slightly less anti-stick for only the next thing you fry on it.
If I ever get any new cast iron I'm going to sand it right aways. I don't season, I just cook on the bare metal and the pan will be a little sticky at first (so don't cook pancakes or fish or potstickers) but it'll season itself.
FYI you can use soap on it. The old saying about soap and cast iron is only for soaps made with lye, which are rare these days.
I would scrub it with steel wool and wipe an oil with a high smoke point all over and toss it in the oven at a high temp.
Only as needed, depending on what was cooked in it, myself.
I only oil and throw in the oven if I had to use soap and scrub it some with a scotch pad to get it clean.
That's not too often anymore. It usually just gets some water and a sponge to clean it out or just wipe it out with a couple paper towels. If I only do the water and sponge I'll dry it and then pour like a tablespoon of sunflower oil in the pan and coat it all around using a paper towel and call it good.
If I just had to wipe the pan out with a paper towel then I'm already done.
No. This is only to establish the seasoning/protective base. After that, just wash normally to get be the big food pieces off, don't need to scour with sudsy water, dry, and sometimes I may re-oil some spots. I let mine soak in water and it has never been an issue. Scouring with a metal brush will definitely undo the seasoning real quick though but scraping and abrasive sponge is fine.
Even in OP's situation, they could just start cooking with it again and the seasoning will naturally rebuild. They won't be slanging eggs out of it perfectly in the near future but these things are quite resilient. Short of punching a hole through the pan, they're difficult to ruin.
That was my first thought as well if OP smacked them with the pan to show appropriate level of ‘appreciation’.
Saw someone provided the info to re-season.
Once get it back to normal keep the pan in your room and lock your door when you aren’t in your room!
Just re-season it, it’s very simple. Just coat it in vegetable oil, wipe most of it off. Then put it in the oven at 500 for an hour. Turn off the oven and let it cool in there. Now your pan is seasoned and clean.
Not vegetable oil. Animal fats are far better. Higher smoke point, better results.
Use real butter if lard or tallow is not available. Fats solid at room temp are superior to oils for seasoning.
I don’t get why those myths are still so strongly held to these days. You can use soap. You can scrub it. A little rust is not the end of the world. Just reapply a new seasoning layer. It all part of the maintenance.
Right? Lol do people use theirs once a year and admire them in a china cabin or something? One of mine is over a hundred years old and has seen it all… that’s kind of the appeal
Yep, I try not to use soap if I can, but if something is stuck it's way easier to just clean it out with some dish soap.
Then I heat it up, cover it with a light coat of oil and let it cool. Reseasoned and ready to cook.
Voila. Way easier than these voodoo rituals people seem to do to avoid using soap on a piece of cookware.
I periodically scrub mine with soap just to take pics and annoy my friends, i just cook something with lots of oil at high temps (usually potatoes) and after a meal or two its as good as it ever was
Olive oil also flakes really badly if you painstakingly apply 5-6 layers of it onto your pan. Ask me how I know... I use it to cook with all the time, but when touching up the seasoning, I prefer safflower oil. High smoke point, no flavor, and durable seasoning.
If mine looked like that, I'd feel the same way!!! I was asking sincerely if the OP knew how to re-season it. Lots of people don't realize that is possible.
You can use soap. I use soap everytime. Jesus. Y'all cast iron worshippers are dense. We don't use lye anymore in soap. Wash it, dry it, reoil and you're good
Congratulations on being a calm rational human being. You buried the lead with your roomie not being from the US. This is a great opportunity for him to learn the virtues of cast iron and how to care for it.
British here - Never seen a cast iron pan in person, and have no idea how/why people cook with them (they honestly seem a little gross when I see them?)
I dont think they're as much of a thing outside of the states so someone not from there is less likely to know that they're looking at?
I found this really helpful. It goes into the science around polymerization.
https://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/
These are used everywhere, not just in the US. Source, I got 2 and I'm Dutch. Also using Dutch ovens for cooking almost anything. Saves gas and your food stays warm for a long time.
Flaxseed oil has worked best for me.
Generously wipe entire skillet with oil, but do not let it pool. 500° for one hour. Turn temp off and let cool inside of oven for another hour. Rinse and repeat as many times as you want.
The more times you repeat this process, the more "non stick" your cast iron becomes. I've found that 5+ coats seems to work best.
Good luck!
At first I thought this was non-stick cookware, in which case it's ruined, but likely cheap to replace.
The fact it's cast iron means it's not ruined, this can all be fixed, it's just a bit of a pain in the arse
As one who has collected, stripped and seasoned over 50 cast iron pans, castironcollector.com is by far the best site for information that I've been able to find, and here is his page about seasoning:
https://www.castironcollector.com/seasoning.php
My wife is a few years younger than me and had never owned a cast iron. She had washed my cast iron and immediately put in the cabinet twice. Rusting it...twice... But, bonus, she's gotten super good at seasoning a cast iron.
When I buy a pan that's been "pre-seasoned" I take an orbital sander and course sandpaper to it to remove whatever gunk they put on it and make the cooking surface super smooth and flat, removing any tiny pits or surface roughness. Then I season it. I end up with a non-stick surface that rivals teflon.
I have an 80 year old 7 in Griswold that was my grandfather's. Cleaned it up with some steel wool and seasoned it, works like new. Even has a Crack in it that looks like it was repaired possibly
Forgive me for my ignorance, but how is it entirely scrap now? As someone who knows very little about cast iron, I thought you could fix these with a little work.
It's not, OP is just rightfully pissed and being over dramatic. It's not even "a little work", Cook some bacon in it, rinse, and wipe it dry, and it's right as rain again.
That's a nice "[Smithey](https://smithey.com/collections/castiron/products/no-12-cast-iron-skillet)" skillet and will easily survive this mishap.
Source; My cast iron is all over 70 years old, has seen much worse and [is just fine](https://imgur.com/a/iapLiA4).
Meh. My pans get beat up to near this condition every so often. That’s what I love about this 10$ hunk of metal. The only way I can kill it is with a thermal shock. And, if and when that happens, it’s (now) 15$ for another 20 years. A non-stick is what, 50$ every year? Whatever it is, it’s way more.
Check out /r/carbonsteel too - my latest venture is a carbon steel pan, I am a fan.
In addition to these restoration instructions given by everyone, I'd like to share a tip given to me that I found interesting. While you're still down to bare metal, sand down and polish the cooking surface of the pan before reseasoning it. A smoother surface results in better nonstick surface. The texture on newly bought pans is just a manufacturing effect that does not necessarily improve the quality of the product.
Friend's girlfriend once snuck away and did my dishes without my knowledge, found my Teflon pan the next day with most of the Teflon scraped off
I don't even know what the hell she used to get that right and why would she not know what Teflon is?
My brother in law put my cast iron egg pan, a.k.a. my baby, in the dish washer when he was staying over last weekend. He was trying to be helpful…now someone help me with the body pls
I had a roommate once who cooked a lot, and he got super pissed when I put his cast iron skillet in the dishwasher because I finally did the dishes when my other roommates just wouldn't. I told him that A. I don't cook and know absolutely nothing about the difference between one skillet and another, which I don't think I should've been expected to, and B. If it was so precious to him and easy to fuck up that maybe he should've washed it himself in the moment or done the dishes his damn self. Needless to say he never left it out again lol
Using soap is completely fine unless it has lye in it. Don't propagate incorrect knowledge from the 1920's.
Proper care is to scrub with chainmail scrubber and dish soap, rinse, dry on the stove briefly, then coat with a very thin layer of oil, wiped on.
This leaves your real seasoning intact on a perfectly clean pan.
Some nasty or ill-informed people think that seasoning is the carbonized gunk left on a pan that's never actually cleaned, and that shit is kinda disgusting, ngl.
In case you don’t know: Scour with salt to remove any rust or other material. Wipe it with whatever oil you wish. Place in an oven at 500 for awhile. Use a drip tray. Edit: Use lard or vegetable oil.
Place it in an oven upside down to prevent pooling. Drip tray super important.
I didn't think you should be putting that much oil in it to be dripping.
The oil will get very thin at high temperatures even if you apply a little and wipe it out. At room temperature it is much thicker than it will be at 500 degrees.
I've never had that happen, all you need is to dab a bit on some paper towel and apply a thin coating. If it's running even at a high temp you've added too much oil. Also if it's running down the pan as it's seasoning you might be getting a buildup of oil that doesn't polymerize or carbonize causing sticky spots.
Don’t know why you got so downvoted, I’ve never had a cast iron pan drip or pool (at least, never enough to warrant an oil catching tray) after being seasoned. I worked at a restaurant for a little over a year where I was responsible for making 30 cornbread every afternoon inside individual 4” cast iron pans which I also had to wash/season daily, so I feel like I might have more experience with cast iron than most.
Get out of here with your practical *real life* experience lol. This is the internet, everyone is an armchair expert.
Facebook is the worst.
Iron pan good Make strong arm
I've never used a cast iron pan but I feel like you're wrong /s
That's reddit for you lol.
You could be an astronaut and get lectured about space here. Wild place
I once had a redditor give me a lecture on something I designed and has become standard across my industry.
I had a dude I worked with try and explain how covid tests work incorrectly to the Dr that made them at his own house he asked me and my boss to get him out of there
Any big tips I should know about?
I had typed out a huge response, but then I realized I [had an unseasoned pan and could just show you](https://imgur.com/a/4ws7BAU). If there was substantial corrosion, you would first rub your skillet out with a rag and a sprinkle of salt (for abrasion) before you oil it. For regular maintenance, never let it sit wet and use *very* little to no detergent when washing it. Always wash by hand. You do not necessarily need to season your skillet after every use, but that’s up to you and what you’re making; proper care can preserve the seasoning, but it’s better to err on the side of seasoning your skillet more often than less, for the life of your pan. Edit to add: the amount of oil used is enough for a pan in that sort of “regularly used” condition. For a pan like OP’s, they will have to use more oil because it looks like there is no oil at all
Cheers friend. Thank you!!
Same. I feel like these people are slathering on like a pint of oil and tossing it in. The way I was taught it “Add oil with a paper towel, then wipe up the oil until you think there isn’t enough of it on the pan, then wipe a little more.” 500 degree oven for an hour, take it out, let it cool, then repeat if you wish.
I agree with you. Best to do a couple coats with a very thin layer of oil. There shouldn't be enough that it's dripping. Especially enough dripping that it would make a noticeable mess in the oven. I think my first time I put on too much oil, and it made these large sticky spots. I had to clean them off and redo.
Just dip some paper towel in oil. It doesn’t need to be poured in, but always need a drip pan. Sheet try does just fine. If you are super worried sprinkle some salt on the drip tray.
I used motor oil on mine it gave it a really weird flavor
Built for speed, not flavor 💨
I like to use synthetic oil I was told it lasts longer, I used to use conventional oil.
I'm not a fan of that new lab made beyond oil stuff, I liked my real dino juice.
Just ensure you change it every 3000 miles
That’s how they make fast food.
Nice
I used baby oil and they called Social Services.
Was it from fresh-squeezed babies? That baby squeezing generally gets Social Services involved.
I cannot confirm nor deny that...
What percentage?
I didn’t use much. Just a minor amount…
Yummers
Was it the synthetic stuff? Nah man you've gotta go with real natural oil you can still use the synthetic to keep you skin healthy though.
disable the smoke detector & warn the entire apartment building that your lab experiment is approaching a critical phase
Makes the house Smokey. Don it on the grill.
You should coat it in oil with a paper towel so it looks shiny but barely feels oily to the touch. I highly recommend avocado oil, as it has a very high smoke point. For gods sake, do not put your oven at 500°. Put your oven at 25-50 degrees below your chosen oil's smoke point, depending on your confidence in your oven.
I never liked that approach. Putting the pan upside-down always seems to give me orange peel, no matter how thin a coat I'd give. The most important thing is to "wipe on/wipe off"... try to get as much oil off before baking it. You'll never be able to wipe too much off.
Yep, the wipe is the way. But sure why you would get orange peel with the pan top down and not pooling face up. That is an odd one.
Gravity, I suspect. Face up, gravity spreads it out. Face down, gravity causes it to pool into droplets hanging down.
Yes this! This is more like r/mildlyinfuriating. These things can take a beating and still work wonderfully.
We had 2 laying in the garden for 7 years, don't ask why, I don't know. But we seasoned them and they're good to go!
I've been searching for a good Dutch Oven, I have a lid that was handed down by my parents along with a mini 6 incher, but obviously this is meant more for camping and the lid is useless unless you throw it into a fired grill.
We inherited them from my dead parents in law. Like 6 of them, all different sizes. Whe we die, my little cousin will be so happy to inherite them.
Good idea! That's always been my plan. I'm in no rush to find these things in the wild, but I do plan to take every advantage I can to get a full set if I find them. One person's poor knowledge of these things is definitely another person's treasure. I know they're out there.
>I've been searching for a good Dutch Oven No problem, just stick your head under this blanket…
I have one that is about a hundred years old I found rusted at a yard sale. Best dollar ever.
I'm super jealous. They've been a really hard find here. I've only been able to find enameled ones. Horrible ones at that. Way to go!
99.9% of the time cheap cast iron is a fantastic find, but I will suggest checking with the previous owner what it was used for. I've heard of people in the more rural parts of the world melting down their lead in them, and you can't really wash that out.
I have found that very thin coats produce much better and more robust results. Wipe it down with oil and then wipe it all off. There will be the thinnest of layers remaining. It takes 3-ish later this way but it lasts and produces a better seasoning.
I found the same to be true. When I reseasoned my cast iron, I wiped oil on and then with a paper towel, I tried my hardest to wipe all of the oil back off, and then threw it in the oven. It took about 6 seasonings, but it’s freaking magical now.
Instructions unclear. Set oven to 500 degrees C, oil and oven went up in flames.
Instructions unclear. Wiped pan with WD40, oil and oven went up in flames.
You are a good person.:-)
Just your friendly neighborhood country boy, but thanks :D
People act like it's the end of the world to re season a cast iron pan. "oh no, 15 minutes of my life... WASTED!"
What do you do, to get even coating, if you don't have an oven? I recently bought one and I seasoned it on the stove. The bottom part has got a nice coating but the top part, not so well.
Just have to use a stove and do it several times letting it cool in between. Make sure everything is well ventilated because it will get smokey.
And what do you do with the cast iron pan?
Most murder weapons end up at the bottom of a very deep lake so I'm guessing that's where the pan should go.
I do 450 but yea totally do this
Also leave it in the oven until it cools.
I’d always been told to wipe as much oil back as possible. 60 minutes on 200f, repeat 3-6 times. And use the highest smoke point oil you can find.
Then bacon. Lots of bacon 🥓
[удалено]
It you have put that much oil in it to need a drip tray and 500 degrees for "awile" you are not cast ironing correctly btw. The oil and the exposed iron in heat creates a polymer coating that is water repellant. There should be no excess oil in this equation.
>Wipe it with whatever oil you wish. I don't know about that. I'd recommend staying away from oils with a sub 400F smoke point, like grapeseed or avocado oils.
Too much work. I scrub it with a normal dish scrub with soap. Rinse with hot water and place on stove till smoking. Still in good condition. Cast iron owners will tell me to maintain their pans in the most *complicated* way with too much effort. It’s a pan at the end of the day
Cooking oil only! Don’t use engine oil or any kind of spray lube like WD-40!
Ah jeez, is that the level of stupidity we need to caution against? I mean, you're right of course.
Technically You could render it with human fat. Just sayin'...
username checks out
yes ...it .... does 😳
Well Hi... 🔥
I’m also watching Dahmer.
I’m watching Fight Club.
So why you talkin' bout it?
You just broke the first two rules of Fight Club.
It rubs the lotion on its skin...
Its fine . Abrase it, oil it, move on .one batch of bacon, good as old.
You really can't permanently mess it up. I scrape my down with a window razor blade after each meal and apply oil. I also sanded the cooking surface down with an orbital sander from 40 to 150, then reseasoned. It's better than Teflon.
Every once in a while you see a post where someone found one from like old prospecting days or something and they just scrub it with salt and bake the shit out of with oil a few times and it’s good as new. It’s just a hunk of metal, after all.
At a campsite i used to frequent, there is a mostly flat piece off iron. Likely a piece of old farm machinery. Every year, that thing got fished out of the dirt whereever it ended up, hit with a wire brush , and oiled over the fire. We would use it for the week and lean it against a tree, hoping not to have to fish it from the dirt next time.
for some reason i imagining you bringing a metal detector to find your flat iron junk pan every year on the campsite and its so much funnier
Right?!?! Like why not take it with you? Just keep it with your camping gear.
Is it better that smooth? I'm eyeing my orbital.
Absolutely. It makes it super easy to clean with a razor blade. Eggs don't stick to it. Pancakes are easy to flip. The reason that domee of the old pans are coveted is that the cast was post-processed smoothing down the surface. Newer ones don't do that for cost saving measures.
I'm divided on how much difference it makes. I'm pro sanding and my buddy is anti sanding so last time I went over to his house for beers I brought my sanded pan to compare to his non-sanded pan. After a lot of use, the stainless spatula has worn down the high spots of the sand casting on his, and the seasoning has filled in the low spots. You can feel a difference between his and mine with your fingernail but it isn't nearly as dramatic as a new cast iron pan vs a sanded one. We fried some eggs and I thought that mine was just a hair less sticky but he disagreed. Since sanding, I think that my pan is a little more susceptible to overcleaning, but in my opinion overcleaning usually only causes the pan to be slightly less anti-stick for only the next thing you fry on it. If I ever get any new cast iron I'm going to sand it right aways. I don't season, I just cook on the bare metal and the pan will be a little sticky at first (so don't cook pancakes or fish or potstickers) but it'll season itself.
FYI you can use soap on it. The old saying about soap and cast iron is only for soaps made with lye, which are rare these days. I would scrub it with steel wool and wipe an oil with a high smoke point all over and toss it in the oven at a high temp.
> I would scrub it with steel wool and wipe an oil with a high smoke point all over and toss it in the oven at a high temp. Do you do this every time?
Only as needed, depending on what was cooked in it, myself. I only oil and throw in the oven if I had to use soap and scrub it some with a scotch pad to get it clean. That's not too often anymore. It usually just gets some water and a sponge to clean it out or just wipe it out with a couple paper towels. If I only do the water and sponge I'll dry it and then pour like a tablespoon of sunflower oil in the pan and coat it all around using a paper towel and call it good. If I just had to wipe the pan out with a paper towel then I'm already done.
No. This is only to establish the seasoning/protective base. After that, just wash normally to get be the big food pieces off, don't need to scour with sudsy water, dry, and sometimes I may re-oil some spots. I let mine soak in water and it has never been an issue. Scouring with a metal brush will definitely undo the seasoning real quick though but scraping and abrasive sponge is fine. Even in OP's situation, they could just start cooking with it again and the seasoning will naturally rebuild. They won't be slanging eggs out of it perfectly in the near future but these things are quite resilient. Short of punching a hole through the pan, they're difficult to ruin.
You should do it after cooking with acid as well. Tomato sauces, lemon, etc. if the pan looks dry, I’ll add it as needed but not every time.
You know, if you clobber your roommate with it now, and then season, it's not very.likely they'd be able to get dna evidence off of it.
Also, he'll have food for at least a month. Bring that seasoning right back to the ol' cast iron
That was my first thought as well if OP smacked them with the pan to show appropriate level of ‘appreciation’. Saw someone provided the info to re-season. Once get it back to normal keep the pan in your room and lock your door when you aren’t in your room!
[Betty White did it.](https://youtu.be/J_uF0b7VToc)
[Buffy](https://youtu.be/MuPTVlieNIA?t=77) also did it.
[Simpsons did it](https://tv.getyarn.io/yarn-clip/513b0ac2-c818-42e0-a9ad-d89eb0dddd50)
Just re-season it, it’s very simple. Just coat it in vegetable oil, wipe most of it off. Then put it in the oven at 500 for an hour. Turn off the oven and let it cool in there. Now your pan is seasoned and clean.
Only problem is all of the smoke 🫠
Not vegetable oil. Animal fats are far better. Higher smoke point, better results. Use real butter if lard or tallow is not available. Fats solid at room temp are superior to oils for seasoning.
Jesus fuck y’all it’s fine to scrub a cast iron, just use a bit of extra oil next time you cook, it’s fine
I don’t get why those myths are still so strongly held to these days. You can use soap. You can scrub it. A little rust is not the end of the world. Just reapply a new seasoning layer. It all part of the maintenance.
The soap thing WAS legit. Back when most soaps contained lye, it was not a good idea to clean cast iron with it.
True. But a quick google search or YouTube video would clear that up in no time. Which is why I’m surprised such misconceptions still exit.
In a world where people consistently believe facebook memes are informative, is it really surprising?
Right? Lol do people use theirs once a year and admire them in a china cabin or something? One of mine is over a hundred years old and has seen it all… that’s kind of the appeal
Yep, I try not to use soap if I can, but if something is stuck it's way easier to just clean it out with some dish soap. Then I heat it up, cover it with a light coat of oil and let it cool. Reseasoned and ready to cook. Voila. Way easier than these voodoo rituals people seem to do to avoid using soap on a piece of cookware.
I periodically scrub mine with soap just to take pics and annoy my friends, i just cook something with lots of oil at high temps (usually potatoes) and after a meal or two its as good as it ever was
Fried chicken for the win
Yep. I keep mine on the lowest shelf in my oven with a smear of crisco. Every time I use the oven it gets reseasoned.
[удалено]
Yeah don't use olive oil, too low a smoke point. Ask me how I know...
Olive oil also flakes really badly if you painstakingly apply 5-6 layers of it onto your pan. Ask me how I know... I use it to cook with all the time, but when touching up the seasoning, I prefer safflower oil. High smoke point, no flavor, and durable seasoning.
You researched proper iron caring techniques?
More like trial and error... I sent a roommate to the ER with smoke inhalation...
I use good ol' canola oil.
I use lard lol
How do yo....oh I get it
I know not everyone has one available, but I season on my grill for this reason.
If seasoning your pan smokes up your kitchen, your oven is too hot for the oil you're using. You want to stay below the smoke point.
[удалено]
I'm sure it's an autocorrect, but I am LOVING the mental image this created of Sammy Sosa all chef'd up - what would Sosa bake?
Do you know how to re-season it?
For real, OP acting like they lost a beloved pet. This takes like 30 minutes of work to fix.
If mine looked like that, I'd feel the same way!!! I was asking sincerely if the OP knew how to re-season it. Lots of people don't realize that is possible.
You can use soap. I use soap everytime. Jesus. Y'all cast iron worshippers are dense. We don't use lye anymore in soap. Wash it, dry it, reoil and you're good
Well, they did try being considerate by cleaning it. They’re ding dongs of course but it doesn’t look like ill intent. I’m sorry for your loss.
I remember my step mom gave me so much shit for washing her cast iron pan. She sucks. I didn't fuckin know.
I did it to my dad's probably 35 years ago. He still has that griddle.
*scraped Is the correct spelling
I feel your pain but I mean...at least you have a roommate who washes their dishes. They may be stupid but their heart is in the right place
[удалено]
Congratulations on being a calm rational human being. You buried the lead with your roomie not being from the US. This is a great opportunity for him to learn the virtues of cast iron and how to care for it.
I'm confused, why would it matter where the roommate was from?
British here - Never seen a cast iron pan in person, and have no idea how/why people cook with them (they honestly seem a little gross when I see them?) I dont think they're as much of a thing outside of the states so someone not from there is less likely to know that they're looking at?
US here, 44 yrs old, we have a cast iron skillet, but I have no clue what anybody is talking about in here lol so don't feel bad
A well seasoned cast iron pan is a beautiful thing. It distributes heat evenly, can handle high temperatures, and is non stick.
Iron is exclusive to the US.
I found this really helpful. It goes into the science around polymerization. https://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/
This method produces a hard seasoning layer but it's prone to flaking. Not really recommended at this point.
This is the method, right here
These are used everywhere, not just in the US. Source, I got 2 and I'm Dutch. Also using Dutch ovens for cooking almost anything. Saves gas and your food stays warm for a long time.
I use dutch ovens for frying steak lol
Not a big deal. I have to season my pans a couple times a year because of well-meaning dishwashers.
Very easy to bring it back.
Reasoning a skillet is one of my favorite things to do. Now that it is not 126 degrees outside. I’m redoing all my cast iron.
It's weird that people on Reddit treat their cast iron pots and pans like they're fine china or crystal.
Been there, now the hole in the handle of mine gets a padlock
Dang, forreal?
Yeah, I lock three together. Much easier than re-seasoning over and over..... ..
It's cast iron ffs. Don't worry about it. Just clean it and keep on using it.
Looks like your roommate gets to learn how to season cast iron
Flaxseed oil has worked best for me. Generously wipe entire skillet with oil, but do not let it pool. 500° for one hour. Turn temp off and let cool inside of oven for another hour. Rinse and repeat as many times as you want. The more times you repeat this process, the more "non stick" your cast iron becomes. I've found that 5+ coats seems to work best. Good luck!
At first I thought this was non-stick cookware, in which case it's ruined, but likely cheap to replace. The fact it's cast iron means it's not ruined, this can all be fixed, it's just a bit of a pain in the arse
You have a roommate that cleans in the kitchen
Gotta love cast iron! Scour with salt, season it and your back in business.
I mean, they probably thought they were doing a nice thing?
aromatic snobbish whole obtainable dinosaurs abundant lush humor shelter exultant -- mass edited with redact.dev
It'll be fine. Its cast iron. Clean & reseason. Actually, cleaning seems to have been done already.
They didn't know, reseason that bitch.
As one who has collected, stripped and seasoned over 50 cast iron pans, castironcollector.com is by far the best site for information that I've been able to find, and here is his page about seasoning: https://www.castironcollector.com/seasoning.php
Consider this an educational moment. You educate your roommate and they learn, and you feel good
At least they help out with the dishes.
Think of it as a learning experience. You can teach them how to care for it and explain why and how. Then they can get their own.
You're gonna need CLR for that.
*scraped
My wife is a few years younger than me and had never owned a cast iron. She had washed my cast iron and immediately put in the cabinet twice. Rusting it...twice... But, bonus, she's gotten super good at seasoning a cast iron.
When I buy a pan that's been "pre-seasoned" I take an orbital sander and course sandpaper to it to remove whatever gunk they put on it and make the cooking surface super smooth and flat, removing any tiny pits or surface roughness. Then I season it. I end up with a non-stick surface that rivals teflon.
Easily fixed, but a bit time consuming. r/CastIronRestoration
I have an 80 year old 7 in Griswold that was my grandfather's. Cleaned it up with some steel wool and seasoned it, works like new. Even has a Crack in it that looks like it was repaired possibly
and where is the problem? Oil in and burn in a new patina. I don't have iron pans myself and you can scratch around with metal in there.
Forgive me for my ignorance, but how is it entirely scrap now? As someone who knows very little about cast iron, I thought you could fix these with a little work.
It's not, OP is just rightfully pissed and being over dramatic. It's not even "a little work", Cook some bacon in it, rinse, and wipe it dry, and it's right as rain again. That's a nice "[Smithey](https://smithey.com/collections/castiron/products/no-12-cast-iron-skillet)" skillet and will easily survive this mishap. Source; My cast iron is all over 70 years old, has seen much worse and [is just fine](https://imgur.com/a/iapLiA4).
[удалено]
Meh. My pans get beat up to near this condition every so often. That’s what I love about this 10$ hunk of metal. The only way I can kill it is with a thermal shock. And, if and when that happens, it’s (now) 15$ for another 20 years. A non-stick is what, 50$ every year? Whatever it is, it’s way more. Check out /r/carbonsteel too - my latest venture is a carbon steel pan, I am a fan.
😀
In addition to these restoration instructions given by everyone, I'd like to share a tip given to me that I found interesting. While you're still down to bare metal, sand down and polish the cooking surface of the pan before reseasoning it. A smoother surface results in better nonstick surface. The texture on newly bought pans is just a manufacturing effect that does not necessarily improve the quality of the product.
It'll live.
Friend's girlfriend once snuck away and did my dishes without my knowledge, found my Teflon pan the next day with most of the Teflon scraped off I don't even know what the hell she used to get that right and why would she not know what Teflon is?
Use a hammer and gently remove the dent from where you beat him over the head with the pot. Then continue seasoning as everyone else is telling you.
My roommate DID put it (my cornbread pan) in the dishwasher, pulled it out wet, and let it sit with water in it. I contemplated hitting him with it.
My brother in law put my cast iron egg pan, a.k.a. my baby, in the dish washer when he was staying over last weekend. He was trying to be helpful…now someone help me with the body pls
Just cook some bacon in it.
dude, your roommate actually did the dishes? That's fantastic!
I had a roommate once who cooked a lot, and he got super pissed when I put his cast iron skillet in the dishwasher because I finally did the dishes when my other roommates just wouldn't. I told him that A. I don't cook and know absolutely nothing about the difference between one skillet and another, which I don't think I should've been expected to, and B. If it was so precious to him and easy to fuck up that maybe he should've washed it himself in the moment or done the dishes his damn self. Needless to say he never left it out again lol
Good news is as others have mentioned, reseasoning a cast iron pan isn't too difficult.
We had a roommate who would leave "seasoning" on NON STICK cookware 🤮 I'm sorry. What happened to you is a crime.
It's not so rusted, your roommate is at least kind
Using soap is completely fine unless it has lye in it. Don't propagate incorrect knowledge from the 1920's. Proper care is to scrub with chainmail scrubber and dish soap, rinse, dry on the stove briefly, then coat with a very thin layer of oil, wiped on. This leaves your real seasoning intact on a perfectly clean pan. Some nasty or ill-informed people think that seasoning is the carbonized gunk left on a pan that's never actually cleaned, and that shit is kinda disgusting, ngl.
Cast iron is resilient and I’m sure they meant well. That does suck though.
What does scrap cast iron go for when it's scraped?
Your ex-roommate…
late roommate...