How to rehab CI skillets?


 
E

Ethan G

TVWBB Super Fan
At my in-laws over the weekend, I was flipping burgers on a big gas grill. I opened the storage cabinet beneath it and found four Lodge cast iron skillets that were slightly rusty, dirty, and obviously hadn't been used in a few years. Two of them also have collected grease drippings from the gas grill. I asked my mother-in-law if she planned on using those again, and she said to either throw them away or take them home.

Now that I have them at home (as if I would have thrown them away...), what are your recommendations for cleaning them? I am able to season one once it is cleaned up, but not sure the best way to get rid of the rust. Thanks in advance!
 
Here is what's worked for me:

Light a full chimney of charcoal. When fully lit, pour half onto the charcoal grate of your kettle, put the skillet onto the bed of coals and pour the remaining coals into skillet.

Depending on the skillet size, you may need to throw some unlit charcoal into the skillet or around the sides and base; it will ignite rather quickly.

Let the skillet "bake" for 20-30 minutes, care fully remove and let it cool. The end result is an unseasoned skillet clean of junk and dirt. You will have to wash the skillet to get rid of any ash residue that remains, then dry completely before seasoning. Every time I've done this any surface rust is gone; I've not tried this with heavily rusted items.

This technique mimics the old technique of sticking the skillet into the fireplace and letting the hot coals do the work.

FWIW,
Dave
 
Originally posted by Ethan G:
At my in-laws over the weekend, I was flipping burgers on a big gas grill. I opened the storage cabinet beneath it and found four Lodge cast iron skillets that were slightly rusty, dirty, and obviously hadn't been used in a few years. Two of them also have collected grease drippings from the gas grill. I asked my mother-in-law if she planned on using those again, and she said to either throw them away or take them home.

Now that I have them at home (as if I would have thrown them away...), what are your recommendations for cleaning them? I am able to season one once it is cleaned up, but not sure the best way to get rid of the rust. Thanks in advance!
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Do an internet search and you'll find many expert recommendations. i recommend low and slow - Easy Off and elbow grease to clean and vinegar and water for rust.
 
I like Dave's recommendation above, but I never like to hear anything about "washing" CI. To me that implies using detergent of some sort. In fact I keep my CI on the other side of the kitchen from where the detergent is just to keep it safe! Seriously though, the firing method should take care of most of the rust. A tablespoon or two of inexpensive cooking oil or Crisco and some salt while having the pan over moderate heat is always good for "scrubbing" your CI with as well. I use a paper towel to rub the salt around in the pan. I'd do that once after you get the surface rust off, then rinse well with clean water and reseason. I always season (even new "pre-seasoned" CI) in the oven at around 250-300 using Crisco.
 
I agree with everything I've read here except not washing it with soap the first time out.
You'll be re-seasoning the pan, so using soap beforehand would actually be recommended. You have no idea what they've been exposed to, so heat and scrub and wash them down to bare metal.
Re-season and you're good to go. At that point, soap is your enemy.
 
Throw them away???? BLASPHEMY

Cooking on cast iron, indoors or out, is one of the great pleasures of cooking. I literally use cast iron for EVERYTHING. Those "garbage" skillets will outlast and out perform skillets costing hundreds of dollars and, if properly cared for, will outlast you and your kids and your kids kids.....

The "light some coals and stick it in" suggestion by Dave Q above is a good one and works better than most to remove old seasoning, surface rust and other caked on schmutz. For stubborn rust use good steel wool and elbow grease. As long as you take them down to VERY clean bare metal, dry it completely and do it quickly afterwards you will have NO issues re-seasoning and essentially making it just like new.

Season her up a couple times before the first use, follow the rules of good cast iron care (clean with hot water and NO SOAP, re-season after every use, store away from moisture, etc...) and you have a friend for life. For every day cleaning for anything that may stick before you have a good coating of seasoning baked on there (this CAN take years if you do not use them daily) use salt with a little water (kinda like a paste) and you can easily clean the pan.

Enjoy.
 
I once put a CI skillet in the self-clean cycle of my oven. It worked great. I then seasoned with a little oil and was good to go.
 
Jane is ONCE AGAIN correct. For old skillets that i am re-habbing the self clean will do the job very well. Great suggestion!!!
 
Today I finally got around to working on this. Thanks again for all of your suggestions. I ended up burning charcoal in all four of them for about two hours. Any grease was long gone by then, and it was just rust remaining. I scraped a good part of the rust loose with a putty knife, then blew on them to get the dust/scrapings out. While they were still very hot, I put a spoonful of shortening in each one. I wiped out the excess fat, which also helped pick up most of the remaining scrapings. I brought them inside the house, and once they were cool enough to pick up with bare hands I used sandpaper on the entire inside and outside surfaces of each one. Wiped them out with paper towels and wiped them down with vegetable oil. They look good, stripped down to the metal surfaces. One had some crusty rust that was probably 1/8" thick and now it is clean.

The brutal Arizona sun will come in handy tomorrow - I'll re-oil them and set them out on the patio all day to season.

The worst problem area was on the outside of the skillets, especially the bottoms. They were very rusty there, and I wasn't quite able to remove all of the rust, but since those aren't the cooking surfaces they are certainly usable.
 
Well, I guess you've taken care of the pans by now. I would have washed them first, then put them in a self cleaning oven to clean off the old seasoning, then sanded off the rust, and reseasoned the pans. It's not really that complicated.
 
I was in a similar boat a few years ago. I came across some very neglected cast iron skillets in my garage. (yes, it was I who neglected them)

On a couple, I broke out the die grinder and my compressor and went to town, sanding off all the gunk and rust before reseasoning. On the most rusty, I tried using electrolysis

Both methods worked out great in the long run. Electrolysis was much more hands-off and easier!
 
I've restored a cast AL griddle top using vegie oil kosher salt and a scour pad. The Land lord had a 6 burner side by side griddle/broiler commercial range in the house. She said the griddle rusted because they are too close to the beach....nonsense I was making pancakes the next morning.
 
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