HELP! Salmon smell in cast iron skillet!

Hi, all. This isn't particularly related to the subject of barbecue, other than the fact that, if I had used the WSM to cook dinner tonight, I wouldn't have had this problem in the first place.

I did a blackened salmon for dinner, with a tasty cucumber dill sauce on the side. Well, okay, not quite blackened - more like bronzed. ANYWAY, I did the prep in an old Griswold cast iron skillet that dates back to about 1911. Seasoned to perfection, this skillet is babied no end. Alas, little did I know what that salmon would do to it. I can't get the fishy smell off the skillet! I even resorted to a good scrubbing with Ivory dishwashing soap, then a rubbing down with sliced lemons, and still I have a strong fishy smell. I'm at the point where I know I'll have to re-season this old skillet, but does anyone have any other suggestions on the most gentle way possible to get this smell out of the cast iron? I never had this problem when frying catfish in hot oil in the skillet, but the salmon cooking process calls for cooking on a dry skillet. Thus, open unprotected iron pores just SUCKED that fishy-stuff right on in. Perhaps a good session of boiling water with some baking soda would reopen the pores and clear them somewhat? If anyone has had this problem, please let me know how you de-fished the skillet. I will be eternally grateful.

Keri C
Stinkin' up the iron on Tulsa Time

Hmmm... if it was "seasoned to perfection" wouldn't that mean that the pores were already filled? Isn't that what the black coating is, a carbon layer built up over the iron?

I would try wiping it out thoroughly and putting a liberal amount of oil in it and heating it like I was going to fry. The point being to burn up the smell producing stuff and turn it into carbon.

Or try boiling some vinegar?

Well, even the best seasoning job isn't foolproof. One would have thought that the pores on this particular skillet wouldn't pull in anything else. Fried potatoes, cornbread, pancakes, eggs, chicken-fried steak, NOTHING would stick to this pan, the seasoning was so nice. That's why I thought the fish wouldn't be a big deal in it. I bought this skillet at a flea market about 19 years ago, and it has been my one of my workhorses, along with two other older Griswolds, ever since.

I did a boil with vinegar and water earlier. No help. Scrubbed out with soap and have a thick layer of baking soda sitting in it overnight. I always start my reseasoning process by a boiling-oil session, so I'll try that tomorrow.

We need to do some burning in the log burner to reseason a few spots, so it may go into the firebox for a nice long dry sauna before I go to town on it with the lard.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Keri C
Smokin and Stinkin' on Tulsa Time

Keri,

It won't hurt a thing if you re-season the pan. Travis' suggestion of putting oil in it and heating it to 375-400 should work.

The only other thing I can think of is to cook something that smells worse than the salmon...maybe roadkill possum! (ya know that 90% of possums are born dead alongside the road!)

Keri, I don't know if this will help, but some vanilla extract on a paper towel will get the fish smell (and any other bad smell) out of an ice chest so maybe it will work on your skillet, of course then your skillet will smell like vanilla (or worse vanilla and fish). Just a thought. Don

"Vanilla Fish". That would be a good name for a rock band! /infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>"Vanilla Fish". That would be a good name for a rock band! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Sure! Everyone remembers the late-60's rock group Vanilla Fudge , right?

"You Keep Me Hangin' On" from their 1967 self-titled album is one of the classics. Right up there with Iron Butterfly and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida". /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

Keri,

Did re-seasoning the pan help? Whenever my Genesis 1100 with the cast iron grills picked up odors from salmon or whatever I would usually just heat it up high enough to peg the thermometer (well above the 550 degree mark) for a while, then spray it with cooking spray after it cooled enough not to catch the oil on fire. This isn't exactly re-seasoning - it was more an attempt to make the odor causing particles out-gas from the grills.

I use a Smokey Joe Platinum when I cook salmon now, so I don't have the problem with the nickel plated grill. And I'll try to remember your woes if I ever try to blacken Salmon, and not to use my cast iron pans...

After all the scrubbing and vinegar/water boil-out, I coated the dry unseasoned pan with dry baking soda and let it sit for 24 hours. I then filled it about 2/3 full of oil, brought it just up to the smoking point on the kitchen range, and let it stay at that temp for about 20 minutes and then cool down completely. I've repeated the boiling/cooling process 3 times now, which I find usually takes care of any problem with this particular skillet. I haven't drained it yet, but at this point I can't smell the fish.

DEFINITELY won't make that mistake again. I like salmon better from the WSM anyway. /infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif

Thanks - Keri C

I don't know if this will work with Salmon. I was reading the latest Cook's Illustrared the only food mag I buy and they talked about using ketchup to clean pans. I cameacross two cast iron skillet in need of some TLC. I boiled vinegar in them, scrubbed with hot water and a brush then dried them. Then I open a brand new green scotch scrubbing pad that had never seen soap and scrubbed them with the pad and ketchup. Worked great and they re-seasoned just fine.
HTH,

Keri,
The traditional cook's solution to this is to put oil in it, heat it up, and add a couple of slices of raw potato. You won't end up with (edible) fries or chips, but potato starch is famous for absorbing off-odors. You can even "clean" used cooking oil this way.

Probably too late but if you make the same mistake again, or anyone else. Coarse salt and vinegar scrub, or buy some barkeepers friend and reseason after use. I have about 300lbs of cast iron skillets all antigue griswold and wagner all well seasoned but I still reseason regularly with crisco in a 250 degree oven for a few hours every couple of months wether they need it or not. I can seem to smell food in them from time to time but I just consider it character and even more seasoning. My mexican comals and molcajetes always smell like garlic and roasted hot peppers etc. Just seems to make the next batch all the better. Anyway, hope this might help in the future, Ken