nice transformation..:)

Anyone know on average how much it would be to purchase an old cast-off cast-iron pan from a store like Goodwill? Now that I know how to salvage a rusty pan, I feel compelled to go score me one for teh cheap.

Great timing on this! Cleaning out an old garage, we found some old cast iron skillets and had no idea how to go about cleaning them. Thanks!!

Thanks!! I have an old cast iron one that also did not fare well in storage. It rusted so badly we might have actually let it go, because I couldn't figure out how to salvage it.

I have bought many nasty cast iron with rust or burned on food. The easiest way I have found to clean them is in a fire. I use my wood stove or a camp fire. Just toss the pan into the fire and it will burn off everything, you will have a completely brand new looking piece of cast iron.

Then you can use Crisco shortening and coat the pan..put it into the oven on a low temp for a couple hours and it will be good as new.

I was taught to clean the rust off using aluminum foil. You wade the foil into a ball and use it as a scrubber. I will have to try the potatoe and salt next time.

Herms, check your local transfer station/dump/recycling center or ask on Freecycle. One of my pans came from the dump and one of my mom's from the side of the road.

We've always sandblasted rust off ours. Or I should say, my Dad sandblasted ours. My ex left my pan out in the rain for two days when I was moving out and I was so upset thinking he ruined it. My dad took it home and two days later I had it back good as new. I use my small one every day, and just do like the post says, wipe it out, give it a quick swipe of oil, and let it cool on the burner.

I can't remember exactly how it happened, but I have a small cast iron skillet with some formerly gooey food seriously burned onto it. I've tried the foil in a ball and I've tried it on the highest heat setting in the oven, but nothing will get that crap off of it. It has been on there for about five years. I keep it because I know there has to be a way to get that stuff off and I just don't know it yet. I might try the fire as Karen mentioned. I don't want to have what happened to Michelle dad's pan to happen to mine though. Anyone else have more advice? Or Karen do you have more specific instructions?

i recently found one cast iron skillet in a local goodwill but it has small dents so i was not sure if it was ok to buy..what do u say

@ Betsy - Minnesota: I've seen where some folks will use sandpaper on the worst of the worst baked-on crud. Also, if you have access to power tools...maybe a grinder with a fine grit attachment? There is hope, it's got to be salvagable!

@ susrith - the dents *might* affect the bility to create a seamless layer of seasoning, but i'm sure in the history of cast iron cookware, there have been worse situations. i'd give it a shot!

re: scrubbing with soap. I use a plastic brush with some soap to scrub my cast iron (I have lots of it that I use daily) dry it on the flame then oil it. Never had a problem with the seasoning coming off.

What about one that is mysteriously sticky? Will this work for that as well?

(I've even caved and tried soap. Didn't get off the sticky. More seasoning didn't help the sticky either. Probably doesn't help that I have no idea of what the sticky consists.)

All you need to do is have the fire over the top of the pan. What I do is put the pan into the fire pit, or fireplace and then build the fire on top of it. Just let it stay in until the fire is out completely. The next day after things have cooled off I take it out and then season it.

In fact if my cast iron usually gets this treatment every couple of years to get off any gunk that has built up on the back of the pans. It works just as well for the rust.

If you have an oven with a self cleaning cycle, put your cast iron ware in the oven and run the cycle. This will totally and completely remove any seasoning, rust, baked on crud, etc., and leave you with bare cast iron, so do this as a last resort. You'll want to begin the reseasoning process immediately after they come out of the oven, so that they don't start to rust again in just daily humidity.

I've done it with 3 pieces I've bought at thrift shops. It took a few months of regular use to build up the proper level of seasoning, but it was well worth it - and the cleaning part was super easy. No scrubbing required.

I've always used a small handful of play sand, an old cloth and a enough water to make a dryish slurry. scrub until you're happy with the result, rinse one more time, run through the self-clean cycle on the oven, and re-season. works like a champ.

It seems like running a pan over low heat for 30 min every time you clean it just to seal in the seasoning isn't the most "green" thing to do...

Personally, I bought a pan that looked a little rusty (not horribly rusty) and just wiped it with a paper towel and oil, and the rust went away. It's been pretty great ever since, though I do reapply oil pretty regularly. I'm not sure if I have a layer of "seasoning" built up since I do wash with soap, but my pan is a nice shiny black and works well for me!

I wouldn't use canola or olive oil to season a cast-iron skillet as they destabilize easily when heated. Coconut oil, for instance, is much more stable and rarely goes rancid.

I know this thread is a bit older, but you should NEVER use soap on cast iron unless you want to go through the re-seasoning process again. Use coarse salt and a paper towel or balled up foil to scrub. Rinse in plain water IF and only IF you need too. dry completely. Then apply a very thin coating of veg or canola oil before storing. This is how my 95 year old grandmother has always done it. I now have her cast iron pan that was her monther's (so yes it is over 100 years old) and I have never had any issues with the pan. If you use any sort of soap it breaks down the seasoning. I also rehabilitated and pan I found at an antique shop buy using fine grit sand paper, and then going through the reseasoning process several times prior to using it. Also the first time you use the pan it is a good idea to cook something on the greasy side (bacon is great). It helps season the pan.

for stuck on gunk try a toilet stone (new of course) this will remove most stuck on or burned on food. for the person with a sticky residue, you probably had too much oil in the pan when you seasoned it, which turned to "shelac" with heat. Try putting peanut butter in the pan (about 1/8 in. thick) and let set for several days. then scrape out the peanut butter (discard) , soke in water overnight, and then scrub with steel scrub brush. Once the residue is removed, soak again , then scrub, dry and season as usual.

How do I restore a cast iron skillet that has gone rancid? Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!

it'a piece of cake to season them and keep them seasoned, if you care for them properly. NEVER put them in a dishwasher. If you cook something in them that sticks, put enough water in them to cover what is stuck, put it back on the fire and cook it till boiling. the stuck on food will come off just by stirring it off with a wooden spoon or such. Wash them by hand, set them back on a fire or burner and heat them tll they are dry. If you need to re-season, use a folded paper towel, with shortening on it and wipe the shortening into it. let sit and then just wipe off the excess shortening after it cools. works every time for me!

The next time you need to put them in storage, go to the dollar outlet and get the extra large ziplock bags meant to be suitcases. Wrap the cast iron in an oil soaked cloth and put them in the bag. Burp out the air and they will only need a wipe down when you pull them out next. This is also good if you put them in the basement until the next use.

I found a cracker barrel cast iron skillet at goodwill and it cost me $2.00 its big. There was also a flat skillet or griddle that I past up cause I wasn't sure I could clean them up. But I did and the big one is fantastic. Use it all the time and I use the same instructions as above that my Mom past down to me. Estate sales will usually have some got to be fast though.

I have a cast iron skillet which is in need of cleaning! I used it on a glass cooktop and it appeared to melt right onto the cooktop, not sure what caused it to bind to it but would really love to salvage it!

Another way to clean rusted and encrusted cast iron cookware is to use common Lye. Here's how:

1. Fill a PLASTIC not metal 5 gallon bucket with water and add a cup of Lye.
2. Put your cookware in, swirl it around a bit and walk away.
3. After it's cleaned wash it a couple of times in clean water and season it like you normally would.

Repeat step 2 a few times during the day and depending on how dirty it was, it should be down to bright metal in a day. I can't stress enough though, don't even think of using a metal bucket, plastic only.

I bought a 10" fry pan for a buck at a yard sale and it was covered in rust and what looked like years of grease/crud. I put in lye and it was like new in two days.

I had seen on Martha Stewart where she said season the cast iron with veg oil. Well I decided to try it......very sticky.......I was not happy at all. I was raised on a farm in KY, I'm in my 60's and the best way to season a cast iron skillet or pan is always bacon grease. It will soak in and insulate the pan a bit so your food doesn't taste funny. It stays clean and slick, I just wipe mine out with a paper towel after I use it. If stuff sticks you can wash them in soapy water, but be sure to put a little more bacon fat on it. It will never be sticky if you do this. Also, my mom would always burn her pans off, like the above post. She used a big cast iron kettle in the yard to heat water for her laundry. So she would stick the pan in the fire. Works every time. I have not tried lye. Cast iron is pourous, so be sure to wash it very well if you use any substance that might be absorbed into the very iron. Good luck and enjoy your cast iron! Nothing better than corn bread baked in an iron skillet.

Oh and don't forget to season the OUTSIDE of the cast iron to prevent it from rusting also. I just stick mine in my oven for a few days and let it season when I use the oven for something else. Just coat the iron, then wipe off the excess with a paper towel.

I was taught to NEVER use soap on cast iron for two important reasons.
1. It will destroy the seasoning
2. Cast iron will absorb the soap then later release it into your food.

I was raised using cast iron, and yes the oven is the best storage place :)

My experiences with seasoning tell me that Janvier is correct on which fats to use. I refuse to use soybean oil (also known as vegetable oil for some reason I cannot fathom) to season anything because I don't cook with it; it's very pro-inflammatory. I tried using coconut oil (a possible option for vegetarians) but wasn't that impressed with the finish. It wasn't sticky, but it wasn't lasting, either. In the end I found that animal fats work best. Not just bacon grease but beef fat as well. It gives that lovely mirror finish we all wish we could achieve. And you just keep cooking with that, and it maintains the seasoning.

FYI there's no actual evidence, unconfounded by conflicting variables such as the presence of trans fats, that proves animal fat is bad for you. If you're not vegetarian there's no reason to avoid it, and you get extra vitamins in your diet into the bargain. Lard, for instance, is a good source of vitamin D, and lots of us are lacking that vitamin right now.

I've had the same pan for about 25 years now, and all I do is: after cooking I turn the burner off, (electric stove) I rinse the pan under hot water and use a scrubber brush ( the kind you buy for scrubbing vegetables-they have a long handle) and then I sit it back onto the still hot burner to dry. The oil I used for cooking still stays on the surface, but any food stuck is scrubbed off. Plus it's super quick - I keep the scrub brush hanging on the inside of the door under the sink.

I have a real antiqui tall sides skillet that was knocked off the stove by my cat and has cracked. So far - we don't know what to do with it to make it functional again. You said your dad welded his back together - do yo know anyone who does that now? We are not welders but really want that pan to be usable again!

I think anyone who welds could help you. Maybe a local mechanic or machine shop? Or maybe get in touch with a welding instructor at a local college or junior college? Usually professor types can get behind such devotion to a beloved object :)

You can strip the pan with a good soak in Coca-Cola, or by burning it in a campfire, or even by putting it on the bottom rack of your oven and ignoring it for few weeks while you use the oven as normal. It can be scrubbed with a pot scrubber or even sanded if you like. After you have gotten it down to the metal, wash and rinse thoroughly. Use baking soda if you don't want to use soap, then put it on a burner at low heart to really dry it out. It will not take long. Then you can season the pan: coat it lightly with Crisco, turn it upside down and put in the oven at 400 or more for a couple of hours. A sheet of foil underneath the pan catches drips. Then cool the pan, coat it again, and put it back in the oven.
You can repeat this if it entertains you.

After that, when you cook, use grease to cook. Bacon fat, Crisco, oil or whatever. The first few times you use it, do something like bacon or fried chicken. Something nice and greasy. No need to overheat the pan when cooking. Cast irons holds heat. That is the point of it.

After you are finished cooking, drain the fat from the pan while it is still warm and pours easily, wipe with a paper towel or old, clean rag and throw in a good handful or so of kosher salt. Use the salt like scouring powder. No water. Just salt and the towel and elbow grease. Dump the salt and add more salt to make the pan nice and shiny with a little more scrubbing. Then carefully brush all the salt out of the pan and add just as few drops of fat and towel them around. Put the pan on the stove at low heat for a very short time to make sure it is dry. Store the pan until the next use. Getting all of the salt out is important because salt attracts water and you don't want that.

This is not a complicated as it sounds and will become second nature quickly.

If you need to store the pan for a long period, glom it with Crisco and scrape the Crisco off after storage and put the pan upside down in the oven to get the rest off.

The end result is a pan that puts teflon to shame and lasts for generations. Teach your grandchildren how to do this and they will be frying chicken in that pan while you are looking down from heaven and smiling.

For those who are complusive about their precious cast iron not holding up to use: Per Alton Brown: "It's cast iron. It doesn.t care."

I have found that using Lard instead of oils to season a skillet is better then anything else suggested. Lard makes for a tasty seasoning and adds to foods flavor. Fried potatoes are wonderful.

I have a flat top electric stove. Will this method still work?

The folks who salvage old & nasty pans for a living would have a heart attack reading this thread. From my reading, they would say: never use a wire brush/grinder/sandpaper/sandblaster as you'll remove some of the iron in addition to the gunk, and never use heat, (fire, self-clean oven), as you risk warping the pan.

The method they seem to suggest most often is the one Short Pants: a lye soak. Sometimes, if the pan is rusty, they follow that up with a short vinegar soak followed by *immediate* seasoning, or using an electrolysis bath. See http://www.wag-society.org/cleaning.php for the gory details.

I get where many of you are coming from as far as the lard/bacon grease seasoning. I'm sure that's what my grandma did. My dad actually used Crisco rather than liquid vegetable oil. I'm vegetarian, so the animal fat options are out. But I always have coconut oil handy (thanks to whoever mentioned it above), so I may start using that.

@John B - I agree with what you're saying and, thankfully, other than my dad's welding handywork, I don't mention using any of those rogue methods. But I can't control what others post or do with their own cast iron.

I probably cook on my cast iron skillet more than anything else. I keep it seasoned, but do use a tiny bit of soap and give it a light scrub (maybe with some baking soda) now and then. I want my skillet to have a black nonstick patina from use and being maintained, but I don't want a build up of "seasoning" which is really just charred food gunk.

If you are oiling your cast iron pan and it comes out sticky you put too much oil on it at once to try to season it and the oil didn't fully adhere to the pan.

Coarse salt, not course. Please edit.

Take it to a grandparent. They probably know how to fix it. My grandfather found one that was really beat up. He used sanded it down and stuck it in a fire (as far as I know, that's what he did), and it was good as new! He told me to stick it in a fire once a year to get it back down to its original coating...but it's just now "non stick" like I like it!

I have an 80+ year old cast iron pan I inherited from my grandma. As far as I know, no soap has ever touched it. I use whatever veg oil is in the house and table salt, and a paper towel or 2, to keep it clean. After cleaning, pour in a very small amount of oil, and using one more paper towel, rub the oil to a very light film.

It gets used all the time, and I reseason it every six months or so using crisco. Apply a very light film of it, and put it on the upper rack of your oven, upside down over a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake it at 350 or so for an hour. Good as new.

For those who wish to learn how to properly care for cast iron, I highly recommend you seek out older family members or friends who are still using 3rd or 4th generation cast iron & ask them how to care for it. Then follow their advice which decades of practice have proven true. And for pity's sake, stop relying on the internet. Newsflash: not everything you read there is accurate. Posting a 'how to' does not an expert make - and that incudes manufacturerers.

It's not rocket science. Neither does it require an arsenal of tools and equipment - even if you need to remove rust. I have half a dozen cast iron skillets of various sizes which get frequent use. They are much easier to care for than any other pan I own. They get washed in the same dishwater as my dishes using a dishrag or soft sponge AFTER EVERY USE. Stuck on food usually wipes off after a short soak. If not, it gets scrubbed off with a nylon scrubber. Then I rinse well & wipe with a dry towel & set it aside to air dry - usually on the stove but only because it's convenient. There's never any heat involved. Can't recall offhand the last time I had to reseason one. Occasionally, I wipe them down with a little shortening on a paper towel but not every time. As did my parents and my grandparents before them. They are in excellent condition and have always been stored in a lower cabinet with my other cookware..

If your skillet has a sticky residue, scrub it good. And I mean SCRUB. Use steel wool or even an sos pad or the like. And don't hold back. Then reseason it, properly this time, using SHORTENING, never oil. If it smokes when you put it in the oven, the temp is way too high. There should be NO SMOKE. A couple of hrs in a warm oven (200-250 range) should be sufficient. Repeat if necessary, depending on the original condition of your skillet.

It's also helpful to understand the [cooking] terms when attempting to follow directions. Seasoning, in this context, means to prepare for use (as in 'to cure'). It is NOT synonymous with seasoning as in adding zest or flavor to food. Likewise, shortening is NOT the same as oil. Learn the difference & you will avoid some common problems with cast iron cookware.

Now, I gotta ask...are all these folks who swear soap should never come into contact with cast iron cookware, the same ones who carry antibacterial wipes in pocket or purse & use them EVERYwhere? *snort*

Like @KAREN FROM KALIFORNIA I use a campfire. My granddad or his dad, started it our family.

Whenever I get new cast iron or find discarded cast iron, I use the same technique, scrub well with coarse brush, soap, and hot water to remove any loose detritus, then take it camping!

At camp, I heat a little oil in the skillet, and coat all the surfaces with it. Then tip the skillet over the open fire (you can use the grate or directly on the wood, it doesn't matter). As the fire makes its way to cooking coals, take the cast iron off, let it cool enough that water will dance on it, then dunk it, or soak it with water (I stick it in the creek). Then while you have the water handy, use your brush to clean off any soot.

Then wipe it out, and bring it back to the fire, it's ready to cook with! For really fast results, fry fish or cook bacon.

If you repeat this process for each meal, in a weekend, you can take brand new silver cast iron, or old rusty and crusty cast iron, and have shiny, black non-stick cast iron, that'll flip out a pan cornbread with out sticking a crumb.

I just got a big one for $14 from an antiques store. I've never seen any at our Goodwills. HTH

check yard sales, estate sales, and flea markets. easiest way of cleaning them is a course green scouring pad. dont use water use a little food safe mineral oil. then wash clean wish soap and water. dry very well and put in oven after it has been warmed up to lowest temp and shut off. let it cool then coat with crisco or lard and then put in over at lowest temp and let sit for an hour. let cool wipe all excess stuff off and recoat and do again.

i was always told to do this minimum 3 times before cooking in it. and when you clean it just use a paper towel and course salt while the pan it still warm. when it is cool wipe the salt out lightly coat with crisco and store. the crisco doesnt go rancid as fast.

you can have it welded but its not cheap and allot of times it doesnt work. sad to say but its best to toss it if its on the bottom. if its on the side you can use it for a griddle like for pancakes

I have a cracked cast iron griddle. It fits over two stove burners, and I'm pretty sure the reason it cracked is that I heated just one burner. Cast iron doesn't do well with temperature differential. So if you use any of the "heat cleaning" methods just be sure to let the pan cool back down gradually in place -- don't take it hot out of the oven or a fire and set it down anywhere because the contact will cool down one part of the pan faster than the rest, and it may crack.

That said, my griddle still works fine for fried eggs and pancakes. I just can't put anything too liquid-y on it or food will run into the crack. Thick batters stay on the surface with no problem, and eggs can be placed to avoid the cracked area.

I recently discovered that baking soda works wonders on rust. I wish I had known how well it works ages ago. I am restoring the face of an old stainless steel oven with some rust and it's amazing. When working with metal - always do so wet!

Probably about $3 - $10 depending on where you live. I am so tempted to pick up cast iron pans every time I see them at thrift stores. My dream kitchen has a wall full of hooks for vintage cast iron and enamelware pans.

i'm so sick of people improperly seasoning cast iron. i've heard horror stories! you should salt-scrub cast iron & rub with oil after every use, or just burn it off. i hope this post informs many who unwittingly destroy their cast iron

also, the salt-scrub cleaning method is what is taught at the Culinary Institute of America. this isn't some internet-how-to hack advice.

For those who find pork repulsive, like I do, coconut oil does wonders. Before that, I used vegetable shortening.

It works perfectly well. My fellow kosher cooks have used Crisco for generations.

I like the salt method for daily cleaning.
I did use steel wool to restore one piece, but for the need to kosher, I used fire.

I put my cast iron on the bbq to season it. The low heat doesn't really cut it, in my experience, and when you turn it up the smoke that it lets off is pretty unbearable in my apartment. Using the bbq allows you to get high heat and keep the smoking outside, and it heats the pan more evenly.

Also, on cleaning with soap. The seasoning is made of burnt oil, which is what dish detergent is made to break down. It's not going to ruin the seasoning right away to use soap, but it'll eventually cause issues.

Also, AT should mark these recycled posts as such. This was originally posted over a year ago.

Did he weld it together with lead solder? You could have been poisioning yourself all those years.

i have that "sticky" feel on a LOT of my stuff, i think its just a residue that has baked/cooked into my stuff, walls, stovetop, cookie sheets. Fantastic sprayed on the walls and stove will get that STICKY residue off, but on the pans, i use baking soda, comes off easy! the salt in the water may get your sticky off, or try the backing soda, i just dip my pans in the water, and then sprinkle the box of baking soda over and then just use washcloth, sorta like a paste ... comes off easy :D hope this helps

Thanks for the instructions! Perfect timing, now I'll know how to care for my new cast iron pan!

Far less effort is to put the rusty cast iron pan in a fireplace or in a campfire or in the coals of a barbeque.

What is rust? Iron oxide. What does fire do? Consume oxygen. It's no effort at all to get the cast iron down to bare metal this way. The next morning after it's cool take it out and brush off the ashes. Season it immediately, because rust never sleeps.

This method also works to get rid of any accumulated grease or who knows what crud that is on a misused cast iron pan you find.

I know people say cast iron will crack if you put cold water on a hot pan but that is how I clean EVERY ONE of my pans. I get them really hot after cooking ( they are usually hot enough ) then I spray cold water from the faucet sprayer on them and 'sizzle' they are clean again (a paper towel helps the tough messes). A quick reheat and oiling with olive oil and a paper towel and they are ready for the next use.
Always done it this way and have never had a pan crack.

@Libbet42 -- Sticky cast iron skillets are usually due to salt, probably from sprinkling salt on food while frying or salt leaching out of meats like pork sausages, bacon, ham, etc. I usually cure that problem by putting the skillet on the stove, pouring in a half cup of tap water and bringing it to a rapid boil. If you have a stiff natural bristle pot brush, you can swish it around in the boiling water to loosen any caked-on gunk. No soap or detergent needed. The salt will dissolve in the water. Dump the water outdoors in the garden (not down the drain!), rinse with warm water, rub dry with a paper towel. Put a few drops of vegetable oil in the skillet and rub with a dry paper towel to give it a uniform coating. The stickiness should be gone and the pan is good to go again.

It's safer to start with the pan and water cold, then heat on the range until the water boils. Throwing cold water into a hot skillet can, indeed, crack it or permanently warp it.

chieromancer, solder is used for soldering, not welding. Cast iron can't be soldered and is relatively difficult to weld.

@arturner - some of us don't have fireplaces or a space for an outdoor fire. waiting for my yearly summer camping trip is WAY MORE trouble than a few minutes scrubbing with salt and a potato ;-)

and @phil.cooper is correct about the soldering vs welding. my dad was a machinist and foreman for the railroad for 25 years, then became a professional welder as a second career, so he knows what he's doing! I wouldn't necessarily walk into the local Hacker Space or Maker Space and fire up the torch on my own without some expert oversight.

My mom kindly sent down a care-package of things we both thought were too expensive - or not worth it - to ship. Hometown is Philly, new-home is Fort Lauderdale. She gave the care package to a friend who was driving down. The cast-iron pan is my great-grandmother's, circa 1918. Well, I was good with it for a full month! Then I totally fell asleep with it in the sink. My partner did the dishes with the cast iron pan in the sink because I told him, "Don't touch Nana's pan...ever!" Well, we were so busy for two days I forgot about the pan/no time to cook! Nana's pan was RED! I was too afraid to use steel wool or call my mom. However, I followed your advicesince I was afraid to use steel wool. I changed one thing up: since we have a "glass cooktop" I did the potato thing but put it in the electric oven, overnight. I did it at 170 (lowest setting) for about 40 minutes then turned it off & let the residual heat do its magic. The next morning Nana's pan was perfect. Although, I would NOT use olive oil. Mom - who still has several of the cast iron collection - says olive oil burns off to fast. To season them she rubs a piece of garlic before she puts on the oil...but that might be an Italian-American thing!!!