Keeping your Cast Iron Cookware in good shape
It is not difficult! Salt might fix it!
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| Is that Rust in your Cast Iron? Salt might fix it! |
“There is a right way to do things, and then there are all the other ways.” Quote by Belkin Vanderspuds
The above statement is something I think about pretty frequently, especially when it comes to cast iron cookware. It has been only recently that I started to publish my experiences cooking with, cleaning, and seasoning cast iron cookware. In the short time that I have been doing it, one thing has become very obvious to me.
I am doing it wrong. Okay, not wrong for me perhaps, but wrong for some others.
Now, no, that is not correct either. My point here is this. Doing things the right way is what is right for me. This does not mean I am always doing it the best way, nor does it mean that my way is the only way. What it means is, I am doing it the best way I know how, using the tools I have at my disposal, and working in the methods that turn out best. For me.
The main reason I am starting off with these statements is, that I do realize there are different ways to do things, and often my best way, and your best way, may not be exactly the same. What I am working to do here is, to present you with methods that I know have worked for me, and to try to present them in a manner that makes sense to you.
Please take this into consideration when viewing the content that I am providing to you. My biggest goal is to try to present and demonstrate my methods, which I have experienced as being successful, so that maybe you can use this information in your life and that it makes your world a little bit better.
Okay, good. Now, what does this have to do with repairing rust and seasoning flaws in cast iron cookware? There are several methods that can work to remove rust and correct your seasoning when it needs it. Here I will present what I know of the various methods and finish with what I have tried and what has worked for me.
Below you will find various methods that I am not covering here in this post. These methods are geared more towards restoring or renewing cast iron cookware. I will cover this in another post later.
- Wire brushes, motorized wire wheels, grinders, sandblasting, and other abrasive methods,
- Using oven cleaners to remove the seasoning and other materials from the base cast iron.
- Using the oven's self-cleaning cycle to remove the seasoning from cast iron cookware.
- Using an electrolysis tank to remove the seasoning from cast iron cookware.
- Using fire to remove the seasoning from cast iron cookware.
- Soaking cast iron cookware in a vinegar and water mixture to remove the seasoning.
- The use of metal utensils or tools to remove the seasoning from cookware.
All of the above items have a place in the cast iron cookware story, but this post is about removing light rust and damaged seasoning on pans and skillets, followed by seasoning to repair the cooking surface, so you can use the cookware to cook with.
Cast iron is simple to work with once you understand how to do so. Removing unwanted rust and damaged seasoning is an important part of maintaining your cast iron cookware.
If you are new to using cast iron to cook with, or if you have used it for years but have never been exposed to rust or damaged seasoning on your cookware, knowing how to fix the problem is important. Knowing how to fix the problem is the difference between your cookware being put back to use, or being put into the cabinet and forgotten about.
If you have cast iron cookware and have been using it, but would like a step-by-step guide to seasoning your cast iron, this post may help. If you have tried to season cast iron cookware in the past and have had issues getting that nice glossy finish, this post may help,
The seasoning step-by-step instructions in this post will work on most types of cast iron cookware, including kettles, frying pans, Dutch ovens, griddles, waffle irons, flattop grills, panini presses, crepe makers, deep fryers, tetsubin, woks, potjies, and karahi.
What is the seasoning on cast iron cookware, and how is it formed?
Polymerized oils and fats provide a stick-resistant layer in seasoned pans. Seasoning cast iron cookware is when a layer of animal fat or vegetable oil is applied and cooked onto cast iron and heated above the oil's smoke point. This forms a polymer, which is your seasoning layer.
How to use salt to remove rust or damaged seasoning from your cast iron cookware. A step by step how to instruction
Basically, you can use salt as an abrasive to scrub away rust and damaged seasoning around the rusted areas on your pan or skillet. Next, you clean your pan as normal, dry it, apply a light coating of cooking oil, and then heat the pan above the cooking oil's smoke point, forming the new replacement seasoning layer.
Steps I use to remove rust and damaged seasoning - This is my method, there are other variations on this that I will talk about below.
- Clean as normal, removing any leftover food and excess oil from the cookware. Soap can be used to remove any excess oil.
- Dry the cookware with a kitchen tower right after washing.
- Heat the pan on the stovetop slowly over low heat until any remaining water or moisture is removed from the cookware. You should see some steam as the pan heats, and you will start to see smoke if the pan gets hot enough to smoke the cooking oil left in the pan.
- Remove the heat from the pan and/or remove the pan from the stovetop, and place it on a secure surface that won’t be damaged by the hot pan.
- Take salt and add it to the inside of the pan, where the rust has been seen. You may notice that the seasoning around the rusted area is chipped or damaged. You want to completely cover the rusted areas as well as any areas where the seasoning is damaged.
- NOTE - The salt that you use matters. Preferably, use standard white table salt, better is a kosher coarse salt.
- Add liberal amounts of salt to the inside of your cookware. You are going to form a paste that you can then use to scrub with.
- Heat up water in your sink. You do not want to add cold water to your pan. You heated the pan to remove excess water from cleaning, and to expand the cast iron so that the rust is not embedded in any pin holes that make up your cast iron cookware.
- Once the water in the sink is hot, add a small amount of water to the salt in your pan or skillet.
- The water is there to help make a paste, so you do not need much.
- Use the salt and water paste to scrub the damaged seasoning. You can use a paper towel, a sponge, or even a scouring pad to scrub with.
- The salt will dissolve, and as you scrub, it will break down and eventually not have much abrasive left, so you can add more salt and water as needed to maintain your paste.
- You should be able to see the effect you are having on the rust and damaged seasoning as you scrub. Continue to scrub until you can no longer see any rust on the surface and any damaged seasoning has been removed. You can use the salt and water paste around the entire cookware if there are areas you want to repair.
- When you're satisfied that the rust and damaged seasoning have been removed or smoothed down to your liking, throw away any excess salt and water.
- Clean the cookware as normal in the sink, using water at a temperature that closely matches the temperature of your cookware. You never want to put cold water on a hot piece of cast iron cookware, or you risk it being severely damaged from the resulting thermal shock.
- Once the cookware has been washed off, and all the salt has been removed, dry any water with a towel.
- Once again, heat the pan on the stovetop slowly over low heat until any remaining water or moisture is removed from the cookware. You should see some steam as the pan heats, and you will start to see smoke if the pan gets hot enough to smoke the cooking oil left in the pan.
Your cast iron cookware should be free of rust and damaged seasoning at this point, and you are ready to add a fresh new layer of seasoning to the pan.
To Season Your Freshly Cleaned Cast Iron Cookware
Apply your preferred cooking and seasoning oil to the entire surface of the cookware, making sure you have covered everywhere you removed rust and damaged seasoning. This includes the handle, the sides, and the bottom. After applying the seasoning oil, take a clean paper towel and wipe any excess oil from the surfaces. You do not want standing oil anywhere, you want a coating of oil.
- Turn on your oven and set the temperature to a few degrees (5 - 10 degrees Fahrenheit), above the smoke point of your seasoning oil. The oil must reach this smoke point to form a polymer, the actual seasoning.
- Place the cookware into the oven as soon after starting the oven as you can, to allow the cookware to heat up slowly, and avoid any thermal shock issues.
- The oil will reach the smoke point and start to smoke. At this point, you might turn on your oven exhaust fan to vent the fumes.
- Once the smoking has stopped (usually between 30 and 60 minutes), you then turn off the oven, keep the door closed, and allow the oven and cast iron cookware to cool down slowly.
- Once cooled, you can inspect the cookware to verify that the new seasoning has formed and that no evidence of rust remains. This should have been successful if you removed the rust with the salt paste.
- As an option, you can repeat the seasoning process by adding more fresh seasoning oil and reheating the pan over its smoke point in the oven again.
- Repeat to form multiple layers.
Why Season? - A proper seasoning of cast iron cookware protects the cookware from rusting, provides a non-stick surface for cooking, and reduces food interaction with the iron of the pan.
Cleaning - Because scrubbing or washing in a dishwasher can remove or harm the seasoning on a bare cast-iron pan, these pans should not be cleaned in the same way as most other cookware. Some chefs advocate simply wiping them out after use, or washing them with hot water and a stiff brush. Others recommend cleaning with light soap and water, followed by reapplying a small layer of fat or oil. A third approach is to scrub with coarse salt and a paper towel or clean rag.
When to season your Cast iron Cookware - During active use or before storage. Seasoning helps build the protective layer between the outside air and the cast iron in the pan, protecting it from rust.
As I mentioned before, there are a variety of options for cleaning cast iron cookware with salt. The consistent part of it is the use of salt as an abrasive. From there, the options are mostly around what to scrub with and what to clean with.
Options for Salt Repair of Cast Iron Cookware
For example, there is a similar method that uses a potato instead of water and a scrubbing device like a sponge or a paper towel. In the potato and salt method, you follow the same instructions I have given, but instead of adding water to the cookware, you cut open a potato and scrub around the salt using the open face of the potato, The potato supplies the moisture for the salt paste. The potato can also be used to scrub the salt, and I guess it provides a handle to hold it.
As I said previously, I do not consider this the correct method, but I am also not saying it is not the right method for you. In general, it just depends. Myself, I am in favor of utilizing resources I already have to do work, before replacing items I already have with items I might not have. I have water readily available, and potatoes are food for me. I would personally prefer to cook and eat the potato, instead of using it as a scouring pad. Also, to me, water and a paper towel, are significantly cheaper than a potato. I do realize that if you find yourself in a position where you do not have access to water, but you have excess potatoes laying around, then the potato method might make more sense.
Another method to clean cast iron cookware with salt recommends using oil instead of water in the salt paste. To me, again, water is much less expensive, and oil would be better used for seasoning than to make a salt paste. I also have concerns when using oil instead of water, in that the oil combines with the salt, making salty oil on the surface of your cookware. After scrubbing with oil and salt, you then have to use soap in your cleaning stage to make sure you remove any and all of the salty oil before adding new seasoning. If you miss some of the salty oil, it then becomes part of your seasoning, except that the seasoning would contain salt, which does not make for good cast iron seasoning and might promote more rust in the future. I do understand that if you have limited access to water and an abundance of oil laying around, maybe the salty oil method would be best.
Lastly, there is an apparent controversy about what to use to scrub your salt paste. Some people insist that blue shop towels are the “best” to use with cast iron cookware. I understand their view. They speak of the shop towels not having as much lint as regular cooking paper towels. My thought is, almost every kitchen has paper towels, and very few have blue shop towels, so when I like to use what I already have, it is an easy choice. The second concern for me is, are blue shop towels food grade, or do they have additives for shop use that might not be healthy for use with food? I do not know.
Can you use a metal scouring pad? Can you use an SOS pad? This is another point of contention among cast-iron cookware enthusiasts. For this post, I would suggest, disposable paper towels do work, as the salt is abrasive. If more abrasive is needed to remove the rust or damaged seasoning in your cookware, if it were me and I had a green scouring pad, I would try that. If that was not enough, I might step it up to a metal scouring pad or an SOS pad.
Dealers choice. What works for you, works, doesn’t it?
I hope you have enjoyed this post about using salt to remove rust from your cast iron cookware. Please consider subscribing and leave a comment below.
Cheers!
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