Cast Iron Quick and Dirty Re-seasoning

I have a new steak accessory that I'll be showing you all soon. But before that, here's a bit of me restoring some of my much older steak essential hardware.

If you've got some tired and worn cast iron, this is what I've found to be the fastest way to bring it back to life. Good luck!

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[Didgeridoo]

That's the exact way I clean and re-season my cast irons when I neglect them, loving this channel so far!

[brysonalden]

As a blacksmith I use a cup brush to clean my projects all the time, but I never thought about using one to clean my cast iron. Oh, and corn oil also has a pretty high smoke point. Thanks!

[nunyabidness]

If you're in the South or some other similarly humid place, or if you are at the coast where the air is salty, oil the pan as you are stripping it back to bare metal. When the air is humid or salty, you can have minutes, not days, before flash rusting begins. Once you have a stripped pan with dirty oil on it, put your hottest burner on high, wash the pan with hot water and soap while the burner heats, rinse very thoroughly, dry it quickly, put it on the burner quickly to cook off the remaining water, then take it off and rub a thin layer of clean oil on it. Then proceed with the seasoning procedure. The key with all cast iron seasoning jobs is using the thinnest layers of oil possible, and doing multiple seasonings. If you noticed when Deev was first stripping the smaller pan, he revealed some medium brown material that looked like hashish. He hasn't been cooking drugs (presumably), it's just buildup from using too thick a layer of oil at some time in the pan's past. You want the burnt oil to bond to the metal, not to other oil. Oil bonding to oil is what causes cast iron pans to leave flaky bits in your food. One other useful tidbit from years of experience is that if none of your friends or family have an allergy, use peanut oil. It gives great results.

[adammorris]

I have older Wagner Ware and Griswold pans. I have heard the reason they have a much smoother surface is that they used a finer sand for the moulds, and then turned the cooking surface on a lathe.

I bought most of mine relatively cheaply at goodwill. With one (expensive) exception. Mostly I use a WagnerWare Dutch Oven, a WagnerWare "5 star Skillet set" (Skillet and Griddle that hook together to form a pan and lid) and a Griswold Waffle Pan (the expensive one).

I wouldn't pay the antique store prices but definitely worth looking out for in thrift stores.

[Flmtwit]

So, if you're really lazy, you can skip the wire wheel portion of this, and simply heat up your pan and burn off most of the crusty carbon/dirty stuff. Then do the seasoning part of it. For the surface rust, just use white vinegar for about an hour semi soak. (deeper rust will need a much longer soak). Remember to season yourself during this with decent irish whiskey.

[shadoeboi]

An easy way to maintain/touchup the seasoning is preheat your oven to 500-520f rub all the exposed bits with oil and throw it in there for like 1-2 hrs

[Toradoshi]

Alton Brown's favorite kitchen multitasker: the power drill.

[wobblysauce]

Best way is to use it.. so true... get that flavor back in there.

[Sysiphus]

I should not watch your food videos before going to bed. Also,
I want that pepper mill.

[calebcain]

So, the power drill is nice, and it's what I used to do, but there's a really easy trick I accidentally learned making homemade pretzels to strip your pan of all the old seasoning and oils.

First, knock off any stuck-on food with a quick pass of a scrubber, then just put 1/4 to 1/2 cup of baking soda in the pan, fill the pan with water, give it a good stir, and set it to medium on the stove for half an hour. When you come back, drain it, and wipe it with a paper towel you'll find the most virgin iron surface you've ever seen, then you can reseason it in whatever way gives you grins. (I prefer a blend of vegetable oil and extra virgin olive oil, but you do you.)

If you want to give the bottom and sides a similar treatment, just fill a large pot with a similar mixture and put your cast iron into that.

Make sure to dry it, and then wipe it with a thin layer of oil IMMEDIATELY after taking it out of the water, to avoid rust, especially if you're going to do the seasoning steps later.

[arlobubble]

Gonna have to start keeping a wire wheel and drill in the kitchen for all stubborn pots and pans

[keensbeanz]

cast iron manufacturers claim that low smoke point oils work better because it takes less effort for them to polymerize. I tried high smoke point in an oven and it didn't work because it wasn't getting hot enough. Switched to Flax oil and it worked perfectly.

[aperson]

Would have been great if I had found this one like a week and a half or so ago... My wife tried cleaning up a cast iron pan with steel wool, and when that was ineffective, stepped it up to a Milwaukee M12 angle grinder with a relatively light abrasive wheel.. She ended up with shiny metal (of course she doesn't understand starting light and working your way up as needed)... How she did I don't know because using the same type wheel on an unrelated piece of steel, I couldn't get through whatever coating was on the steel when I was cleaning up some minor rust. I sent her your video for future reference.

[dcriley]

Works for me. I trend to use some grape seed oil and the Barbeque.

[MrVNCNVG]

I love cast iron! I have two skillets and an enameled dutch oven that I use all the time. I've still got a couple of diamond coated (marketing)non-stick skillets but all teflon have been thrown away.

[spacedmanspiff]

once seasoned I clean with salt and re oil with olive for me.

[NoNamesLeft]

Boiling salt water in the pan and scrub with stainless wool, no soap cleans out the scum and keeps the oil seasoning.

[fertilizerspike]

Here's some things I've discovered using cast iron. Let used cooking grease sit in it always. If you must clean it out do it immediately before cooking. If you cook over wood or alcohol or tablets you can wipe the soot off the outside and smear it around the inside with grease. Soot is graphene and buckminsterfullerene.

[shura]

Dev, do you have a quick and dirty way to clean it between these refreshes?

[BakedAloha]

I basically do a hot oil layer after every time I use my pans when their still hot