Date: Fri, 09 Dec 2005 From: Charlie Wirick (EZTAMPA) To: Anglican@stsams.org Subject: A question for the cooks or bakers My mother's skillet is in the storage room and covered with rust. Is recovery possible, do you know? Charlie ------------------------------ From: Jackie O'Sullivan Hi Charlie, You can resurrect that skillet! Get yourself some of those Chore Boy scrubbers--they come in steel and copper--and some plain steel wool. Put on your rubber gloves and have at it. when you think it is pretty clean, rinse it well and dry it in an over heted to about 200. If you stil have som rust spot, hit it with steel wool again, rinse, dry. When you are done, rub it well with good quality cooking oil--corn or canola is good. Even if a little blush of rust remains, it will come off with the oil. Rub it in well, and bake the pan in the oven--about 175-200--for an hour. Do this a couple of times, and then cook away! I lightly rub my cast iron--including this great griddle that is almost as good as outdoor charcoal grilling--before each use. Don't scrub it too hard, and always dry it either in the oven (pre-heat and shut it ff) or over a low burner. I do the latter after forgettign to take it out of the over one too many times ;-) I have my mother's old pan, a slightly larger skillet that is more than twenty years old, and the griddle. I expect then all to be heirlooms. Have fun! Jackie ------------------------------ From: Glenn Hammett I think someone already answered the question. It's well worth the work too. Remember, that some of the older cooking utensils are very valuable. New, good quality cast iron is not cheap. Some of the new stuff being imported from China is inferior. I have several skillets, a dutch oven, the cornbread stick pan, and my mother's cast iron wash pot. We have been offered several hundred dollars for the latter. Use baking soda, Dawn or Joy (or a similar product) a copper scrubber and steel wool to clean the skillet. You may have to do the job several times. Then season using crisco or lard and a hot oven for at least an hour. Avoid using vinegar in cast iron cooking utensils. Never use Pam on cast iron. +Glenn ------------------------------ From: Sibyl Smirl I was told by my father, and have read elsewhere, that the way to get that crust off (a once-per-decade or longer operation) is to have a big wood fire and put the pan in it, so it gets literally red or white hot, and leave it until the fire is down and ash, embers burned out. All the crust will be flaked off. Then, of course, you have to wash *scour*, normally a dirty word with cast iron) and reseason. I've never tried it, and the crust is mostly on the outside anyway. Of course, urbanites without fireplaces or yards (I don't count the kind of "yard" that is about a foot between house wall and anything else--not room for a fire) wouldn't be able to do that. I suppose every twenty years or so you could find someone having a bonfire/weenie roast. -- Love in Christ, Sibyl Smirl ------------------------------ From: M.L. Dante >Avoid using vinegar in cast iron cooking utensils. Really!? What does it do to the skillet? Mom always boiled vinegar-laced water in the skillet after cooking fish. It removed the odor/flavor of the fish. Is that why the skillets accumulate that crust? ------------------------------ From: Gary Gooch Vinegar is a weak solution of acetic acid. It dissolves the iron. Gary+ ------------------------------ From: +Glenn Here is how my grandmother got off the encrustation. On wash day after washing the clothes but before emptying the wash pot, she put extra lye soap in pot and boiled the skillet. After the skillet cooled down she rinsed it and them put he skillets into the hot coals and let it get red hot. After the skillet cooled down the encrusted stuff was mostly ash. Another wash and rinse. Then she seasoned it. I imagine that you could leave the skillet in an oven that has a setting for cleaning where the oven gets super hot. Or you could put the skillet in a barbecue grill right on the coals or in a fire place. In any case always let the skillet cool down before washing it. Cast iron can break when you cool it off too quickly. Vinegar will etch cast iron if one leaves it in the utensil too long. The original pan spray builds up a crust on anything you use it with. Some antique dealers are experts at restoring cast iron but may be too expensive unless the utensil is very valuable. +Glenn ------------------------------ Subject: [Anglican] Follow up on cast iron waffle iron I retired the cast iron waffle maker. I discovered what it is worth as an antique and that is what it's going to be from now on. I did some internet searching and found a Cuisinart Belgium waffle maker for about half list price (including the shipping and handling). I paid for UPS delivery but got it by Fedex in two days. I love it. The cooking surfaces are non stick so the waffles just fall out. I'm still learning how much batter to use, but I think I've got that figured out now. The appliance came with recipes for everything from very sweet waffles to waffles to be used with savory dishes such as chipped beef and creamed chicken. Just a word about seasoning cast iron. Never use salt. I don't know where that idea originated but it does nothing for seasoning the iron. If the cast iron has a lot of built up crud the best thing to do is put it in a hot fire and burn off the crud. Leaving it in a self cleaning oven might work too. Anyway, the shortening and a moderate oven works best on new cast iron or cast iron that has had previous seasoning scrubbed off. I recently bought a new set of pots and pans at Sam's Club...these are professional grade, heavy duty pans with an anodized no stick surface. Clean up is a breeze. Bon Appetit (or whatever the French say). +Glenn