My maternal grand parents bought a 9 piece set of cast iron pans when they got married. When they passed away they were handed down to my mother and father. When my mother and father passed away they were handed down to me. When my wife and I pass my daughter will receive the 9 piece set. That will be four generations the cast iron set were handed down to family members. Those cast iron pans mean a lot to me.
I'm 70 and have my grandma's, my aunt's, my mom's, my own cast iron pans and Dutch ovens. I have always just burned my pans overnight in our fireplace. Best nonstick cookware ever.
When I first got my cast iron it was raw and I went out camping and I made a fire in my fire pit and I had the wrought iron Hooks and tools to take it out and I cooked it in there and it turned black and it got really hot and I pulled it out and I've been using it ever since and yes if I did have to clean it I would go camping again and I do the same thing like you said just burn it all off just be done with it😊
@pamelabeaton6667 that’s great for folks that can have fires. We have seasonal burn bans here in southern Oregon. So I looked for a way that did not involve fire.
Wow great video. I have my granddads griswold that we have used my whole life. I use it still constantly but it has the crust that you removed. I am excited to do this method. The skillet is a treasure to me. My grand father and grandmother adopted me at birth so this skillet was Daddy’s and he was the family cook. It not only warms my food but it warms my heart everytime. ❤️
That’s an amazing story and heritage of your skillet. What a treasure!! My mother and MIL have both passed so it’s b very special to me to have one skillet from each of them.🥰🌻🌻🌻
My mom and aunt would take our cast iron camping. After dinner or the next morning we would take the oldest pan and build a fire. When we had coals in the fire spot cover the cast iron pan in the coals to burn the crud off. Now you had a pan that you could season all over again. Good times, good times.
Long read but an interesting cast iron story...so, I' 'm in my 60's, and was raised with my Grandparents next door. Both were born in the 1880s. I was in my early teens when Dado had that chat with me, I cherish that woodshed"Sit down" and sit down I did. Somehow...as painted today...Day 1 of Womanhood. As I walked out of that woodshed after just watching my Grandfather softly tell me while chopping blocks of wood into small kindling to get our morning fires going. That I was to prepare. I was now facing a huge, remote, off-grid homestead with my Outfitter Dado saying he's tired...get ready. The sound of his chopping stung as I was walking toward my horses...I stopped, went back, and asked for a specific cast iron campfire saucepan that no one else used but him. He kept it in his pack for his daily travels and he never washed it, he cleaned it the moment he removed the food and seasoned it while it was still hot before he'd sit to eat. He looked puzzled so I explained, I just love how food tastes in that pan and I want to take care of it...I will cook for Gramma with it! He got up then and there, to go get it for me. It gives a beautiful smoke flavor to our food, and a soft comforting Green Pine/campfire touch to the smell in the house or Deck. The pine scents are from campfire seasoning... I still clean it like Dado did and have never had to re-season it. It's so thick but looks like chrome on the inside. haha, my 20 yr old grandson and 15 yr old granddaughter have joined my 3 daughters in trying to wangle ithat exact one out of me when I have dozens for them to chose from. lol. Then when one of the kids asked if the pan would come with the key's I figured them out lol. Dado was so touched and impressed with my one request to keep a cast iron fry pan, compared to his 18 sons and daughters that he invited the whole family over for Easter Dinner, after a 4-month stint in the hospital and gave ME, his 5 lb bundle of key's to the homestead in front of his kids. Told them the homestead was in the right hands so the great-grandkids he's not going to meet here can have a place to call home no matter where they live...this is gonna be here he said...and 50 years later it is! But Better! And Bigger, as of last month...his bloodline is 700 strong!
My mother taught me that cast iron skillet are the best for cooking, she was right 60 years later I would say that they definitely hold up , they heat very evenly. And as this video shows they can always be fixed.. ✌️❤️
I am 69 and have my grandmother's deep fryer and 8" CI pans, I can tell you she would have had a heart attack if I ever cleaned her pans to that brand new look. When she gave them to me her lecture was "I don't ever want to see or hear of you using soap or scrubbing my pans, it took me years to get rhem rhis way and that is how they better stay". So the only time I use soap is on the outside and then only if there is grease on it that I'm afraid may flame up, I'm sure she would get on me about that too. Interesting video though, I enjoyed it. Oh yea, grandpa told me to throw it in the fire and let it stay there until the fire burned out if I ever wanted to really clean them, but that I should never let grandma know he told me that, then he told me how to reseason them.
@@D9P323 don't use any soap, detergents, etc. Chip off big chunks. Other than that oil & put in oven 500 degrees , can do these steps as many times as you want, when ever you want after your 1st original season. But, the whole purpose of cast iron is because it's easy to clean, because there's no true cleaning. I know people who just after cooking once pan cools, they just wipe it down with damp or dry cloth. Literally
You don't ever want to throw your cast iron pan into a fire because the fire is so hot it changes the molecular structure of the cast iron which is only about 800 Degrees and fire usually Burns at 12 to 1400 ° your seasoning will never stick to it... you will see when you look at the pan the pan will have an orange tint to it you might as well just throw it away
You can save yourself a ton of time and effort when restoring these pans by simply putting them in the oven and running a self clean cycle. All the rust and grime will literally fall off and they are ready to begin seasoning. Always make sure you are applying the seasoning to a preheated pan, so that the pores are opened up and the oil absorbs into the pores. Just heat the pan on a burner until you can't touch the upper rim for more than a brief moment and the pan is ready to receive the oil. I use sunflower seed oil on mine, but anything with a high smoke point will be fine.
I found the easiest way to strip everything is to build a fire and place the pan on it and then build a fire inside the pan and just leave it until the next day when the fire goes out. Pan comes out spotless and no harsh chemicals completely safe. Works every time.
My method is similar. I'll put my cast-iron in my oven and run the cleaning cycle. It stays in around 500⁰+ temps for several hours. Once the cleaning cycle is done, let things cool off, and you have a stripped pan ready for a new seasoning.
Xero i have seen people do that and yeah i think it works the same. Its just easy for me to do it outside and my wife doesn't have to smell the cast iron burning. Lol.
I’m a chemical engineer. Some friendly advice. Use a face shield as well as a respirator. Also wear long sleeve lab coat. They are cheap. You are wearing good gloves. You should have a second container which can hold twice the volume in your soaking container. Put your soaking container in the larger secondary container. Finally, have about 10 gallons of water available nearby so that you can wash your eyes in the event of an accident. A second person should be standing by in case you need emergency care. Also, do not reuse the solution, dispose safely immediately after use.
How to dispose of 5 gallons of dirty NaOH water safely? Is it OK to put down the drain as is? How much does pH change (say it's 14 initially) after 24 hours and lots of grime going into solution? (assuming probably not into a septic system) Thanks.
Thank you for such an awesome video. I have all my grandmother's cast iron frying pan in every size. Now I know how to make them nonstick. I am 70 and have been using them since I was 10. I think of her every time, especially using the recipes she passed down.
I share a very similar story....my grandma's pans carry a lifetime of memories. I will pass them on to my children, as well. Let's keep the memories we have for as long as we can, shall we?
I hope by more people watching videos like this that they will start to get an understanding of the difference between seasoned and dirty. Well maintained cast iron can be both clean, and seasoned.
For people curious, the seasoning is a polymerization of the oil which Dawn will not affect. The season is a hard enamel like plastic. The brown stains on a sheet pan that seem infuriating to clean is actually just seasoning and can just be left alone. I wouldn't scrub with steel wool as that will at best scratch the surface and mess up the non-stick properties. Scrubbing with a rag or plastic bristles is great though. Even Lodge says to use soap and water! Dawn is a dish detergent and real soaps were made with lye. Either of them is fine. If real soap would be a problem, it would also be melting your skin off your hands every time you use it!
@Wendyholzinger2224 ahhh that’s the worst. Like the time my husband put the cast iron in the dishwasher. I fixed it with a vinegar bath but man was I nearly a mess to find it in there. 😅
I restored one with a drill and wire wheel. It did not take 48 hours, and I did it outside. After de-scaling the skillet, I put it in a 400 degree oven, got it hot and rubbed oil on it, put it back in the oven and turned off the heat. I was searing steaks the next day.
I ran some through the self cleaning oven cycle. They came out great, just a tiny bit of dust (the former grime) remained in the pan. It was down to bare metal with zero gunk left.
@terrysincheff6682 this is what I have heard and many folks have killed their oven using the oven clean function so that’s why I don’t recommend it. And we can’t always have outdoor fires here in the west with the burn bans😅
Really nice. Yeah, the one thing I learned was to wipe all that excess oil off. I grew up with cast iron, so I was lucky to have a Dad that taught me alot about it. I usually do about three coats of flaxseed oil and then another three with grape seed oild or avocado oil. Nice and black. After that, I oil used olive oil for maintenance. Nice and slick after that. I stove top maintenance it with olive oil every single time I use it. Just before it starts smoking I pull it off. It works excellent. Great video. I never use soap ever. To each their own. Its important to use heat every time you oil that pan. Like I said, just medium heat.
Me too. Miss my momma and her cast iron cooking on the wood cook stove. Happy to have one of her pans. I don’t use soap typically but after I hearing cast iron rebels using it without issue I tried it. No problems. Season was still in tact. I’m like you though and prefer soapless methods of cleaning it. 🌻🌻🌻
And no matter what soap I've used, it would always end up smelling. Funny! So I just wipe them out while warm. Then scrub with hot water and plastic bristle brush. Then the stove top season just until smoke pans are awesome!
@@RowesRising Yeah I used a very small amount a couple times and it won't take the seasoning off. But like I said, leaves a funny smell and that's enough to bother me. I'm sure it's fine though lol
Wow, that was a night and day difference. Mine is a few years old now and starting to build enough carbon to find a cleaning method. Thanks for the video.
That was a very good video, you need to do more cast iron vids. I don't care if it's cooking, or cleaning, or maintenance of cast iron I'd watch it. Most cast iron channels are experts in their own mind lol. That was the most calming cast iron video of all time.
@bingster-223 It's great that u enjoyed her presentation and So did I. I thoroughly enjoy many types of videos but I sense some resentment by ur remark of most ci channels being experts in their own minds. Why would u even say something like that? I'm sure they're not professing to be experts just as I don't. Many are my comrads or cast iron associates and we spent years upon years studying and researching the topic to be More knowledgeable. Some have even written books. Some retired from famous foundries and know cast iron backwards and forward. Many of them have an extensive collection such as myself. We're military and I've collected from several countries but an Expert..I wouldnt say but I do know enough that I could possibly be considered one. We even have a annual convention thru out the country where we share, swap and sell really nice pieces. We have guest speakers. One associate & his wife are well known and famous for their collection in which magazines have featured them and their cast iron museum. Experts?? Maybe, maybe not...but SO darn close to it that they may as well be considered one. Don't hate the players for their knowledge just bcz U have the lack there of.
Excellent video! Most impressive. I decided to have my two pans bead-blasted, which takes everything right down to the metal, but I re-seasoned them exactly per your instructions. They came out PERFECT. My largest pan is at least 70 years old, and as some of the comments have said, I will be passing them on to my children, as well. And, of course, I subscribed!
Did you do the bead blasting or did you find someone who can? I’ve been curious about bead/sand blasting but I don’t know where to begin. I guess I could “RUclips it”. 😅
@@RowesRising I actually did the blasting myself. Sand blasting is not an option in this case, because it tends to leave the surface somewhat porous, depending on the cookware metal. Bead blasting will not do this, and it lends itself perfectly to cast iron. My pans look so good now that I don't want to use them!
A Few hints, Use SOS cleaning pads to clean your CI, My dad and I both sand the inside of the pan to make it smooth as can be, wipe clean with oil, The we use animal fat to season it and don‘t use your oven use your gas grill. Just remember to place your pan upside down so all of the hot oil will drip down and off of the pan.
I used 50% white vintages and water let set 5 minutes at a time scrub between with some scrub with.soft brush repeat 5 times , heat to 125 to warm the water out , lard the inside and out reheat 20 minutes let cool naturally bought a maretti co. Pa. #6 for $20 , now worth $95-110
I have the same Wagner - my Mothers wedding gift from 1945 - and it looks exactly like your ‘before.’ I’ve been doing a lot of research to safely restore it. Yours is the best video and my research stops here. I will be following your method to restore this family treasure. Ps. My dad did as many here noted - threw it in a yearly campfire.
The camp fire is a great way to do it!! We have burn bans here and are limited to when we can burn. So this was the method I could do at that time. Thanks for watching!! 🌻
@@RowesRising I would never use fire to strip a pan. That could leave microscopic fissures in the pan, and you never know when the pan will split. It always happens when you are cooking.
Excellent job and great video. I remember as a kid growing up, I had a friend who lived with his grandparents. His grandmother used a large cast iron skillet for almost everything. She made bacon, eggs and biscuits almost every morning for us when we were over there. Hers looked about like these before you cleaned them! They worked perfectly and she always made amazing food. I often wonder where that old skillet wound up now that all three of them have passed.
I would be wondering too!! My mother’s cast iron holds so many memories for me. It’s very special to me. I bet you would have cherished that skillet if it would have been in your possession. So special!
Great video packed with information...most people buy brand new and never learn the basics of certain things. Getting something old and abused, refurbishing it and spending that time makes a person respect the item. I can see me doing this on an old stump I've been trying to kill! Cheers!
Lady, you are amazing! I have so many cast iron pots and pans that need cleaning. I will follow your recipe And I am happy I now know what to do Thank you!!
In Australia we use 2 methods,one is a molasses bath to get all the crud of then season it and the other is we use a wire wheel on end of drill and clean it that way then season it. I like to season mine on a fire i believe it just gets it hotter and smokey in my opinion the food tastes so much better from your cast iron.
I was quite surprised by this. Then I thought about it with respect to soap making, and it does make some sense. Here are some smoke point for various oils. Avocado Oil: 520° Safflower Oil: 475 to 500° Soybean Oil: 450 to 475° Sunflower Oil: 450° Peanut Oil: 450° Corn Oil: 400 to 450° Almond Oil: About 430° Sesame Oil: 410 to 450° Grapeseed Oil: About 420° Canola Oil: 375 to 450° Olive Oil: 325° to 375° Coconut Oil: 350°F Walnut Oil: 320° Flax Oil: About 225°
Seed oils like corn, canola, etc. are literally the absolute worst product you can put into your body or on your pans, worse than sugar. Personally, I'm unshockingly more old fashioned......Crisco.
I bought a brand new cast iron skillet and it came with some kind of seasoning on it! It remains very sticky! How can I remove this sticky coating? They are unusable at present! Help!
@sandrapowers6099 you can try seasoning it more- maybe it needs a few more coats, or stripping it by heating in your oven at a high heat and see if you can burn that seasoning off. Then re- season it yourself. Or you could do this method in this video.
@@tanyarobinson1146 Correct, as far as health. But if I'm going to use something bad for me, I use something that works better for seasoning. Thought that is the only time I ever use any of that crap.
Well done video. Quick and to the point. So many others waste time by telling personal stories and wandering from topic. I learned much from this presentation.
I am in the middle of the first set of Lye bath and it is amazing. So much gunk came off! Can't wait for more. I have very old pots, skillets etc., from my family farm and I can't wait to show everyone the finished product. Very cool process and video! Thanks!
I've never used a lye bath for really grungy cast iron. If you are handy with a drill, you can use an abrasive disk that is for rust removal. You get everything off in less than 30 minutes and I have never seen any marks left on the pan. Just make sure you season it right away because even though you didn't use any water, you are down to bare metal and even the moisture in the air will make it start to rust. So, if chemicals bother you, this is a great alternative. Go slow if you are new to using a drill, but it isn't that hard.
That sounds so satisfying!!! And like a fun way to clean it. Some folks also put it in a hot fire and burn off all the carbon buildup. So many ways to skin a cat! A way for everyone to do it with the resources they have💪🏼 Thanks for watching and sharing your experience!! 🌻🌻🌻
I don't want to use chemicals with cooking tools. Takes too long and possible residues. Just burn it briefly at fire place and let it cool. Nothing abrasive either. Steelwire disc is effective and gentle.
This is so encouraging!! I bought my cast iron new over 30 years ago and my steel wool treatments haven't been good enough! And other restoration treatments I've seen involve electrodes and big vats that seem out of reach for a home cook with one little pan!!! I'm definitely trying this!!!! 🍳
Stuck an old lodge full of caked on whatever in my solo stove one night and after a few beers all i did was let it cool scrape the whatever off super easy and started seasoning
I want a solo stove!! We have a burn ban currently and there are fires all over Southern Oregon. But it would be fun to have a solo stove in winter for when we play outside in the snow- have a solo fire to warm up.
My mom gave me one of her cast iron pan I’ve always used cast iron pans when my kids was small and I’ll continue to use them my Favorite over all pans❤
Well, I know now how to properly season the old cast iron skillet I got from my mother-in-law. I have been wanting to learn how to do this for awhile now. Thanks so much for your video on this!!
I love vintage cast iron and restoring them, but stopped due to seeing a lot of people using them for melting lead then tossing them… only buy new now sand off the factory season and season them the way i like. That being said these came out amazing
Great video. I am 64 years old and have my grandmother’s cast iron. So its old. It has the same grime on it and gave up trying to get off. I will be doing your method this weekend. Thanks
You did a great job restoring those pans! I have not tried avocado oil. I will have to try that. The easiest way I have found to clean cast iron is to put them in my oven and do the self clean on my oven and it cleans them then I season them.
This is a good idea. Very practical and inexpensive method. I make my own soap and use lye for that process. The only caution that I would suggest is to make your lye solution in a well ventilated area. The fumes that are produced when mixing lye and water can be overpowering.
It is much easier and actually faster just to put it in a backyard fire/campfire/fireplace. The only thing you have to remember is to preheat the pan before you put it right on the coals, and to let it cool slowly. Now give it a quick wash and dry and start your seasoning process
You are correct because it keeps It seasoned and black but this lady was removing the actual seasoning having no idea what was on it was perfection. A black iron skillet is seasoned.
I’ve used the electrolysis method in the past. Works just as effectively. The Wagner Ware and Griswold pans are the gems at the thrift stores because they machined the cooking surfaces flat. Newer cast iron and especially the Lodge brand can’t hold a candle to the old ones. Nice video. You may have inspired me to clean mine up after a decade of use!
I used a random orbital sander to smooth out my Lodge pans. Still not completely smooth (since the surface area increases so much as you get lower it's just progressively more and more work), but mostly non-stick after seasoning. If I get any more cast iron in the future they'll be machined post-casting, whether that's one of the modern brands that does that or a vintage one.
@@vinceruland9236 mine was a lot more non-stick after I made it smooth. Cooking itself wasn’t improved particularly, just my interest in using it to cook more often and with a wider variety of food.
Nice video. I too have moved to Avocado oil for my cast iron. To strip my pans, I use "Easy Off" oven cleaner and put the pan in a plastic garbage bag, for a few days. If it's rusty, I've had good luck submerging in white vinegar. My favorite pan has got to the #8 Wagner.
Just put inside your oven and turn on self cleaning cycle. I did by accident and it burned off DECADES grime. Looked like new(which was not my intent!) but reasoned and works great to this day!
I have a lodge pan, same one you show at the beginning of the video (3 notches in the ring around the bottom), since I bought it in 1977. It has a "hardware" quality surface on the inside, relatively smooth with visible circumferential rings from the stone used to polish the inside. It has never seen soap in the last 45 years. When eggs and cheese end up stuck on the sides I just let it soak with warm tap water for a little while and then scrape it out with a spatula before applying a thin coat of oil. I have many Wagner Ware pans, some I received from a great aunt's estate, that have never seen soap. I have never needed to "Re-season" a pan.
wow girl your pans look fantastic! Just got 2 Wagner pans and had to start with a angle grinder then disk sander before seasoning. but now they look better than new.
Soda ash works just as well, but it's a little less aggessive and therefore safer to use. You can also hook up the parts to the negative lead of a car battery charger, and add a piece of sacrificial metal to the bath, separate from the pans, hooked up to the positive lead. That'll really chew through the grime and loosen it up more thoroughly than any mechanical scrubbing, with much less risk of damaging the pan.
I saw @castironchris does an electrolysis tank for his CI. He restores pieces for folks and uses multiple methods depending on his clients preference. Thanks for the information!!
Good video. My cast iron is usually ok on the outside. It's the inside that often needs attention (when it gets flakey) . I have one pan that is 23 years old and the outside is still beautiful. I use oven cleaner (it's lye) on the inside of the pan. Works great. I'm not so much on looks as I am on performance/function of the pan.
You care for your skillet really well and I can tell it’s a cherished part of your cooking collection🍳 I promise I will do better from here forward. Thanks for the tips Michael!!
Today is the first day of fire season. I didn’t know that would get the carbon off. I wonder if my mom did that in our wood stove growing up? Things I wish I had a chance to ask her🥺
Thank you! This just came across my inbox. I have collected for a couple of years and I was going to clean them (60 pieces) over the winter but got a little sick, under the weather and was not able. BUT, I plan on it this winter. Too much garden and canning during the summer. I think I will look around your channel for other videos.
A method I like is using a ripping hot grill. After about an hour, the pans will be stripped bare and light grey in color. Also there was a step that I was skipping after I would clean and dry off the pans. You have to let the pan cool back down before you apply oil. If you put the oil in while it's hot it will partially bond and create sticky, poorly seasoned areas.
I put them upside down on an old oven rack (It will darken new shiny ones) and let them go thru the automatic oven cleaning cycle. works well! then you just have to apply several coats of re-finishing.
Great job, avocado oil is a good choice but some say animal fats like tallow or lard to season it with thin coats over and over. Some people also use disc sanders to polish the flat bottom a bit more to make a really non stick surface.
If you have a self cleaning oven toss them in and run it through a clean cycle and they are clean and ready to season, no dangerous chemicals no toxic waste to dispose of. It looks like she looked for the longest ,hardest , most inconvenient way to get the job done.
Accidentally “cleaned” my two prized cast iron skillets that way… it works great! I almost cried when I realized my skillets were in there, and there was no way to stop it. It took some time to reseason, but great lesson learned.
This is the "old way" for seasoning. Nowadays we know that you dont' need to overheat your stove, you just need to be under the smoke point of the oil you are using and it will polymerize. If the pan is still sticky after 60 minutes it means that the temperature was a bit too low. Just put it back at a higher temperature. "The smoke point of an oil or fat should not be exceeded during cooking, as potentially carcinogenic compounds can be formed and released. But the advice is often seen given to do just that during the manual seasoning of cast iron cookware. Some like to artificially accelerate the darkening of the seasoning by cranking the temp up above the smoke point of one or more layers of the manually-applied oil. Since a superior non-stick seasoning coat consists not only of polymerized fat, but also of a mixture of carbon within it, the thinking is that exceeding the smoke point will carbonize the compounds in the oil to desirable effect. While it may produce the desired cosmetic effect, this may not be prudent, and is, again, not really necessary, as the pan will darken with use and more layers of seasoning. What you may wish to do instead is, prior to applying any seasoning, heat the pan gradually to 450-500*F for an hour or so. This has been observed to darken the bare iron somewhat. You will, however, need to let it cool to a temp appropriate for your seasoning oil before continuing." I personally use grape seed oil (smoking point: 420°F) and my oven is set at 400-410°F with a perfect result. You can find more information on this link: www.castironcollector.com/seasoning.php#smoke
Mixing lye into water will generate a ton of heat and fumes, do this in a place with great ventilation. Considering replacing a portion of your water with ice to keep it from getting too hot
I use avacado oil for seasoning CI also and for most of my cooking too. To restore,, i use a power drill with an abrasive disc (do not use metal),, it works fast and ive even used that method to literally strip lodge texturing off so my surface is smooth. No harsh chemicals.
Great results. I’ve not done this. But I will keep it in mind next time I walk by a pot or pan that I think is gonna be too stubborn. By the way. Those Wagner pans are amazing.
my grandmothers cast iron has over 150 years of what you call grime I call seasoning, cast iron is very porous and I have no desire to have lye sucked into the middle of the metal to eat later. more overkill, this was kinda interesting to watch but I'll do what Grandmother says
I have been looking forward to this video. I am going restore my cast iron and be on the lookout for other cast iron items when I am going to thrift stores. It will be satisfying to see the process at work.
Some of these comments are adorable. I make lye soap and my family has done so for generations. Always be safe when using lye, but don't assume it's something it's not.
Adorable? I find them infuriating. Lye deserves plenty of respect, but people's fear of lye, as if it witchcraft in 1600 Salem is ridiculous. Its an OMG "chemical", Public education is the ruination of our country. Our ancestors harvested lye out of ash, to make their soap.
We use cast iron exclusively to cook unless it's a pot or casserole pan. I've never done a restoration but I take my pan when it's still hot, hit it with hot water, gently scrub out any food, which comes right off when the pan is still hot. Never use soap of any kind, immediately wipe the pan and hit it with cooking spray before it can flash rust, let it cool and put it away. 20 years and our pans still look brand new and I've never had to reseason them. I would like to try a rescue though, it sounds like fun.
here come the cork sniffers debating which oil is best. Its not rocked science guys, our ancestors figured out the best way to season and care for your cast iron is to just use it.
@@itmeurdad Microscopes were invented around 1600, cast iron began in the early 1700 and became a dominate form of cookware during the industrial revolution which began in earnest in the 1830 or so. Microscopes have been around 200 years longer than the common use of cast iron cookware. Maybe you grew up in the middle east where people still live in the dark ages, but my ancestors culture definitely had microscopes before the common use of cast iron cookware.
I like to use lard myself but I was trying to use something more common that everyone has. There are a few comments about polymerization and what fats do this best. I’m not an expert by any means.
Very nice vintage Wagner & Lodge skillets. Worth the effort to restore, likely X10 in restored condition over what you paid. And you have some nice skillets that will last multiple generations with a little care. There must be as many ways to restore, and season pans as there are cast iron pan owners.
There are so many ways to restore. I hope to experiment with them all cause it’s a fun and satisfying process. Electrolysis looks like an interesting restoration method as well.
That grime is good! It protects the pan, forms a better non-stick coating the thicker it is, and reduces leaching of iron into your food. Using dangerous chemicals negates the point of using a cast iron pan in the first place. The grime eventually firms a super tough non stick coating free of dangerous teflon.
lol no… the GRIME is NOT GOOD! 🤣 The SMOOTH non stick surface IS GOOD. The grime and buildup that is thick and hard and bumpy is NOT part of the “non stick desired effect. Cooking on a thick bumpy and uneven “GRIME” is not NON STICK, and it’s DEFINITELY not going to allow the food you are cooking to cook EVENLY. For this skillet, the removal of the GRIME was the right call. But we all have our opinions. ⭐️Non stick surface… GOOD✅ ⭐️Chunky bumpy burnt buildup AKA “GRIME”…NOT GOOD 👎
People are suggesting to burn them in a fire but the problem is you cannot make fire anymore in many places unless it is super safe and you live in a place with a lot of land and not windy and dry, like in California. I like it easy and with no chemicals but not many people will buy an oven with self-cleaning to clean the cast iron pots, or what if you cannit make a fire, that’s another problem. But for those who do not want chemicals… maybe can use ashes and water it will become lye, natural lye.
It is totally unnecessary to use the caustic chemicals. Put the pans in a self-cleaning oven for about 2 hrs and all the baked on gunk will turn to ash, then you just wash the pan and proceed to season. I have 6 cast iron pots and pans and never had to use dangerous chemicals to clean one.
Guess it slipped your mind that muriatic acid is used to help balance the pH in many commercial and private swimming pools. The next time your neighbors invite you over for a swim you might want to check and see what process they use to keep their pool bright & shiny. You’re welcome
I also like avocado oil for seasoning, i have recently been using a crisbee stick for daily maintenance after using. I like the results so far. Beeswax palm oil and soybean oil i think. The larbee stick is good to, its lard and beeswax i think. Beautiful pans
You do 1:1 vinegar bath being sure to have enough soliciting to submerge the pan. 20-40 minutes ONLY! Anymore can ruin and put your pan. Then rinse and scrub and if it needs more time put ut back in for a few more minutes and repeat.
Hey Rowes Rising love the video...my jaw almost hit the ground when you pulled that Griswald out of nowhere. If you don't already know go research how much those skillets are going for. I have an 8 inch Griswald myself. Interesting story I found it buried in our backyard, cleaned it up similar to your method a few years ago, and then found out through a friend these skillets are valuable. I will be keeping mine in my family forever. I hope you have a good day, God Bless you!
I have never used lye on cast iron before that was amazing to watch. I use avocado oil on my cast iron and it works awesome. A couple of years ago I brought two of my cast iron pieces one griswold skillet griddle and a Favorite ware number 7 skillet on a week long fishing trip. To this day my friends are still talking about how non stick my cast iron is and how the over easy eggs were the best they have ever tasted. 😊😂 I will share this video to everyone in the future so I don’t have to explain it to them over and over again.there is no excuse anymore for them.And yes I did subscribe to your channel to show my appreciation for sharing your knowledge about making CAST IRON GREAT AGAIN 😂
Geese just use oven off. It’s so much easier. Put them in a trash bag with oven off all over them. Come back the next day and clean them up. If you don’t want to use chemicals, just put them in a bed of hot coals in your fireplace for a while. works just as good and burns everything off.
Maintain you cast iron cookware like a pro ruclips.net/video/_psddiF8J1M/видео.htmlsi=pT_JGfYrGkVMWByU
My maternal grand parents bought a 9 piece set of cast iron pans when they got married. When they passed away they were handed down to my mother and father. When my mother and father passed away they were handed down to me. When my wife and I pass my daughter will receive the 9 piece set. That will be four generations the cast iron set were handed down to family members. Those cast iron pans mean a lot to me.
That is amazing and so special. A gift to last generations🥰
That’s beautiful
I'm 70 and have my grandma's, my aunt's, my mom's, my own cast iron pans and Dutch ovens. I have always just burned my pans overnight in our fireplace. Best nonstick cookware ever.
That’s awesome!! Wish I had a wood stove😅
When I first got my cast iron it was raw and I went out camping and I made a fire in my fire pit and I had the wrought iron Hooks and tools to take it out and I cooked it in there and it turned black and it got really hot and I pulled it out and I've been using it ever since and yes if I did have to clean it I would go camping again and I do the same thing like you said just burn it all off just be done with it😊
@pamelabeaton6667 that’s great for folks that can have fires. We have seasonal burn bans here in southern Oregon. So I looked for a way that did not involve fire.
They just don't finish the inside of the pans like that anymore. That Wagner is absolutely gorgeous
@amandatwospirits8028 thank you! It’s my favorite skillet.
Wow great video. I have my granddads griswold that we have used my whole life. I use it still constantly but it has the crust that you removed. I am excited to do this method. The skillet is a treasure to me. My grand father and grandmother adopted me at birth so this skillet was Daddy’s and he was the family cook. It not only warms my food but it warms my heart everytime. ❤️
That’s an amazing story and heritage of your skillet. What a treasure!! My mother and MIL have both passed so it’s b very special to me to have one skillet from each of them.🥰🌻🌻🌻
Please, don't ruin the history of your pan!!!
Amen, don't ruin your skillet.@branemarkmoriarty
My mom and aunt would take our cast iron camping. After dinner or the next morning we would take the oldest pan and build a fire. When we had coals in the fire spot cover the cast iron pan in the coals to burn the crud off. Now you had a pan that you could season all over again. Good times, good times.
Wonderful memories!!🌻🌻🌻
Long read but an interesting cast iron story...so, I' 'm in my 60's, and was raised with my Grandparents next door. Both were born in the 1880s. I was in my early teens when Dado had that chat with me, I cherish that woodshed"Sit down" and sit down I did. Somehow...as painted today...Day 1 of Womanhood. As I walked out of that woodshed after just watching my Grandfather softly tell me while chopping blocks of wood into small kindling to get our morning fires going. That I was to prepare. I was now facing a huge, remote, off-grid homestead with my Outfitter Dado saying he's tired...get ready. The sound of his chopping stung as I was walking toward my horses...I stopped, went back, and asked for a specific cast iron campfire saucepan that no one else used but him. He kept it in his pack for his daily travels and he never washed it, he cleaned it the moment he removed the food and seasoned it while it was still hot before he'd sit to eat. He looked puzzled so I explained, I just love how food tastes in that pan and I want to take care of it...I will cook for Gramma with it! He got up then and there, to go get it for me. It gives a beautiful smoke flavor to our food, and a soft comforting Green Pine/campfire touch to the smell in the house or Deck. The pine scents are from campfire seasoning... I still clean it like Dado did and have never had to re-season it. It's so thick but looks like chrome on the inside. haha, my 20 yr old grandson and 15 yr old granddaughter have joined my 3 daughters in trying to wangle ithat exact one out of me when I have dozens for them to chose from. lol. Then when one of the kids asked if the pan would come with the key's I figured them out lol. Dado was so touched and impressed with my one request to keep a cast iron fry pan, compared to his 18 sons and daughters that he invited the whole family over for Easter Dinner, after a 4-month stint in the hospital and gave ME, his 5 lb bundle of key's to the homestead in front of his kids. Told them the homestead was in the right hands so the great-grandkids he's not going to meet here can have a place to call home no matter where they live...this is gonna be here he said...and 50 years later it is! But Better! And Bigger, as of last month...his bloodline is 700 strong!
Amazing story!! Thank you for sharing!
My mother taught me that cast iron skillet are the best for cooking, she was right 60 years later I would say that they definitely hold up , they heat very evenly. And as this video shows they can always be fixed.. ✌️❤️
I am 69 and have my grandmother's deep fryer and 8" CI pans, I can tell you she would have had a heart attack if I ever cleaned her pans to that brand new look. When she gave them to me her lecture was "I don't ever want to see or hear of you using soap or scrubbing my pans, it took me years to get rhem rhis way and that is how they better stay". So the only time I use soap is on the outside and then only if there is grease on it that I'm afraid may flame up, I'm sure she would get on me about that too. Interesting video though, I enjoyed it. Oh yea, grandpa told me to throw it in the fire and let it stay there until the fire burned out if I ever wanted to really clean them, but that I should never let grandma know he told me that, then he told me how to reseason them.
Very cool story, they gave you some awesome tribal knowledge 😊
@@D9P323Tribal? Lol
@@D9P323 don't use any soap, detergents, etc. Chip off big chunks. Other than that oil & put in oven 500 degrees , can do these steps as many times as you want, when ever you want after your 1st original season.
But, the whole purpose of cast iron is because it's easy to clean, because there's no true cleaning.
I know people who just after cooking once pan cools, they just wipe it down with damp or dry cloth. Literally
You don't ever want to throw your cast iron pan into a fire because the fire is so hot it changes the molecular structure of the cast iron which is only about 800 Degrees and fire usually Burns at 12 to 1400 ° your seasoning will never stick to it... you will see when you look at the pan the pan will have an orange tint to it you might as well just throw it away
That was fine advice back when dish soap contained lye. No so much now. Dawn dish soap is perfectly safe to use on seasoned cast iron.
You can save yourself a ton of time and effort when restoring these pans by simply putting them in the oven and running a self clean cycle. All the rust and grime will literally fall off and they are ready to begin seasoning. Always make sure you are applying the seasoning to a preheated pan, so that the pores are opened up and the oil absorbs into the pores. Just heat the pan on a burner until you can't touch the upper rim for more than a brief moment and the pan is ready to receive the oil. I use sunflower seed oil on mine, but anything with a high smoke point will be fine.
I found the easiest way to strip everything is to build a fire and place the pan on it and then build a fire inside the pan and just leave it until the next day when the fire goes out. Pan comes out spotless and no harsh chemicals completely safe. Works every time.
That’s great when you can have a fire. In the PNW we have burn bans 😅
My method is similar. I'll put my cast-iron in my oven and run the cleaning cycle. It stays in around 500⁰+ temps for several hours. Once the cleaning cycle is done, let things cool off, and you have a stripped pan ready for a new seasoning.
Xero i have seen people do that and yeah i think it works the same. Its just easy for me to do it outside and my wife doesn't have to smell the cast iron burning. Lol.
@RowesRising i understand. i just dont like to use chemicals if i dont have to.
@katyaker8913 bless you for thinking of your sweet wife. 🥰
I’m a chemical engineer. Some friendly advice. Use a face shield as well as a respirator. Also wear long sleeve lab coat. They are cheap. You are wearing good gloves. You should have a second container which can hold twice the volume in your soaking container. Put your soaking container in the larger secondary container. Finally, have about 10 gallons of water available nearby so that you can wash your eyes in the event of an accident. A second person should be standing by in case you need emergency care. Also, do not reuse the solution, dispose safely immediately after use.
That’s very detailed. Thanks for sharing your expertise. Safety first!!!
How to dispose of 5 gallons of dirty NaOH water safely? Is it OK to put down the drain as is? How much does pH change (say it's 14 initially) after 24 hours and lots of grime going into solution? (assuming probably not into a septic system) Thanks.
Add water to Lye = you die?
A cast iron pan aint worth my life…
How do you think a household product like Easy Off work compared to this method?
My cat 🐈 girlie is a chemical engineer when she goes to her litter box 😮😢
Excellent vlog! One of the best actually. Clear, concise and to the point without over speaking just to fill blank airspace. Thank you!
Thank you Susan!! I don’t like all the filler words either. Get to the point😅
Thank you for such an awesome video. I have all my grandmother's cast iron frying pan in every size. Now I know how to make them nonstick. I am 70 and have been using them since I was 10. I think of her every time, especially using the recipes she passed down.
I share a very similar story....my grandma's pans carry a lifetime of memories. I will pass them on to my children, as well. Let's keep the memories we have for as long as we can, shall we?
I hope by more people watching videos like this that they will start to get an understanding of the difference between seasoned and dirty. Well maintained cast iron can be both clean, and seasoned.
Exactly!! Thanks for watching.
For people curious, the seasoning is a polymerization of the oil which Dawn will not affect. The season is a hard enamel like plastic. The brown stains on a sheet pan that seem infuriating to clean is actually just seasoning and can just be left alone. I wouldn't scrub with steel wool as that will at best scratch the surface and mess up the non-stick properties. Scrubbing with a rag or plastic bristles is great though. Even Lodge says to use soap and water! Dawn is a dish detergent and real soaps were made with lye. Either of them is fine. If real soap would be a problem, it would also be melting your skin off your hands every time you use it!
Thanks for spelling it out that soap will not hurt the CI!! 🌻🌻🌻😅
I had someone “clean”my best cookie sheet😢 now it’s rusty
@Wendyholzinger2224 ahhh that’s the worst. Like the time my husband put the cast iron in the dishwasher. I fixed it with a vinegar bath but man was I nearly a mess to find it in there. 😅
Glad someone else said it. I constantly see this repeated myth that you can't use soap and just mentally roll my eyes every time.
I totally agree with everything you said, except polymerization It’s carbonization, burnt oil turns into carbon.
I restored one with a drill and wire wheel. It did not take 48 hours, and I did it outside. After de-scaling the skillet, I put it in a 400 degree oven, got it hot and rubbed oil on it, put it back in the oven and turned off the heat. I was searing steaks the next day.
That’s awesome.
Same. I use an Orbital sander, then reseason with grapeseed oil in a 500 degree oven for an hour x 4 trips through. Done.
I ran some through the self cleaning oven cycle. They came out great, just a tiny bit of dust (the former grime) remained in the pan. It was down to bare metal with zero gunk left.
This is what I do also.
Thank you! Great idea!
If you have a pan with a lot of build-up, it could catch fire in the oven. Good luck on opening the oven to put out the fire.
@terrysincheff6682 this is what I have heard and many folks have killed their oven using the oven clean function so that’s why I don’t recommend it. And we can’t always have outdoor fires here in the west with the burn bans😅
Did it smoke the house up?
The most beautiful CI seasoning I have seen in 80 years.
Thank you!
Really nice. Yeah, the one thing I learned was to wipe all that excess oil off. I grew up with cast iron, so I was lucky to have a Dad that taught me alot about it. I usually do about three coats of flaxseed oil and then another three with grape seed oild or avocado oil. Nice and black. After that, I oil used olive oil for maintenance. Nice and slick after that. I stove top maintenance it with olive oil every single time I use it. Just before it starts smoking I pull it off. It works excellent. Great video. I never use soap ever. To each their own. Its important to use heat every time you oil that pan. Like I said, just medium heat.
Me too. Miss my momma and her cast iron cooking on the wood cook stove. Happy to have one of her pans. I don’t use soap typically but after I hearing cast iron rebels using it without issue I tried it. No problems. Season was still in tact. I’m like you though and prefer soapless methods of cleaning it. 🌻🌻🌻
And no matter what soap I've used, it would always end up smelling. Funny! So I just wipe them out while warm. Then scrub with hot water and plastic bristle brush. Then the stove top season just until smoke pans are awesome!
@577buttfan that’s the way I was raised to do it. This whole soap thing is new to me and I learned it doesn’t get the seasoning if done correctly. 🌻🌻🌻
@@RowesRising Yeah I used a very small amount a couple times and it won't take the seasoning off. But like I said, leaves a funny smell and that's enough to bother me. I'm sure it's fine though lol
Soap gets into the pores like with stoneware bakeware
I like grapeseed oil for seasoning cast iron and carbon steel pans.. Works great. Nice job.. the pans look fantastic.
Wow, that was a night and day difference. Mine is a few years old now and starting to build enough carbon to find a cleaning method. Thanks for the video.
That was a very good video, you need to do more cast iron vids. I don't care if it's cooking, or cleaning, or maintenance of cast iron I'd watch it. Most cast iron channels are experts in their own mind lol. That was the most calming cast iron video of all time.
I’m glad you found it enjoyable🌻
@bingster-223 It's great that u enjoyed her presentation and So did I. I thoroughly enjoy many types of videos but I sense some resentment by ur remark of most ci channels being experts in their own minds. Why would u even say something like that? I'm sure they're not professing to be experts just as I don't. Many are my comrads or cast iron associates and we spent years upon years studying and researching the topic to be More knowledgeable. Some have even written books. Some retired from famous foundries and know cast iron backwards and forward. Many of them have an extensive collection such as myself. We're military and I've collected from several countries but an Expert..I wouldnt say but I do know enough that I could possibly be considered one.
We even have a annual convention thru out the country where we share, swap and sell really nice pieces. We have guest speakers. One associate & his wife are well known and famous for their collection in which magazines have featured them and their cast iron museum. Experts?? Maybe, maybe not...but SO darn close to it that they may as well be considered one. Don't hate the players for their knowledge just bcz U have the lack there of.
I’m not a “cast iron channel” I simply made a video about cast iron and how I cleaned the gunk off easily without damaging the cast iron. 😅🌻🌻🌻
@bingster-223 no hard feelings here🌻🌻🌻
@RowesRising
Thanks, don't worry I won't be having an argument with anyone on your platform.
You have an excellent speaking voice and a beautiful way of explaining that you should have your own TV show thank you and God bless
I thought the same thing. I immediately thought “she should do some ASMR videos”!
@boog110 you are both so kind.
Excellent video! Most impressive.
I decided to have my two pans bead-blasted, which takes everything right down to the metal, but I re-seasoned them exactly per your instructions. They came out PERFECT. My largest pan is at least 70 years old, and as some of the comments have said, I will be passing them on to my children, as well. And, of course, I subscribed!
Did you do the bead blasting or did you find someone who can? I’ve been curious about bead/sand blasting but I don’t know where to begin. I guess I could “RUclips it”. 😅
@@RowesRising I actually did the blasting myself. Sand blasting is not an option in this case, because it tends to leave the surface somewhat porous, depending on the cookware metal. Bead blasting will not do this, and it lends itself perfectly to cast iron. My pans look so good now that I don't want to use them!
A Few hints, Use SOS cleaning pads to clean your CI, My dad and I both sand the inside of the pan to make it smooth as can be, wipe clean with oil, The we use animal fat to season it and don‘t use your oven use your gas grill. Just remember to place your pan upside down so all of the hot oil will drip down and off of the pan.
I used 50% white vintages and water let set 5 minutes at a time scrub between with some scrub with.soft brush repeat 5 times , heat to 125 to warm the water out , lard the inside and out reheat 20 minutes let cool naturally bought a maretti co. Pa. #6 for $20 , now worth $95-110
That’s a score!!🌻
I have the same Wagner - my Mothers wedding gift from 1945 - and it looks exactly like your ‘before.’ I’ve been doing a lot of research to safely restore it. Yours is the best video and my research stops here. I will be following your method to restore this family treasure.
Ps. My dad did as many here noted - threw it in a yearly campfire.
The camp fire is a great way to do it!! We have burn bans here and are limited to when we can burn. So this was the method I could do at that time. Thanks for watching!! 🌻
@@RowesRising I would never use fire to strip a pan. That could leave microscopic fissures in the pan, and you never know when the pan will split. It always happens when you are cooking.
@terrysincheff6682 thanks Terry!
Excellent job and great video. I remember as a kid growing up, I had a friend who lived with his grandparents. His grandmother used a large cast iron skillet for almost everything. She made bacon, eggs and biscuits almost every morning for us when we were over there. Hers looked about like these before you cleaned them! They worked perfectly and she always made amazing food. I often wonder where that old skillet wound up now that all three of them have passed.
I would be wondering too!! My mother’s cast iron holds so many memories for me. It’s very special to me. I bet you would have cherished that skillet if it would have been in your possession. So special!
Great video packed with information...most people buy brand new and never learn the basics of certain things. Getting something old and abused, refurbishing it and spending that time makes a person respect the item. I can see me doing this on an old stump I've been trying to kill! Cheers!
Great job. I'm glad people are thinking longevity, not catch and release.
Lady, you are amazing!
I have so many cast iron pots and pans that need cleaning.
I will follow your recipe
And I am happy I now know what to do
Thank you!!
Enjoy your restorations!!
I put my cast iron in an electric oven on a self clean cycle. Turned all the carbon to ash. Three hours at 500 degrees did the trick.
In Australia we use 2 methods,one is a molasses bath to get all the crud of then season it and the other is we use a wire wheel on end of drill and clean it that way then season it. I like to season mine on a fire i believe it just gets it hotter and smokey in my opinion the food tastes so much better from your cast iron.
I like the fire idea too. But we have burn bans here in the PNW due to wildfire dangers.
not allowed to own lye in your little communist haven?
I was quite surprised by this. Then I thought about it with respect to soap making, and it does make some sense.
Here are some smoke point for various oils.
Avocado Oil: 520°
Safflower Oil: 475 to 500°
Soybean Oil: 450 to 475°
Sunflower Oil: 450°
Peanut Oil: 450°
Corn Oil: 400 to 450°
Almond Oil: About 430°
Sesame Oil: 410 to 450°
Grapeseed Oil: About 420°
Canola Oil: 375 to 450°
Olive Oil: 325° to 375°
Coconut Oil: 350°F
Walnut Oil: 320°
Flax Oil: About 225°
Seed oils like corn, canola, etc. are literally the absolute worst product you can put into your body or on your pans, worse than sugar. Personally, I'm unshockingly more old fashioned......Crisco.
I bought a brand new cast iron skillet and it came with some kind of seasoning on it! It remains very sticky! How can I remove this sticky coating? They are unusable at present! Help!
@sandrapowers6099 you can try seasoning it more- maybe it needs a few more coats, or stripping it by heating in your oven at a high heat and see if you can burn that seasoning off. Then re- season it yourself. Or you could do this method in this video.
@@Swearengen1980crisco us no better.
@@tanyarobinson1146 Correct, as far as health. But if I'm going to use something bad for me, I use something that works better for seasoning. Thought that is the only time I ever use any of that crap.
I use oven cleaner with lye. Nice job you did there with the drain cleaner!
Well done video. Quick and to the point. So many others waste time by telling personal stories and wandering from topic. I learned much from this presentation.
I’m so glad! I tried to keep it all about the process. Thanks for watching!!
I am in the middle of the first set of Lye bath and it is amazing. So much gunk came off! Can't wait for more. I have very old pots, skillets etc., from my family farm and I can't wait to show everyone the finished product. Very cool process and video! Thanks!
It’s so satisfying isn’t it!! Glad you are enjoying the process. It’s so fun!
I've never used a lye bath for really grungy cast iron. If you are handy with a drill, you can use an abrasive disk that is for rust removal. You get everything off in less than 30 minutes and I have never seen any marks left on the pan. Just make sure you season it right away because even though you didn't use any water, you are down to bare metal and even the moisture in the air will make it start to rust. So, if chemicals bother you, this is a great alternative. Go slow if you are new to using a drill, but it isn't that hard.
That sounds so satisfying!!! And like a fun way to clean it. Some folks also put it in a hot fire and burn off all the carbon buildup. So many ways to skin a cat! A way for everyone to do it with the resources they have💪🏼 Thanks for watching and sharing your experience!! 🌻🌻🌻
@@RowesRisingYes, some of us just need that instant gratification 😁😁
😊@@RowesRising
This is a great idea!
I don't want to use chemicals with cooking tools. Takes too long and possible residues. Just burn it briefly at fire place and let it cool. Nothing abrasive either. Steelwire disc is effective and gentle.
I like watching someone who likes to take care of the old cast iron. Hydrolysis is the way I clean them, but the lye solution is great also.
I’d like to try hydrolysis but I haven’t gotten to that point yet.
Those pans turned out looking Amazing Katie. I love my cast iron... I actually have my great grandmother's pan along with other pieces 🤗🤗🙏 Kendra
This is so encouraging!! I bought my cast iron new over 30 years ago and my steel wool treatments haven't been good enough! And other restoration treatments I've seen involve electrodes and big vats that seem out of reach for a home cook with one little pan!!! I'm definitely trying this!!!! 🍳
It’s really simple and satisfying🤩Happy restoring! It’s gonna look great!
Stuck an old lodge full of caked on whatever in my solo stove one night and after a few beers all i did was let it cool scrape the whatever off super easy and started seasoning
I want a solo stove!! We have a burn ban currently and there are fires all over Southern Oregon. But it would be fun to have a solo stove in winter for when we play outside in the snow- have a solo fire to warm up.
My mom gave me one of her cast iron pan I’ve always used cast iron pans when my kids was small and I’ll continue to use them my Favorite over all pans❤
I so wish you had a cast iron playlist. Your skillets look beautiful 😍
Nearly all of my older meal prep videos feature cast iron. I should make a specific playlist. Thank you🌻🌻🌻
Well, I know now how to properly season the old cast iron skillet I got from my mother-in-law. I have been wanting to learn how to do this for awhile now. Thanks so much for your video on this!!
I hope you enjoy the process restoring your precious heirloom. 🌻🌻🌻
I love vintage cast iron and restoring them, but stopped due to seeing a lot of people using them for melting lead then tossing them… only buy new now sand off the factory season and season them the way i like. That being said these came out amazing
Great video. I am 64 years old and have my grandmother’s cast iron.
So its old.
It has the same grime on it and gave up trying to get off.
I will be doing your method this weekend. Thanks
Put it in the oven on self clean if it has that setting.
You did a great job restoring those pans! I have not tried avocado oil. I will have to try that. The easiest way I have found to clean cast iron is to put them in my oven and do the self clean on my oven and it cleans them then I season them.
Be careful with that you could warp antique iron.
This is a good idea. Very practical and inexpensive method. I make my own soap and use lye for that process. The only caution that I would suggest is to make your lye solution in a well ventilated area. The fumes that are produced when mixing lye and water can be overpowering.
Thank you Dale.
It is much easier and actually faster just to put it in a backyard fire/campfire/fireplace. The only thing you have to remember is to preheat the pan before you put it right on the coals, and to let it cool slowly. Now give it a quick wash and dry and start your seasoning process
Thanks for watching!!
You are correct because it keeps
It seasoned and black but this lady was removing the actual seasoning having no idea what was on it was perfection. A black iron skillet is seasoned.
Why does the outer part of the skillet need to be seasoned? Genuinely curious.
@Tim_Hicks_89 to help prevent it from rusting, and to make it look awesome.
if you like taking a risk of cracking your cast iron, thats great.
Really useful information. I have four frying pans I've bought recently at garage sales, and they all need the lye treatment. Thanks for posting!
Thank you for bringing that Wagnerware pan back to it's full glory!
It’s a good one!!
These videos are so therapeutic. I just love watching them
I’m so glad!
I’ve used the electrolysis method in the past. Works just as effectively. The Wagner Ware and Griswold pans are the gems at the thrift stores because they machined the cooking surfaces flat. Newer cast iron and especially the Lodge brand can’t hold a candle to the old ones. Nice video. You may have inspired me to clean mine up after a decade of use!
Thank you! I much prefer the smooth machined surface.
I used a random orbital sander to smooth out my Lodge pans. Still not completely smooth (since the surface area increases so much as you get lower it's just progressively more and more work), but mostly non-stick after seasoning. If I get any more cast iron in the future they'll be machined post-casting, whether that's one of the modern brands that does that or a vintage one.
@GrilledFishJones the Smithy’s brand is beautiful for modern cast iron😍
I have a newer lodge that works equally as good as my old wagner stuff. The texture doesn't affect the cooking one bit
@@vinceruland9236 mine was a lot more non-stick after I made it smooth. Cooking itself wasn’t improved particularly, just my interest in using it to cook more often and with a wider variety of food.
Thank you for this wonderful video! I look forward to improving my technique. God Bless you.
Nice video. I too have moved to Avocado oil for my cast iron. To strip my pans, I use "Easy Off" oven cleaner and put the pan in a plastic garbage bag, for a few days. If it's rusty, I've had good luck submerging in white vinegar. My favorite pan has got to the #8 Wagner.
guess whats in oven cleaner......... LYE, works like a champ.
@@darrenc3439 I'm aware.
That’s a great way too!
Just put inside your oven and turn on self cleaning cycle. I did by accident and it burned off DECADES grime. Looked like new(which was not my intent!) but reasoned and works great to this day!
I have a lodge pan, same one you show at the beginning of the video (3 notches in the ring around the bottom), since I bought it in 1977. It has a "hardware" quality surface on the inside, relatively smooth with visible circumferential rings from the stone used to polish the inside. It has never seen soap in the last 45 years. When eggs and cheese end up stuck on the sides I just let it soak with warm tap water for a little while and then scrape it out with a spatula before applying a thin coat of oil. I have many Wagner Ware pans, some I received from a great aunt's estate, that have never seen soap. I have never needed to "Re-season" a pan.
wow girl your pans look fantastic!
Just got 2 Wagner pans and had to start with a angle grinder then disk sander before seasoning. but now they look better than new.
Thank you for sharing your technique. I love the results. Saving to favorites. ♥️
Soda ash works just as well, but it's a little less aggessive and therefore safer to use.
You can also hook up the parts to the negative lead of a car battery charger, and add a piece of sacrificial metal to the bath, separate from the pans, hooked up to the positive lead. That'll really chew through the grime and loosen it up more thoroughly than any mechanical scrubbing, with much less risk of damaging the pan.
I saw @castironchris does an electrolysis tank for his CI. He restores pieces for folks and uses multiple methods depending on his clients preference. Thanks for the information!!
Good idea, and an electrolysis tank also removes rust, where a lye tank will not.
Good video. My cast iron is usually ok on the outside. It's the inside that often needs attention (when it gets flakey) . I have one pan that is 23 years old and the outside is still beautiful. I use oven cleaner (it's lye) on the inside of the pan. Works great. I'm not so much on looks as I am on performance/function of the pan.
You care for your skillet really well and I can tell it’s a cherished part of your cooking collection🍳
I promise I will do better from here forward. Thanks for the tips Michael!!
When ours have ever gotten that way growing up we always just threw them on an outside fire and let it burn off and theen re-season it.
Today is the first day of fire season. I didn’t know that would get the carbon off. I wonder if my mom did that in our wood stove growing up? Things I wish I had a chance to ask her🥺
@@RowesRisingby
Thank you! This just came across my inbox. I have collected for a couple of years and I was going to clean them (60 pieces) over the winter but got a little sick, under the weather and was not able. BUT, I plan on it this winter. Too much garden and canning during the summer. I think I will look around your channel for other videos.
Thank you Joey!
I have been doing this for years -- skillets, woks etc.-- and it does wonders. Great video
A method I like is using a ripping hot grill. After about an hour, the pans will be stripped bare and light grey in color.
Also there was a step that I was skipping after I would clean and dry off the pans. You have to let the pan cool back down before you apply oil. If you put the oil in while it's hot it will partially bond and create sticky, poorly seasoned areas.
I put them upside down on an old oven rack (It will darken new shiny ones) and let them go thru the automatic oven cleaning cycle. works well! then you just have to apply several coats of re-finishing.
Great method!!
This is the way. Just be safe.
Great job, avocado oil is a good choice but some say animal fats like tallow or lard to season it with thin coats over and over.
Some people also use disc sanders to polish the flat bottom a bit more to make a really non stick surface.
If you have a self cleaning oven toss them in and run it through a clean cycle and they are clean and ready to season, no dangerous chemicals no toxic waste to dispose of. It looks like she looked for the longest ,hardest , most inconvenient way to get the job done.
Accidentally “cleaned” my two prized cast iron skillets that way… it works great! I almost cried when I realized my skillets were in there, and there was no way to stop it. It took some time to reseason, but great lesson learned.
Wow. A lot of work but amazing results. Thank you@
It’s a process but surprisingly very little elbow grease involved. Thanks for watching!!
This is the "old way" for seasoning. Nowadays we know that you dont' need to overheat your stove, you just need to be under the smoke point of the oil you are using and it will polymerize. If the pan is still sticky after 60 minutes it means that the temperature was a bit too low. Just put it back at a higher temperature.
"The smoke point of an oil or fat should not be exceeded during cooking, as potentially carcinogenic compounds can be formed and released. But the advice is often seen given to do just that during the manual seasoning of cast iron cookware. Some like to artificially accelerate the darkening of the seasoning by cranking the temp up above the smoke point of one or more layers of the manually-applied oil. Since a superior non-stick seasoning coat consists not only of polymerized fat, but also of a mixture of carbon within it, the thinking is that exceeding the smoke point will carbonize the compounds in the oil to desirable effect. While it may produce the desired cosmetic effect, this may not be prudent, and is, again, not really necessary, as the pan will darken with use and more layers of seasoning. What you may wish to do instead is, prior to applying any seasoning, heat the pan gradually to 450-500*F for an hour or so. This has been observed to darken the bare iron somewhat. You will, however, need to let it cool to a temp appropriate for your seasoning oil before continuing."
I personally use grape seed oil (smoking point: 420°F) and my oven is set at 400-410°F with a perfect result.
You can find more information on this link:
www.castironcollector.com/seasoning.php#smoke
Thank you so much!!!
Thanks!!!
Mixing lye into water will generate a ton of heat and fumes, do this in a place with great ventilation. Considering replacing a portion of your water with ice to keep it from getting too hot
I rescued a couple of cast iron fryers that were encased in grime buildup! I put them into my electric oven and set it to the cleaning cycle!
That’s awesome!🍳
Work good? And last?
I use avacado oil for seasoning CI also and for most of my cooking too. To restore,, i use a power drill with an abrasive disc (do not use metal),, it works fast and ive even used that method to literally strip lodge texturing off so my surface is smooth. No harsh chemicals.
Thanks for sharing your tips!
Get a sand blaster from harbor freight and use glass beads to blast your pans and they’ll be perfect when you’re done.
Sweet tip!! Thanks!
Great results. I’ve not done this. But I will keep it in mind next time I walk by a pot or pan that I think is gonna be too stubborn. By the way. Those Wagner pans are amazing.
Thank you!!
Awesome 👍🤓👍i do mine in the grill outside so theres no fumes
Perfect!! I’ll remember that next time cause we can’t have fires here half the year, but we can grill🥴
Thank you so much for your video and your knowledge! I finally found a way of cleaning and restoring cast iron that works!🥰
I’m so glad Gillie!!
my grandmothers cast iron has over 150 years of what you call grime I call seasoning, cast iron is very porous and I have no desire to have lye sucked into the middle of the metal to eat later. more overkill, this was kinda interesting to watch but I'll do what Grandmother says
I have been looking forward to this video. I am going restore my cast iron and be on the lookout for other cast iron items when I am going to thrift stores. It will be satisfying to see the process at work.
Some of these comments are adorable. I make lye soap and my family has done so for generations. Always be safe when using lye, but don't assume it's something it's not.
Soap making is something I want to do next!! 😅😅😅🌻🌻🌻
Adorable? I find them infuriating. Lye deserves plenty of respect, but people's fear of lye, as if it witchcraft in 1600 Salem is ridiculous. Its an OMG "chemical", Public education is the ruination of our country. Our ancestors harvested lye out of ash, to make their soap.
We use cast iron exclusively to cook unless it's a pot or casserole pan. I've never done a restoration but I take my pan when it's still hot, hit it with hot water, gently scrub out any food, which comes right off when the pan is still hot. Never use soap of any kind, immediately wipe the pan and hit it with cooking spray before it can flash rust, let it cool and put it away. 20 years and our pans still look brand new and I've never had to reseason them. I would like to try a rescue though, it sounds like fun.
The Field Company guys did a scientific test on oils to season. They say grape seed oil is the best for polymerization.
I’ve heard flaxseed
here come the cork sniffers debating which oil is best. Its not rocked science guys, our ancestors figured out the best way to season and care for your cast iron is to just use it.
@@darrenc3439 I agree with you to a certain extent but our ancestors didn't have microscopes.
@@itmeurdad Microscopes were invented around 1600, cast iron began in the early 1700 and became a dominate form of cookware during the industrial revolution which began in earnest in the 1830 or so. Microscopes have been around 200 years longer than the common use of cast iron cookware. Maybe you grew up in the middle east where people still live in the dark ages, but my ancestors culture definitely had microscopes before the common use of cast iron cookware.
Excellent teaching video. One of the best on youtube.
Thank you so much for being kind and thank you for watching🌻🌻🌻
i seasoned mine with bacon grease .. Grandma used Crisco
I like to use lard myself but I was trying to use something more common that everyone has. There are a few comments about polymerization and what fats do this best. I’m not an expert by any means.
Very nice vintage Wagner & Lodge skillets. Worth the effort to restore, likely X10 in restored condition over what you paid. And you have some nice skillets that will last multiple generations with a little care. There must be as many ways to restore, and season pans as there are cast iron pan owners.
There are so many ways to restore. I hope to experiment with them all cause it’s a fun and satisfying process. Electrolysis looks like an interesting restoration method as well.
That grime is good! It protects the pan, forms a better non-stick coating the thicker it is, and reduces leaching of iron into your food. Using dangerous chemicals negates the point of using a cast iron pan in the first place. The grime eventually firms a super tough non stick coating free of dangerous teflon.
lol no… the GRIME is NOT GOOD! 🤣
The SMOOTH non stick surface IS GOOD. The grime and buildup that is thick and hard and bumpy is NOT part of the “non stick desired effect.
Cooking on a thick bumpy and uneven “GRIME” is not NON STICK, and it’s DEFINITELY not going to allow the food you are cooking to cook EVENLY.
For this skillet, the removal of the GRIME was the right call.
But we all have our opinions.
⭐️Non stick surface… GOOD✅
⭐️Chunky bumpy burnt
buildup AKA “GRIME”…NOT GOOD 👎
@JessRaeEth precisely!
People are suggesting to burn them in a fire but the problem is you cannot make fire anymore in many places unless it is super safe and you live in a place with a lot of land and not windy and dry, like in California.
I like it easy and with no chemicals but not many people will buy an oven with self-cleaning to clean the cast iron pots, or what if you cannit make a fire, that’s another problem.
But for those who do not want chemicals… maybe can use ashes and water it will become lye, natural lye.
It is totally unnecessary to use the caustic chemicals. Put the pans in a self-cleaning oven for about 2 hrs and all the baked on gunk will turn to ash, then you just wash the pan and proceed to season. I have 6 cast iron pots and pans and never had to use dangerous chemicals to clean one.
Lol. My question is why get rid of it anyway. I thought we wanted all that stuff on the pan .
Let’s use modern day caustic trash to strip decades of seasoning so I can hand these down to my kids lmfao . Femoid brain activated.
Why risk warping your pan?
Guess it slipped your mind that muriatic acid is used to help balance the pH in many commercial and private swimming pools. The next time your neighbors invite you over for a swim you might want to check and see what process they use to keep their pool bright & shiny. You’re welcome
This was her way. Remember that.
I also like avocado oil for seasoning, i have recently been using a crisbee stick for daily maintenance after using. I like the results so far. Beeswax palm oil and soybean oil i think. The larbee stick is good to, its lard and beeswax i think. Beautiful pans
What do you do for the rust treatment?
You do 1:1 vinegar bath being sure to have enough soliciting to submerge the pan. 20-40 minutes ONLY! Anymore can ruin and put your pan. Then rinse and scrub and if it needs more time put ut back in for a few more minutes and repeat.
@@RowesRising thank you! You made it look so easy.
Hey Rowes Rising love the video...my jaw almost hit the ground when you pulled that Griswald out of nowhere. If you don't already know go research how much those skillets are going for. I have an 8 inch Griswald myself. Interesting story I found it buried in our backyard, cleaned it up similar to your method a few years ago, and then found out through a friend these skillets are valuable. I will be keeping mine in my family forever. I hope you have a good day, God Bless you!
Thank you so much for sharing your CI story. What an awesome heirloom to pass down to future generations 🌻🌻🌻
I don't know why, but I found this video oddly satisfying.
I have never used lye on cast iron before that was amazing to watch. I use avocado oil on my cast iron and it works awesome. A couple of years ago I brought two of my cast iron pieces one griswold skillet griddle and a Favorite ware number 7 skillet on a week long fishing trip. To this day my friends are still talking about how non stick my cast iron is and how the over easy eggs were the best they have ever tasted. 😊😂 I will share this video to everyone in the future so I don’t have to explain it to them over and over again.there is no excuse anymore for them.And yes I did subscribe to your channel to show my appreciation for sharing your knowledge about making CAST IRON GREAT AGAIN 😂
Make cast iron great again! Love that😀
Brilliant video, honestly.
Thank you
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!!
Thanks for the info. Got 3 cast iron pans 6,12, and 14 inch. Going to try this.
You're going to love the results!
Easiest way is to put them in the bbq, full heat and leave it. All that ‘grime’ will turn into ash and are easily cleaned off.
We used lye to clean the oven grills/grids and conveyors in restaurants. Stuff does wonders on baked on food that's been on there for weeks/months.
It’s so much easier than elbow grease! So glad I tried it out. Definitely not afraid of it. 😅
Geese just use oven off. It’s so much easier. Put them in a trash bag with oven off all over them. Come back the next day and clean them up. If you don’t want to use chemicals, just put them in a bed of hot coals in your fireplace for a while. works just as good and burns everything off.
Grape seed oil is very good for seasoning cast iron as well. Grape seed oil has a very high smoke point.