Cast Iron Advice

[fedora]

Hey,

I have a very large cast iron collection. Some of which I am emotionally attacheded to(I am not emotionally attached to things often). I have done reading and know that cast iron is porous. I know some people just replaced their cast iron. My question is for those who kept their cast iron pans. After you stripped the season off, what did the cast iron look like? I am trying to figure out if mine has had enough of the season taken off to be considered safe. My oven does not have a self cleaning option, so I did something else. I heated the pan up with a propane torch. That burned all the surface oil off pretty good. Then I scrubbed it with oil, salt, and a copper scrubby while the pan was still hot. I rinsed it off, then I went over it with the propane torch again. The pan looks way more clean, but is still black. Is this good enough to be gluten free? Or do I need to get it all the way back to being silver again? I don't see how anything couldnot have been burned off by the propane flame. I ran it across every part of the pan for awhile. That pan was HOT!

Thank you for your advice!

[kenlove]

I dumped most of mine but kept 2 which I'm attached too. One was my great grandfathers from the 1880s. The other an antique from Japan. I boiled the whole pans, scrubbed with a wire brush and boiled again. So far no problems. Although I consider myself to be very sensitive to gluten, I continued to use these and have had no problems (knock wood). They didnt change appearance much, just a little lighter.

Ken

  fedora said:

Hey,

I have a very large cast iron collection. Some of which I am emotionally attacheded to(I am not emotionally attached to things often). I have done reading and know that cast iron is porous. I know some people just replaced their cast iron. My question is for those who kept their cast iron pans. After you stripped the season off, what did the cast iron look like? I am trying to figure out if mine has had enough of the season taken off to be considered safe. My oven does not have a self cleaning option, so I did something else. I heated the pan up with a propane torch. That burned all the surface oil off pretty good. Then I scrubbed it with oil, salt, and a copper scrubby while the pan was still hot. I rinsed it off, then I went over it with the propane torch again. The pan looks way more clean, but is still black. Is this good enough to be gluten free? Or do I need to get it all the way back to being silver again? I don't see how anything couldnot have been burned off by the propane flame. I ran it across every part of the pan for awhile. That pan was HOT!

Thank you for your advice!

[spunky]

A couple of years ago it seems I remember somebody on this board said you could take a power sander (I think he meant the kind that goes onto a drill???) and get the cooking surface completely sanded back down to bare metal, then clean thoroughly and begin the seasoning process all over again with some type of heavy fat, by baking that onto it in a slow oven for several hours.

[celiac-mommy]

Way before I found this site and knew any better, I just scrubbed the heck out of them a few times with the Dawn foam, I didn't remove the season or anything, which I guess was taking a big chance--BUT my dd is so very sensitive she has a reaction immediately after a few bits of something and she's never had a reaction from anything cooked in the pans (and I'm embarrased to admit that they weren't exclusively gluten-free until about a year ago--we were REALLY lucky). All I have is cast iron and I couldn't afford to replace all of it. From what I've read here, it looks like I took a big gamble--lucky for us, it worked out OK.

[Mom23boys]

I've scrubbed mine down with baking soda and have had no reactions.

[MaryJones2]

I have a large collection of antique cast iron and am quite attached to it so it was never an option to get rid of it. I bought new Lodge ProLogic and use the antique stuff for decoration now. If cleaned and reseasoned properly I would not hesitate to use it.

I always clean and reseason the stuff I inherit or the new stuff I buy (even the pre-seasoned). The best way to clean cast iron is to put it in the self cleaning cycle of your oven. I put the pans upside down. Some of the older crustier stuff might require two cycles. This will remove everything so you'll need to reseason it within a day or so because it will rust quickly. I also scrub the pans with soap and steel wool to remove any residue and rust.

To reseason heat the pan on the stove top until it's warm and coat the entire pan with lard, bacon greese, Crisco or other vegetable shortening (I use Spectrum Palm Oil) and bake at 350 degrees for about an hour. Remove the pan from the oven and wipe it down to remove any excess oil and put back in the oven to cool. You may have to do this two or three times but you'll have brand new stuff.

This is how all the women in my family clean their stuff. My father had a nasty additction to yard sale cast iron and would take his stuff to a local sandblaster so that might be an option if you don't have a self-cleaning cycle because that will remove everything too.

I contacted Lodge and asked them how they would recommend removing the seasoning and here's what they said:

You can put the pan in a self-cleaning oven for one to two 3 hour cycles. If a self-cleaning oven is not available place the pan in a 400 degree oven for 2 hours. After the pan has cooled scour with a steel wool pad or SOS pad to remove the residue. Then re-season. The oil is gluten free. The oil we use is vegetable based oil.

[YoloGx]

  janetw said:

I have a large collection of antique cast iron and am quite attached to it so it was never an option to get rid of it. I bought new Lodge ProLogic and use the antique stuff for decoration now. If cleaned and reseasoned properly I would not hesitate to use it.

I always clean and reseason the stuff I inherit or the new stuff I buy (even the pre-seasoned). The best way to clean cast iron is to put it in the self cleaning cycle of your oven. I put the pans upside down. Some of the older crustier stuff might require two cycles. This will remove everything so you'll need to reseason it within a day or so because it will rust quickly. I also scrub the pans with soap and steel wool to remove any residue and rust.

To reseason heat the pan on the stove top until it's warm and coat the entire pan with lard, bacon greese, Crisco or other vegetable shortening (I use Spectrum Palm Oil) and bake at 350 degrees for about an hour. Remove the pan from the oven and wipe it down to remove any excess oil and put back in the oven to cool. You may have to do this two or three times but you'll have brand new stuff.

This is how all the women in my family clean their stuff. My father had a nasty additction to yard sale cast iron and would take his stuff to a local sandblaster so that might be an option if you don't have a self-cleaning cycle because that will remove everything too.

I contacted Lodge and asked them how they would recommend removing the seasoning and here's what they said:

You can put the pan in a self-cleaning oven for one to two 3 hour cycles. If a self-cleaning oven is not available place the pan in a 400 degree oven for 2 hours. After the pan has cooled scour with a steel wool pad or SOS pad to remove the residue. Then re-season. The oil is gluten free. The oil we use is vegetable based oil.

Wow that is great advice! I was thinking of putting mine in my kiln for firing ceramics...but maybe this would be easier.

Yolo

[missy'smom]

Lot of good info. from janetw. I used self-clean as she described. I was wondering if a high oven temp for extended time would work.

[MaryJones2]

I would bet if you baked it at 500 degrees for about 2-3 hours that would have the same effect as the self-clean cycle. Love the kiln idea too! I love ceramics and would like to take it up again now that I can use my hands again! I'd read that you could remove the seasoning by putting the pan in a hot fire so I would think the kiln would do the same and is probably a lot less messy.

[fedora]

Hey, thanks for the advice. What does the cast iron look like when it came out of the self cleaning oven? I am trying to figure out if it is clean enough. Thanks.

[YoloGx]

  janetw said:

I would bet if you baked it at 500 degrees for about 2-3 hours that would have the same effect as the self-clean cycle. Love the kiln idea too! I love ceramics and would like to take it up again now that I can use my hands again! I'd read that you could remove the seasoning by putting the pan in a hot fire so I would think the kiln would do the same and is probably a lot less messy.

Well definitely with the kiln you can bring the pan to over 600 degrees. I just have to figure out the safety factors so as to not melt it!

[1965kid]

I had one skillet I was attached to. It is over 100 years old. I quit using it, as I read here that you cant burn off gluten. I read so much here Im scared of everything.

To get the seasoning off a iron skillet just throw it in the campfire the next time you go camping. It's been done that way forever.

So, do you guys think I can burn off my old skillet and reuse it??? I would love that!

[MaryJones2]

  1965kid said:

I had one skillet I was attached to. It is over 100 years old. I quit using it, as I read here that you cant burn off gluten. I read so much here Im scared of everything.

To get the seasoning off a iron skillet just throw it in the campfire the next time you go camping. It's been done that way forever.

So, do you guys think I can burn off my old skillet and reuse it??? I would love that!

I'm pretty paranoid and I wouldn't hesitate to use one that was properly cleaned. There isn't anything left on the skillet when you run it through the self-clean cycle. If you're concerned about it I'd run it through once, scrub it down with soap and steel wool and run it through again.