A couple of free pieces of cast iron, a little love with fine grit sand paper, a good hot washing and bathing in Coconut Oil on a very hot grill…better than new.
Cast Iron- the ONLY kitchen cookery you’ll need for generations.
22 thoughts on “Curing Old Cast Iron”
Comments are closed.
Like the AK too.
you can take old cast iron , place it in a bucket of water. run a wire to the pot or pan handle.
then place a chunk of rebar in the bucket, sticking out the top. dump in a b ox of arm and hammer , stir well. place a battery charger on the rebar and the pan wire . then turn on the battery charger. electrolis knocks off most if not all the rust.
Oh yeah. I did that with an old belted cast iron bean pot that had been in a family woodshed since at least the 50s. It’s still a little pitted, but looks great by my woodstove.
The only stuff my wife cooks on. I have a whole collection, from flea markets and yard sales.
Its the way real food is made 🙂
Nice job! nothing like dropping a nice ribeye on a 600degree piece of cast iron, letting it sear up, flip and serve…
BTW…I heard that the only kitchen/cook stuff that survived Katrina was cast iron, folks simply re finished and shazam, cooking kit….
I wouldn’t doubt it 🙂
The only thing better than bare cast iron is La Creuset and similar enamel coated cast iron. Love the stuff. Covered Dutch ovens, fry pans, pots. But it’s been getting harder and harder to find at Goodwill et al.
B
In a ‘future’ world scenario, the small amounts of ferrous and ferric iron that leach into food cooked will make the non-enameled versions superior ….
Cast iron lover here as well. We have a few and I use at least one of them daily.
Looks, good, great to cook on, the weight facilitates the process, but I tend to favor lighter weight, more mobile cooking gear -not to detract from cast iron’s long-term usefulness as mentioned above. It’s also great for smacking someone upside the head -once ‘ll do it!
There’s a woman that writes and comments at This Ain’t Hell dot us (EX-PH2) that has a cast iron pan as her primary home defense weapon. At least that’s what she says. None of us have been brave enough to call her on it.
Hey, if it works…
Mr H
Agreed, which is why a 6″ w/ lid is the optimal cooking gear …. works as an oven
Easy size to work with. And after 90 years or so of use, it’ll be lighter … I got my grannys’ and its the bomb
I always use a vinegar soak to get rust off but if you want to get everything off down to bare metal use electrolysis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-rUNZjGwUU
They both work really well- electrolysis is good for caked on or multiple layers of rust.
On that belted pot I redid after shocking it I sat it in a vinegar/coke/lime juice brine for 24 hrs.
Putting an old rusty abused piece of cast iron cookware in a fire works great too.
That’s how I “re-cure” all my cast iron.
I let the fire burn down to a bed of hot coals,then put the pan upside down on the coals,shovel some coals on the bottom -which is facing up-and leave it overnight.
A little white vinegar and water boiled in the pan gets rid of any discoloration.
Rinse well,apply bacon grease liberally,then bake in oven at 350 for an hour-put pan upside down on middle rack,and be sure to put a sheet pan under the rack,and open the kitchen windows or your wife will be mad at you…
I just got a free cast iron griddle from a friend-I told him how to fix the thing,but he was determined to go buy a new one-the old one looks as good as the brand new one he just bought.
So sad the materialism of some…but then again, it presents great opportunities for us. 🙂
Don’t drop cast iron on to a ceramic tile floor. Our skillet got knocked off the counter and split in two. I got another one, it’s great to sear some steak up for killer cheesesteaks.
Wife is slowing migrating to cast iron for almost everything. Five years ago I’d say we ate about a tenth of our cooked meals out of CI. Now it’s about three quarters, I’d say. When camping, it’s about 90% or more.
Want to make a little extra cash? Offer to take people’s poorly cared for cast iron (because they’re looking to dump it) and fix it back up and sell it. Wife did that several times. Too easy to get cast iron back to good cond.
Cast iron just gives you a bit of a connection to the past, I feel. Weird, I know.
Definitely not weird Bro.