I've got two cast iron pans (a frying pan and a grill pan) that haven't been well looked after. One is greasy and a tiny bit rusty, the other is just rusty. Surface rust, mostly.

How can I rehab/resurface them and get them back in the game?

Clean off the rust, wash and dry them.
Coat them with olive oil, grapeseed oil or similar, put in the oven 250 -300 degrees for an hour.

You can clean then with a wire brush attached to a drill to loosen the rust. Hot, and I do mean hot, water wash with limited soap, quick rinse, then hand dry and put them back on the stove to heat up. Make sure all water is gone, and pan is warm to the touch, and season with grapeseed oil for high smoke point cooking. Season them upside down at 375 in an oven.

Put oil on liberally, heat, remove, wipe down excess oil, put back in, and keep wiping until you are getting almost no oil, then go back and start with oiling liberally. Do this twice and you will have some good cookware.

The be all/end all of cast iron restoration and maintenance:



Starting to wonder if Scott Paper Towels sponsors him...

Easy peasy. Spray with oven cleaner and wrap tightly in a bag for a several days to remove all the carbon/organic material, then rinse outside with the hose. Alternately, you can do a lye/cold water bath.
Either way, wear rubber gloves and eye protection, and do this outside; this stuff is nasty, but effective.

For the rust, mix enough equal parts cold water and white vinegar to submerge the pans for 12-24 hours, using a plastic bristle brush occasionally to break loose the top surface of rust, and repeat. Then rinse with copious amounts of cold water to neutralize. If you leave the pans in for upwards of a couple days, the vinegar will begin eating the metal, so don't wait too long. As soon as it's rinsed, dry it in a warm oven, then immediately begin the seasoning process; I prefer good old fashioned lard.

Here's more info from the Wagner/Griswold Cast Iron Society:
http://www.wag-society.org/cleaning.php

Anyone tried Evapo-Rust on cast iron cookware? It certainly removes rust well on tools.

I used the electrolysis method described here to restore a couple corn stick pans, two Dutch ovens, and a couple large frying pans. I did use the oven cleaner method on a couple to get rid of the organic material. Be aware, when you are finished, they need to be dried and coated immediately to prevent new rust from forming, as they are completely bare iron.

https://www.castironcollector.com/electrolysis.php

quote:

Anyone tried Evapo-Rust on cast iron cookware? It certainly removes rust well on tools.

I was going to ask the same thing. I use it a lot with great results, but haven't tried it on cast iron yet.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:

quote:

Anyone tried Evapo-Rust on cast iron cookware? It certainly removes rust well on tools.

I was going to ask the same thing. I use it a lot with great results, but haven't tried it on cast iron yet.

It leaves a film behind, so extra care when cleaning it after de-rusting would be called for.

.

Cowboy Chef Kent Rollins has a YouTube page loaded with recipes for Cast Iron cooking.

He also has several videos on buying, preparing (seasoning), maintaining, using, and storing cast iron cookware.

This video is on how to Safely Remove Rust from Cast Iron Cookware:

www.YouTube.com/watch?v=7JPyUYbdS5k

Kent has a website, this page has the written directions from his video:
www.KentRollins.com/How-To-Safely-Remove-Rust-From-Cast-Iron/

I've had good results with the oven cleaner and plastic bag method. Bought an old griswold off of ebay and it looks brand new.

One self cleaning cycle in your oven is all you need
Did it for many decades.
Evapro rust is for tools and machines.

quote:

Originally posted by 45 Cal:
One self cleaning cycle in your oven is all you need
Did it for many decades.
Evapro rust is for tools and machines.

Yep. Basically takes it down to bare cast iron.
Season from there and you're golden.

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...935/m/2790033344/p/1

Tony.

quote:

Originally posted by 45 Cal:
One self cleaning cycle in your oven is all you need
Did it for many decades.
Evapro rust is for tools and machines.

This. Don't spend money on it when your oven almost certainly has this feature. I follow this with a super scrubbing with Dawn and stiff bristle brush, then heavy rinse and dry over heat to get all the moisture out.

Bake a rusty pan in the oven for as long as you like, it will still be rusty when it comes out.

Got an add on question to this thread, since it's quieted down some. OP, hope you don't object.

I see that different people season their cast iron with different products: lard, bacon grease, Crisco, olive oil, etc. Some swear olive oil ruins the pan, others that it's fine if used correctly.

To my question: I've never read that someone uses multiple products to season their pan (or re-season after use). Do any of you use multiple oils/greases to season at different times, or is it strictly one product only?

quote:

Originally posted by slabsides45:
Got an add on question to this thread, since it's quieted down some. OP, hope you don't object.

I see that different people season their cast iron with different products: lard, bacon grease, Crisco, olive oil, etc. Some swear olive oil ruins the pan, others that it's fine if used correctly.

To my question: I've never read that someone uses multiple products to season their pan (or re-season after use). Do any of you use multiple oils/greases to season at different times, or is it strictly one product only?

One product only.
Peanut oil.
Olive oil is a low smoke point oil. Deep fry a turkey, what oil do you use?
Works for me but my grandmother used Crisco.