Restoring a Cast Iron Skillet

I have a new love. It is old, dirty, and overweight.

But I love it anyways.

I think all crows have a basic opposition to Teflon.* There is just something incredibly disheartening about a chemical that magically makes food not stick to your pan. This becomes even more disturbing once you have started cooking with cast iron, because somehow, without the magic of polytetrafluoroethylene, food doesn't stick to the pan! Moreover, if there are any little crusties stuck on the bottom of your pan, a little dip in a warm bath will quickly lift the char.

Teflon is also not suitable for oven use, which severely limits what you can do with certain recipes.

Natural Magic!

So Billy came home one day with two disgusting looking skillets that I figured would become wall ornaments because they were so covered in filth. Upon hearing this Billy made this face:

. .
O

.....and proceeded to look up different methods of restoration. He tried a few, but they never lasted. He found success in removing rust, but could never get the rust to stay gone, no matter how thoroughly the water was removed. Thus far, I have used two methods of "seasoning," one of which has been profoundly more effective in not only remaining rust-free, but creating a non stick surface.

*If you didn't already, you will after reading that article.
You will need:

Steel Wool
Paper Towels or cloth rag
Vegetable oil
Bacon

Heat oven to 400.

In the hottest water you can handle scrub all the rust off of the pan. Note the difference between rust, and old cast iron. The scrubbing process will not yield the black cast iron we all know. This comes in the seasoning process.

After you are confident in your scrub, thoroughly dry. Coat the pan in Oil and place cooking side down on the middle rack of the oven. Place a cookie sheet or some aluminum foil below the pan to catch any drippings. Keep in oven until the skillet has turned a deep, dark black.

Seasoning is complete.

Bacon Version.

Complete all steps, except upon removing from the oven cook a hefty amount of bacon. Use A high fat, uncured bacon for maximum filth and grease. Once bacon is complete spread bacon grase all over the inside of the pan. Place back in the oven and cook for another 15-30 minutes with the pan underneath to catch drippings.

Now you have the ultimate non stick surface.

Pros/cons

So obviously the biggest hurdle is overcoming a fear of bacon. Bacon is disgusting. But it does the job if you can get over that.

The vegetable oil will season the pan and prepare it for safe, rust-free use, but there are two major problems. The first is that the oil creates an almost sticky surface and there is, thus far after 2-3 uses still visible evidence of the oil on the surface of the Pan. Whereas the bacon fat seems to have melded with the pan, the oil is clearly not evenly distributed across the cooking surface. You could try Crisco, but really Crisco, is just as disturbing to me as Teflon.

So now the next time you see an old rusty pan for $2 at a thrift store you won't be afraid to bring it home!

Great Uses

Searing Meat/Fish/poultry
One dish meals
Making a perfectly hearty tomato sauce
Caramelizing onions
Skillet + Grilling*
Hitting boyfriends
Pretending its 1859
Pies
Quiches
Attractive presentation

*You can actually throw the skillet right on the coals!