Cooking with cast iron is not just for the campfire or farm, my friends. From chicken, fish, cornbread and more — the meals you can create with this versatile cooking essential are endless. It’s one of my all time favorite go-to pans in the kitchen and while cast iron skillets can take a little longer to warm up, the heat distributes evenly, making it much easier to get a consistent dish every time.
Vintage cast iron pans are the best in my opinion, but the ones you may have acquired at your local yard sale, antique shop or received from a family member probably have decades-worth of build up from improper care and look a little less than desirable for actually cooking with. Well, no fear as today I’m going to walk you through getting these beauties back in shape for fried chicken in no time.
If you don’t even know where to begin to source a cast iron pan, almost all kitchen stores carry the latest version all polished and clean — but what fun would that be? Hunting down your vintage skillet can be an adventure and I almost always have luck at antique malls, estate sales and sometimes a good yard sale. Look for the rusty, grimy, bumpy ones — they are usually the most affordable and you won’t believe your eyes when you bring it back to its original glory.
Cleaning up your new skillet is going to require a little elbow grease on your part, but imagine the story you can tell after reviving a piece of culinary genius. Once you’ve found your little piece of history you’ll want to literally bake off all of the built-on grime that has accumulated on your pan and bring it back to life. Don’t worry about the rust at this stage — we will take care of that in no time.
Step #1: Laying a piece of foil on the rack below or in the bottom of your oven, you want to set your oven to the “clean” mode and place your pan upside down on a middle rack. Note: You may want to plan this part of the cleaning while you are out of the house. It does create some smoke and fumes that you might not want to be in the house for. Just remember — who knows how many years of grime we are removing? If you stay in the house, make sure the area is well ventilated.
After this cycle has completed and everything has cooled down, you can remove the pan from the oven. It will probably look gray and even rustier than before but any of the build-up or extra coating should have come off of the pan.
Step #2: Now we are going to place the pan in a tub and cover with equal amounts of water and white vinegar, then add a couple squirts of mild dishwashing liquid. You can at this point leave the pan in for 1-3 hours — the rustier it is, the longer you can leave it, just keep an eye on it.
Step #3: Remove pan from water/vinegar bath and rinse with fresh water, wiping it well with paper towels and allowing it to dry completely. Your pan should be free from rust, grime and general build up at this stage. If not, continue to scrub with paper towels or fine steel wool until buildup and rust have smoothed out.
Step #4: Now we are ready to season the pan. Seasoning is the process of making a cast iron skillet non-stick. Once a pan has been seasoned, if properly cared for, the coating will stand the test of time in your future cooking endeavors. The process is actually pretty easy — simply apply 2-3 tablespoons of canola oil inside the pan and wipe well with a paper towel. You’ll want to coat the entire pan.
Return to a 350 degrees F oven, placing the pan on the rack upside down like before. Allow it to bake and set up for 1 hour. While in the oven, the pores of the pan will open and absorb the oil — once cooled, the pores close back up, retaining the oil, which is what seasons the pan. Your pan should now have that shiny dark patina we all know and love and is ready to use.
Let’s look at what can happen with a little time and effort — can you believe this is even the same pan we started with? Please keep in mind I’ve come across some cast iron pans that were a lot worse in condition than the one I used here, so think twice before passing by that next rusty old piece of history you come across. They don’t make them like they used to, that’s for sure!
Now that we’ve got our pans cleaned up, seasoned and ready for use, I’m looking forward to sharing a few of my favorite recipes for cooking with cast iron soon. Now sit back and pour yourself a nice Petite Syrah—you have earned it.
do you have any suggestions on what to set the oven at and for how long if you do not have a cleaning mode?
Christy thanks for checking in. If you do not have a cleaning mode I would set the oven at 400 degrees. When this pan was done it was in for 3 hours so I would just suggest keeping an eye on it after 2 hours. At that time you will start to see a change in the pan as everything begins to bake off. It really depends how much build up you are starting with. Good luck and let us know how things turn out!
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it’s amazing all the dirnefeft opinions on seasoning and treating cast iron. I usually season mine in my BBQ grill just because of the smoke it can create.I also usually just put a bit of water in there, scrub it just enough to get the stuff loose, then rinse it out good, set it over low heat and rub with oil to season again but I say whatever method works for you is the method you should use cast iron rocks..love to use the dutch ovens when we go camping.
Unf, this is so great. Thanks!
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This is fantastic! Thank you for sharing!
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Thanks so much for the tips.
My grandfather would put grama’s skillets in the hot ashes of the coal furnace. leave them for a couple of hours and they came out good as new. I have all of grama’s skillets. At one time ,I had 13 of them in various sizes.
Thankfully I live out in the country and I skip the first part of the oven cleaning. I build a fire outside and burn it off in the fire. After it has cooled,then take indoors and do the other steps. No smoke and stinky in the house. Lol
I have come to find that the best seasoning oil on earth has to be extra virgin COCONUT OIL. I discovered this completely by accident when making popcorn in a rusty, old Wok; the results were spectacular, and I’ve revived all of my old steel pans with this miracle.
YOU DONT HAVE TO DO It in tHe OVEN throw it in a camp fire and leave it and it does the samething when u get back home season it I cook fried chicken in mine and only fried chicken so when im done cooking I leave the oil in it until its cool so it absorbs into the pan while its hot before washing it and I don’t use soap at all if u do use soap wash in cold water so it don’t open the poors of the metal the soap will absorb in if u use hot water if u do use hot water just rinse it
I can remember my mom build a big wood fire a toss her cast iron it.
When all coals were cold then she rub the cold ash on it.
After a good wash she rub oil to season them and in the oven to
to bake them.
But this method is much easier.
Thank You
Do not season with Canola oil! It is horrible for curing. Vegatable oil only!
When I was a kid my dad would put Mom’s iron skillets into the campfire when we went camping and it would burn all the crud off.
I used the BBQ for the cleaning cycle. We have a selfcleaning oven but didn’t want the smoke and smell in the house. Got the BBQ up to 500 and left in for 3 hours. Worked great for cleaning and was nicer to be outside doing it.
Cast iron pans are the best! Found this method some years ago in a cooking mag. Love the way my pans turned out. I can’t find the original article any more, but someone blogged it…http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/
The next tme you clean your self cleaning oven simply put your cast iron pan in there for 4 hours while your oven is cleanig. Take it out. wipe it. Seasonj well & bake in the oven for about 1 hour about 3 times.
WOW!!! I have been waiting for this info forever!! I have a huge collection of old, rusted, grimy cast iron that I just knew could be fix! My ex husband tried to trash it all many times. Thanks for making my day!
I can’t wait to try this out. I have about 5-6 pieces of cast iron skillets that I got passed down after my mother passed away. They look grimey on the outside and would like to see them back to their glory days. So thanks for the tips.
Don’t you have to let it cool down, after removing from hot oven, before placing it in water?
I have always read that dish soap shouldn’t be used to clean iron skillets, that it will leave a soapy taste. Is this incorrect?
Thanks.
I did the first 3 steps correctly and I still have rust I have tried everything. It wasn’t rusty before I put it in the oven. All the gunk is off but the rust remains. I have scrubbed for hours trying to get the rust off. What should I do?
Can’t remember where I got this tip: use good old table salt as a scouring medium. Works like a charm to get anything still stuck on.
Be careful with the oven on the clean cycle, that nice old pan can warp and wont sit flat if you do this. The best way I have found, and have used it on 130 yr old Erie pans, build a fire, let it burn till you have a good bed of coals, cover it in coals and forget about it. Come back after everything is burnt out and then clean and season. You can put it straight on a fire, but have to worry that it will get to hot and warp or crack. Ive always used bacon grease to season mine.
I had the same cleaning results by putting the pan on hot coals in the fireplace overnight. All of the residue came right off.