How do you clean your cast iron grill pan? (meal, worse, sauce)
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I cringe when I hear people destroying the seasoning on cast iron.
Dish soap is the LAST thing to use.
Sanding it "shiny" should be outlawed...
Sanding it...WTH?
Sand...
SAND!
I don't have a cast iron pan because I would be one of the people to make you cringe. I've always been funny about dishes being spotless before I use them. Cast iron freaks me out because you don't "clean" it. I equate seasoning to just leaving cooked-on "food" in the pan. Don't know why I have this strange issue - My mother cooked with a cast iron skillet my whole childhood. Best fried chicken ever came out of that pan.
Years ago, I threw out a very good quality pot that I thought I had ruined that I had been given as a wedding present; now I know I could have salvaged it - and it haunts me to this day that I got rid of it.
There's always a fix to a good quality piece of cookware.
I don't have a cast iron pan because I would be one of the people to make you cringe. I've always been funny about dishes being spotless before I use them. Cast iron freaks me out because you don't "clean" it. I equate seasoning to just leaving cooked-on "food" in the pan. Don't know why I have this strange issue - My mother cooked with a cast iron skillet my whole childhood. Best fried chicken ever came out of that pan.
Most bacteria (virtually all) dies at 165 degrees F. Literally all bacteria is killed at 250 degrees F. If you are that worried about your skillet, wipe it with a very small amount (1 teaspoon or so) of high smoke point oil (canola, peanut, etc) and put it upside down in a 250 degree oven for a half hour or so. Literally NOTHING will live through that. It will be cleaner than the plates and forks you put through the 140 degree dishwasher, or that skanky toothbrush that you rinse for 5 seconds in cold water in the bathroom sink, that sits in the bathroom all day at room temperature, before you stick it in your mouth every day.
It will NOT hurt your cast iron pan to wash it with dishwashing liquid (by hand, for god's sake don't put it in the dishwasher!) Just use a plastic scrubby, some Palmolive, rinse and dry immediately. No harm to the seasoning. Clean!
I don't know where you people hear all this voodoo stuff like scrubbing the thing with salt, or sand, or the eyelashes of duckbilled platypi.
As to "sanding it", the reason one would do this is if it's a modern one with the common poor interior finish (old ones were machined) - in which case you'd season it AFTER and never fool with it again - or if it's so rusty that you don't have any original finish left - in which case you'd season it AFTER and never fool with it again.
I own three cast iron pans - an old (1940s?) standard size skillet, a newer (1984) standard size skillet, and a new (2008ish) large skillet. How many times have I seasoned these pans?
The old one - once, because it was rusty.
The new smaller - once, when I bought it.
The new larger - once, when I bought it.
That is all one should EVER need to do, unless some idiot in the household runs it in the dishwasher.
Sheesh. Quit overcomplicating it, y'all. Go ask your grandmother what to do.
I cringe when I hear people destroying the seasoning on cast iron.
Dish soap is the LAST thing to use.
Sanding it "shiny" should be outlawed...
Sanding it...WTH?
Sand...
SAND!
Look at any pre-1960 cast iron skillet and think it was at least optional on any upto ten or fifteen years ago. They milled it, sanded it or whatever to make interior smooth as a baby's bottom. If you like rough unfinished castings like they came out of the sand, then more power to you. I found smooth as a baby's bottom interior on skillet is a LOT more non stick once seasoned than the rough surface on most new ones in 2020. Matter fact first time I used skillet after sanding it smooth and shiny, WITH NO SEASONING it, just bit oil. It was slick as most seasoned skillets. Its the cheap way to get an antique skillet.
Again you like a rough casting, more power to you, its you that has to live with it. I prefer smooth like my ancestors had access to a hundred years ago.
Look at any pre-1960 cast iron skillet and think it was at least optional on any upto ten or fifteen years ago. They milled it, sanded it or whatever to make interior smooth as a baby's bottom. If you like rough unfinished castings like they came out of the sand, then more power to you. I found smooth as a baby's bottom interior on skillet is a LOT more non stick once seasoned than the rough surface on most new ones in 2020. Matter fact first time I used skillet after sanding it smooth and shiny, WITH NO SEASONING it, just bit oil. It was slick as most seasoned skillets. Its the cheap way to get an antique skillet.
Again you like a rough casting, more power to you, its you that has to live with it. I prefer smooth like my ancestors had access to a hundred years ago.
A DA sander will make short work of that crummy rough as-cast surface if you don't have access to a Bridgeport. Work from 100 grit up to 400 or 800. Re-season; all good to go for decades at least.
I cringe when I hear people destroying the seasoning on cast iron.
Dish soap is the LAST thing to use.
Sanding it "shiny" should be outlawed...
Sanding it...WTH?
Sand...
SAND!
Sanding is only done if there is no other option. How would save a cast iron pan that had been left in the rain and rusted? Of course you sand it, followed by initial seasoning, etc. Same thing with a cast iron flat top like a Blackstone grill. (Just don't use flaxseed oil - it can flake off)
I cringe when I hear people destroying the seasoning on cast iron.
Dish soap is the LAST thing to use.
Oh please.
As for sanding, hell yeah you can sand it. My BF bought a new Lodge pan (the ones that have that horrid pebbly surface - UGH) for the sole purpose of trying to see if he could get it smooth, like how it really SHOULD be (my old Wagner has almost a mirror finish it is so smooth). And he was successful. I use the pan all the time now. It's heavier than I like (the main issue with the Lodges) but it is much better than it was.
Look at any pre-1960 cast iron skillet and think it was at least optional on any upto ten or fifteen years ago. They milled it, sanded it or whatever to make interior smooth as a baby's bottom. If you like rough unfinished castings like they came out of the sand, then more power to you. I found smooth as a baby's bottom interior on skillet is a LOT more non stick once seasoned than the rough surface on most new ones in 2020. Matter fact first time I used skillet after sanding it smooth and shiny, WITH NO SEASONING it, just bit oil. It was slick as most seasoned skillets. Its the cheap way to get an antique skillet.
Again you like a rough casting, more power to you, its you that has to live with it. I prefer smooth like my ancestors had access to a hundred years ago.
Cast iron is wonderful to use when they serve a purpose. Rust can be a very frustrating thing to newbies. Just keep at seasoning them and they will stop rusting in time.
I cook roasts in my oven in my two cast iron pans (chicken, beef and pork) Once I take the roasts out, it's easy to do gravy in them afterwards. (on my glass stovetop-being very careful not to move the pan around and scratch glass surface)
I also use them on my stovetop at a high heat to do steak and quick-cook shrimp and scallops.
To clean them, I use a scrub brush with the pan under hot running water. I only have to season them once in a while. I've had them for over thirty years.
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