Cast Iron Cookware......

[Blaine]

I didn't want to step on another thread, so, I'll open up another can of worms about Cast Iron....I really like it for many things. I have a small one that is only for eggs, and a touch of butter or olive oil, and it's better than non-stick. The bigger ones are for doing meat, either in the oven, or grilled on top with a generous amount of olive oil....I do have a big, deep non-stick Calphalon that is useful for stir fry, and other moist concoctions, and I have better luck with fried potatoes in the fancy one. I'd hate to do without my cast iron spiders. I don't use soap, of course, but I'll boil a little water in the crusty ones, and then clean with a little brush, lightly coat with olive oil, and keep it in the oven to avoid dust.

[pwl44m]

I have been thinking about this very subject but more importantly , How do U season it ? Cooking Bacon goes a long ways for this task, the pores get opened up and the grease goes in.
I have a small one for Eggs also. Just wipe it with a paper towell when finished, comes slick as a whistle and ready for the next time. Not near the mess I get with Teflon.
I have been watching a LOT of U-tube on cleaning, seasoning and Cooking. My Wife works (somebody has to) so I do about 98.7 % of the cooking. There are a lot of added benefits to Cast Iron Cookware. U get Iron in Ur food and U dont get flaked Teflon in Ur food to name a couple. I am actually thinking about getting rid of all My Teflon skillets.
I currently have 4 items that I use the most. A big Dutch Oven,a 10 - 8 & 6 inch Skillet. I try to get the old name Brand stuff and stay away from the foriegn stuff like japan, korea and those.
So- a Pan is not just a Pan. There is actually some Science to them. And they are forgiving, if You mess up and burn something in them. Just clean it , reseason and cook some more. As far as using Soap to clean there are only 2 rules- "Do" and "Don't". There r People who will break Your arm if You come at Their Cast Iron with soap and those that will use a little for clean up.
So Lets hear it for Cast Iron - "Yay", and Your Tips and Tricks. I have included a pic of Mine.
Perry

[C. Cash]

I truly love to cook in my cast iron....all Lodge brand. I have the large skillet, medium skillet and a dutch oven(have not used this yet)....it's the kitchen type. I use only water to clean(you can put it in while the pan is hot and it will boil and loosen anything that has grabbed on, and a wooden spatula to scrape the stuff that hangs on.) Completely dry with a paper towel and then regular vegetable oil goes all over the pan. The secret for me is to make sure that the pan is truly hot(as Blaine has stated....heat should not be as high as with other skillet types) before you cook something like an egg in it. You will get no sticking that way if you wait for the pan to heat before you put the food in. With all of the chemicals that they have put in the non-stick stuff we use to cook with, cast iron is the way to go. Gives you a good feeling to use it.

[Tycer]

Many pieces. I use a non-stick griddle for pancakes and eggs for sammiches and nothing else.

[jeepnik]

I have a set we got as a wedding present. Works good after 30+ years. But, I inherited my mom's cast iron pots and pans. Likely well over 60 years on it. Man cast iron just gets better and better. The boys can fight over who get's which set when I'm gone, but neither will be the loser.

[Chas.]

I've always done the cooking here and use a cast iron skillet regularly. If I fry compatible foods like bacon and then country ham, I don't clean at all. When cooking incompatible foods, I don't hesitate to wash with liquid detergent. If you don't go crazy, it won't hurt it a bit. Occasionally you may have to let it soak a few minutes. You can get it hot and pour a little water in it and anything stuck will come loose, but so will the seasoning. My grandmother used to throw hers in the fire out back once in a while and start over seasoning.

[2ndovc]

Just started using cast iron. There's been one hanging on the wall of our cabin for probably 20 years.
When I redid part of the kitchen I brought it home. Read a little on them cleaned it up, seasoned and
have been using it ever since. My wife bought me a great big one for Christmas last year for my
"Sunday morning Skillet Surprise" Thing weighs a ton.

Biggest problem I have is remembering to take them out of the oven when I pre-heat it!

jb

[jeepnik]

Just started using cast iron. There's been one hanging on the wall of our cabin for probably 20 years.
When I redid part of the kitchen I brought it home. Read a little on them cleaned it up, seasoned and
have been using it ever since. My wife bought me a great big one for Christmas last year for my
"Sunday morning Skillet Surprise" Thing weighs a ton.

Biggest problem I have is remembering to take them out of the oven when I pre-heat it!

jb

Pre-heat in an oven? Never heard of such a thing. Just toss it on the burner with a medium/low flame and wait a bit. It will warm up nice and even in short order.

[Ji in Hawaii]

I had my Lodge 12" pan for almost 30 years, still works as beautifully as day one maybe even better. In the same time my wife has gone through a dozen non-stick aluminum pans. I REALLY want a large 9 quart cast iron dutch oven the kind with 3 legs and a rimmed lid for placing on a campfire and stoking the lid with coals for a true oven effect. The shipping cost to Hawai'i always prevented me from justifying such a purchase.

[Blaine]

I had to teach myself as I went, so, I learned that you only need about 2/3s the heat (as soon as it starts cooking) as non-cast iron. It will get brown just fine on med or a bit lower. Don't be afraid to use some olive oil; it's good for you, and helps keep the food from burning, and helps it season the pan. Also, don't try to turn stuff before it "releases" from the pan on it's own (another reason to use lower heat, so it don't burn). If you try to turn while it's still stuck, you will leave stuff all over the bottom of the pan, and lose your non-stick for the rest of the cooking time. If it releases on it's own, and it's too brown/burnt, the heat was too high.

[Ben_Rumson]

Been with the wife now for 39 years...The main tip I have for cast iron cook ware is keep it away from my wife!...Her & her sister actually... Their mother always used cast iron on the small cattle ranch they were raised on...and knew how to take care of it...So it's hard for me to understand this...The girls can’t wait to get in there with a SOS scouring pad and hot soapy water...I don’t know where it all went wrong... Maybe its rebellion... Maybe its the look of horror on man's face when his iron pan has become denuded of all its seasoning...About the only thing that she does that her mom did, is put a pan on a burner to dry it off... But that’s no good because it gets forgot until it can be smelled or the smoke can be seen...Teflon pans create toxic fumes too...It was a losing battle for me to ever get a pan to season up good ... I cant be around all the time to protect one!... Her visiting sister thought she'd do me a "favor’ and scour up my jealously guarded egg pan for me
A solution to my situation maybe to get His & Her pans where mine are NEVER touched by her...I dunno though, there’s bound to be a cross over situation that could set a precedent and from there on the "His" pans would be at risk...I don't think I could bare to loose another one... Getting to have cast iron cook ware is a tragedy in my life... Did you know a ruined Dutch Oven is good for smelting lead?...

[Griff]

I lucked out, cast is all Gramma used, Mom doesn' like usin' it, wouldn't let Dad cook, sis thinks gourmet dining is to nuke a tb dinner... so I got.

All good until the Mrs put my favorite in the dishwasher!

Season w/bacon and wipe clean w/paper towel. You can also season w/unsalted butter.

[Marvin S]

I have used cast iron for many years ever since I bought a teflon skillet only to have it last a year or so untill it got scratched. I have Wagner, Griswold and a enameled French covered pot for chili and such with high acid. I'm a fan of olive oil as well. The Pyrex glass and quality stainless stuff can be usefull also.

[Mainehunter]

I have a collection of Lodge, Wagon Ware and Griswold at my camp, cook on them exclusively. When I need to re-season them I tend NOT to use any animal fat products such as bacon, lard, etc.. Because if you don’t use the cast iron frequently the animal fat tends to break down and give off a funny taste when you cook BUT if you use it all the time that’s no problem.

I use vegetable shortening like Crisco, give it just a skim coat on the inside and out, nothing too thick or you’ll have a mess and possible of a fire in your oven. When I do this I usually use my gas grill and bake it at the highest setting for a good 2 -3 hours depending on the size.

When it comes to cleaning them I try not to use water. That will start breaking down the nice patina coating that I’m trying to build up. If you do it once in a while that’s ok. If I have baked on food I try to remove it with a spatula, try to scrap off as much as I can. Then I use mixture of coarse salt and oil almost like a past and I rub it into the pan. The oil coats the pan gives it a nice protective coating and the salt acts like a scouring pad and also fills the pores in the cast iron nicely.

Mainehunter

[Rusty]

My wife was raised cooking with cast iron so she's good with it, knows all the do's and don'ts.

When we first got married some 34 years ago a cousin suggested that if we were looking for good cast iron cookware we should try the flea market. We did and found a fellow there that bought, sold, and traded nothing but cast iron. Lodge is OK, good solid American made stuff. Wagner is older and has a slightly different look. Griswald is the holy grail as far as we're concerned. The Griswald is much lighter than the other two and close to 100 years old. The finish is smooth as glass and cooks great.

[m.wun]

I treat them like I would my BBQ grill!

[Pisgah]

Been with the wife now for 39 years...The main tip I have for cast iron cook ware is keep it away from my wife!...Her & her sister actually... Their mother always used cast iron on the small cattle ranch they were raised on...and knew how to take care of it...So it's hard for me to understand this...The girls can’t wait to get in there with a SOS scouring pad and hot soapy water...I don’t know where it all went wrong... Maybe its rebellion... Maybe its the look of horror on man's face when his iron pan has become denuded of all its seasoning...About the only thing that she does that her mom did, is put a pan on a burner to dry it off... But that’s no good because it gets forgot until it can be smelled or the smoke can be seen...Teflon pans create toxic fumes too...It was a losing battle for me to ever get a pan to season up good ... I cant be around all the time to protect one!... Her visiting sister thought she'd do me a "favor’ and scour up my jealously guarded egg pan for me
A solution to my situation maybe to get His & Her pans where mine are NEVER touched by her...I dunno though, there’s bound to be a cross over situation that could set a precedent and from there on the "His" pans would be at risk...I don't think I could bare to loose another one... Getting to have cast iron cook ware is a tragedy in my life... Did you know a ruined Dutch Oven is good for smelting lead?...

We need to get together because I think we may be married to the same woman! Sweet as pie, but do NOT allow her near cast iron cookware.

[soon 2 retire]

Ditto about not letting wives clean cast iron. I also use kosher salt And a dab of oil with a paper towel to clean cast iron. The salt is soft enough to not affect the seasoned surface while being hard enough to abrade food deposits away. Then I re-season the pans; as time goes on they take less and less effort to clean. One thing I've recently discovered are European carbon steel pans. I have an 11 inch Italian Paderno pan; but I hear French carbon steel pans by deBuyer are just as good. Basically they take the same care as cast iron. You've got to watch the heat because they heat up quicker than cast iron.

If you want to go non-stick look into the ones with ceramic coating instead of Teflon. The ones I use are Scanpan from Denmark. They are awesome and safer than Teflon; there's no PTFE outgassing and no flaking of the coating.

Bob in Friday Harbor

[BigSky56]

Have been using CI for years in hunting camp,Theres some new cast iron cookware out there its 50% less in weight of the original stuff but still CI, I think they must of air infused it or something . I have used hard anodized aluminum a 1/3 the weight of CI, one of the guides thought he'd help out and put it in the fire and it melted down alumi gets soft over 400* guess Iam going to try the new stuff for packing in. Still use CI at home and at cow camp, olive oil works best for me for seasoning wipe them out set in the fire for a bit then rub em all over with oil. danny

[Blaine]

Have been using CI for years in hunting camp,Theres some new cast iron cookware out there its 50% less in weight of the original stuff but still CI, I think they must of air infused it or something . I have used hard anodized aluminum a 1/3 the weight of CI, one of the guides thought he'd help out and put it in the fire and it melted down alumi gets soft over 400* guess Iam going to try the new stuff for packing in. Still use CI at home and at cow camp, olive oil works best for me for seasoning wipe them out set in the fire for a bit then rub em all over with oil. danny

Do you know the brand name of this lighter cookware?

[El Chivo]

I too have been using only cast iron for about 20 years. My most recent acquisition is a small 6" pan for eggs - doesn't stick but hard to get a spatula in there. I use a 1" mayo spreader for a spatula there. The eggs come out perfect and always a very convenient round shape.

I also bought two little dutch ovens with maybe a pint capacity. They work like pressure cookers because the lids are quite heavy. However cooking wet stuff in them doesn't work too well. They are good for potatoes, and for popping corn.

I also have a 12" griddle which I used to use a lot, but now only rarely. Don't need pancakes so much anymore. It is good for a grilled cheese sandwich too.

I don't worry too much about cleaning but I will scrub with a green pad and water if necessary. The key is to dry it off right away, don't let it air dry. And don't overdo the scrubbing, you can get rid of the gunk and keep the oil layer in the pores. Usually I just scrape the gunk off.

[Mac in Mo]

I love my cast iron. I have some old, inherited from relatives and some fairly new. The new is about fifteen years old and is the only Lodge piece I have. It is the round griddle. I didn't use it for a long time because of the grooves in the cooking surface. A couple of years ago I took a sanding disc too it and got it slicked up. It gets used daily now.

I have a brown enamel coated enamel skillet from my Grandma that is probably 55 or 60 years old. I use it for anything acidic, such as tomato sauce. Works great.

I too have a couple of the small skillets, big enough for one egg.

I guess I have about 7or 8 pieces all together. I have more out in the garage, that I plan to stock my cabin with, if I ever get one built. The only modern non-stick I still have and use is a big wok for stir fry.

Kevin

[M. M. Wright]

Lots of cast iron around here, mostly bought in flea markets/junk stores. That way it's already seasoned or has a good start. I even have one of those round pans with dividers that puts a corner on every piece of corn bread that must be pre-heated to put crust on like it should be. Let's see I have a stove top dutch oven, a deep 10" with lid, a another 10", a 6" and a couple of the Dutch made porcelain, 8" and 5". We sorta ignore the rules and clean as necessary since these pieces are so well seasoned it would take hours of scrubbing to get down to metal.

Too, we have several carbon steel skillets and a couple of biscuit pans. These are seasoned too and I use the biscuit pans a lot for scratch made biscuits. No telling how old some of the carbon steel skillets are, I know one of them was my Grandmother's.

Even have a bean pot that is round bottomed with a lip that fits in where a stove lid was. Has 3 little legs so it will stand up on the counter. This one used to make the beans black but that was 40 years ago. Hangs on the crane in the fireplace and was used a lot at one time. I put an insert in the fireplace though so don't use it any more.

[Pete44ru]

Heck, I even keep an extra CI frypan & a Coleman stove in my hunting vehicle, when deer hunting - not much tops a trailside hot lunch of fried fresh deer liver & onions in bacon fat.


.

[Charles]

I am a giant fan of cast iron having cooked with it all of my adult life. I bought some along the way and my Grandmother gave me hers. When folks in my last church found out I like cast iron, they started to bring me theirs as "moma" thought it was too heavy. I ended up with several dozen pieces. One guy even found a large pot under his house while doing a remodel and brought it to me.

I clean and reseasoned it all and equipped all of my kids with full sets, and gave the rest away to anybody who walked into my office, saw it, and said they wanted some.

I keep a square Wagner skillet and a round Wagner Fat Free Fryer on the stove at all times and they are used on top and in the oven depending on what I am doing. I will pull out the larger, smaller and pots of various sizes as the need arises. The Wagner Fat Free Fryer is the most useful cooking thingie I have ever owned. It was one of those taken from a garage and dumped on my desk. I see they sell for $75 to $125 on Ebay these days. I would pay that for another, if the one I had rolled snake eyes, which is not likely to happen.

I wipe out my cast iron with paper towels. Then I take a paint scraper(retractable single edge razor blade) and scrape out anything not wiped out, wipe again and put them up. Das all there is to it. The bottoms are all glass smooth and blacker than the Ace of Spades.

[2ndovc]

Just started using cast iron. There's been one hanging on the wall of our cabin for probably 20 years.
When I redid part of the kitchen I brought it home. Read a little on them cleaned it up, seasoned and
have been using it ever since. My wife bought me a great big one for Christmas last year for my
"Sunday morning Skillet Surprise" Thing weighs a ton.

Biggest problem I have is remembering to take them out of the oven when I pre-heat it!

jb

Pre-heat in an oven? Never heard of such a thing. Just toss it on the burner with a medium/low flame and wait a bit. It will warm up nice and even in short order.

Let me clarify that. When I pre-heat the oven to bake something.

jb

[Rusty]

Several years ago my wife bought a bunch of kitchen stuff from a company called pampered chef. As a free gift they gave her a pan scraper. It was so handy she bought a couple more. It's a small hard plastic square that will scrape any food stuck in a pan and not damage the pan.
My sister in law that lives next door has used a carbon steel wok for cooking eggs and bacon for ages. She has used it so long that it is seasoned just like a cast iron skillet and looks like one inside.

[Twodot]

Just started using cast iron. There's been one hanging on the wall of our cabin for probably 20 years.
When I redid part of the kitchen I brought it home. Read a little on them cleaned it up, seasoned and
have been using it ever since. My wife bought me a great big one for Christmas last year for my
"Sunday morning Skillet Surprise" Thing weighs a ton.

Biggest problem I have is remembering to take them out of the oven when I pre-heat it!

jb

Pre-heat in an oven? Never heard of such a thing. Just toss it on the burner with a medium/low flame and wait a bit. It will warm up nice and even in short order.

Let me clarify that. When I pre-heat the oven to bake something.

jb

I find that if I oil my fry pans real good before storing them in the oven the "pre heating forgetfulness" helps with seasoning.
..

[jeepnik]

I have used cast iron for many years ever since I bought a teflon skillet only to have it last a year or so untill it got scratched. I have Wagner, Griswold and a enameled French covered pot for chili and such with high acid. I'm a fan of olive oil as well. The Pyrex glass and quality stainless stuff can be usefull also.

Not sold on the Pyrex type stuff. My wife picked up a set of "Vision" ware when it came out. It's okay, but I just can't seem to cook in that stuff as well as cast iron. So, she uses the fancy see thru stuff, and I stick with my decades old cast iron. Oh bye the way, the lids on the vision ware (which is pretty break resistant) are made of pyrex (which breaks pretty darned easy). So you end up with pots without lids or buying new lids.

[jeepnik]

Just started using cast iron. There's been one hanging on the wall of our cabin for probably 20 years.
When I redid part of the kitchen I brought it home. Read a little on them cleaned it up, seasoned and
have been using it ever since. My wife bought me a great big one for Christmas last year for my
"Sunday morning Skillet Surprise" Thing weighs a ton.

Biggest problem I have is remembering to take them out of the oven when I pre-heat it!

jb

Pre-heat in an oven? Never heard of such a thing. Just toss it on the burner with a medium/low flame and wait a bit. It will warm up nice and even in short order.

Let me clarify that. When I pre-heat the oven to bake something.

jb

Okay, that makes sense.

Interesting just how many of us levergun types realize the advantages of good old fashioned cast iron cook ware. Now the above leads me to another question. Who else stores their cast iron cook ware in the oven? It just seems like the natural place for it, as that's where my mom and grandma stored it. I wonder if they had a reason for it that has been lost to me.

[Blaine]

The best corn bread (IMO) is whatever your mixture is, and you have fried up some bacon real crispy, left the grease in the CI, preheated the oven with the skillet in the oven, and then poured your batter mixed with the crispy bacon into the smoking hot bacon grease, and bake until done.....I like to make bisquick One Big One like this, too....Just break off a chunk when it's done.

[jeepnik]

The best corn bread (IMO) is whatever your mixture is, and you have fried up some bacon real crispy, left the grease in the CI, preheated the oven with the skillet in the oven, and then poured your batter mixed with the crispy bacon into the smoking hot bacon grease, and bake until done.....I like to make bisquick One Big One like this, too....Just break off a chunk when it's done.

And the best eggs are cooked in the skillet after the bacon. You just crack open the egg in the pan, then scoop the hot grease over the top of it a few times. Plenty well cooked, and nicely seasoned at the same time.

Now you've done guys, I'm hungry.

[Mac in Mo]

I keep some in the oven and have two large skillets on the back burners on top. I have have forgotten the oven pieces also, but it became part of the process after a few times.

As far as levergunners using cast iron, it only makes sense and I wasn't surprised. Most here seem to be practical, "old souls".

Kevin

[Marvin S]

The oven keeps it clean dry and out of the way I suppose.

[M. M. Wright]

Dang it Blaine, now I hafta make biscuits.

[Blaine]

The best corn bread (IMO) is whatever your mixture is, and you have fried up some bacon real crispy, left the grease in the CI, preheated the oven with the skillet in the oven, and then poured your batter mixed with the crispy bacon into the smoking hot bacon grease, and bake until done.....I like to make bisquick One Big One like this, too....Just break off a chunk when it's done.

And the best eggs are cooked in the skillet after the bacon. You just crack open the egg in the pan, then scoop the hot grease over the top of it a few times. Plenty well cooked, and nicely seasoned at the same time.

Now you've done guys, I'm hungry.

For some reason, my eggs stick if I try to fry them in the same pan as the bacon....

[Griff]

The best corn bread (IMO) is whatever your mixture is, and you have fried up some bacon real crispy, left the grease in the CI, preheated the oven with the skillet in the oven, and then poured your batter mixed with the crispy bacon into the smoking hot bacon grease, and bake until done.....I like to make bisquick One Big One like this, too....Just break off a chunk when it's done.

And the best eggs are cooked in the skillet after the bacon. You just crack open the egg in the pan, then scoop the hot grease over the top of it a few times. Plenty well cooked, and nicely seasoned at the same time.

Now you've done guys, I'm hungry.

For some reason, my eggs stick if I try to fry them in the same pan as the bacon....

Don't drain the bacon grease... and keep it just below the "smokin'" temp, drop the eggs in and if they're floating in the grease, they cannot stick!

[Kansas Ed]

For all of you that buy cookware with an unknown history, I want to relate a little story.

In '89 when we bought our house in Wy. there was lots of old cookware in the barn and garage that among other things had been left for us to dispose of. The house had been from the estate of a government trapper and they had emptied the contents into the garage, and left what the family didn't want. Lots of the cookware was in good shape, and I often thought of bringing some of it in the house and cleaning it up to use. Some was empty and some was holding junk. A year or so later, the grandson of the original owner was over and in the garage with me and spied one cast iron pan on the shelf which was full of small metal cylinders. He about croaked. Those little cylinders were cyanide bombs (I had no clue) which were used on coyote sets back in the 40's and 50's.

My point is, if you don't know the history of your cookware, you have no idea what has been put in it. Cast Iron especially is porous and can and will absorb residual poisons. That means lead, rat poison, bug spray, weed killer, motor oil etc. etc. I won't even use a crock that's been from unknown origins. Easier to buy new than poison the kids and family slowly.

Know what you're cooking in.

Ed

[Blaine]

The best corn bread (IMO) is whatever your mixture is, and you have fried up some bacon real crispy, left the grease in the CI, preheated the oven with the skillet in the oven, and then poured your batter mixed with the crispy bacon into the smoking hot bacon grease, and bake until done.....I like to make bisquick One Big One like this, too....Just break off a chunk when it's done.

And the best eggs are cooked in the skillet after the bacon. You just crack open the egg in the pan, then scoop the hot grease over the top of it a few times. Plenty well cooked, and nicely seasoned at the same time.

Now you've done guys, I'm hungry.

For some reason, my eggs stick if I try to fry them in the same pan as the bacon....

Don't drain the bacon grease... and keep it just below the "smokin'" temp, drop the eggs in and if they're floating in the grease, they cannot stick!

That has to be it.....I do take some of the grease out....I drain the bacon on paper towel, and cook the eggs in another with butter or olive oil, or a tad of both.....

[Rusty]

We ave 2 ovens, one we use all the time, the other is used for storage except around the holidays when the wife has a lot of cooking to do.

If you have some CI cookware that you're not sure of, has become rusted, or just too nasty, put it in an oven that has a self cleaning cycle and run it thru the cycle. It will then be right back to square one. Begin to season it as if it were new and enjoy!

[wecsoger]

Went by a yard sale several weeks ago. Stopped in, chatted with the woman there. She was helping clean out parents home (not a fun thing, trust me) and had barn and garage open.

Looked around, didn't see much. She asked if there was anything I was looking for and I told her anything amateur radio related, firearms related or any cast iron. She said yes, I do remember something over on those shelves and she rummaged for it.

Brought out two skillets in, to be kind, sad shape. I initially thought they were for display and had been painted as the bottoms were a thick, crusted black. She said no, she knew they were used at some time, but 'some time' was decades ago. Said she would take ten bucks for both and since I started it, I gave her the money.

I think she also wanted to see how I was going to get them home since I was on the dual sport bike. (grin) That's what luggage carriers are for.

Took 'em home. Black on the bottoms was like flat black enamel and hard and thick as a layer of coal. I flipped them over, put them on a black trash bag in the garage and sprayed liberally with the wife's oven cleaner. (she is used to this sort of behavior from me)

The black streamed down from the top to the sides and as the oven cleaner worked on the gunk, next day I would spray more.

Couple days of that and I got a rubber spatula smearing off the black scum, then washing and took a brass brush to them.

More cycles of cleaning. The large pan is an old Griswold. Smaller one is a Wagner. I was beyond pleased.

All that black was decades of oil and more cooked-on oil.

I still have to clean the insides, although I'll use nothing as dramatic as oven cleaner. Hope to get them cleaned up to at least minor cooking duties.

[Ben_Rumson]

The oven cleaner stuff reminded me of a picture I saw in an old book about hunting/camping... A man had a big frying pan tied to a sapling and was holding the fry pan into the flames and coals of the fire... The caption under the pic read something like: “Once a year burn the pan clean.”

[Rusty]

Wes, if you can put them in a self cleaning oven and cycle it, all you'll have to do is sweep away the dust when you're done.

[Blaine]

Wes, if you can put them in a self cleaning oven and cycle it, all you'll have to do is sweep away the dust when you're done.

They flash rust pretty quick, so be ready to jump on oiling them down pretty darn suddenly. Light rust like that can be soaked off by pouring in a can of coke and letting it sit overnight.