Cast iron cleaning

This is the first time I post here.

Actually I'm from Italy and these things aren't common, the cast iron pans in general, I bought from amazon the top rated item because I can't find them in shops here.

Steel wool is fine as long as it doesn't have detergent added to it. Next time you have to bake it after applying oil, then add more oil, bake, add oil, bake etc. Do it at least 3 or 4 times to let the oil really get into the skillet.

Fuck off teflon fag.

Ma sei un negro, prendila antiaderente e fine
Cercavi di fare una pagnotta al forno? Meglio evitare di lanciare farina dentro, sembra sensato ma brucia subito e fa cattivo sapore

Ok thanks again.

Just to be sure, after cleaning the pan what I have to do for reseasoning is getting the pan hot, covering it in oil and place upside down in oven for 1 hour? Right?

In realtà mi serve per le bistecche, stavo solo cercando di provare una cosa nuova per impratichirmi...

Ok thanks

Scaldala bene prima di mettere dentro la pizza e scrolla più farina possibile. Niente olio. Per il pane metto il coperchio non so se funziona con la pizza

Have you tried just boiling water in it? Get it nice and hot and pour a little (not too cold) water in, and usually the crap will unstick and start floating and you can wipe/soak it up with a paper towel. Then you can scrub off whatever is left, or scrape it up with a paper towel and a spatula while its still wet.

Ok will try this first, if it's not effective then warm water plus steel whool.

Si guarda mi è bastata questa prova XD

Basta così, ci farò la carne appena la sistemo.

Spero di non averla rovinata!

Worst case is you may have to reseason it. Use an oven cleaner to strip the pan and follow this method to reseason it: cooksillustrated.com/how_tos/5820-the-ultimate-way-to-season-cast-iron (PIA but worth it). In the future use salt as an abrasive and kitchen/paper towel to clean the pan, oil it afterwords for storage

Ok boiling water removed most of the burnt stuff except from some crusty bits.

I tried with the steel whool but I only see the area discolouring from black to light gray wtf

No damage right?

The reason lodge cast iron has all the irregularity to the finish is because they use a cheaper casting method than was used in the past, and is still used in more expensive cast iron productions. However this means you can fairly easily remove some of that layer with sand paper or steel wool and some elbow grease.

I actually prefer to remove it entirely when i buy it new and reseason it myself.

Gives a nice smooth finish and much easier to cook on.

The whool can't remove this, by the way the more I insist the more black coating I'm removing and see lighter areas instead of full black.

I'll keep scrubbing with whool, hoping this is fine.

I doubt you have anything that you own that COULD damage it to be honest with you.

Buy a product called "The Mist For Rust" and soak the pan in it.
You might need several bottles, but they aren't that expensive and clean shit like that perfectly.

RESEASON
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90% removed, I'm reseasoning now.

What an experience

Pic related, then reseason first with MINERAL oil then on to food oils.

just use linseed oil like i did. its supposed to be the strongest coating

noooooo don;t do that!!

linseed oil is also known as rapeseed oil, did you know that?

flaxseed oil actually

rapeseed oil is also known as canola

Not sure if it's your fault or what but did the skillet look like that when it was new? Does the surface feel as porous as it looks? I don't think you'll ever get a good result if it is... Mine is smooth as glass on the bottom and is pretty much un-fuck-up-able as long as I don't put tomatoes or soap into it

Ok this pic confirmed my fears.. That surface is way too rough. That metal surface is not suited to benefit from the magical oil to metal reaction that makes cast iron great

wash it with soap. If that sn't enough, scour it with some steel wool. It shouldn't affect the seasoning in amajor way. If it does, just reseason it. Don't baby your cast iron. That defeats the purpose. You might as well go with teflon if your treat it so gingerly

just pour some salt in it and scour it with newspaper

soap is 100% fine, you just dont want to leave it soaking in water.

You're actually supposed to use soap to clean it.

Didn't even read the rest of the comments. I cook with cast Iron everyday and prefer it unless I'm using my thick stainless lined copper cookware.

Strip skillet down smear it in Crisco vegetable shortening(you want a thin layer with no white showing) turn your oven on to 450 put the skillet in the oven and let it heat up then after the skillet has reached 450 which is usually like 45 min shut the stove off and let the skillet cool down gradually.

You want to avoid quick temp changes as much as possible.

You can season like this once or many times. The more times you season the better the skillet gets.

I only use hot water and a thick redecker brush that uses natural material(plastic melts when cleaning the skillet when hot) and maybe kosher salt if it's messy.

I take the skillet straight off the stove after using and scrub it out using hot water. Never warped a skillet and I'be been doing it for years.

Yeah you can use soap but you don't need to and it makes shit taste kinda off the next time you use it.

Scalding hot water a good scrub brush and maybe salt is the only thing you should use if you want your food to taste good next time.

I use a single drop of soap generally and hot water + a chain mail cloth.

Then I reapply a small layer of oil before storing

holy shit you're such a fucking tool

These little bastards are the absolute best for cleaning out cast iron stuff.

Made by redecker in Germany out of natural materials.

They last for a wicked long time and are cheap.

Are you seriously going to eat a bunch of parsley?
also, had to make sure to include that intelligent looking book and your paraphernalia into the poorly lit photo of your shitty looking meal
Never post again
If you do at least lose the fucking name you clod

>chain mail cloth

What did he mean by this?
Steel wool?

I cook in cast iron every single day and have found the best way to use it by playing around and trying new things. If you use soap it makes a marginal difference to how the skillet cooks and food tastes the next time you use it. Is it a huge difference? No but it's still a noticeable negative difference.

...

He's calling you a tool because of the book you moron

The chain mail cloth is cool and everything but I really prefer the little brush thing I posted above. It's just a little easier.

Try a bit of salt instead of soap the next time and I think you'll be surprised how good it works.

Nigga why did you put entire sticks of rosemary on your dish?
That looks fucking awful. If you're trying to make your food look more presentable, don't use bits that aren't fucking edible. Also that's a fuck-ton of rosemary in general.
Kill yourself please, or try sobering up and reading a book on food before you cook another meal

What's wrong with Aristotle?

I started to delve into philosophy and started at the beginning and moved forward from the ancient Greeks etc onward.

Whatever. All of you are pieces of shits who don't understand philosophy. I bet you spooked faggots haven't even read Max Stirner... god

Cause I suck at cooking obviously

I'm trying to get better at it though. It's my newest hobby. I'm trying to experiment with new things and fuck around. I was ok at cooking before but it was extremely utilitarian and meh at best.

It's a fun process.

the fact you framed it in the picture is the problem.

It's an obvious attention grab and it screams LOOK AT THIS SMART THING IM READING CAUSE IM SO SMART.

Just makes you look autistic instead.

I'm not saying don't read greek philosophers, but if you do, don't make a big deal about it because it isn't a big deal to anyone else.

Oh shit you actually admitted it
Cool man, keep trying
If you can, try working on a line at some point or going to a seminar or two locally. If you get in on a line you'll be able to sell the scum there drugs too as a bonus :)

>you'll be able to sell the scum there drugs too as a bonus
Someone there is probably already selling at a cheaper price anyway

Meh I get home from work cook a meal maybe have a drink or bowl and read every day.

I'm not trying to project that I'm some sort of intellectual or something it's just what I do on a daily basis and how my little shit table in my crappy poorly lit apartment looks.

I'm just taking pictures of my food after every meal to mark my progression of learning cooking.

Thanks man. I ordered a couple of books and I've been trying to watch some YouTube videos and stuff. I might try to take a class at some point and working on a line would probably be interesting.

Put down your aristotle for a while and pick this up my man
It is literally a bible of flavor combinations. If you ever want to make or tweak a recipe, consult this book.

Just looks like singed on flour, no big deal. Don't believe the memers who tell you not to use soap. Wash it with soap and water, then dry thoroughly and put it on a lit stove burner for a few minutes to evaporate off any residual water.

Thanks for the reccomendation just ordered up a copy. Will check it out when it arrives.

OP you are overthinking it way too much with your boiling water and shit. All you have to do to reset cast iron is give it a good hot water scrub to remove all debris, then coat with high temp oil and throw it in the oven and/or cook with it to re-season that bitch. The more you cook with it, the better the coating will be. Never figured a dirty italian would be so retards at making a fucking pizza.

No need to fuck with this gay ass meme product. A normal steel wool pad works fine.

>he fell for the cast iron meme

That's why I purchased antique cast iron pans, they are super thin and baby butt smooth.

OP here.

This afternoon I seasoned the pan as suggested: 1 hour at 400 F covered in a layer of corn oil (sorry I only have this).

I can still see black spots on the surface but I'm not sure they're burned residues, maybe they're "holes" in the factory seasoning, I don't know.

Tomorrow I'm seasoning for a second time and try to cook a ribeye.

If I'll experience problems again I'm going to the hardware shop near my house to get it sanded for a silk smooth surface.

Ps. Last noob question: when seasoning it's normal that the oil burns?

Sanding will actually help it a lot, old Wagner/Griswold pans were sanded at the factory. Lodge doesn't sand their cast iron, they leave it rough.
>derr so da seasoning sticks better
Absolute bullshit. Vintage cast iron, as well as carbon steel pans are completely smooth and hold seasoning perfectly.

If you're going to sand a cast iron pan down, use a paint stripper disc like this. They make them for both drills and angle grinders.

Ok thanks, if it'll be the case I'll do as suggested.

Also, for the nigger calling me a dirty Italian for making a mistake because I'm learning how to use a product: fuck you.

Get yourself some scotch-brite dobie pads, those things are the goat for cleaning cast iron. Scrub it clean with tap water, and then asses the damage. If you see bare metal you need to reseason it, you can follow any number of guides on the internet on how to do that. If it's rusty idk what to do, because I don't treat my skillet like shit. If the seasoning looks fine, dry it completely and coat the inside with as thin a layer of oil as you can and put it on a burner on high to get it up to it's smoke point, when it gets there, turn off the burner, move the skillet to a different burner if you're a plebeian and you have an electric range, let it cool down and you're set. You need to scrub it clean and dry it promptly every time you use it, do the oil and heating thing every time you use it too if you want your cast iron to be the best a cast iron can be.

Thanks.

In order what I did before seasoning was

>boiled some water with the cast exactly as it looks in the op

>rinsed scouring shit with steel whool

>on the fire for drying it

>another scrub also with a pinch of baking soda

>rinsed and again on fire for drying it

>as the black areas on the surface weren't going away (the scrub was uneffective because nothing happened besides the area getting light coloured) I gave up and oiled the entire dry pan

>next morning (today) did the last try using a very little bit of dish soap, just to try all the solutions, and scoured with the hard face of the sponge: nothing happened besides black water.

>dried on fire and covered in oil the seasoned as described

Will repeat tomorrow because the entire process did a lot of shit smell in my house lol.

For the use and care I know the basis, this accident was not programmed...I'm sure the fucking flour before putting the dough fucked up everything, also when the pan was in the oven it went worse.

I'm "glad" it happened because now I know how to fix it, I hope.

I'm not retarded as some of you may think, it's just that in my entire life I've never used a pan like this, not even my family, friends ecc.

as I said, in Italy this is some "exotic" stuff mostly used by cooking enthusiasts, so that's why I'm here asking for informations rather than asking my mother or some relative.

I feel your pain. I'm an amerifat, have a Lodge and have been trying everything to keep it seasoned properly and it just doesn't work. I have those black areas that will not come off no matter how hard I scrub. I think I'm going to take the anons advice and buy the sanding pad for my drill and sand it smooth.

This.

Flaxseed being the food grade version of Linseed for that optimal and hard polymerisation.

Just scour it out, and re-season it a time or two and you'll be fine.

>I use non-food grade shit on my kitchen utensils

That's the 3rd world solution.

Dunno what recipe you used but maybe your oven wasn't hot enough or your dough was too delicate. When i cook in the pan, i always build my pizza in the pan cold just cause it's a pain to transfer it to a hot pan (but that would be ideal). I just oil the pan with olive oil, roll out my dough, sprinkle the top with cornmeal, flip it over so the cornmeal is on the bottom, then build the pizza from there. Then stick it in to a 500 degree (260C) oven for about 15-20 mins depending on how thick the crust is. I actually have a cast iron griddle near the bottom of my oven that preheats and put the pan on that for about 10mins, then move it up to a rack for 10 mins. If you have a gas oven you could just put it right on the flat bottom of the oven for the first 10 mins or so.

Forgot to mention, don't use plastic on your cast iron while it's HOT unless you want it to melt. Silicon is probably ok but just use a metal scraper or something.

When you buy a pan "new" it'll have a thick layer of factory seasoning which usually works like shit. If you can remove it or find a pan without it, it's usually better to scrape and oil it. Pizza dough shouldn't really have an issue since it'll tighten up and not stick with the high temps and any cheese/topping spilled on the pan should just burn up and be easily scraped off. Soap and water is fine but ALWAYS make sure to DRY your pan and oil it afterward to prevent rust.

if you're using a properly seasoned pan there's 100% no reason to put corn flour in it when doing a pan fried pizza crust (i.e. it won't stick regardless). next time instead of blindly following a recipe and then blaming it when tits turn sideways, you do some research and exercise some critical fucking thinking before you try something for the first time.

If you put cold dough in a cold pan "dry", it's probably gonna stick a bit. If you oil the pan first and then put the dough it shouldn't at all, but you won't get as nice of a texture on the bottom without the cornmeal. Cornmeal also keeps it lifted off the pan a bit so it shouldn't burn, but honestly its all about the texture.

>cast iron thread
>required reading not posted yet
but y

seriouseats.com/2014/11/the-truth-about-cast-iron.html
sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/

don't believe the memes and read the science please

>Fill it with water.
>Put it on a stove
>Turn up the heat to the max.
>Let it boil for a while to loosen the caked on shit.
>Remove water.
>Scrub it clean.

You can't really fuck up a cast iron skillet that easily unless you're actually trying to, so if nothing else works just do what said.

OP here.

Finished the second batch of seasoning.

Sorry for the shitty photo (thanks to iPhone 7).

It looks better, still has the black spots of removed coating/factory seasoning.

I'm sure it'll be fixed after some cooking

That looks fine.

Get to cookin' with it now!

>but y

Because that's taking things to an an unnecessary and autistic extreme.

Clean the pan. Apply any food-safe oil and bake it to polymerize. There's no need to go to silly extremes beyond that. That procedure has worked for centuries.

Thanks m8.

Thanks everybody for your help.

I just bought a cast iron with the raised indentions in it, with some rust and no seasoning. The lady I got it from scrubbed it.
I let a 1/1 white vinegar and water solution soak for an hour to loosen the rust, then scrubbed with steel wool and warm water.
I dried it, then put it into the oven for about hour on low to really dry it, then added a thin layer of coconut oil (sue me) and put it back in the oven upside down, with a piece of aluminum foil below it. I did this process 5 times.
Skip the vinegar part, if there's no rust.
I hope this helps you.

This is great advice, if it's already been cleaned and reasoned.

What kinds of things do you cook, to warrant using a cast iron daily?
No hate, just curious what you cook.

Yo not OP, but I tried to season a skillet for the first time and I think I fucked up somehow.
I used it a few times since it came preseasoned and then my roommate put it through the dishwasher on me. I coated the cooking surface with peanut oil and then I put the skillet in the oven at 375 on the rack face down above a sheet of tin foil.

about ten minutes later my oven was full of smoke and now its just kind of leaking out into my kitchen vent. Before putting the skillet in I cleaned it thoroughly with soap and hot water and left it to dry for a couple hours. I thought peanut oil's smoke point was 450, was I not thorough enough?

youtube.com/watch?v=KLGSLCaksdY

thanks this is a really helpful video

sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/

This. Food grade flaxseed oil. I think kitchn.com had ideas on cast iron too.

cast iron grill pan?
you can restore and reseason just as op did.

Yep. There shouldn't be enough to catch fire or really even make a lot of smoke but seasoning takes place above the smoke point of most oils.

this, most people leave a TON of oil on there, what you REALLY want is a VERY thin layer baked on MANY times.

so spread some on, then WIPE it off, bake it, let it cool, repeat 5 times.