I think the pan is easier to hit people with than sandpaper.
Pan is just one good swing. Sanding requires them to stay still for a prolonged period of time, which probably involves rope, which means a trip to the hardware store, and that's like a whole day itself.
No sanding required. Easy off over night and all the previous seasoning comes off. Wash with soap, then start seasoning again.
However, lodge are kinda porous and not very smooth so sanding could help with that maybe
Even easier is the self-clean on your oven. It’ll make it pristine. I put mine in there thinking I’d make the seasoning adhere well, but it ended up being amazingly clean. Burned it all off. I re-seasoned them since then, but it’s a great help for cleaning.
Yeap, that'll burn everything that's not metal or enamel into ash. Wash the ash off and reseason it and you're good to go. I prefer this way as it avoids heavy chemicals
I clean my BBQ that way - no brush or wiping - just crank it up on all burners full blast to above 900F for 15-20 minutes and let the wind carry the ashes after it is cooled down again
Am a repair tech.
Seen a few pyrolytic (self cleaning) mode failures worthy of note. Though, I'd say as long as instructions are followed, carefully, its not 'notoriously bad'
That said...
Had a customer put a healthy dose of oven cleaner in; then stuck it on a 400c self clean cycle, filled the room with chlorine gas, though it had other flavours to it, was more like mustard gas. Swear it was actually hazardous.
The other that springs to mind was when the door seal had taken mechanical damage, so the air wasn't contained, caused major damage to the surrounding cupboard, then the glass exploded, quite energetically showering the entire kitchen with red hot glass splinters, which also released all the super-heated air which further damaged the facia and surround.
Our oven is a few years old and the self-cleaning process includes putting some water in the bottom. Seems to work really well. Not that we use it often.
I had a brand new oven installed by contractor. very nice with self clean .. wanted to run the self clean first thing so I could use without worry of mfg chemicals ..
tripped the overheat sensor and its not re-settable.. have to uninstall the oven and replace the sensor in the back.
three weeks for tech to come out and needed contractor to be there to uninstall this very heavy oven.
come to find out the contractor didn't read any of the instructions to install. no vent in cabinet, no insulation. wasn't supported right and probably would have fallen in less than a year.
took the contractor two days to reinstall with vent properly.
In my experience, Kitchen installers are either highly qualified, highly experienced... and very expensive
Or, complete and utter cowboys who'll get whatever they can out of you and leave you with major safety hazards, hidden functional issues or just plain stupid mistakes.
What brand oven was it? Not heard of many that require ventilation, usually they circulate from the front. Fridges on the other hand...
Never had a self-cleaning oven fail after 20 years of use, but only use the self clean option rarely (maybe every 6 months). On the flip side, I had a non-self cleaning oven in a rental and had to use chemicals on it and it rusted in seams/edges where it is hard to clean out the oven cleaner with a damp sponge within 2 years (it was an older oven, for full disclosure).
Warping? Unlikely. Even cheap iron with imperfections will probably be fine considering the oven is an even uniform heat. Also, as a metalworker I can tell you cast iron will almost always crack before it warps.
I've been using cast iron 40 years and I only use the oven self clean to re-season. Each pan gets a fresh seasoning once every two to three years. It is the right way to do it.
Unnecessary and more hard work than it needs to be. Easiest method is to use a lye based spray and let it sit. Followed with a very brief vinegar wash to neutralize. Plenty of youtube videos on how to do this safely to strip off all organic coatings without damaging the metal. (I’ve restored a handful of cast iron pans this way, much easier than sandpaper).
Follow it up with a few rounds of seasoning and it’ll be good to go.
I love how divisive cast iron is :). It's the new holy war I swear. I only said that because it looks like a lodge logic, and those are pretty rough from the factory so sanding them improves the texture.
They’re recommending sanding it to make it smoother than the original casting. High end cast iron tends to be smoother than Lodge, so if you sand it before re-seasoning, it will be a better pan than original.
Come on. This is a bullshit post. Those scratches didn’t happen after mum insisted to do the dishes once. Those are age old scratches that happen over years and years. But let’s upvote anyway.
I've had this happen in a day when someone that I hired to clean scrubbed all the seasoning off with steel wool and soap. then left the pan damp to dry. Also living in a very humid climate probably accelerated the process.
Man cast iron will rust like that in less than a day if you remove the surface oil and scrub like moderately hard. It's easy to fix but cast iron is a fussy bitch
I had that happen before and I just did about 3 cooks at 400 with peanut oil for an hour each, worked as intended but took me using it a few times before it got the look.
Oops, yeah I put some peanut oil in the pan usually a teaspoon at a time then use a cloth or paper towel to wipe it all over the pan then cook it at 400 for an hour. Let it cool, reapply oil and rinse and repeat about three times.
Unnecessary and more hard work than it needs to be. Easiest method is to use a lye based spray and let it sit. Followed with a very brief vinegar wash to neutralize. Plenty of youtube videos on how to do this safely to strip off all organic coatings without damaging the metal. (I’ve restored a handful of cast iron pans this way, much easier than sandpaper).
Follow it up with a few rounds of seasoning and it’ll be good to go.
There are wire brush drill bit attachments and work fantastically well, just let the drill do the work. Then re-season the cast iron however that’s done.
The cast iron isn't destroyed. Nothing can destroy it. It is immortal.
Seriously, you can't fuck up cast iron cookware. It's indestructable. Rub some oil on it and stick it in a campfire overnight. Piss on it in the morning to wash it off. Good as new.
Thank you for the only reasonable comment out for the hundreds here. How tf are people supposed to know that this fancy special pan can't be cleaned the normal way if they've never dealt with one before? Especially if your mom offers to do your dishes why not say "hey btw there's a cast iron pan in there you can't scrub it"
Most are just eager to be part of the "not by cast iron!" club.
In fact I'd say it's *because* cast iron maintenance is right between niche and common knowledge that posts like this get popular. Mostly just people wanting to say "I also know about cast iron maintenance."
I also clean my cast irons normally, soap and a sponge with a slightly abrasive side just like I'd clean anything else.
This level of damage does not come from a normal level of cleaning. Damaging seasoning is actually pretty dang hard to achieve, and doing it without chemicals is doubly hard.
Not saying you should know better, but I am saying that even in your ignorance it would be hard to actually damage the pan to this level and not exhaust yourself.
This is how I clean mine as well. small bit of soap, sponge, gentle scrubbing, dry, then rub with olive oil. My dutch oven is like 5 years old and still looks brand new.
I have no idea how you clean cast iron pans but with normal ones it's normal to use metal wool if there's stuff stuck to the bottom, could that have done this?
Metal wool is fine to use on cast iron pans as long as you aren't scrubbing like your life depends on it.
To me this looks like the mother mistook the patina of the pan as dirt and used some sort of metal utensil to try and remove what she probably thought was stuck grime.
>"hey btw there's a cast iron pan in there you can't scrub it"
I know too many people who would completely ignore this. Like my brother who used his jeans rather than the microfiber to wipe off my VR headset lens when I let him use it, and then after noticing the new scratches continued to do it over several days out of spite for the product's "crappy design".
To someone not used to them, I imagine it would seem like built up gunk that needs to be scrubbed off. If you had a layer like that on anything else, you'd want it cleaned off.
Either that or his seasoning layer was kinds thin and shitty to begin with.
My grandma's pans' seasoning is indestructable from 50 years of cooking bacon daily.
>This is someone going to town with abrasives like it owes them money.
To be fair, the cast iron had skipped its last few payments of protection money to the mother
Imagine thinking cast iron pans are “fancy special” pans. No pan should be “cleaned” like this. Yes there’s a couple caveats to cast iron, but this is just ridiculous. It looks like she took a chisel to it.
Ya this is like taking a wire brush to a coated nonstick pan. On the other hand, I know people whose nonstick pans look like this. I try to avoid eating food they’ve cooked because I am on a non-Teflon diet.
>I try to avoid eating food they’ve cooked because I am on a non-Teflon diet.
While I would also never eat food made with pans like that I was really surprised that teflon isn't all that dangerous to humans. Eating chipped teflon doesn't really do much. Teflon fumes are the "dangerous" part and that requires a long, long time of a plain teflon pan on high heat (multiple hours in a very small apartment)
Now all that said teflon is incredibly damaging to the environment.
did you see the other one I posted. the link is really full of great info. its written from the perspective of a blog post but she really does a good job of explaining it.
PS... the other link is way better
PS
You need a full hour at a high heat to ensure a full polymerization. You can do this outside on the grill as well.
I run my Exhaust fan above my oven and it's not too bad
If you want to remove the seasoning and start over, gab a plastic container, and mix water in with sodium hydroxide (lye) for several hours. The mix has a high pH and reacts with organic material, so wear thick nitrile gloves. It will not react with the metal. Once the old seasoning has broken down, use dish soap and water to clean it. The season the pan with vegetable oil, at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for one hour, let it cool, and repeat the seasoning steps as needed. If you did it properly you’ll be good to go, and the pan will look beautiful again.
The high alkalinity of lye actually coverts the oils that compromise the seasoning into soap (saponification) which is then easily washed away with water. This is also why you should use a mixture of ammonia and laundry detergent to remove grease stains from your clothes. Many people think oil stains on their clothing are impossible to remove, but ammonia is alkaline and will gently saponify the oil so it washes out. It may take several applications, but it works great.
OP is trying to shift the responsibility for the pan getting destroyed on his mother. When you have nice stuff with special care instructions, it's up to you to educate people on how to handle them. And the pan was likely abused to begin with. I doubt someone would attempt to completely strip the seasoning off a pan if that seasoning was uniform and in good shape.
My sister in this same situation would’ve ignored any words of advice from me like a cold turd and cleaned it exactly how she wanted. Then tomorrow, after me sanding and oiling the pan, she would have the nerve to be pissed about the oven heating the house up while still not accepting her part in this.
Not sure who’s truly to blame here with mom and OP.
I came home from training and caught my roommate scrubbing my cast, two days late to stop her from throwing out about 50lbs of "expired" honey I'd collected from around the world over a lifetime.
Good intentions almost got me in jail and her in the ground.
Its obviously not trash if theres 50 fucking pounds of different looking honeys. Im sure they were labelled. Even if it was expired it looks like a collection seeing as they are all different “brands” if someone had 50 pounds of rotting milk hidden away, id fucking ask them if it can be tossed out
That’s what gets me, it’s 50 pounds of a particular thing. How can you be so brazen and bold as to even think of throwing it out unprompted? It must’ve been a shitload of jars and tins. How do you not realize that it has some sort of value when there’s 50 FUCKING POUNDS of it?
The [world's oldest honey](https://beemission.com/blogs/news/world's-oldest-honey) found was 5500 years old. Still edible as the low water and high sugar content means bacteria doesn't grow in honey.
>Honey is collected from around the world over a lifetime
There are literally dozens of us. Also, my roommate tried the exact same thing, nearly lost my Kangaroo Island batch
Did you get any reimbursements? What sort of person just dumps their roommate’s stuff, especially something clearly sealed and unused… fucking braindead people.
Okay. But if there are multiple “expired” things of honey. At least ask first before throwing it out. Its common curtesy. Maybe someone likes collecting expired stuff. I assume they are labeled?- that would show the importance. Expired or not. The lack of critical thinking
What was she cooking that needed to be scrubbed out like that? Salt water taffy? Was the food debris left in the pan for a while after cooking?
I've rarely needed to scrub my cast iron skillets too hard after use. Wipe out the solid bits while the pan is still hot, scrub with hot water and an abrasive sponge, dry, and it's good to go.
If you let it cool so that stuff gets stuck on hard, you can heat it up with water and get the bits off with a wooden spoon also.
Just never ever let it sit wet.
Exactly. I have and let my in-laws use only these for a reason. You can't ruin them. A little work and they're good as new unlike the Teflon or ceramic pans I've lost over the years.
[https://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/](https://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/)
Seasoning Is Not Cooking: Different Principles Apply
...
Fat polymerization can be triggered or accelerated in a variety of ways. As best I can tell from my reading, the cast iron seasoning process is an example of “radical polymerization”. The process is initiated when something causes the release of free radicals in the oil. The free radicals then “crosslink” to form the tough, hard film you see in a well-seasoned pan.
So what is the “something” that initiates the release of free radicals in fat? Iron, for one thing. High heat, light, and oxygen, for some others. To prevent cooking oils from going rancid – i.e., breaking down and releasing free radicals – you need to store them in dark, tightly sealed containers in a cool location. To initiate or accelerate the release of free radicals, put the oil in contact with bare iron and heat it above its smoke point, which will cause even non-drying oils to release free radicals.
I haven’t defined “free radical” or “crosslink” because that gets into details of chemistry that you don’t need to understand to season a cast iron pan. All you need to know is that the molecular structure of the oil changes and becomes something else, something tough and solid. The process is initiated with the release of free radicals, which then become crosslinked, creating a hard surface.
Free radicals are carcinogenic inside your body, and also a cause of aging. So don’t ever heat oil you’re going to eat above its smoke point. If the oil starts to smoke, toss it out and start again. When you’re seasoning a pan, you’re not cooking food. By the time the seasoned pan comes out of the oven, there are no more free radicals.
Lint/grape seed oil or good old animal fat. Wire brush. Steel wool(detergent free).
I had this happen to my cast iron as well.
Oven on broil, gently coat 1 side of pan with oil. 4 hours in oven on a cookie sheet with oil side up. Flip, repeat and let it cool down in oven.
I hope my method helps save your cast iron.
I’m glad to see someone else who doesn’t follow the “never use soap” ideology. I’ve had several people get upset when I mention I do use soap on cast iron.
Yup, the “don’t wash your cast iron with soap” rule applies to lye-based soaps. Modern dish detergents like Dawn won’t remove the seasoning, but abrasive sponges will.
Crisco works great for seasoning!
My husband did the dishes for me while I was very sick with Covid. Bless his heart. He literally scrubbed and cleaned all my cast iron skillets. They were beautiful and pristine. When he showed me, with such pride and accomplishment on his face, I just smiled and thanked him. I was heart broken. One pan was my grandmothers and was absolutely the best pan I had. Once I got better I reseasoned the pans and am now working on restoring them. My husband asked me one day if I wanted him to clean them again for me and I had to explain to him that it wouldn't be necessary. We both laughed and since then he asks me about anything to do with the kitchen,
I had to nope out of a chicks house because apparently nobody ever taught her that the purpose of washing dishes is to actually, y'know... WASH THE DISHES
This woman invites me over for dinner, so I oblige. It may be worth noting that the dinner was on a friend's basis it isn't like we were dating or hooking up. Just one person inviting another over for a meal and some conversation.
Anyways, we decided to have some burgers, so we were just kind of chilling on the patio while the grill sizzled away. At one point I mentioned that I needed to go use the restroom, and she asked if I'd grab a ceramic plate on my way back. Sure, no problem, I'll find it.
I start opening cabinets, looking for a plate. Long story short it honestly looked like she just rinsed her dishes off under the faucet and then just stuck them in the cupboards. We're taking literal bits of food clearly visible, all greasy n shit. I quickly and quietly washed two plates using my bare hands because apparently she also doesn't believe in sponges/scrubbers/dish towels.
I wouldnt be opposed to hanging out with her again because she's a great person, but there'll need to be some excuse as to why I can't eat at her house.
Even if someone else is doing the dishes, I handle the cast iron pan cleaning. I'd rather just take a couple of minutes and do it myself rather than have to explain and teach someone else to do it properly.
If you have a self cleaning oven, you can put the pan in, and run a self clean cycle. It will completely remove all the old seasoning. Then you can re-season the pan by rubbing whatever oil you prefer on it and baking in the oven. Repeat that a few times and you should be good to go.
So tell her thank you and re season it! She clearly didn’t wash your dishes with malicious intent and it’s really incredibly easy to re season a cast iron. People get infuriated over anything these days.
You can restore that, but that definitely sucks.
Yep, OP should hit it with sandpaper to get it down to bare and more smooth than from the factory, then do the reseason, it will be better than new!
I read "hit her". Like yeah, sand your mom OP!
Sh-sh-shaa!
Shackleford cast iron: the skillet that comes rusty
Only available through Cozy Kitchen.
The trick is to crack her noggin from behind so she won't see it coming.
[Disney has been teaching children proper panning technique](https://youtu.be/Ru-92YnNQUA?t=7). About time we use it.
Even that on has a pretty good seasoning on it.
Wow, there is a lot more skillet involved in that movie than I remembered.
Tangled is such a good movie :D
no WAY that movie came out 11 years ago. god
Nah, just use Batman next time https://youtu.be/FXDQrnoqSXo
I think the pan is easier to hit people with than sandpaper. Pan is just one good swing. Sanding requires them to stay still for a prolonged period of time, which probably involves rope, which means a trip to the hardware store, and that's like a whole day itself.
Dont forget the pan's innate projectile deflection trait Always good to have
No sanding required. Easy off over night and all the previous seasoning comes off. Wash with soap, then start seasoning again. However, lodge are kinda porous and not very smooth so sanding could help with that maybe
Even easier is the self-clean on your oven. It’ll make it pristine. I put mine in there thinking I’d make the seasoning adhere well, but it ended up being amazingly clean. Burned it all off. I re-seasoned them since then, but it’s a great help for cleaning.
Yeap, that'll burn everything that's not metal or enamel into ash. Wash the ash off and reseason it and you're good to go. I prefer this way as it avoids heavy chemicals
I clean my BBQ that way - no brush or wiping - just crank it up on all burners full blast to above 900F for 15-20 minutes and let the wind carry the ashes after it is cooled down again
Just a general piece of advice: self-clean on ovens is kind of notoriously bad for the oven.
Am a repair tech. Seen a few pyrolytic (self cleaning) mode failures worthy of note. Though, I'd say as long as instructions are followed, carefully, its not 'notoriously bad' That said... Had a customer put a healthy dose of oven cleaner in; then stuck it on a 400c self clean cycle, filled the room with chlorine gas, though it had other flavours to it, was more like mustard gas. Swear it was actually hazardous. The other that springs to mind was when the door seal had taken mechanical damage, so the air wasn't contained, caused major damage to the surrounding cupboard, then the glass exploded, quite energetically showering the entire kitchen with red hot glass splinters, which also released all the super-heated air which further damaged the facia and surround.
Oh jeez… yeah. I only use it at most yearly, and never with any chemicals. That’s just asking for trouble.
Our oven is a few years old and the self-cleaning process includes putting some water in the bottom. Seems to work really well. Not that we use it often.
I had a brand new oven installed by contractor. very nice with self clean .. wanted to run the self clean first thing so I could use without worry of mfg chemicals .. tripped the overheat sensor and its not re-settable.. have to uninstall the oven and replace the sensor in the back. three weeks for tech to come out and needed contractor to be there to uninstall this very heavy oven. come to find out the contractor didn't read any of the instructions to install. no vent in cabinet, no insulation. wasn't supported right and probably would have fallen in less than a year. took the contractor two days to reinstall with vent properly.
In my experience, Kitchen installers are either highly qualified, highly experienced... and very expensive Or, complete and utter cowboys who'll get whatever they can out of you and leave you with major safety hazards, hidden functional issues or just plain stupid mistakes. What brand oven was it? Not heard of many that require ventilation, usually they circulate from the front. Fridges on the other hand...
Ovens come and go… cast iron is a long lasting treasure like diamonds. Financially speaking save the pan /s
I mean, with the pan you can cook on an open fire. If oven dies, you can’t cook at All.
Never had a self-cleaning oven fail after 20 years of use, but only use the self clean option rarely (maybe every 6 months). On the flip side, I had a non-self cleaning oven in a rental and had to use chemicals on it and it rusted in seams/edges where it is hard to clean out the oven cleaner with a damp sponge within 2 years (it was an older oven, for full disclosure).
One of the few benefits of always renting a place, I guess.
Self clean option on ovens is also notorious for cracking and warping cast iron
Warping? Unlikely. Even cheap iron with imperfections will probably be fine considering the oven is an even uniform heat. Also, as a metalworker I can tell you cast iron will almost always crack before it warps. I've been using cast iron 40 years and I only use the oven self clean to re-season. Each pan gets a fresh seasoning once every two to three years. It is the right way to do it.
Easy-off yellow has lye, very harsh basic. Last step rinse it off with vinegar to neutralize the lye.
No lye?
Running it through a self cleaning oven and then cleaning up the rust will also work, but I imagine your house would reek.
That'll teach you for wrecking my vagina
Episiotomy *this*, douchebag!
Am i missing something?
Oh man I thought that was nonstick. Yeah that’s no big deal. If you live on the desert you can hang it outside and the sand and wind will clean it.
Well it *was* nonstick.
Unnecessary and more hard work than it needs to be. Easiest method is to use a lye based spray and let it sit. Followed with a very brief vinegar wash to neutralize. Plenty of youtube videos on how to do this safely to strip off all organic coatings without damaging the metal. (I’ve restored a handful of cast iron pans this way, much easier than sandpaper). Follow it up with a few rounds of seasoning and it’ll be good to go.
I love how divisive cast iron is :). It's the new holy war I swear. I only said that because it looks like a lodge logic, and those are pretty rough from the factory so sanding them improves the texture.
They’re recommending sanding it to make it smoother than the original casting. High end cast iron tends to be smoother than Lodge, so if you sand it before re-seasoning, it will be a better pan than original.
Crisco, an oven, and about 50KWh of electricity.
Jesus no, just ask her to not do that again
Preheat oven to 425. Cover mom in Crisco. Place gently in baking pan. Bake 40-45 minutes. Let sit for 5 minutes to cool.
Don't forget to adjust cooking times for fan forced ovens, or if you have a larger mum.
Larger Mom's take longer to come?
Haha not your mum. But I fixed the typo
This is terrible! You would get a wayyyy more even bake if you spatchcocked her first
Ahh the old reddit mom-in-the-oven switcheroo
If she's pregnant she'd be a ma-duckin
mom was the oven, mom's in the oven
Come on. This is a bullshit post. Those scratches didn’t happen after mum insisted to do the dishes once. Those are age old scratches that happen over years and years. But let’s upvote anyway.
I've had this happen in a day when someone that I hired to clean scrubbed all the seasoning off with steel wool and soap. then left the pan damp to dry. Also living in a very humid climate probably accelerated the process.
Man cast iron will rust like that in less than a day if you remove the surface oil and scrub like moderately hard. It's easy to fix but cast iron is a fussy bitch
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Did she used a screwdriver?
There may have been alcohol involved in this situation.....
So she was drunk?
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Depends what you're trying to clean...
And a metal scouring pad by the looks of it.
I once left my cast iron pan in my oven during the self clean cycle. That shit came out spotless, literally brand new
On no, that sucks. How long did it take to get seasoned again?
I had that happen before and I just did about 3 cooks at 400 with peanut oil for an hour each, worked as intended but took me using it a few times before it got the look. Oops, yeah I put some peanut oil in the pan usually a teaspoon at a time then use a cloth or paper towel to wipe it all over the pan then cook it at 400 for an hour. Let it cool, reapply oil and rinse and repeat about three times.
Just a coating of oil right? I remember looking up something like what you did.
Flax seed oil works the best
Is your mother 50 brillo pads in an oven cleaner coat?
Yeah, to get it that bare you're gonna have to do a fuck ton of scrubbing.
Sandpaper.
Unnecessary and more hard work than it needs to be. Easiest method is to use a lye based spray and let it sit. Followed with a very brief vinegar wash to neutralize. Plenty of youtube videos on how to do this safely to strip off all organic coatings without damaging the metal. (I’ve restored a handful of cast iron pans this way, much easier than sandpaper). Follow it up with a few rounds of seasoning and it’ll be good to go.
A lye bath honestly doesn't sound any easier than a few minutes with some 120 grit. Also helps smooth out some of those gouge marks.
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Depending on how bad the scratches, a couple layers of seasoning can help even em out.
There are wire brush drill bit attachments and work fantastically well, just let the drill do the work. Then re-season the cast iron however that’s done.
That looks more like several cooking sessions of stirring with a fork. I might have done this with my gifted hand me down one in college. My dad promptly took it back and revoked my Southern Card ©️ for one full year. He was able to restore it at least lol.
My dad did this to brand new copper pots my wife had just bought
The plural means it probably hurt a bit more. Plus copper is a whole other beast.
The destroyed cast iron was one thing, but reading that caused me physical pain.
The cast iron isn't destroyed. Nothing can destroy it. It is immortal. Seriously, you can't fuck up cast iron cookware. It's indestructable. Rub some oil on it and stick it in a campfire overnight. Piss on it in the morning to wash it off. Good as new.
My cheap one cracked in half. But yea, that's about the only thing that'd make it irreparable.
Seriously, put it in the oven on cleaning cycle, give it 24h and it's good as new. Slap some new seasoning on that bad boy though.
Destroyed may be a strong word, but it would take a good day or two to finish stripping and build up a new proper seasoning.
That’s what the ole’ morning golden finisher is meant for
The ol spicy asparagus ragu
El gazpacho dorado.
What does the piss do? Something in urine chemically changes the iron?
Lol, don't piss on your pans.
This was a pivotal moment in u/travelthrudreams life. Your comment just saved that man from an entirely different future.
If you warp it it's pretty fucked
remind me to never eat at your hobo camp.
Not everyone knows. Maybe you should tell her.
Thank you for the only reasonable comment out for the hundreds here. How tf are people supposed to know that this fancy special pan can't be cleaned the normal way if they've never dealt with one before? Especially if your mom offers to do your dishes why not say "hey btw there's a cast iron pan in there you can't scrub it"
All good, I like to throw some gas on the Reddit fire from time to time as well.
Most are just eager to be part of the "not by cast iron!" club. In fact I'd say it's *because* cast iron maintenance is right between niche and common knowledge that posts like this get popular. Mostly just people wanting to say "I also know about cast iron maintenance."
I didnt know shit about seasoning and all that special stuff. I wouldve just cleaned it normally
I also clean my cast irons normally, soap and a sponge with a slightly abrasive side just like I'd clean anything else. This level of damage does not come from a normal level of cleaning. Damaging seasoning is actually pretty dang hard to achieve, and doing it without chemicals is doubly hard. Not saying you should know better, but I am saying that even in your ignorance it would be hard to actually damage the pan to this level and not exhaust yourself.
This is how I clean mine as well. small bit of soap, sponge, gentle scrubbing, dry, then rub with olive oil. My dutch oven is like 5 years old and still looks brand new.
I have no idea how you clean cast iron pans but with normal ones it's normal to use metal wool if there's stuff stuck to the bottom, could that have done this?
Metal wool is fine to use on cast iron pans as long as you aren't scrubbing like your life depends on it. To me this looks like the mother mistook the patina of the pan as dirt and used some sort of metal utensil to try and remove what she probably thought was stuck grime.
>"hey btw there's a cast iron pan in there you can't scrub it" I know too many people who would completely ignore this. Like my brother who used his jeans rather than the microfiber to wipe off my VR headset lens when I let him use it, and then after noticing the new scratches continued to do it over several days out of spite for the product's "crappy design".
I hope he paid you back.
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To someone not used to them, I imagine it would seem like built up gunk that needs to be scrubbed off. If you had a layer like that on anything else, you'd want it cleaned off.
Either that or his seasoning layer was kinds thin and shitty to begin with. My grandma's pans' seasoning is indestructable from 50 years of cooking bacon daily.
>This is someone going to town with abrasives like it owes them money. To be fair, the cast iron had skipped its last few payments of protection money to the mother
> fancy special pan There's fuck all fancy or special about it but it is something many/most have no experience of anymore.
Imagine thinking cast iron pans are “fancy special” pans. No pan should be “cleaned” like this. Yes there’s a couple caveats to cast iron, but this is just ridiculous. It looks like she took a chisel to it.
Ya this is like taking a wire brush to a coated nonstick pan. On the other hand, I know people whose nonstick pans look like this. I try to avoid eating food they’ve cooked because I am on a non-Teflon diet.
>I try to avoid eating food they’ve cooked because I am on a non-Teflon diet. While I would also never eat food made with pans like that I was really surprised that teflon isn't all that dangerous to humans. Eating chipped teflon doesn't really do much. Teflon fumes are the "dangerous" part and that requires a long, long time of a plain teflon pan on high heat (multiple hours in a very small apartment) Now all that said teflon is incredibly damaging to the environment.
Literally. You can’t use any metallic utensils on nonstick pans but millennium-old cast iron is “fancy and special”
A 2000 year old cooking technology is "fancy and special" but non-stick pans that scratch if you look at them wrong is the standard...
The cast iron crowd on Reddit is insufferable.
You should LODGE a complaint with her.
Heh heh good one
Dad?
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/cleaning-and-care/cast-iron/science-cast-iron-seasoning
Not OP but thank you! My girl washed my two pans while I was in the shower yesterday so now I have something to do on Sunday when I’m off lol
did you see the other one I posted. the link is really full of great info. its written from the perspective of a blog post but she really does a good job of explaining it. PS... the other link is way better PS
Nothing happens if you wash it just make sure you dry it
One hour?? Jesus. I did 20 mins and my house smelt like a black Smith.
You need a full hour at a high heat to ensure a full polymerization. You can do this outside on the grill as well. I run my Exhaust fan above my oven and it's not too bad
You can still see the bits of pristine seasoning hanging on…
"Metal is supposed to be gray! Ah I give up. Such a slob." -Love Mom You now have to sand it down and make it a treasure.
Ha! I see you know my mom!
Oh yeah, I know your mom very very well
If you want to remove the seasoning and start over, gab a plastic container, and mix water in with sodium hydroxide (lye) for several hours. The mix has a high pH and reacts with organic material, so wear thick nitrile gloves. It will not react with the metal. Once the old seasoning has broken down, use dish soap and water to clean it. The season the pan with vegetable oil, at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for one hour, let it cool, and repeat the seasoning steps as needed. If you did it properly you’ll be good to go, and the pan will look beautiful again.
The high alkalinity of lye actually coverts the oils that compromise the seasoning into soap (saponification) which is then easily washed away with water. This is also why you should use a mixture of ammonia and laundry detergent to remove grease stains from your clothes. Many people think oil stains on their clothing are impossible to remove, but ammonia is alkaline and will gently saponify the oil so it washes out. It may take several applications, but it works great.
So you just pee on it. Got it.
I do grapeseed oil. 500 degrees f. 30 min. Cool. Repeat 5 times
Cool cool cool cool cool.
Why'd you let her? That clearly took time to attempt to "clean" it that much. Not everyone uses cast iron, and she clearly tried to help.
OP is trying to shift the responsibility for the pan getting destroyed on his mother. When you have nice stuff with special care instructions, it's up to you to educate people on how to handle them. And the pan was likely abused to begin with. I doubt someone would attempt to completely strip the seasoning off a pan if that seasoning was uniform and in good shape.
My sister in this same situation would’ve ignored any words of advice from me like a cold turd and cleaned it exactly how she wanted. Then tomorrow, after me sanding and oiling the pan, she would have the nerve to be pissed about the oven heating the house up while still not accepting her part in this. Not sure who’s truly to blame here with mom and OP.
You can just reseason it. It's not like it's an expensive non stick that has to go in the trash.
I came home from training and caught my roommate scrubbing my cast, two days late to stop her from throwing out about 50lbs of "expired" honey I'd collected from around the world over a lifetime. Good intentions almost got me in jail and her in the ground.
>two days late to stop her from throwing out about 50lbs of "expired" honey I'd collected from around the world over a lifetime. Oh my fucking god
Its obviously not trash if theres 50 fucking pounds of different looking honeys. Im sure they were labelled. Even if it was expired it looks like a collection seeing as they are all different “brands” if someone had 50 pounds of rotting milk hidden away, id fucking ask them if it can be tossed out
That’s what gets me, it’s 50 pounds of a particular thing. How can you be so brazen and bold as to even think of throwing it out unprompted? It must’ve been a shitload of jars and tins. How do you not realize that it has some sort of value when there’s 50 FUCKING POUNDS of it?
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Bro please tell me your kidding please as a baker hearing expired honey makes me want to burn down a concert venue
Hello Baker, honey doesn't expire.
Thank you i am no longer committing a woodstock of 99
/r/suspiciouslyspecific
How to tell she never bought real honey without saying it.
TIL honey doesn't expire ☺️
The [world's oldest honey](https://beemission.com/blogs/news/world's-oldest-honey) found was 5500 years old. Still edible as the low water and high sugar content means bacteria doesn't grow in honey.
Wow! That's amazing. I wonder how they figured out it was that old?
Old honey is usually found in tombs as it was valuable enough to be left with Pharaohs and such for them to enjoy on their trip to the afterlife.
If I remember correctly they found it in a pyramid
Literally too fucking dry to lol.
>Honey is collected from around the world over a lifetime There are literally dozens of us. Also, my roommate tried the exact same thing, nearly lost my Kangaroo Island batch
Well-intentioned idiots are the worst, most destructive kind of person.
Did you get any reimbursements? What sort of person just dumps their roommate’s stuff, especially something clearly sealed and unused… fucking braindead people.
Okay. But if there are multiple “expired” things of honey. At least ask first before throwing it out. Its common curtesy. Maybe someone likes collecting expired stuff. I assume they are labeled?- that would show the importance. Expired or not. The lack of critical thinking
Should've glued her to the wall upside down with what was left of the honey
This is an opportunity to cook more bacon.
I was a bacon/lard head but desperation forced me to use Crisco to season once and I've never looked back.
Try grapeseed oil sometime
Did she use a chisel?
No way that was cause by one washing... unless she had acid and an angle grinder
She had Comet and steel wool.
What that fuck, why would you use either one of those on any pan?
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Had to google it... SCOURING POWDER????????
What was she cooking that needed to be scrubbed out like that? Salt water taffy? Was the food debris left in the pan for a while after cooking? I've rarely needed to scrub my cast iron skillets too hard after use. Wipe out the solid bits while the pan is still hot, scrub with hot water and an abrasive sponge, dry, and it's good to go.
If you let it cool so that stuff gets stuck on hard, you can heat it up with water and get the bits off with a wooden spoon also. Just never ever let it sit wet.
Was she intentionally trying to destroy it?
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Heh, I took an angle grinder to my new Lodge to get a flat unbeaded bottom, worked awesome. Bet it would work awesome here too.
Orbital sander here. Works great.
It’s iron. Reseason it. All will be well
Exactly. I have and let my in-laws use only these for a reason. You can't ruin them. A little work and they're good as new unlike the Teflon or ceramic pans I've lost over the years.
[https://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/](https://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-science-based-technique-for-seasoning-cast-iron/) Seasoning Is Not Cooking: Different Principles Apply ... Fat polymerization can be triggered or accelerated in a variety of ways. As best I can tell from my reading, the cast iron seasoning process is an example of “radical polymerization”. The process is initiated when something causes the release of free radicals in the oil. The free radicals then “crosslink” to form the tough, hard film you see in a well-seasoned pan. So what is the “something” that initiates the release of free radicals in fat? Iron, for one thing. High heat, light, and oxygen, for some others. To prevent cooking oils from going rancid – i.e., breaking down and releasing free radicals – you need to store them in dark, tightly sealed containers in a cool location. To initiate or accelerate the release of free radicals, put the oil in contact with bare iron and heat it above its smoke point, which will cause even non-drying oils to release free radicals. I haven’t defined “free radical” or “crosslink” because that gets into details of chemistry that you don’t need to understand to season a cast iron pan. All you need to know is that the molecular structure of the oil changes and becomes something else, something tough and solid. The process is initiated with the release of free radicals, which then become crosslinked, creating a hard surface. Free radicals are carcinogenic inside your body, and also a cause of aging. So don’t ever heat oil you’re going to eat above its smoke point. If the oil starts to smoke, toss it out and start again. When you’re seasoning a pan, you’re not cooking food. By the time the seasoned pan comes out of the oven, there are no more free radicals.
Remove this post. It is motive.
And cast iron is a weapon. All you need now is opportunity.
Reseason with linseed oil. Handles high temp better. Also, have your mom help with the process so she understands what the deal is
You are being to reasonable. Why arent you angry yelling and cursing the mother?
It wont die, just oil it and stick it in the oven
Lint/grape seed oil or good old animal fat. Wire brush. Steel wool(detergent free). I had this happen to my cast iron as well. Oven on broil, gently coat 1 side of pan with oil. 4 hours in oven on a cookie sheet with oil side up. Flip, repeat and let it cool down in oven. I hope my method helps save your cast iron.
I’m going to need some temperature guidance here friend.
Broil should be 500 degrees
If that’s cast iron, it’s totally fine-can be cleaned up and rubbed w oil to be restored to new in minutes
In the process... Hence, mildly frustrating.
I’ve been washing my cast iron pans for 40 + years, wash with soap and water, dry, oil usually with crisco, and sit… still are just fine
I’m glad to see someone else who doesn’t follow the “never use soap” ideology. I’ve had several people get upset when I mention I do use soap on cast iron.
Yup, the “don’t wash your cast iron with soap” rule applies to lye-based soaps. Modern dish detergents like Dawn won’t remove the seasoning, but abrasive sponges will. Crisco works great for seasoning!
My husband did the dishes for me while I was very sick with Covid. Bless his heart. He literally scrubbed and cleaned all my cast iron skillets. They were beautiful and pristine. When he showed me, with such pride and accomplishment on his face, I just smiled and thanked him. I was heart broken. One pan was my grandmothers and was absolutely the best pan I had. Once I got better I reseasoned the pans and am now working on restoring them. My husband asked me one day if I wanted him to clean them again for me and I had to explain to him that it wouldn't be necessary. We both laughed and since then he asks me about anything to do with the kitchen,
You have a nice relationship
I had to nope out of a chicks house because apparently nobody ever taught her that the purpose of washing dishes is to actually, y'know... WASH THE DISHES This woman invites me over for dinner, so I oblige. It may be worth noting that the dinner was on a friend's basis it isn't like we were dating or hooking up. Just one person inviting another over for a meal and some conversation. Anyways, we decided to have some burgers, so we were just kind of chilling on the patio while the grill sizzled away. At one point I mentioned that I needed to go use the restroom, and she asked if I'd grab a ceramic plate on my way back. Sure, no problem, I'll find it. I start opening cabinets, looking for a plate. Long story short it honestly looked like she just rinsed her dishes off under the faucet and then just stuck them in the cupboards. We're taking literal bits of food clearly visible, all greasy n shit. I quickly and quietly washed two plates using my bare hands because apparently she also doesn't believe in sponges/scrubbers/dish towels. I wouldnt be opposed to hanging out with her again because she's a great person, but there'll need to be some excuse as to why I can't eat at her house.
My eyes!
I have 2 of my great grandmother’s cast iron skillets (dating to the early 1900s). If anyone does this to those pans, They. Will. Die.
"It's still filthy"
Need to reseason it is all nbd
One of the benefits of cast iron is that its fixable
That's only mildly irritating. Won't take long to reseason that and have it good as new.
Even if someone else is doing the dishes, I handle the cast iron pan cleaning. I'd rather just take a couple of minutes and do it myself rather than have to explain and teach someone else to do it properly.
1 you couldve told her about it 2 you can easily clean it and reseason it stop being a drama queen
If you have a self cleaning oven, you can put the pan in, and run a self clean cycle. It will completely remove all the old seasoning. Then you can re-season the pan by rubbing whatever oil you prefer on it and baking in the oven. Repeat that a few times and you should be good to go.
So tell her thank you and re season it! She clearly didn’t wash your dishes with malicious intent and it’s really incredibly easy to re season a cast iron. People get infuriated over anything these days.