Need to strip the cast iron and start over

[swd12422]

My cast iron grill has some rust and very uneven seasoning. I think it would be best to strip it and start over. I have a split sink, so nowhere big enough to soak it in anything.

I also have a self-cleaning oven.... Is it a bad idea to take care of both at the same time? Would it destroy the iron grill?

How about this: To clean my oven, I usually start with a small bowl of ammonia in there b/c it gets nearly everything off. (The fumes would peel paint, but it's not bad b/c the oven door stays shut and there's not enough ammonia in there to fume up the rest of the house...) I wipe it down and then run the self-cleaning cycle. Should I try to strip it that way instead of using the self-cleaning function on the oven?

Is there a better, easier way?

[dutchgal]

Originally Posted by swd12422

Is there a better, easier way?

You shouldn't soak your cast iron or use soap on it anyways. (others, please correct me if I'm wrong!!) Just gently sand the rust away and then coat it with some cooking oil. When I cook anything in it, I heat it up afterwards and burn off the left over stuff in the pan, then take the still hot pan off the burner and get it into the sink, where I run water over it and scrub with a wire brush. The heat, steam and the water will almost clean the crap out by itself. HTH.

[swd12422]

I've never been able to get that method to work; maybe I'm not leaving it hot enough? At this point, though, I'm pretty sure it needs to be stripped and reseasoned. The seasoning is chipped off completely in places and too thick in others: completely uneven and probably not all that great for even cooking. So I'm really just hoping to find a way to get it stripped down and then I can reseason and go from there.

[PlayaMama]

i read this in a country living magazine and it works like a charm.

put your pan in the wood stove when you go to bed for the night. i've stripped multiple pans like this and it always works.

[swd12422]

What if you don't have a woodstove??
Is that like putting it in the fire? Or in a hot oven for a period of time?

[sparkygirl74]

I've stripped mine in my oven on the self cleaning setting. Came out like new!

[cristeen]

Self-cleaning or you can put it on the BBQ. I would skip the ammonia though, the porous nature of the iron can hold the flavors - I really had to scrub to get the off flavors out of my used CI which I bought chemically stripped.

ANd then rather than trying to reseason it, I recommend using it to cook greasy food, like bacon or hamburgers. Use it exclusively for these purposes for a while, and it will reseason itself. And rather than cleaning it with water between uses, toss some potatoes into the leftover grease and cook up the potatoes... it will use up the grease while still leaving that film in the pan. Onions, cabbage or mushrooms will also suck up a lot of grease.

[tifpaul]

Do you need to strip it if there are places where the seasoning has worn away?

Could you just make bacon burgers for a while?

[cristeen]

Originally Posted by tifpaul

Do you need to strip it if there are places where the seasoning has worn away?

Could you just make bacon burgers for a while?

You don't have to, but the seasoning will never be even.

[PlayaMama]

Originally Posted by swd12422

What if you don't have a woodstove??
Is that like putting it in the fire? Or in a hot oven for a period of time?

i'm sure a fire could work as well. the only issue is if it cools too quickly it can crack (ask me how i know) so if you bury it in the coals overnight it should be fine. also, the wood stove is nice in case there's any smoke from the old coating coming off not sure how that would work with a fireplace...

[blue heron]

We have bought several old rusty cast iron pans at yard sales. We use a wire grinder wheel on a drill to get all the rust off and then reseason them.