How To Clean And Crud Off Cast Iron Skillet

Cast iron skillet can give you a lifetime service if taken care of correctly and maintained the seasoning timely to ensure longevity and a nonstick finish look for a fantastic cooking experience.

Over time, food residual, grease, rust, and the black crust will build up and needs to be cleaned off. Therefore, cleaning a cast iron is extremely important to increase the lifespan of your cast iron cookware. You can first clean your cast iron skillets regularly, along with proper seasoning, to avoid any buildup of rust and black residues. However, still, there is buildup because of using your pans regularly.

Cleaning A Cast Iron Skillet: Cleaning a cast iron skillet is a simple and easy process that will help you retain the original nonstick appearance of your cast iron for a lifetime. The following steps are helpful for this purpose.

1. Washing: You just can’t put your cast iron pans in the sink and forget about them. You have to wash them immediately by hand. You can use a little soap as well. If you think you need to simmer the pan in water, you can, but only for about 5 to 10 minutes to make the food stuck residues quickly come off.

2. Scrubbing: Any dishwashing scrub with a soft-bristled brush or a food scraper. Gently scrub the whole surface of your skillet to get rid of the stubborn residues.

3. Seasoning: Seasoning is an additional step in cleaning a cast iron because it is made up of iron, and upon reaction with water and air, there are a lot of chances for the development of rust and crud. For this purpose, seasoning with any edible oil is required to maintain your cookware’s hygiene and life span.

Here are a few tips to help prevent burnt and crud from building up.

Seasoning Before Cooking

Seasoning iron cook-wares is the easiest and most important step that will allow the process of Polymerization to form layers of fat to give a nonstick effect without worrying about the food sticking. Usually, most cast iron skillets come pre-seasoned from the manufacturer, so you can directly start cooking.

However, if the label doesn’t claim to be pre-seasoned, you can do it at home by yourself. If your cookware is not seasoned correctly, you will find a silver shining on the surface that indicates that your cast iron skillet is not seasoned and requires more seasoning. Whereas, if it shows up red or brownish residues, this means rust accumulation.

How To Season A Cast-Iron Skillet? 

You can season your cast iron by adding any vegetable oil like Flaxseed, Grapeseed, or Sunflower with a high melting point and rub it gently with a paper towel on the inner side of the pan evenly and leave it for about 10 minutes in the oven. After this step, take out your pan and place it in a preheated oven of about 400° C for another 1 hour to bake; allow it to cool, and then you can use your skillets for cooking.

• Ideal Temperature For Seasoning A Cast Iron Skillet: Usually, 400 to 500° C is the perfect temperature to season a cast-iron skillet. Most home ovens allow this temperature for baking. If not, this goes as high as your oven will enable it.

• Which Oil To Be Used For Seasoning A Cast Iron: Some people ask if they can use olive oil for seasoning the cast iron, so the answer is you can, but this is not an ideal option. The more the oils have a higher smoke point, the more they will be suitable for seasoning. Any edible vegetable oil is used, but the results will not be as per as you want. However, Flaxseed is considered the best oil to be used for seasoning because it has the highest smoke point and gives a smooth nonstick surface to your skillets and pans.

2. Use Right Tools For Cleaning Crud Off Cast Iron

Cleaning and maintenance of cast iron is not a hustle if you follow a few tips and tricks. For cleaning your iron cook-wares, it is essential to use the proper method for the right utensil with the right tool. Stiff bristled brushes, scrapers, and cast iron chainmail are the best cleaning tools to remove unwanted black residues and burnt food leftover crud. If your cast iron is seasoned well, then you don’t have to worry too much about spending on the cleaning tools, but if sometimes, once in a while, you face some stubborn food residues on your skillet, you can use bristled brushes or a plastic scraper to scrape it off all the crud.

For the most stubborn crusts, you can use cast iron chain mail to scrub them off. If you need cast iron chain mail every time, ensure you increase your seasoning cycles to ensure no scratches and damage to your skillets. Seasoning them regularly will help improve the smooth layer buildup that keeps the nonstick surface alive and prevents food from sticking. After all the cleaning, ensure you rinse your skillets thoroughly with water to get rid of every soap and dirt particle, and then dry it.

Culina Cast Iron Cleaning And Restoring Stainless Scrub

Culina cast iron scrub not only helps remove stuck-on food, rust spots, and buildup of black crud, but it also motivates the restoration of the non-sticky smooth surface of cast iron. The scrub is made with 100% natural ingredients such as coconut oil that prevent bad food odors and gives the skillet a nice smooth finish. Cast iron is the best cookware; you must follow a few tips to make it your life-saving kitchen partner.