How To Clean Cast Iron Pan? Cast iron pans have a long life due to their versatility, durability, and resistant design. Cast Iron pans use for many years without getting dull and dry if taken care of properly. In addition, they are known far and wide for their nonstick finish with excellent cooking experience. However, using these pans repeatedly and regularly builds up rust and residual food and even distorts the nonstick finishing, which can threaten the food being cooked, eaten, and thence the health of an individual.
These pans are used for frying, sautéing, searing, baking, and several other cooking techniques. Besides this, they are inexpensive too, making them easily accessible and affordable for the masses to acquire. Cast iron pans are seasoned and chemically bonded to the metallic surface, making them resilient. However, with time, when the seasoning wears off, the chemicals get mixed up in the food being cooked, posing a severe threat to an individual’s health.
Cleaning cast iron pans is one hell of an easy job to pull off. Scrubbing and cleaning Cast Iron pans regularly is necessary for the durability of these skillets, to maintain the nonstick finish, and preserve the seasoning too.
Specific steps are required to follow while obtaining the purpose:
Washing And Cleansing
The first and foremost step is washing the pan with Luke’s warm water to ensure that the residual food, oil, and scrapes have been removed. Using soap while cleaning the pan is controversial, but a little soap won’t do any bad. Also, one cannot leave the pan once used because, with time, it loses the seasoning and hence the durability.
Scrubbing
The next step is scrubbing the pan with a gentle brisk brush or sponge. The residual food and sticky oil can easily wash off. However, while cleaning, one should ensure not to use too much force because this will not only remove the pan’s seasoning but also distort the nonstick finish. Hence, the pan will lose its resilience.
Drying
Once appropriately washed, now the pan is supposed to be dried with a kitchen towel or any smooth tissue paper to ensure that it’s free of all residues and fit for further cooking.
Seasoning
Cast iron pans are no doubt durable, but only when adequately taken care of. Their nonstick finish may alter when these pans are not cleaned well and scrubbed more than required. These nonstick iron pans contain iron so that they may catch rust upon reaction with water and oxygen. Therefore, they must take care of by seasoning with oil like olive oil, sunflower oil, or edible oil. This way, they will be clean and hygienic, and their versatility will preserve as well.
Seasoning An Essential Step
Most of the cast iron skillets available in the market are pre-seasoned. They do not require any prior seasoning while cooking. Therefore, they are ready to be used and consumed. While some pans are not pre-seasoned, and once obtained, they must be first seasoned and then used for different cooking purposes and unique experiences. Seasoning these pans is not a difficult job to pull off. You can quickly do it at home with any available edible oil.
In this process, polymerization is done to form a fatty layer on the surface. This way, no food scrapes or particles get anchored, ensuring a nonstick effect. If the cooking pan is not properly seasoned and the nonstick finish is absent, it will observe through the silver lining on the pan.
While the brownish tint can illustrate the rust in the pan, which results from the reaction of iron with water and oxygen, the same rust can be removed by scrubbing, applying oil, and baking.
Steps In Seasoning The Cast Iron Pan:
1. Seasoning of Cast iron pan is simple: adding an edible oil to it that has a high melting point, applying it gently, and leaving it there for some time. Usually, the ideal time is ten to fifteen minutes in the oven. After this, take out the pan of the oven, let it cool for some time, place it again in a pre-heated oven of about 400-500 centigrade, and bake it for another hour. Let it cool again, and now it is used for cooking.
2. Using the proper methods and utensils is another significant step in seasoning the pan. One small wrong step can lead to bad results. Small stiff brushes are considered the best tools to remove the residual food and leftover curd. For the hard crusts, chain mails are used for scrubbing them off. If the cast iron is seasoned well, then cleaning utensils and tools require lesser attention. Seasoning regularly and repeatedly increases the smooth layer buildup and helps maintain the nonstick feature of these pans.
Bottom Line:
Cast iron pans, though, no doubt work wonders in the kitchen. They can be used for various cooking purposes like barbecue, sautéing, etc. cleaning them is not a hardcore job, but care is one major demand. Excessive scrubbing removes the nonstick layer, leaving a shiny silver layer behind. This makes it unsuitable for further cooking as it may inflict damaging effects on the general health of an individual.
