This is what’s going on in the Glover Gardens kitchen today…because three of our four cast-iron pans have gotten rusty, and this just won’t do. We haven’t been diligent about re-seasoning, and that just won’t do, either. Bon Appétit has the method for righting these wrongs.
Source: How to Remove Rust From a Cast-Iron Pan – Bon Appétit | Bon Appetit
Reblogged this on All About Writing and more.
And old Southern way that musical miss’ mom taught us… Wash the pan. Scrub with half of a poatoe and some kind of rock salt. Rust usually comes off the first go around. Then season. Twice. Since we use ours a lot we store it on one burner of the stove. The more that you use it the more the season cures and builds.
Wow, I’ve been a believer about the salt for years (read it in a Louis L’amour book when I was a kid), but never heard the bit about the potato. Great tip! My pans were too far gone for salt to work this time, but I will never let them get that way again. Seasoning more often + salt and potato trick = well-loved pans.
What do you and Musical Miss cook the most in your cast iron skillet?
I don’t believe an iron pan is ever too far gone. Apparently, the starch in the potatoe mixes with the salt and becomes a good cleaning agent. Musical mom is an Okie who knows a lot of country remedies. BTW, our pan was cast in 1913. We cook just about everything in that pan. She generally cooks old fashioned southern food, Mexican food and Italian food from scratch. I spent a lot of time in Asia so that’s what I cook in an ancient wok.
Wow, a 104-year old cast iron pan…sounds like the subject of a wonderful photo! I bet your kitchen always smells wonderful.
You won’t believe this, but musical miss’ mom found it next to our neighbors trash after they cleaned out their house. She was walking the dogs and there it was. Since the homes in our neighborhood were built in the 1850s, the pan likely was bought new. Because we often work from home when we aren’t traveling we cook three meals a day there so the kitchen always smells pretty good.
Now THAT is a marvelous story. And explains why you know that a cast iron pan can never be too far gone!
Her mom is an Okie and proud of it. She knows how to fix all kinds of “broken” stuff. It is almost impossible to hurt a cast iron pan. Once you build up a nice seasoning it should just grow.
Read your blogs …. This is my post …… sad.
Yes, indeed, the state of my cast iron pans is very sad, approaching tragic even, until I rid them of rust and treat them lovingly again.