Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Refinishing cast iron skillet?

I screwed up one of our cast iron skillets by leaving it on the hot stove top. The heat cooked the oil out of the skillet's surface. My wife has tried to fix it without success. She has had success for many years in keeping our cast iron skillets in good shape until I really messed this one up. Any ideas? This skillet was her grandmother's so throwing it out is not a good solution.

Wipe bacon grease all over it and put it in the oven as hot as you can turn it up for about an hour and repeat if necessary.

This has always worked for me

Vent your Kitchen or do it out side.

Smoke lots of smoke

Heat it back up and put some old fashion lard in,then let cool.
Re-pete this step and after a few times test it.

+1

I would start over with the skillet wash it with a stiff brush and dish soap which will remove the old seasoning. Dry it completely and then apply a thin coat of vegetable oil or Cisco over the entire skillet inside and out . Put the skillet in a 350 degree oven upside down on the rack for an hour and then turn off the oven and let it all completely cool before removing the skillet . You should. Also make a foil drip pan to catch any drips .you should be good to go

About any variation of the above. Hasvw been reading a lot about flaxseed oil being the best.

I use oven cleaner first following the directions on the can.

Heat the oven to 350 and put the iron in the fire for a 30 minutes, wipe a thin coat of crisco on all surfaces and put it back in for an hour, wipe off the oil, crank up the oven to 500 and back in for an hour.

Cheesy, I tried flaxseed oil that is reported to be the cats ass for iron, but no matter how much I wiped it down after the initial 350 degree coating, it left oil spots.

I forget where I read it, probably on one of Griswold cult sites, the biggest mistake is living more than a "film" of oil on the surface when the heat is cranked up.

Edit, some information here...

http://www.castironcollector.com/

Fix one in that shape once, used bacon grease, heated, greased, wiped clean, then repeat several times. Woked good.

What bangeye said.

Give it a good scrub with a small amount of soap then rinse well and make sure its %100 dry. Coat the entire skillet with a thin film of oil and put it upside down in the oven at 350 for an hour then 500 for another hour. Turn the oven off and let the cast iron cool in the oven. After this you'll want to repeat the process about three times before you start cooking with it. The thinner the coat of oil/fat the better from what i understand. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.


This skillet has been seasoned with nothing but bacon fat- in the oven as i type this.

It sounds like its probably best to start anew with the seasoning. If you have a self cleaning oven put it in there and run the cleaning cycle. This will burn off all the old seasoning so you are starting with a fresh surface. Do not use chemical oven cleaner on a skillet you plan on cooking with.

There is any number of ways to reapply the seasoning. You basically coat it with some kind of oil and bake it into the surface. I've used vegetable shortening to good effect.

Super bad rusted ones I'll strip down with oven cleaner. Reseasoning takes multiple heating just like above.

Bad I'll do the clean with soap and sos pad leaving some seasoning, takes one or two reseasonings.

Decent shape and I'll wash with soap and reseason once.

I use Pam to get a light oil.

Reexposing the pores of the metal means you must refill them before you get a slick finish again. I just cook bacon or sausage, wipe out to clean, reheat, cool off and store.

A full stripdown will take longer to get slick than just a cleaning on old cast iron.

Had a wagner that was medium rusty I redid before deer camp, after 5 breakfasts it was so slick my brother couldn't believe it, fried eggs just slid out on the plates.

Kent

If you need to clean - soak in lye & water in a plastic 5 gal bucket until clean.
Dry well.
Coat with beeswax and coconut oil, after heating the pan.
Leave on a low heat for at least 8 hours.

I will pass along these tips to my wife. Thanks all!

This is what I did once. I had a couple of dutch ovens that were rusted and had long lost any degree of seasoning. I'm not suggesting it, only saying that I did it.

I sandblasted them. Then I scrubbed them with dishwashing detergent and a wire brush to get all the sand/rust out of the pores. Then I heated them on a wood fire and wiped them out with several successions of lard on a paper towel. I then put lard in them and let it heat up. I'd pour the lard into one and wipe the bottom of the other and then switch. I kept this up till the lard was gone. I then let them cool and washed them very gently with dishwashing detergent. Then I coated them with a film of lard and wiped them clean.

It worked, and they worked great right up until the day that some SOB stole them from me.

Alan

Rather than lard or Crisco, use coconut oil. It works as well as the other but will last for years without going rancid. It works great.

I'd first do as Mark suggested, and strip the pan in a solution of lye and water.
After that, my method is to wipe the pan, inside and out, with lard or bacon fat. This is a THIN coat, and then place it upside down in a 450 oven for an hour. Turn the heat off, and leave the pan in the oven until it cools to room temp.
I reseason a lot of cast iron, and this method works well.

When I first started with cast, my great aunt told me to follow this guide.
throw the pan onto a brush burn, or bonfire or self clean in the oven for a few hours.
after its cooler wash it with water and dry then rub it down with Crisco and bake at 350 for an hour.
Then fry chicken and okra for 35 years.
If you need to get off a crusty spot use a pinch of coarse salt and bacon grease and a paper towel.
My wares are black as Wesley Snipes and slick enough to cook an over easy egg without a spatula.

If you don't want smoke in the house from the reseaoning... try the Gas grill instead of the oven.

If you want to take the time, you can create a non-stick surface that will even stand up to a commercial, degreasing dishwasher:

1. Strip the old finish out.

2. Put it in a 200 degree oven for 15 minutes to open the pores.

3.Remove from oven, put one tablespoon flaxseed oil in the pan, rub it in with a paper towel. With a dry paper towel, remove any excess. (Flaxseed oil is the food grade equivalent of linseed oil.)

4. Place the oiled pan upside down in a cold oven, set the oven to its maximum baking temperature. Once it hits max, heat it for an hour. Turn off the oven, let the pan cool, in the oven, for at least two hours.

5. Repeat 3 and 4 five more times or until you have a dark, semi-matte surface.

This is something to do on a long day at home when you're doing other things. It's a long process, but mostly hands off.