Oh, what have I done?!
 

I made a new recipe for salmon last night, indoors instead of usually grilling it, and it was disastrous for both the skillet and the stovetop! The marinade was harmless (no oil) but did make the fish not dry, and then I was to add 1 Tbsp oil to a cast iron skillet and get it really hot. Okay so far. Put in the fish (no instruction to dry it) and don't disturb it until it "releases" from the pan. This is about when I got into trouble -- it seared beautifully (and tasted great, too), but it spread detritus far and wide, and tho I can soak it off the counters and the smooth ceramic cook surface, I do not know what more to do to save the cast iron pan.

Long, long story ending: after rubbing with salt while still warm, there is caked on matter - oil? on the cast iron. Would re-oiling and baking in the oven help? Any other ideas? Thanks for wading thru this long explanation.

I sympathise -- and you will cringe at this -- -- use Brillo or whatever brand. and scrub it all off. If it is really baked on, you may need a fine grit sandpaper. Then start all over to season your griddle. I have bought "real" cast iron antique skillets and they had as much as an eighth inch baked on grease,

Unfortunately, recipes don't take into consideration the different materials in our utensils. Metal baking pan sare different than glass. Anr the new frypans are different from the "no stick" pans that are now carcinogen. Nothing can really beat cast iron -- but my wrists don't feel like cooperating any more.

Good luck

Thank you, Mim -- even if I dread doing that to the pan. If a recipe says to get a pan really, really hot they always mean cast iron, right? I envy you, moving between Washington and Maine, am at least very glad to live in beautiful Virginia.

My mom and grandma always used SOS to clean out their cast iron pan. Must of worked, cause now I use that same pan!

Sometimes you do indeed need to start over with a soak (sometimes a simmer) and a scrub. Don't forget to condition it afterwards (heat up, food grade oil with a rag or paper towel until it shines and is dry), and be kind to it until it redevelops it's water repellent surface. Getting it out to treat it even if you aren't cooking with it regularly.

I use my Grandma's Chicken Fryer (dutch oven) and trust me, It's been soaked, cooked with acidic foods, and scrubbed with steel wool more than once in the last 100 years. Need to get new handle though for her old knife, it's getting thin but still maintains an amazing edge.

Depending on how severe I might consider heating pan to medium hot, then add some red wine to deglaze.
On another note I believe I would find a cast iron collectors club through Google and check with them.

I'm with the camp that says to heat water in the pan and then re-scrub w/salt. I bring the water to a roiling boil. I do that with my cast iron loaf pan all the time. Do need to re-coat w/oil after it's cooled though.

I should also add that you shouldn't use vegetable oils. They form a sticky film when they get hot. Olive oil or any meat fat is OK -- found out thru experience - the hard way.

Can't imagine you would do any harm just pouring some boiling water into the plan and let it sit for awhile. The boiling water might "decglaze" the stuck on particles.

The old timers would clean their cast iron skillets periodically by submersing them in the hot coals of a wood fire, not while it
was burning brightly but after there was nothing but coals in the pile. They would cover the pan inside and out with the coals and often leave it overnight and then wash and re-season the next day and when it got too much of accumulation on the outside or they couldn't get the inside cleaned good, they would repeat the process which didn't have to be done very often. I have seen my mom and my grandmother both use this process. Sad thing is most of us do not have the wood fires of old with the coals these days. Wish I could use my cast iron skillets on my glass top stove, I loved those old cast iron and still have several of them and will not get rid of them until I die.

You had me right up to [not on] "...my glass top stove..." -- this is what I have. I do appreciate your advice, and can probably use the theory in some way, but other than the awful mess it made, which cleaned up finally, why not on glass top?

I am also curious about why not to use cast iron on the glass top stove? My husband does most of the cooking and he does use the cast iron on our glass stove top.

On another note, I did completely ruin my mother's old chicken fryer cast iron skillet before we had this glass top. I had fried the chicken and was making the gravy. Had the flour all browned and poured in the milk... cold from the refrigerator. A loud bang scared the crap out of me and then the milk was running out all over the stove. The bottom of that cast iron pan had split wide open in the middle, a big gaping crack! I'd made gravy a hundred times in that old pan and never suspected that could ever happen.

A really bad cast iron skillet can be tossed in a fire to burn then scrubbed clean. My grandfather use to do his camping cast iron this way. There isn't much that can damage cast iron. I keep a 6 qt dutch oven on my stove top all the time. I fry in it (no splatter), roast, bake, simmer, and boil in it. I love it.

I use the chainmail scrubber for all my cast iorn and it cleans it right up good as new. If something is really burnt to it, I let water boil in it and then let cook and scrub. Coat it with oil and ready to go.


Lodge makes a new lightweight cast iron now. Called Blacklock.