Thursday, January 24, 2013

Pin 22– clean cast iron with coarse salt

IMG_8353I have one single item of cast iron cookery – a combo griddle/grill pan.  I got it for an awesome price and was so excited to use it.  I must have left my brain in bed that day because I totally did not grease the grill grates before making steak tips which resulted in one horrendous mess.  I have scrubbed it using just hot water many times and a few times with a tiny but of mild soap even though I’m not supposed to.  But NOTHING seems to get off this awful black layer of char.   I saw this pin and hope it would save my lovely pan.

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Ultimately this pin leads to MarthaStewart.com so I thought it should be pretty reliable.  But the directions are literally 2 sentences that just say to use coarse salt with a soft sponge.  No IMG_8352indications of how much salt to use or any other hints.  So I took my pan – it’s so gross looking – and rinsed with hot water one more time and then just spooned piles of coarse salt all over.  I did both sides.  I used a soft sponge on the griddle side but the sponge just couldn’t get in between the grill grates so I pulled out a bristly brush and used that gently.  OK gently at first, then I was just full on scrubbed determined to make my grill look new.

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The results were good.  The griddle side looked cleaner but there were still some markings from where the fire from my gas stove hits it when I use the grill side.  I don’t know if that was supposed to come off or not.  The grill side looked much better (anything would have!) but that layer of char is still there.

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Bottom line – worth it

It wasn’t the miracle I was hoping for but it definitely worked the best at removing a lot of the grease and grime that I couldn’t before.  So for general use when you haven’t possibly ruined your cast iron it’s a great way to add some scrubby power.  Meanwhile if anyone knows how I can get this thing totally clean let me know!

Stephanie

6 comments:

  1. I previously had a really crust skillet that I received after my grandmother past away. I was able to get it clean and looking really good after following these steps:
    http://mark-knowles.hubpages.com/hub/how-to-clean-and-season-a-cast-iron-skillet

    Good luck in getting the remaining stuff off of your griddle/grill.

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  2. Sadly no magic, but plenty of empathy. I LOVE cooking with my cast iron, but I find myself going out of my way to avoid this pan, it's just so difficult to clean! Good luck.

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  3. Either stick it in a fire next time you have one, or put it in your oven and run a self cleaning cycle. Either of these will take it back to the original, unseasoned state. Then just grease it up good, put it on your eye on the lowest possible setting for an hour or two, being sure to wipe it down every 15 mins. or so else you'll have that gross gunked up greasy stuff.

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