Repairing a Cast Iron Skillet
One of the very first pieces of kitchen equipment I purchased with my own money was a cast iron skillet. The above skillet is the same one that I bought almost six years ago. POOR POOR SKILLET!
As you can see, it has seen better days. Generally, if you treat your cast iron skillet well, it won’t get like mine above. But after a few moves and years of use (some improper), mine just got a bit worn. A few months ago I noticed that it was starting to rust pretty badly and by the time I got around to fixing the problem, my skillet was almost entirely rusted out!
Now, some people might say that this means I need a new skillet, but oh no. One of the awesome things about these skillets is that with a little work and a few hours, you can bring it back to almost better than new status.
I figured I’d snap some photos as I went so you can repair any skillets that need repairing.
In fact, if you don’t have a cast iron skillet, you can almost certainly find one at a garage sale if you search around a bit. It’ll probably look as bad if not worse than mine, but with these steps, you can bring it back into good shape.
Cleaning the Skillet. You probably heard it: “Never ever put soap on your cast iron skillet!”
That’s generally good advice because it strips out all the oils that have seasoned the skillet. When we are looking at a skillet like mine though, step one in getting it back into good shape is to very thoroughly clean it.
That means getting off all the rust and crud and basically starting from scratch.
For this, you’re going to want to pick up some steel wool scrubbers!
Steel Wool is your friend.
Get some really hot water, a good amount of soap, and a scrubber and really go to town on the skillet. I’m not going to lie, it’s hard work.
You want to make sure you thoroughly scrub all the inside of the skillet. Get the sides and the bottom really well. Make sure all the rust is out. It’s going to take 10-15 minutes of good scrubbing to get the job done.
The only time soap is okay.
After this, your arms will be exhausted, and you’ll have a nice clean skillet.
This was mine after about 15 minutes of scrubbing. Looking better already!
Clean, but rough.
Of course, the problem is that now this skillet is just a big piece of iron with no coating at all to protect stuff from sticking to it. One of the joys of having a good cast iron skillet is that almost nothing sticks to it.
Right now though, this pan is like Velcro. All the little crevices in the iron are going to make anything that touches it stick to it. You can see how it’s kind of a dull black/gray color. That means it’s clean, but not seasoned for cooking.
Seasoning the skillet. Honestly, the hard part is over. Now we just need to get the skillet ready for cooking.
Seasoning, as it’s called, involves cooking a very light layer of fat or oil in the skillet for many hours. As the skillet heats up, the metal expands slightly and the iron basically absorbs the fat. Then as it cools, the oil sticks on the skillet and makes it shiny, smooth, and most importantly non-stick.
You can use vegetable oil for this, but honestly, bacon grease is the best thing for it. So assuming you’re not vegetarian, pull out some good fatty bacon.
Bacon is always good.
Add the bacon to your cast iron skillet and put the skillet on very low heat. After about 20 minutes, most of the fat should have rendered out of the bacon.
You should end up with something like this!
You just need the grease.
Cooking the pan. After you have your bacon grease ready, remove the bacon from the pan, pour off the bacon grease and save it, and wipe the pan really clean. Be sure to get any bacon bits that are stuck to the pan out of there.
Then, using a paper towel, pour a tiny amount of bacon grease back into the pan and rub it around the pan using a paper towel. There should be a very light layer of oil shimmering on the whole skillet. You don’t want any grease pooling in the pan, just a nice smooth layer covering the whole surface.
Heat your oven to 250 degrees and bake the skillet for an hour.
Take it out, rub it with a bit more oil/grease, then back in the oven for an hour.
After two hours, we’re getting somewhere. Notice how the pan is starting to shine a bit.
After two hours of baking.
I did this same process two more times.
So in total, I baked my skillet for 4 hours at 250 degrees. Generally, two hours will do the trick, but I like to make sure mine is really nice and seasoned. That might seem like a lot of work, but it’s largely hands off.
When my pan cooled down, I had a nice shiny cast iron skillet that looks a thousand times better than what I started with.
After four hours of baking.
The Egg Test. Ok. So the real test for any non-stick surface is a fried egg.
Once you’re ready to test it out, put your skillet over medium high heat and let it get nice and hot. Add a few drops of oil to the pan and crack in an egg. It should slide around and flip easily, just as if it were in a nonstick pan!
I passed my egg test!
The egg test.
Cast iron skillets aren’t expensive, but there’s no reason to throw one away if you can fix it like new with a few hours of lazy work, and a few minutes of heavy scrubbing.
So, if you have a neglected cast iron skillet or know somebody who does, now you know how to fix it up!
If you have doubts about why you need a cast iron skillet, here are 10 reasons why you should get one.
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This used to happen to me all the time back in the day. Some dishwasher would get all up in my stuff, and wash my skillet. Here is another trick if you have some time… and it will help you season your pan faster, and with less scrubbing.
Get some rock salt, the really coarse kind. Lightly scrub your skillet, then dry it. Put it over a medium heat and pour the rock salt into the pan so you have like, an inch on the bottom. Once it is heated up, you can toss it in a hot oven. Every 20 minutes or so, you take out your pan, give the salt a stir, and put it back into the oven.
You will find that the salt will turn greyish-red. (It is lifting the rust out of the pores.) You need to be a little careful, because the salt will be hot.
Then, after an hour of this, you will be able to take your salt out, and scrub with your steel wool on the bottom once it has cooled down.
After, follow the other steps you outlined, then all will rock.
The salt will extract any oils left in the pan, and literally leave nothing in the pores. That way, when you are rendering your bacon fat, the holes will be filled faster, thus making your patina that much quicker.
Hope that helps out man!
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Hey Nick – great recap on how to restore your skillet. The pictures are great too – like new!
Was this the first time you did this in the six you've done this?
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@papalogic replied: — March 1st, 2011 @ 5:14 am
… meant to say: was this the first time you've done this in the six years you've owned it?
My recent post Baby Says Yum- Nordstrom Basil Tomato Soup
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Nick replied: — March 1st, 2011 @ 6:41 am
This was the first time it has rusted completely out. I've seasoned my pan maybe once or twice just by coating it with oil and baking it for like 90 minutes. This was the first time I've had to completely repair it though. Worked great though!
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I have a colleague — for the sake of simplicity, let's just call her MY GRADUATE ADVISOR — who insists that they don't make iron skillets like they used to. She claims that they are pitted in ways they weren't in times past. I pointed out to her that all iron skillets are pitted and that you fill in this pits when you season them and that the difference between skillets she has seen before and new ones are the lack of adequate seasoning. Of course, she is MY GRADUATE ADVISOR and is never wrong. Did I mention I'm looking forward to graduation?
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Tammy replied: — January 2nd, 2012 @ 2:53 pm
Datkari, Your advisor is right.
Not only is the manufacturing process of the pans different, but the iron ore that newer pans are made from is of lesser quality than the pans made prior to the late 1940′s. The older pans were made from iron ore mined from the Great Lakes region and were formed in jeweler’s grade sand molds. Some were even milled to make the inside even smoother.
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This post is making me crave the cornbread my mom used to make when I was younger, baked right in the cast iron skillet. Served hot out of the oven, cut into wedges, and topped with honey butter. So good!
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ok i learned something new today. never ever thought to use steel wool. you did a really good job on this one.
want to do mine? mine has the raised grilling lines in it and steel wool is hard to get in there. but i'm just really making excuses. lol
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Nick replied: — March 1st, 2011 @ 4:07 pm
Ha! Grill lines would make it harder, but still doable.
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Whoa. Awesome post. Very educational. I sadly don't have a cast iron skillet, so this seems like a lot of work (I'll just go out and buy a new one) but super interesting to learn the process.
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Matt replied: — March 3rd, 2011 @ 5:59 am
Pick one up at a garage sale if you're into that sort of thing. Doesn't matter how ugly the cast-iron is, Nick showed how how to make it better than new. Seriously, BETTER than new :)
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Wow, I had no idea! Presumably, this would work for woks too?
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Nick replied: — March 1st, 2011 @ 4:08 pm
I think so yea. As long as it is cast iron, probably would work fine.
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Awesome tutorial!! I'm going to re-season mine this weekend :)
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Do you have any advice for how to get rust off of a knife?
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Nick replied: — March 1st, 2011 @ 4:08 pm
Hmm… I'd take it to a professional to get it re-sharpened.
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Excellent post, thank you! I recently saw some vintage cast iron skillets at an antique shop and wondered if they would still be food safe…any suggestions for reseasoning/cleaning or do you think they would be good to go if they're not rusted?
My recent post Apple-Ginger Bread Pudding
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Nick replied: — March 1st, 2011 @ 4:08 pm
I would re-do them anyway if I didn't know where they came from… just to be on the safe side.
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I've heard bacon grease is good but recently read that flaxseed oil is actually the best. Not sure if anyone has seen this but she insists flaxseed oil is the best for seasoning and backs it up with what sounds like science and a damn sexy picture of a pan seasoned with it. http://sherylcanter.com/wordpress/2010/01/a-scien…
I haven't tried it yet but I plan to this weekend as the seasoning on my pans has been seriously neglected.
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Nick replied: — March 1st, 2011 @ 4:09 pm
Really interesting! I'll have to try that next time.
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Great post! Most advise to bake your greased pan at 400+F which completely smokes out the house, especially if you're using bacon fat.
Here's a question, I actually just noticed that the bottom of my skillet is starting to rust a little bit (probably as a result of not drying it properly and stacking aluminum pots on top of it on the counter). Would you recommend reseasoning the bottom as well or does that not matter? It doesn't seem to be causing any kind of smoke or heating problems during cooking so far.
My recent post Im Okay- the Cheese is Okay
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Nick replied: — March 1st, 2011 @ 4:09 pm
I don't think the bottom really matters, but I think you could just scrape it off with steel wool so it didn't continue to rust. I'm not sure there's an advantage to seasoning the outside htough.
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shalom replied: — April 22nd, 2013 @ 12:52 pm
The advantage would be to keep it from getting rusty. You don’t need the non-stick surface on the bottom, just enough to prevent rust. I frequently (not every use) check the bottom of the pan to see if it is showing any signs of needing to be seasoned. It will either look very very dull or sometimes it will have a very slight rust color. Since I check the bottom frequently, the rust will be an extremely small amount so I don’t worry about cleaning it off. I just put a very very tiny amount of oil on a paper towel & wipe it on then put it on the burner. I usually dry it on a burner after cleaning it, treat the bottom if it needs it, wipe a thin layer of coconut oil on the inside surface, heat it pretty hot, turn the burner off and let it cool before putting it away.
If I am seasoning the pan in the oven I treat the bottom like I do the inside surface.
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mmmm bacon.
Regarding cast iron… can you use a cast iron skillet on a glass stove-top?
Non-regarding cast iron… how did the home brew turn out?
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Nick replied: — March 1st, 2011 @ 4:10 pm
Hmm… I think so, but honestly, I rarely cook on a glass stove-top so not positive on that one.
Haven't tried it yet.. popping it open this weekend!
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Doug replied: — March 2nd, 2011 @ 8:44 am
My neighbors growing up had a glass stove-top and they used the cast iron frequently. So shouldn't be a problem!
Look forward to hearing about the brew. I have a Scottish Ale in the primary right now.
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Jeremy replied: — June 21st, 2012 @ 1:16 pm
I use cast iron on a glass topped stove almost daily. No issues whatsoever.
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Mikethetuner replied: — June 30th, 2012 @ 6:58 pm
As do I. Never a problem. I obviously don’t slide the pan all over the place, but my cast irons all heat nicely on the glass top stove. Not sure why some sources do not recommend it, but with care, it works extremely well!!
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I got a cast iron skillet for Christmas, I'll have to file this away so I know what to do if it rusts.
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My cast iron skillets always got washed with soap after cooking any thing in them. The trick to doing it is to wash with soapy water, rinse water off and put in rack to drain while I dry my hands. When my hands are dry I then take several paper towels and finish drying the skillet so that no water is left on it. Then a put a small amount of olive oil in the skillet and take a folded paper towel and spread the oil all around inside and out and then store my skillets in their storage place.
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Wow, great job. I just posted it on FB for my lazy friends and I'm bookmarking it for myself.
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I have a couple of pans that could use this treatment. Thank you! Oh, can you eat the bacon?
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Instead of baking in oven, I use my gas grill……No Smoke in the house.
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great post! I have a cast iron skillet that is just sitting, not being used, for this very reason. Thank you! I will definitely use this treatment to bring my skillet back to its cooking days again.
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Since I moved to the US I am obsessed with cast iron skillets and Dutch Ovens. I found your post while I was researching for my "history of the pan that made America"…
I love these pans.
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Congratulations on the nice mention this posting earned you in yesterday's Washington Post — your blogging fame is definitely spreading!
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Pingback:Cast Iron Pizza « lisasimplerecipes
I've always done it the hard way, never used steel wool, but I'd use a bit of oil and lots of table salt and my fingertips to scrub out the rust, and then season it accordingly.
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I just got done using this method to repair a cast iron dutch oven…you definitely saved me! I was so sad to see that my dutch oven had rusted, but then I remembered that you posted this and I knew I had to give it a shot. Thanks!
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Ohhh thank you so much for this article. I got my skillet a few years ago and knew I was doing something wrong and was about to throw it away! Thank you!
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Do you use 250 degrees fahrenheit or celcius?
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Fahrenheit. :)
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OMG, you ROCK you ROCK you ROCK. I ggled “fix a rusted cast iron skillet” and this page was the FIRST result. And how perfect is that? Got my scrubbers, got my bacon, ready to raise my skillet, Phoenix-like, from the rusticles :)
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wow dude,
i followed your directions to the tee… actually i did the suggestion of jason sandeman
using the salt and baking it for an hour, stirring it every 20minutes, and then i did
your step by step… i wish i had taken pictures, like you had. my Lodge 10 in. skillet
is better than when i bought it 2 years ago, and i bought it new and it said it was
already “seasoned”… however, whenever i used it, everything stuck to it and it
was a pain in the butt to clean… i stopped using that cast iron pan approx a year ago
and i was about to throw it away as it was rusted. the other day i “googled” “rusted
cast iron skillet” and your site came up… thank you so much for blogging your cast
iron experience…. i did the “fried egg test” and it was totally non-stick…
Thanks again ,
steve
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Nick replied: — October 28th, 2011 @ 9:41 am
Sweet man. Glad you got your pan all fixed up. Definitely one of my favorite kitchen tools once it’s seasoned correctly.
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I bought a cast iron and thought it was absurd not to wash it with soap. One time I set it in the cupboard and forgot to dry it after I washed it. It rusted, but not as bad as yours. I did the oven thing after it happened, but put the oil layer too thick and it turned into a nightmare of some insanely tough sticky coating. I just scrubbed that out and burned it in on the range, apartment was smokey as all hell but it did the trick.
Now after just scrubbing it out with a plastic brush I usually always set it on a burner to med/high until it starts to smoke and oil it. I’ve only had it for a couple years and the thing looks like it’s been around forever. As black as the void.
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thanks for this! I just got a set of cast iron and it was in my cabinet waiting to be seasoned and we had company who cooked rice in one of the sauce pans and then left water sitting in it…uck…now I need to pick up some steel wool…wish it had been one of the skillets not the little sauce pan! I see some raw knuckles in my future from the scrubbing stage….
My mom used to cook with cast iron, that’s why I bought this set…they were great over the campfire (she and my step dad volunteered for the forest service so we traveled from one national forest to another in a school bus turned travel trailer) and I miss it…and now we have a gas stove and oven and I figured it’s not a campfire, but it is an open flame, so I wanted some cast iron for it :)
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How do you take care of your skillet after each use of it?
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Nick replied: — January 18th, 2012 @ 1:31 pm
I just rinse it with warm water (no soap) and dry it well with paper towels. That’s it!
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Hi
I have two very old cast iron kettles I would like to get into a usable state again.
The bottom of the one is extremely thin and the other one has a hairline crack and one hole rusted through, the entire bottom also very thin.
Can I braze to build up the bottom of the kettle?
Any other suggestions, then how can I get the Kettle look nice and black again?
Thanks
Pieter
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Nick replied: — January 21st, 2012 @ 4:01 pm
Hi Pieter… I doubt that will work. This method only really works for cast iron pans that are thick and you cook on. I think you might just need to splurge for a new kettle. There’s no way I know of to build up the bottom of a kettle.
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I recently aquired a cast iron skillet that my mom and dad had for many years. They stopped using it several years ago and though the inside is in great shape, the bottom is showing rust. Is there any hope in saving the skillet?
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Nick replied: — January 30th, 2012 @ 8:07 am
Should be very saveable Joe! Rust on the outside isn’t that important as long as it’s not rusted through or really thin… You can use a similar technique on the outside that I used in this post. Just scrub the crap out of it with some wire wool to get the rust off, then just rinse it off well and it should be usable. You don’t cook anything on the outside so it doesn’t really need to be treated like the inside.
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I am in the middle of my cast iron skillet repair process. I combined your tips with a few others, and WOW!!!!! My skillet was rusted out, I thought I was going to have to throw it out. Several people told me that I could fix it, but they were not sure how to do it. Thanks so much for your tips. My skillet already looks completely NEW!!!!!!!!
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I love this! I just bought two cast iron skillets because my grandma owns one and I love cooking with them. I accidently stuck the first one in the disher washer when I knew better and thought I just had to throw it away and I bought a new one. My new one was looking crappy and I was beginning to think it just wasn’t meant for me to own a cast iron skillet. They defiantly are NOT made the way they used to be. I’m trying this out know and I hope it really works!
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Gentlemen:
We have a Le Creuset 5.5 Qt round French Oven ( Flame Color ), last week the cover or lid crack partially and some of the paint also was gone. We wonder if you know who can repair the same , of couse as you well know the item in question is in cast iron. Maybe need to be weld and paint.
Le Creuset Company does not offer repair service and despite the fact that it was sold as a full lifetime warranty, apparently it would not apply in this case, years back the service and warranty was different.
If not do you know who might sale tids or covers, if not a universal lid in metal ( not necessary cast iron ) that might fit the oven. The lid diameter is 27 1/2 Ctms or 10 3/4 Inch and have a lip, the same can be in metal color.
Your help would be much appreciated!
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Nick replied: — February 14th, 2012 @ 6:40 am
Hmm…. that’s a tough one. If Le Creuset won’t honor the warranty you might be out of luck on fixing it. The process in this post definitely won’t work for enameled items.
If it’s just the lid though I wonder if you can just keep using it without issue?
If it’s a huge crack you might need to find a replacement lid though… check salvation armies and thrift stores for a cast iron lid that fits. It doesn’t have to be Le Creuset obviously… just something cast iron.
Good luck!
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I’m surprised no one mentioned how my great-grandmother taught me to care for cast iron. After washing the cooking debris out of the skillet with a dishrag, she would rinse it with water, then dry it. Then most importantly it went straight to the stove on a high flame and a little oil or bacon grease was dropped inside & wiped around with a paper towel. I’ve continued to do this with the same skillet that she gave to my mom (and that my mom cared for the same way), and it looks as good today as it did when Gran had it.
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I was at goodwill today. I saw 3 very rusty cast iron pans for $3 a piece. I didn’t know if I could fix them so I Googled right away and your site popped up. So of course I bought them!! :D
I have everything I need on hand already and I can’t wait to get started. But I was curious if chicken fat could work as well as bacon?
What a steal! Now I’ll keep my eyes open at every second hand shop and yard sale I go to.
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Excelllent tutorial! Thanks a lot. I’ve collected many skillets and griddles, but never knew how to bring them back to life. My camping trips will be so much better now.
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THANK YOU, THANK YOU & THANK YOU AGAIN!
This gave life back to my cast iron skillet.
I was so inspired by your pizza recipe – which was wonderful!
Both the restoration & pizza were relatively simple.
I have now used my skillet to fry meatballs without sticking or smelling weird.
I am a happy cooker!
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I cook with (flat-bottom) cast iron on a glass top stove (not my preference) every day. No problem. I am careful to warm my cookware up first, I keep the stovetop very clean, and I don’t smooth the cast iron around on it. I have some family heirloom cast iron (some belonged to my great-grandfather, born 1863. (I ain’t no spring chicken myself.)
MY QUESTION: I found some old cast iron, really bad shape, rusty, pitted on the outside, inside ok. On the outside, there are raised metal “globs.” I sanded them a little bit, and they are bright, shiny metal. Looks like something (maybe chemical reaction) actually caused the cast iron to bubble up – it’s just a few bumps in a small area on one side. I’m not a metal worker, but I’m going to guess these bumps will have to be ground down. (have to have a smooth exterior for that darn glass top stove). These malformations are maybe 1/16 inch high. What should I use to sand them off? I started off hand-sanding with a sanding block for metal. That’s gonna take a while. Any better suggestion? (I’m thinking power tools).
Has anyone ever heard of the cast iron forming bumps? I can’t imagine what caused it!
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Nick, I frequently wipe oil on the bottom of my cast iron pieces when I’m applying it to the inside after use. In my mind, rust on the outside will eventually eat away at the bottom of my pan and I’ll end up with a hole. Well, maybe not in my lifetime but I hope to pass my cast iron down to my daughters and granddaughters someday.
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Hi Nick –
I have a Weber Cast Iron Gridle I used with my outdoor Weber gas grill. I left the gridle outside by my grill ( in a compartment below it ) for a bunch of months. I checked it recently – it’s pretty rusty and dirty. Would the tips for cleaning the skillet be pretty similar for me to clean my cast iron gridle? I’d love to use it again to make cheesteaks and burgers. Thanks.
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I bought a cute egg-shaped skillet last summer that was labeled ‘already seasoned’ but within months it began to rust. I have been lining it with aluminum foil and using it only in the oven (almost daily).
I was about to retire it when it hit me – google rust repair – and the first site was yours.
Your instructions are clear thorough and almost fun and your proof or after-photo looks amazing.
So I’m trying it tomorrow and I’ll let you know.
Thanks a million
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Here’s a silly question.
I forgot my old cast iron griddle on a burner and the seasoning seems to have burned off to the metal; I’ve scrubbed it with fine steel wool and a plastic brush for a while and it seemed to be clean, no stains on a dry paper towel I used to wipe it after washing. However, once I tried to coat it in grease for re-seasoning, it stained the greasy towel black. Washed it again, but the same thing happened.
So, the question: Is that normal or still more scrubbing needed?
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Nick replied: — May 21st, 2012 @ 1:39 pm
Hmm… not sure. Does it have grates? I’ve never left it on the burner for longer but it might have done some serious damage. It might not be fixable…. :(
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AD replied: — May 21st, 2012 @ 2:08 pm
No, the surface is perfectly smooth. It didn’t heat enough to turn red or warp, either; the color where the seasoning burned off is fairly close to what another old skillet looked like after being scoured clean of rust.
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Nick replied: — May 21st, 2012 @ 2:18 pm
Hmm… not sure on that one. Mine definitely doesn’t turn a towel black after seasoning…
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AD replied: — May 21st, 2012 @ 2:59 pm
More steel wool in my future then, I guess.
Thank you for the quick response, btw.
and if you’re interested, I can post an update after another attempt at scrubbing it clean.
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MY QUESTION: I found some old cast iron, really bad shape, rusty, pitted on the outside, inside ok. On the outside, there are raised metal “globs.” I sanded them a little bit, and they are bright, shiny metal. Looks like something (maybe chemical reaction) actually caused the cast iron to bubble up – it’s just a few bumps in a small area on one side. I’m not a metal worker, but I’m going to guess these bumps will have to be ground down. (have to have a smooth exterior for that darn glass top stove). These malformations are maybe 1/16 inch high. What should I use to sand them off? I started off hand-sanding with a sanding block for metal. That’s gonna take a while. Any better suggestion? (I’m thinking power tools).
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Nick replied: — May 28th, 2012 @ 1:09 pm
yea… you would probably need power tools. I’m not sure that I would cook in it honestly unless you can get it really smooth and clean. Sounds like something weird happened to it!
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What do you mean by Very Low. I had my stove element set at 1, just one above Low, but not much was happening and it was obvious the bacon would not be fried in 20 minutes. So I began turning the heat up till it was about 3-4. The bacon did fry then, although it also stuck here and there. Is that bad? Do I need to wash it and start all over again?
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I think the bacon I used was not fatty enough causing the bacon to stick. Also, I’m trying to season two pans – a round skillet and and a square griddle. The bacon on the griddle hardly generated any fat and I had to add grease from the skillet.
So to get to the point, it’s a little hard to wipe a pan clean with a paper towel when bacon has stuck to it, so I used the steel wool again under plain running water, wiped pans dry, added drops of bacon grease, rubbed it in with paper towel, and stuck it oven at 250.
By taking steel wool to the pan the second time, did I botched up the seasoning process?
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Nick replied: — June 21st, 2012 @ 4:51 pm
Sorry Sina… when I say put the heat on very low… I mean on the stove top, not in the oven. Normally, when I mean oven, I’ll give an exact temperature.
Fattier bacon definitely helps because you want to render it down well. It’s okay if it sticks a little bit… at that point the pan isn’t seasoned at all so stuff will stick to it for sure.
Just scrape up any bacon bits that are stuck and proceed with the process. Your goal is just to get enough grease to coat the entire inside of the pan. Then you rub it down and put it in the oven at 250… etc.
If you steel wooled again after baking, you’ll want to bake it again…
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my next door neighbor, (50′s ish) picks up rusted iron skillets at every yard sale she goes to. She got a 4qt cast iron dutch oven in horrendous shape,(rusted beyond what I thought was salvageable) for 5 bucks. since we’d been discussing repairing damaged iron stuffs ,she came and bragged on her success . she’d scrubbed it with a clean steel wool pad,rinsed it,dried it, & threw it in her fire pit outside! she let it burn there for hours, when the coals were hot, she smooshed it down into the coals & ash. what emerged the next morn was a surprisingly clean & very surprisingly pristine looking iron pot!!( I can’t tell you how bad the rust was, it had eaten bits away!!) we talked about re-seasoning,so the next night she had a fire, she coated it in crisco & did exactly as she’d done before. (IN the fire & ash) she showed me a cast iron dutch oven that looked like it had come of the shelf just now. it looked glossy & new.
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Thanks for this. I picked up two cast iron pans at a discount shop in town yesterday. They were only $4 a piece. To others they looked like junk. To me a little bit of gold. I had been looking at cast iron pans in the stores here and they start at $50. I followed your instructions and now have two beautiful skillets. Thanks so much!
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I have a Lodge cast iron that I got about 6 years ago. I was wondering if you think this is a good brand or not. I had neglected it a few years back so came across your site as I’m in the process of restoring it (thanks for such helpful pics and info). But would love any advice about brands and if that really matters much at all.
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Nick replied: — October 7th, 2012 @ 11:28 am
I think Lodge is a good brand. Honestly, any brand should be fine though as long as it’s seasoned correctly. :)
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You saved my cast-iron skillet this very afternoon, sir! Thank you for this: I can’t wait to make plum upside-down cake in this thing.
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my iron dutch oven has survived several deep hard cleaning experiences. now it leaks all across the bottom. is it possible to get it sealed?
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I have the cast iron skillet my Mother received at a wedding gift in 1939…talk about memories! when I got it out today I saw that it was getting a bit of rust on the bottom so Googled “how to repair a rusted cast iron skillet” and got your wonderful info. The skillet is in the oven as I write. Thank you !
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Thanks for the instructions on how to bring my old cast iron skillet and pan back to life. They have been passed down through the generations from my grandmother, at least, but due to my ignorance, were tossed on a shelf in the garage for the last 30 or so years. Accidentally stumbling across these rusted out relics and being much wiser, I realized the fine cooking utensils they could be.
I followed your instructions and even though I had to repeat the steps 7 times until no signs of rust were left, it did clean up quite nicely. Thank you.
When it came time to season these now clean and shiny utensils, I followed your instructions once again but instead of using oil for the seasoning agent, I used PAM, the spray-on baking release product. I did repeat the seasoning process 3 times using PAM but the cooking surfaces of these utensils came out looking like shiny black porcelain and they have a better non-stick surface than ANY of today’s modern utensils. Thank you for your expert advice and guidance.
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another tip, if you dont have steel wool….add about 2 tablespoons of salt and oil to pan, then scrub with paper towel.
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I’ve only been seriously researching cast iron pans for about a year, and to say the least this is one of the better articles I’ve read on saving cast iron cookware.
Much appreciated!
James
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how to polish out scratches, if cast dutch oven has been cleaned with a mechanical tool and is now no longer black but a shiny scratched surface can it be repaired ?
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Nick replied: — February 6th, 2013 @ 7:01 am
Hey John, not sure on that one. If it’s pure cast iron, you should be able to re-season it and get it pretty close to new… If it doesn’t work though, then you may just be in the market for a new one. Good luck!
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I found your article after discovering (rusting away under my kitchen sink cabinet) a set of 3 Lodge cast iron skillets that my parents gave to me about 13 years ago. I did not appreciate them all that much at the time (lesson learned). At first, I was skeptical about whether or not your method for cleaning/reconditioning the cast iron would work, but now I’m sold. I bought some steel wool and scrubbed all of the skillets furiously until every bit of rust was gone. I had some nice cuts of fatty bacon in my fridge, so I cooked three strips of those in the 10.25” skillet for 20 minutes and saved all of the grease for later. I preheated my gas oven to 250 degrees, rubbed the grease all over them (inside and out), “baked” the skillets for an hour, pulled them out after cooling, rubbed on a little more grease, and repeated the process two more times. After the third time baking, the outside of the skillets were a little gummy and sticky, so I baked them for two more hours at 400 degrees (cooling and a little more greasing after the first hour), and they turned out looking like brand new again! They even passed the fried egg test. I used them to cook a scrambled eggs and bacon breakfast this morning – delicious! Thank you for the article and advice.
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Nick replied: — February 24th, 2013 @ 8:59 pm
Awesome Scott. That’s good stuff. Glad it worked out for you.
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I did this step by step just as you said but I used olive oil , I didn’t have any bacon and pan is super sticky! Is this bad??
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I have a new skillet that I’ve used a few times. It came pre-seasoned and I’ve added to the seasoning process, but I just noticed some red stains, and they don’t look or feel like rust. Is there something else that could cause the pan to turn red–all i have cooked in it are eggs.
Thanks.
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Nick replied: — April 22nd, 2013 @ 9:04 am
Huh! That’s weird Jan. If it’s not rust I’m not sure what it could be! If it were me, I would probably scrub it off and reseason when you get a chance just to me sure.
Good luck!
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Thanks for the informatiion on how to repair a cast iron. My uncle use to do this for us years ago but he put the cast irons in a woodburner.
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I was about to give up on my cast iron pan, when I saw your article. I then quizzed my industrious husband about how he cleaned the pan (Yes, I should be thankful.) and he said he used a BBQ wire brush and soap to clean the thing. Helpy McHelperson does it again. Anyhoodles, I now have a non-stick pan and a husband who knows better. THANK YOU a million times.
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Nick replied: — May 15th, 2013 @ 8:22 am
Ha! That’s awesome Pauline. Glad you got it all fixed up. :)
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i have many griswold skillets #2-#20 that we use daily never any rust always heat pan slowly we use electric glass top stove or wood cook stove never raise heat above medium after cooking allow pan to cool and wipe with paper towel apply small amount of lard wipe down and hang up pan if food sticks put water in pan boil scrape with square end spatula stainless not junk plastic very little effort needed dump out wipe out apply lard rehang use 120 grit sand paper on rust or finer never use auto sanders grinders etc i collect griswold and that will ruin them the finish inside good pans is smooth as glass on old pans due to the jewelers sand they were cast in lodge logic pans that are rough inside that claim tey are seasoned need to be seasoned when you get them cover bottom with lard put in oven at 200 for 4 hrs mking sure cooking suface always looks wet after five hrs remove dump existig grease wipe down put back in oven on cookie sheet upside down for 1 hr at 350 remove wipe inside with lard on rag immediately let cool wipe down with lard on rag after cool rehang do not use bacon it has meat in it and salt salt removes seasoning once seasoned bacon and salty foods are fine but until seasoned anything salty is anty productive to remove rust and old seasoning rub salt with small amount of water on surface like you are polishing something cast iron pans wernt meant to be used on high heat of modern stove only low to medium if you want to ruin cast iron use higher than medium heat trust me i ruined a #10 griswold from the twentys pretty upsetting high heat only if boiling water
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we like cast iron so much that we gave all our other skillets away they truly last a lifetime i have my grand moters #10 griswold my dad had it his whole life and now i have it when im gone my daughter will have people talk about being green now this is truly green 100 yrs and still not in the landfill green and i never new it thats neat
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Instead of bacon greese can I use fatback?
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Nick replied: — May 19th, 2013 @ 5:42 pm
Absolutely! Just be sure to cook it over low heat and start it cold in the pan so the fat slowly renders out. Should work fine!
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