Street Find: Cast Iron Pan

Uninitiated trash pickers might recoil at the thought of finding a pan on the street, but this is no ordinary pan, this is a Lodge cast iron skillet, similar to another Lodge skillet I found a few years ago. So you can imagine how excited I got when I saw this pan sitting in the garbage last week near my New York City apartment!

Cast iron pans literally last forever. I have another cast iron skillet from the late 1800's that has been in my family for generations. So wouldn't it be a shame to throw out something so useful and durable? Even if it needs a little TLC? So here's how to bring a crusty and rusty cast iron pan back to life.
There are several ways to clean old cast iron pans which are covered in grime and crust. Ideally I like to use elbow grease to clean things rather than chemicals. But you need to bring out the big guns with pans that are in bad shape like this one, namely oven cleaner. A chemical free option might be to bake the pan in your oven on the cleaning setting or putting in a hot wood fire to bake off the crud.

I'm going to use oven cleaner to clean this pan. Oven cleaner contains lye, which is sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda. It's a corrosive alkaline which means that it is a base (a pH of approx. 13), or the opposite of an acid (low pH). The lye will dissolve the organic matter on the pan, including rock-hard crusty stains. Wear gloves and eye protection as lye will also dissolve your skin! Follow the directions on the can. You may need to reapply a few times for problem areas.

If your problem is a rusty pan, rather than a crud covered pan, try soaking in a solution of white vinegar and water (50/50) for a few hours and then scrubbing. The acid in the vinegar will dissolve the rust.
Clean the pan thoroughly to remove all the oven cleaner. The lye will also remove all of the seasoning in the pan, taking the pan down to bare metal. You will now have what is basically a brand new pan. The seasoning is essentially bits of food and fat which are lodged in the cracks and crevices of the pan, creating an all-natural non-stick surface. Much better than toxic Teflon! But with this seasoning removed, you will need to re-season.
Take the pan and rub it with bacon fat or cooking oil. Put the pan in the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour. The pan is now ready to use! Every time you cook in the pan, it will continue the seasoning process. This is also why you shouln't soak cast iron or scrub with soap as this can dissolve the seasoning. After cooking a few rounds of fatty food like bacon, the pan will achieve optimum seasoning and will be the perfect pan for foods like eggs, which are notorious for sticking to other types of pans. And you'll be able to enjoy your cast iron pan forever!