Extreme makeover: cast iron edition

There are few household items durable enough to hand down from generation to generation, and among these tough goods cast iron cookware may be the most useful and appreciated hand-me-down. A well-seasoned pan is a thing of beauty, handling everything from high heat searing to baking the best cornbread you’ve ever eaten. If you aren’t fortunate enough to receive Grandma’s skillet, you can purchase vintage cast iron at flea markets or thrift stores. What you find there may not exactly be well-seasoned, however. If you purchase or inherit a pan that has seen better days, there is help available for restoring the pans to like-new status.

Old, neglected cast iron may be rusty, but don’t panic: in most cases the pan can be salvaged with a little elbow grease. The article gives you a few options for getting rid of any rusty patches. A vinegar soak can help jump start the process, and a salty scrub will rub away the rust particles. I’ve read that some people leave their old pans in the oven during a self-cleaning cycle but that could void the warranty on your stove or (worst case scenario) cause a fire. A better bet would be to find a friend or neighbor with a sandblaster if you don’t feel like scrubbing.

Once the rust and any layers of dirt are removed, you’ll need to re-season the pan, and the linked article explains how to do this. They recommend vegetable oil for the seasoning process but do not specify what type. In my experience, grapeseed oil provides a durable finish that isn’t prone to lifting or getting gummy like some other oils. I also subscribe to the ‘less is more’ method of seasoning: use only the barest amount of oil – if it puddles up into droplets during the seasoning you’ve used too much. Take the pan out of the oven and (carefully!) wipe out any excess oil. The pan should look almost dry when you place it into the oven for seasoning.