cleaning cast iron with salt

We looked at other websites, reader letters and comments, and chat rooms. Heat it on low heat for 30 minutes. It’s so much easier to clean and maintain a cast iron skillet than you might think. It’s completely safe to use soap on your cast iron skillet. How to Clean a Cast Iron Skillet: 1. By signing up you are agreeing to receive emails according to our privacy policy. This will help keep your iron cleaner over time and help protect it from corrosion and humidity. The very first step is to make sure that you are cleaning a dry skillet. Amid the current public health and economic crises, when the world is shifting dramatically and we are all learning and adapting to changes in daily life, people need wikiHow more than ever. Scrub the pan with a paper towel or dish rag. Check Latest Price on Amazon. Here’s how to do it right. If you want to use soap, you can. Start with a seasoned cast iron pan. All you need is some salt, oil, and a potato. Thankfully, that’s not true! This is great news for anyone battling anemia or pregnant! How do you clean a cast iron skillet with salt? If the salted paper towel doesn’t work, you can try pouring a bit of salt on a small cotton towel and repeating the process. Dry with a kitchen towel or use medium heat to dry it. My potato and salt method should work just fine for cleaning a skillet. Once we picked our five methods (a few of them are little iterations of themselves, but boy, do they have different results! Potatoes are used because they are great for cleaning up rust. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Then use a bunched-up paper towel to scrub the bottom of the pan with the salt. Scrape any food pieces into the trash. Here’s one do: Do follow these steps and you’ll be able to keep your skillet clean, rust-free, and well-seasoned. Clean Cast Iron and Carbon Steel Cookware with a Salt Scrub. Make sure to scrub in circular motions. Read my full disclosure here. Using salt to clean your iron can be a simple way to effectively get out stains and to protect your iron for years to come. How to Clean a Cast Iron Skillet: Learn how to do it the easy way, and maybe a little lesson on How to Season a Cast Iron Skillet as well! Submerge the skillet in water for 30 minutes. Some people store their skillets in the oven, others hang it up. Discard the salt and rinse the skillet with hot water. Remove from the water. I love using my cast iron skillet and carbon steel wok, but on occasion I'll forget to clean them… A Labor of Love. Please help us continue to provide you with our trusted how-to guides and videos for free by whitelisting wikiHow on your ad blocker. This will make the work so much easier. By this step, the entire pan should be shiny and black. You might have heard the many things not to do with cast iron: The last one is a myth – and I’ll answer it at the bottom of this post. Cleaning Cast Iron after Every Use. So you obviously don’t want to remove or destroy that. I get a lot of questions about cooking with and cleaning cast iron skillets. Additional stain-removing power can be achieved when you combine the salt with other materials like newspaper, ammonia, and aluminum foil. Hang your cast iron skillets on this Kinetic wrought iron pot rack from Amazon. Remember that the iron will be quite hot, so you should take care not to burn yourself or other objects around you – especially things that could melt, like plastic. Depending on the condition of your pan, you may want to rinse the dirty salt out and start over with new, clean salt as you continue the process. wikiHow's Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards. Wipe the cast iron with an oiled cloth. The most common method of seasoning cast iron is baking it with a thin coat of oil. As you can see it was really bad. Using regular rock salt, sea salt, or kosher salt, you can simply iron over these large-grained salts to remove stains. It is recommended although not necessary that you either place your cookware on the stove top or in the oven to allow the heat to ensure that all of the water evaporates from the surface of the cast iron. Most often you can clean a cast-iron pan by simply wiping it down with a dry paper towel or cotton dishcloth. If you used it to cook, remove all the food, rinse it out, and then dry it completely. The appropriate care of all your cookware ensures that they will last a long time. You can use a safe, gentle, food-based abrasive material such as coarse sea salt (Amazon) or cornmeal to clean your griddle. But first, I want to share exactly how to clean a cast-iron skillet. Cast iron is very strong, and with a little effort, you can get your pans into brand-new condition. Another myth is that you can’t use steel wool on a cast-iron skillet. Then, pour a small amount of oil into the pan and then rub it with a paper towel until the bottom and sides are coated. Skip the soap and give your skillet a facial. Any kind of potato will work, even a sweet potato. You’ll also learn how to clean and season cast iron, and LOVE your skillets and dutch ovens. Instructions for cleaning a cast iron skillet often include a lot of don’ts: Don’t use soap, don’t use steel wool, don’t put it in the dishwasher. Sprinkle liberally with kosher salt and scrub with a wet paper towel. It’s almost enough to scare a cook off from cast iron completely! How To Clean A Cast Iron Skillet. If you can get all of the sticky stuff off just by scraping, then more power to you! You might have heard the many things not to do with cast iron: Do not put it in the dishwasher; Don’t use steel wool; Don’t use soap. Remove the salt and rinse the skillet with hot water. Add 4 tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar. References. Freshen up the coffee pot: Add a cup of crushed ice, a tablespoon of water and a few teaspoons of coarse salt to a room-temperature glass coffee pot. We know ads can be annoying, but they’re what allow us to make all of wikiHow available for free. Helping you be the keeper of your home and the woman you were created to be! Some coarse salt, a potato, and oil will remove stubborn rust and make your skillet safe to use. Once the pan is clean, rinse with water and pat dry. If you have a really rusted one that you think might require more work, invest in a brush with firm bristles. Start again by cleaning off burnt or stuck on food and then follow the directions detailed below. 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