How to Clean and Restore Cast Iron

I love my cast iron skillets and dutch oven. Every so often I find one to add to my collection. It may be rusted and look terrible but  they are iron and can be restored. If you too love cast iron, check out this great info on how to clean and restore cast iron.

Even what we use daily sometimes need to be stripped and re-seasoned.  This will bring back that shiny non stick surface that we all love cast iron for. There are a few different methods to stripping a cast iron piece. They vary from spray cleaner to lye soaks. If the skillet is only rusty you can usually just remove the rust with vinegar. Once your item is stripped and clean down to the bare iron you can move on to adding the seasoning. This involves applying a fat or oil and then baking it into the iron. The oil or fat that you use will polymerize and this polymerization is what gives you the non stick surface.

Usually done more than once to bring the skillet back to pitch black.  There are a few different oils or fats that can be used and some have higher smoke point and some break down and go through the polymerization quicker. In this extensive cast iron restoration guide from The Cast Iron Collector you will find all the info and steps to taking an old rusty neglected iron piece and restoring it to non stick cooking perfection. Or if you are a collector the item will be restored to display quality.  They also have all sorts of links and info on the site. They have links for collectors and instructions for cooking with cast iron, whether it is a skillet or a dutch oven they have the directions on how to cook with it.

http://www.castironcollector.com/cleaning.php