Lodge sells a scrubber made of what looks like chainmail the round edges of the loops keep it from gouging the seasoning but gets big stuff off with scrubbing
You mist the point. You don't want to use something like a stainless steel scrubby, they are strips of metal with a sharp edge and plastic ones are crap especially for a job like this. The chainmail scrubby I'm talking about has no sharp edges at all.
Why's everything got to be four easy payments? I want a complicated payment.
The envelope will not seal, the stamp will be in the wrong denomination, and the mailman will get shot to death.
That last payment must be made in *wampum*!!
My observation is that pans used for a lot of frying are prone to this kind of buildup on non-cooking surfaces. Sometimes it looks like the pan is leaking oil. It could be the fat molecules floating in the air while frying come in contact with the hot metal and adhere
Yep. Same thing that makes nightly wipe downs and big ass exhaust hoods necessary in a restaurant kitchen. Anything near the grill in particular, and the fryers, to a lesser extent, will get a sticky grease coating from the aerosolized oil
By using gas stoves. Natural gas is methane with a little bit of carbon and other trace elements. The methane burns and deposits the carbon on the bottom of your cookware. Plus if anything spills into the flame, it gets burned and deposited on the bottom of the pan. You can keep it from building up
by scrubbing the bottom with a chain scrubber or a Chore Boy copper scrubber.
This makes a lot of sense when you look at how the crust is distributed. It is a circle and does not affect the center lodge area. Just like how a gas burner would typically operate.
The methane itself won't cause this buildup, as it oxidize straight to CO2. It won't form complex carbon structures like it takes to form these deposits. Dirt and crumbs near the gas range? That's a great call, and definitely contributes to the carbonization of the bottom of your pan
>The methane itself won't cause this buildup, as it oxidize straight to CO2
Not if the volume of gas isn't fully oxidized due to incomplete combustion, which is what typically produces sooting. Science is sexy, indeed. ;)
I still have a hard time believing this. I looked into it and was surprised to find that fuel:air ratios as high as 6:1 can result in benzene production, but even that won't cause this heavy carbonized build-up. Fuel rich mixtures do lead to soot production, but I can't imagine methane producing solid carbonized deposits like this
It might be the combination of gas burner which elevated the pan and drippings allowed to reach the bottom, then the dripping being carbonized by the hot flames.
I have a tiny cast iron egg pan give to me by my mom, used exclusively on a gas stove that has this exact problem, and none of her other pans have this carbon build up.
If you don't mind my asking, how often did she clean her range top? Also, when you say her other pans didn't have this buildup, what type of pans were they? I suppose it's also possible that this only happens with cast iron, since the seasoning layer is providing growth spots for these carbonized deposits, functioning as "seed crystals" if you will.
Her range top was spotless. Cleaned after each use. But with gas the pan is lifted up so the drippings never touched the range. And with it being such a small pan it would be easy to have a little oil drip over the side.
I've got an electric top and the pan I use most and that cooks pounds of bacon and ground beef weekly looks like this, so not exclusively a gas stove issue
I've got an electric top and the pan I use most and that cooks pounds of bacon and ground beef weekly looks like this, so not exclusively a gas stove issue
I've got an electric top and the pan I use most and that cooks pounds of bacon and ground beef weekly looks like this, so not exclusively a gas stove issue
I've got an electric top and the pan I use most and that cooks pounds of bacon and ground beef weekly looks like this, so not exclusively a gas stove issue
I have an electric stove and my primary skillet that cooks pounds of bacon and ground beef weekly has this crud on the bottom. Not an exclusive gas stove issue, but certainly unsightly and possibly making cooking more inefficient
I've seen this a lot in my family. I think it's because they think you can't wash them at all, and just wipe them out with a towel. After 40-50 years of this, they look like that.
My pan was my grandmother's.
Her preferred method of seasoning was to just rub crisco on the entire thing and juck it in the oven. A bunch of crisco built up over the years in a layer near the ring on the bottom.
My gas range isn't the cleanest thing as I only clean it probably every other week or so and I have never encountered any kind of build up like this. I also clean my pans after I use them. I don't just wipe out the inside and call it a day.
You are being kind and I appreciate it. But I am actually implying that all gas ranges are filthy. They should be outlawed due to their archaic filth in my opinion. Unhealthy, unsafe, old world tech. Needs to go the way of lead based paint and gas. It's better than an actual indoor campfire, I guess?
the yellow cap oven cleaner method mentioned in the FAQ section will take care of that. It May need more than one treatment, but it'll be gone. From there you can reseason the pan.
But will it also attack my inner pan seasoning? I am actually happy with it and the bottom side is kind of only a visual flaw for me. I just wondered if in current state heat conductivity could become worse if that layer grows further.
I have the same issue with a pan that is smooth as satin on the inside from over 25 years of continuous use. I am absolutely not fucking up my perfect pan interior just to get rid of the ugly crust on the outside, so I'll be doing the oven cleaner method on the outside only. I'm perfectly willing to reseason the outside if necessary, but I'm not screwing myself out of all that progress on the cooking surface just to get there.
Thanks for the clarification. I was thinking the self clean oven option which is my go to. I prefer to strip my CI to bare metal and reseasoning but most of mine is very old and mistreated or abandoned for decades. I love the process and do it for a local junk shop now. Sadly I'm in Florida where very few people have or use CI.
As long as you keep whatever you use to strip the carbon from the bottom away from the inside of the pan, it shouldn't harm it. As for thermal conductivity. It ain't a problem. If anything it's a benefit, as carbon is one of the most thermally conductive materials known to man. Its thermal conductivity is way better than cast iron (this is the reason cast iron is so good for cooking -- once you get it hot, it stays that way), and massively better than air.
It would. You could possibly set it in a shallow lye bath that won't get over the sides of the pan to focus on the bottom. I haven't tried this before, but I can't see a reason it wouldn't work.
Lye bath or electrolysis tank. I cleaned up and reseasoned a bunch of pans for my MiL that were all crusty like this. A lye bath would have saved me a lot of time.
My stove is natural gas and my pans have never gotten charred and crusty on the bottom, even with us on the “power” burner. I had some build up and staining on the inside of one of my Le Creuset pans, customer service recommended a product call Bartender’s Friend, it worked perfectly. I would probably try to scrape off as much as I could manually before attempting to use a product to remove the remaining buildup.
Pretty sure it's gas range + ambient dirt/food debris on the range working in tandem. If you don't have this happen when you cook on gas, you probably clean your range regularly.
There is zero chance that the gas is causing this.
I would guess spillage and oil combined with not cleaning and then reapplying heat repeatedly for years is what’s causing this.
I mean some people don’t even clean the cooking surface of their pans, what do you think the bottom is going to look like after a few years.
Doesn't happen to mine, but I scrub the bottoms with a Chore Boy copper scrubber -- just like Mama Dingo taught me. Thirty years cooking on gas -- no carbon buildup.
One of several reasons why I love my induction cooktop. Cooking with gas is basically cooking over a well controlled campfire, inside your house. Pans used on gas ranges end up with crud on the outside surfaces, just like they would if we lived outside and cooked over fire.
I must admit I do not cook on gas but might not be too careful about the bottom side cleaning. I do rinse it everywhere after each use but more the cooking surface than elsewhere.
My other pans don’t look that bad, honestly.
if you want to keep the rest as is, chemicals probably aren't the way to go. My guess is the first step will be getting the hardened surface off, which something like steel wool wouldn't respond to, then working down the looser stuff underneath. Do you have anything like a bench grinder, a dremel, or something you can put a wire wheel attachment on? That would likely knock a bunch off and be simplest. Or you could use something like a very dull chisel first, and then sandpaper after. Good luck!
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Put it upside-down in the oven on a self clean cycle. It will strip EVERYTHING off. Once cooled, scrub with steel wool or a brillo pad and soapy water. Make sure it's completely dry and do 5 or 6 coats of polymerized oil - 450 for 30- 45 minutes each. I've used vegetable oil for years.
I've done this with all my garage sale finds. (3) 8" skillets, (1) 12", (1) 14", and a Dutch oven - lid and pot.
Personal experience (I don't have the equipment for electrolysis) I've never had a problem and my pans cook evenly and clean up like a charm.
I’m joking. But do try to keep it clean. Nothing will happen to it even if you used it like this but it’ll look worse and worse. To remove it all you can do really is heat it and scrape it off. Then re-season to restore the finish
I have successfully used a wire-wheel on a angle grinder (speed setting to low) and then re-seasoned it 2 time. Steel wool did not do the trick because the stuff is baked on very very good.
Usage.
Also if you wipe the bottom of the pan with oil, the oil will protect the pan from rusting, but it will also build up and crack like this over time.
I've got pans I've been using for years and they don't look like that. I wipe the outside of them with oil and wipe off the excess. They have zero build up on them.
Probably 1 in 5 I've found in the wild are like this.
You can use cast iron for MANY years. This is just what accumulates after many layers, then becomes brittle.
I used an old credit card and scraped the shit out of my old Griswold after using an old chisel. It looks almost new and the inside stayed like glass since I didn’t mess with it.
If you want to maintain the interior seasoning then I would tackle this project two ways. First with a wire brush attachment for an angle grinder or drill, and then with low grit sandpaper. Both require effort and elbow grease. Do be careful with rotating wire wheels as they tend to deteriorate and send wire flying. Wear a face shield and a jacket.
When you season a iron pan, season all of it, not just the cooking surface. Season lightly on the bottom and lip and outer surface then heat. The pan will expand and accept the oil. Wipe it down and put it to work
I always do it like that. I keep the layer very thin and bake it in the convection oven at max temperature for 1h, switch off the oven and let the pan in the warm oven until cooled. I repeat this procedure several times until it is seasoned to my liking.
Easy peasy. That stuff will come off by putting it in the oven on a self cleaning cycle. It will leave a mess of powder so put something under it. Then it needs to be seasoned from scratch. But it is worth doing.
I accidentally got rid of mine by leaving the range on far too long and forgetting about it. It all fell off and I couldn't believe how new the pan looked.
You should just start a chimney of charcoal on the grill, spread it even, replace the grates, put a VERY thin coat of oil all over, and make sure not to drip any as you do this: put the pan on the grill,upside down, with the top on, and just see what flakes off.
Nothing might flake off and you might be left with a perfectly seasoned pan with all that crap cooked off. No clue. That’s not supposed to be there tho
Get the easy off with the yellow cap, rubber glove up and spray your pan. Put your pan with the easy off into a black trash bag, tie it off and let it sit in a sunny area. After 24-48 hours, glove up again and rinse your pan, then scrub. Reseason if the carbon buildup is gone; if not start with step one.
Get some Easy-Off oven cleaner (the yellow cap). Wear eye protection and gloves. Spray it on all surfaces and put it inside a plastic trash bag. Let it sit, preferably outside in the sun, for a few days. Wearing dish-washing gloves, check the progress. You may need a bit of additional light scrubbing, if needed, and put it back in the bag for another day or two. Wash your pan throughly. You now have it down to bare iron. So, you'll need to re-season it. Once that's done, it will look brand-new.
Brass wire bristle brush drill bit. Knock it back to the bare iron and reseason. You can do just the bottom and preserve your cooking surface if you’re happy with it.
I noticed some people suggesting cleaning sprays (like oven cleaner). I would strongly caution against this. The porous nature of iron will allow for chemical products to soak into the metal and you will be eating those chemicals.
Good question. I guess a mix of uneven coating on the bottom plus whatever is not cleaned off properly after each usage and baked in further by cooking with it again.
I always clean my pans after each use but haven’t really taken extra care of the bottom. I have another cast iron that looks like new on the bottom and another carbon steel pan also has a bit of a crust build up. Welp.
LoL. I read through the comments and a lot of people say they have similar looking pans. I guess it happens - probably because it's well used and well loved. :-)
Look, it may be blasphemous to some here, but easy-off oven cleaner won't hurt the bottom side and a good scrub and rinse then a thin coat of oil - good as ever.
I'm treating a particularly nasty 12" pan in my electrolysis setup with a lye solution. The thick bottom crust just sloughed off with a nudge of the nylon scrub brush.
Easy Off (yellow can) has lye in it that a good soaking on it-maybe a couple times-will dissolve a lot of that.
Just use it outside and put into a plastic garbage bag.
My grandparents said that kind of build up made for uneven heating, so it's good to get it off. Because you want to preserve the inner seasoning, I suggest you get some spray on oven cleaner like Easy-Off. Put the pan in a garbage bag, spray the cleaner on the crusty areas, really slathering them down. tie it off and put it out in the sun for a few hours then check your progress. It might take a while to get it softened up, but I think it will work.
99.9% chance they will damage the seasoning on the inside of the pan if they do this. Those fumes also contain those chemicals and they will get to the inside of the pan.
Lye tank…if you don’t want to redo the cooking surface, fill the tank up with 2ish inches of water then put the lye in based on how much water it took. Let the pan sit in it so the outside gets coated but not the inside. You could do oven cleaner, but it’d prob take a bunch of coatings and you risk more overspray. Could also take some tape and cover the inside with aluminum foil, then tape it around the top edge so it stays in place
That buildup is how I know if I'm using a pan enough. Like military rank, the more stripes you have the more senior you are. Seriously though, it's purely cosmetic and if you don't care neither does the pan.
Edit to add an actual answer to the question: get something metal and give it a good scraping. Metal putty knife or spatula is good.
Heat.
Put that thing in an outdoor grill and crank it to 500° for an hour, or put it in the oven and run the "Clean" mode. It'll incinerate all of that scut build-up (it's just carbon build-up) into a fine powder you can wipe away. You'll have to re-season, of course, but it's the surefire non-chemical method.
I inherited a pan that looked like that and a self clean cycle turned it all to ash. Some soap and water, then a coat of canola oil and it was good as new.
My system is to never turn it over and look at the bottom.
Yeah that usually works well. 😅
Lodge sells a scrubber made of what looks like chainmail the round edges of the loops keep it from gouging the seasoning but gets big stuff off with scrubbing
Bro, he's not gouging any seasoning with that amount of cruft on it. It's like saying your digging a hole in the yard by planting grass seeds.
You mist the point. You don't want to use something like a stainless steel scrubby, they are strips of metal with a sharp edge and plastic ones are crap especially for a job like this. The chainmail scrubby I'm talking about has no sharp edges at all.
I use chainmail as well and it works great. Additionally missed is the word you wanted. 😂
I'd blame it on spell check but I'm just a dumb Redkneck 🤣
You don't want to scrub too mulch.
Why not? Anything that comes off can be composted.
This is horrible advice. That crust underneath will resist heat transfer. Clean it off with your grinder and a wire wheel.
Do you have a book? Or a series of informational videos I could buy for the low-low price of 4 easy payments of $39.99?
I do! That first piece of advice is the free teaser. I charge the first $40 to tell you to just cook on it.
I thought it was $39.99..?
I bought it. It’s worth the extra $0.01. 😉
$39.97 at Walmart
😲
That’s not true, just was trying to be funny. It’s actually $21.98
Why's everything got to be four easy payments? I want a complicated payment. The envelope will not seal, the stamp will be in the wrong denomination, and the mailman will get shot to death. That last payment must be made in *wampum*!!
Are you cooking on the bottom? scrape hard on cast iron cooking grill :P :P
That works everytime.
A bidet?
I haven't laughed that hard in a while
I'm genuinely curious how y'all are getting carbon buildup on the bottom of your pans. Mine looks basically clean of anything.
My observation is that pans used for a lot of frying are prone to this kind of buildup on non-cooking surfaces. Sometimes it looks like the pan is leaking oil. It could be the fat molecules floating in the air while frying come in contact with the hot metal and adhere
it's the aerosolized oil 100%
Yep. Same thing that makes nightly wipe downs and big ass exhaust hoods necessary in a restaurant kitchen. Anything near the grill in particular, and the fryers, to a lesser extent, will get a sticky grease coating from the aerosolized oil
By using gas stoves. Natural gas is methane with a little bit of carbon and other trace elements. The methane burns and deposits the carbon on the bottom of your cookware. Plus if anything spills into the flame, it gets burned and deposited on the bottom of the pan. You can keep it from building up by scrubbing the bottom with a chain scrubber or a Chore Boy copper scrubber.
This makes a lot of sense when you look at how the crust is distributed. It is a circle and does not affect the center lodge area. Just like how a gas burner would typically operate.
Yeah, my pans never had this crust on them, until I had been using a gas stove for a couple of years
The methane itself won't cause this buildup, as it oxidize straight to CO2. It won't form complex carbon structures like it takes to form these deposits. Dirt and crumbs near the gas range? That's a great call, and definitely contributes to the carbonization of the bottom of your pan
>The methane itself won't cause this buildup, as it oxidize straight to CO2 Not if the volume of gas isn't fully oxidized due to incomplete combustion, which is what typically produces sooting. Science is sexy, indeed. ;)
I still have a hard time believing this. I looked into it and was surprised to find that fuel:air ratios as high as 6:1 can result in benzene production, but even that won't cause this heavy carbonized build-up. Fuel rich mixtures do lead to soot production, but I can't imagine methane producing solid carbonized deposits like this
It might be the combination of gas burner which elevated the pan and drippings allowed to reach the bottom, then the dripping being carbonized by the hot flames. I have a tiny cast iron egg pan give to me by my mom, used exclusively on a gas stove that has this exact problem, and none of her other pans have this carbon build up.
If you don't mind my asking, how often did she clean her range top? Also, when you say her other pans didn't have this buildup, what type of pans were they? I suppose it's also possible that this only happens with cast iron, since the seasoning layer is providing growth spots for these carbonized deposits, functioning as "seed crystals" if you will.
Her range top was spotless. Cleaned after each use. But with gas the pan is lifted up so the drippings never touched the range. And with it being such a small pan it would be easy to have a little oil drip over the side.
I've got an electric top and the pan I use most and that cooks pounds of bacon and ground beef weekly looks like this, so not exclusively a gas stove issue
I've got an electric top and the pan I use most and that cooks pounds of bacon and ground beef weekly looks like this, so not exclusively a gas stove issue
I've got an electric top and the pan I use most and that cooks pounds of bacon and ground beef weekly looks like this, so not exclusively a gas stove issue
I've got an electric top and the pan I use most and that cooks pounds of bacon and ground beef weekly looks like this, so not exclusively a gas stove issue
I have an electric stove and my primary skillet that cooks pounds of bacon and ground beef weekly has this crud on the bottom. Not an exclusive gas stove issue, but certainly unsightly and possibly making cooking more inefficient
I've only used electric stoves and mine get this build up.
Almost 80 years of use including wood fires and charcoal bed usage. I'm the third generation to own this pan.
and they didnt even get you a new one for your bday?!
That logo is from 1973 though. https://www.lodgecastiron.com/story/history-lodges-skillet-egg-logo
That's about 80 years ago, give or take 30.
I'm not OP, so I'm not talking about this specific pan.
Not wiping after pouring. And the oil runs down the side and collects at the bottom and oxidizes.
When I use my cast iron on a grill, it can get somewhat like this.
I've seen this a lot in my family. I think it's because they think you can't wash them at all, and just wipe them out with a towel. After 40-50 years of this, they look like that.
My pan was my grandmother's. Her preferred method of seasoning was to just rub crisco on the entire thing and juck it in the oven. A bunch of crisco built up over the years in a layer near the ring on the bottom.
Mines worse when I put it on the grill and close it when im grilling other things
You probably don't cook on a filthy gas range.
I cook on a gas range, but yea, it's not filthy.
My gas range isn't the cleanest thing as I only clean it probably every other week or so and I have never encountered any kind of build up like this. I also clean my pans after I use them. I don't just wipe out the inside and call it a day.
I think they were saying that a gas range that is dirty will do this to a pan, not implying all gas ranges are dirty. Just a thought
You are being kind and I appreciate it. But I am actually implying that all gas ranges are filthy. They should be outlawed due to their archaic filth in my opinion. Unhealthy, unsafe, old world tech. Needs to go the way of lead based paint and gas. It's better than an actual indoor campfire, I guess?
the yellow cap oven cleaner method mentioned in the FAQ section will take care of that. It May need more than one treatment, but it'll be gone. From there you can reseason the pan.
In this case I would go straight to a lye bath. I suspect it will be less work than multiple rounds of the yellow cap method. Still, either will work.
But will it also attack my inner pan seasoning? I am actually happy with it and the bottom side is kind of only a visual flaw for me. I just wondered if in current state heat conductivity could become worse if that layer grows further.
I have the same issue with a pan that is smooth as satin on the inside from over 25 years of continuous use. I am absolutely not fucking up my perfect pan interior just to get rid of the ugly crust on the outside, so I'll be doing the oven cleaner method on the outside only. I'm perfectly willing to reseason the outside if necessary, but I'm not screwing myself out of all that progress on the cooking surface just to get there.
How would you use the oven cleaner method just for the outside? This defies logic...
Place upside down on a surface, spray outside with oven cleaner, wrap in plastic wrap, let sit, scrub, repeat as needed.
Thanks for the clarification. I was thinking the self clean oven option which is my go to. I prefer to strip my CI to bare metal and reseasoning but most of mine is very old and mistreated or abandoned for decades. I love the process and do it for a local junk shop now. Sadly I'm in Florida where very few people have or use CI.
"Yellow cap" in a previous comment refers to Easy Off spray oven cleaner.
I understand. I misunderstood the question. I also have not worked on newer CI
It would. I would still clean it up and reseason. However, just using it won't hurt anything.
As long as you keep whatever you use to strip the carbon from the bottom away from the inside of the pan, it shouldn't harm it. As for thermal conductivity. It ain't a problem. If anything it's a benefit, as carbon is one of the most thermally conductive materials known to man. Its thermal conductivity is way better than cast iron (this is the reason cast iron is so good for cooking -- once you get it hot, it stays that way), and massively better than air.
It would. You could possibly set it in a shallow lye bath that won't get over the sides of the pan to focus on the bottom. I haven't tried this before, but I can't see a reason it wouldn't work.
Despite popular opinion, you can just re-season the inside of a cast iron pan.
Lye bath or electrolysis tank. I cleaned up and reseasoned a bunch of pans for my MiL that were all crusty like this. A lye bath would have saved me a lot of time.
Came here to say the same thing...
How does this even happen? I use my pan all the time and there is no “crust” on the bottom.
Cooking over gas
My stove is natural gas and my pans have never gotten charred and crusty on the bottom, even with us on the “power” burner. I had some build up and staining on the inside of one of my Le Creuset pans, customer service recommended a product call Bartender’s Friend, it worked perfectly. I would probably try to scrape off as much as I could manually before attempting to use a product to remove the remaining buildup.
Pretty sure it's gas range + ambient dirt/food debris on the range working in tandem. If you don't have this happen when you cook on gas, you probably clean your range regularly.
Probably because you have high quality natural gas with minimum of other gases and air so it burns cleaner
There is zero chance that the gas is causing this. I would guess spillage and oil combined with not cleaning and then reapplying heat repeatedly for years is what’s causing this. I mean some people don’t even clean the cooking surface of their pans, what do you think the bottom is going to look like after a few years.
What gas are you thinking of here? Kerosene? Natural gas does not do this to any pan I've ever owned.
Doesn't happen to mine, but I scrub the bottoms with a Chore Boy copper scrubber -- just like Mama Dingo taught me. Thirty years cooking on gas -- no carbon buildup.
Oooh that makes more sense now. I’ve only ever used electric so I didn’t get it.
One of several reasons why I love my induction cooktop. Cooking with gas is basically cooking over a well controlled campfire, inside your house. Pans used on gas ranges end up with crud on the outside surfaces, just like they would if we lived outside and cooked over fire.
Yep. I love how gas "cooks", but what you see on this pan is what you would be breathing in. I'll stick to my propane grill outdoors
Or charcoal or campfire. Aren’t there better things to worry about?
I'm using electric coils and it's fine!
I must admit I do not cook on gas but might not be too careful about the bottom side cleaning. I do rinse it everywhere after each use but more the cooking surface than elsewhere. My other pans don’t look that bad, honestly.
You need to do more than just rinse your pan. Use some soap on it. Do you have a scraper or chainmail? Do you use a metal spatula when cooking?
elbow grease.
if you want to keep the rest as is, chemicals probably aren't the way to go. My guess is the first step will be getting the hardened surface off, which something like steel wool wouldn't respond to, then working down the looser stuff underneath. Do you have anything like a bench grinder, a dremel, or something you can put a wire wheel attachment on? That would likely knock a bunch off and be simplest. Or you could use something like a very dull chisel first, and then sandpaper after. Good luck!
I rub my naughty bits on it. I don't know if that works, but at least nobody touches my pan.
You win 🤣
Ten minutes with a rigid steel putty knife. A stiff one. Do it outside, carbon is gonna fly.
Flip it over, cook a few pounds of bacon on the bottom. Good as new. ^s^a^r^c^a^s^m
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I usually continue to wipe until I see no more residue.
Mind you, a warped pan is often corrected by the buildup!
Yellow top oven cleaner
I use a bidet
Put it upside-down in the oven on a self clean cycle. It will strip EVERYTHING off. Once cooled, scrub with steel wool or a brillo pad and soapy water. Make sure it's completely dry and do 5 or 6 coats of polymerized oil - 450 for 30- 45 minutes each. I've used vegetable oil for years. I've done this with all my garage sale finds. (3) 8" skillets, (1) 12", (1) 14", and a Dutch oven - lid and pot. Personal experience (I don't have the equipment for electrolysis) I've never had a problem and my pans cook evenly and clean up like a charm.
I use a bidet for that
Angle grinder with a twisted wire cup. Then when it's clean, you will probably find the bottom is warped.
I had to sleep on the couch after i said this to my wife
If you don't want to use chemicals you can take a sharp metal spatula and hack at it like a chisel.
Why not a chisel?
Chisel would work too
Or steel wool
OP already tried that
Or dynamite
Prevention is better than cure. Never let your bottom turn crusty
Why? It feels like only being a cosmetic flaw.
Cosmetic? Your bottom should always be covered man
Yeah but I still haven’t heard a real reason. My pan is definitely not rusting. So why is it bad like that?
I’m joking. But do try to keep it clean. Nothing will happen to it even if you used it like this but it’ll look worse and worse. To remove it all you can do really is heat it and scrape it off. Then re-season to restore the finish
You vote them out the first Tuesday in November.
I have successfully used a wire-wheel on a angle grinder (speed setting to low) and then re-seasoned it 2 time. Steel wool did not do the trick because the stuff is baked on very very good.
How… how in the world does the _bottom_ get THAT nasty?! Y’all are scrubbing out your pans at least a little bit, right? Geeeeez.
Usage. Also if you wipe the bottom of the pan with oil, the oil will protect the pan from rusting, but it will also build up and crack like this over time.
I've got pans I've been using for years and they don't look like that. I wipe the outside of them with oil and wipe off the excess. They have zero build up on them.
Probably 1 in 5 I've found in the wild are like this. You can use cast iron for MANY years. This is just what accumulates after many layers, then becomes brittle.
Wire wheel on a drill works good. Do it outside unless you want to piss your spouse off
Hey now, I’d do this inside. I’m single though.
Yea I made that mistake once. After that clean up it was never again 😂😂
I used an old credit card and scraped the shit out of my old Griswold after using an old chisel. It looks almost new and the inside stayed like glass since I didn’t mess with it.
If you want to maintain the interior seasoning then I would tackle this project two ways. First with a wire brush attachment for an angle grinder or drill, and then with low grit sandpaper. Both require effort and elbow grease. Do be careful with rotating wire wheels as they tend to deteriorate and send wire flying. Wear a face shield and a jacket.
scrub and scrape the bejesus out of it
Vinegar
I just got mine with a wire wheel then sanded and reseasosned
When you season a iron pan, season all of it, not just the cooking surface. Season lightly on the bottom and lip and outer surface then heat. The pan will expand and accept the oil. Wipe it down and put it to work
I always do it like that. I keep the layer very thin and bake it in the convection oven at max temperature for 1h, switch off the oven and let the pan in the warm oven until cooled. I repeat this procedure several times until it is seasoned to my liking.
Wire wheel on a drill
Chain mail scrubber and elbow grease
Go to lodge website
Grinder
The crust is the healthiest part
Wipe 😬
LA LA LA LYE
Oven cleaner, with lye
Angle grinder and a strip disc.
wire cup brush on a die grinder or angle grinder then reseason
Try Bon Ami cleaner
I put mine in a campfire. It looked like new the next morning.
Cook some bacon on it
I pressure washed the bottom of mine after 20 years of pretty much daily use. Crust gone.
Get it sand-blasted and re-season!
Sand blast it. Walnut shells are a good choice of medium
Easy peasy. That stuff will come off by putting it in the oven on a self cleaning cycle. It will leave a mess of powder so put something under it. Then it needs to be seasoned from scratch. But it is worth doing.
Is it flat?
When I pour food out, it sometimes runs down the edge and along the bottom. This is one way
Angle grinder with a flap disc maybe? Too efficient?
Keep it I like it crusty
Ablative heat shield. Cook it off with a torch. Guess I gotta add, outdoors and away from other flammable stuff
Laser cleaning machine.
Why get rid of the crust? That’s where all the flavor comes from.
I accidentally got rid of mine by leaving the range on far too long and forgetting about it. It all fell off and I couldn't believe how new the pan looked.
FFS, just scrape it off. It ain’t rocket surgery.
Very high heat, like 700 degrees(oven on clean cyclw E) then reseason
Wire wheel.
Clean your stove top more often
I've never seen the bottom of mine. Out of sight, out of mind!
Would bead blasting work for this?
Angle grinder with a wire wheel.
You should just start a chimney of charcoal on the grill, spread it even, replace the grates, put a VERY thin coat of oil all over, and make sure not to drip any as you do this: put the pan on the grill,upside down, with the top on, and just see what flakes off. Nothing might flake off and you might be left with a perfectly seasoned pan with all that crap cooked off. No clue. That’s not supposed to be there tho
Get the easy off with the yellow cap, rubber glove up and spray your pan. Put your pan with the easy off into a black trash bag, tie it off and let it sit in a sunny area. After 24-48 hours, glove up again and rinse your pan, then scrub. Reseason if the carbon buildup is gone; if not start with step one.
That’s the side I get my best slidey eggs!
You should post this over on r/castironrestoration
[https://www.reddit.com/r/castiron/comments/c4ntam/how\_to\_strip\_and\_restore\_cast\_iron\_faq\_post/](https://www.reddit.com/r/castiron/comments/c4ntam/how_to_strip_and_restore_cast_iron_faq_post/)
power tools. i'd use a sander.
Self-cleaning oven and lye-based oven cleaner would take care of it but they will also remove the seasoning.
You could try stove cleaner. You definitely have to season it after you got it clean
Why?
I used a pressure washer on mine. Worked pretty good and no scrubbing
Electrolysis
Get some Easy-Off oven cleaner (the yellow cap). Wear eye protection and gloves. Spray it on all surfaces and put it inside a plastic trash bag. Let it sit, preferably outside in the sun, for a few days. Wearing dish-washing gloves, check the progress. You may need a bit of additional light scrubbing, if needed, and put it back in the bag for another day or two. Wash your pan throughly. You now have it down to bare iron. So, you'll need to re-season it. Once that's done, it will look brand-new.
Leave it. It's already perfect
Brass wire bristle brush drill bit. Knock it back to the bare iron and reseason. You can do just the bottom and preserve your cooking surface if you’re happy with it. I noticed some people suggesting cleaning sprays (like oven cleaner). I would strongly caution against this. The porous nature of iron will allow for chemical products to soak into the metal and you will be eating those chemicals.
Paint stripper
Honest question, but how does a crust build up on the bottom? Is this from using it on an outdoor grill?
Good question. I guess a mix of uneven coating on the bottom plus whatever is not cleaned off properly after each usage and baked in further by cooking with it again. I always clean my pans after each use but haven’t really taken extra care of the bottom. I have another cast iron that looks like new on the bottom and another carbon steel pan also has a bit of a crust build up. Welp.
LoL. I read through the comments and a lot of people say they have similar looking pans. I guess it happens - probably because it's well used and well loved. :-)
Look, it may be blasphemous to some here, but easy-off oven cleaner won't hurt the bottom side and a good scrub and rinse then a thin coat of oil - good as ever.
I'm treating a particularly nasty 12" pan in my electrolysis setup with a lye solution. The thick bottom crust just sloughed off with a nudge of the nylon scrub brush.
I did the oven cleaner bath in a trash bag for mine. You can also start a really good fire on a BBQ or pit and burn it off overnight.
Use a shallow lye bath to only soak the bottom. Don't ever use power tools.
That's not crust. That's character.
I just soak it in lye and re season it. Plus I try to keep them clean inside and out.
Easy Off (yellow can) has lye in it that a good soaking on it-maybe a couple times-will dissolve a lot of that. Just use it outside and put into a plastic garbage bag.
Self cleaning oven will fix it
Try FAQ.
My grandparents said that kind of build up made for uneven heating, so it's good to get it off. Because you want to preserve the inner seasoning, I suggest you get some spray on oven cleaner like Easy-Off. Put the pan in a garbage bag, spray the cleaner on the crusty areas, really slathering them down. tie it off and put it out in the sun for a few hours then check your progress. It might take a while to get it softened up, but I think it will work.
99.9% chance they will damage the seasoning on the inside of the pan if they do this. Those fumes also contain those chemicals and they will get to the inside of the pan.
Lye tank…if you don’t want to redo the cooking surface, fill the tank up with 2ish inches of water then put the lye in based on how much water it took. Let the pan sit in it so the outside gets coated but not the inside. You could do oven cleaner, but it’d prob take a bunch of coatings and you risk more overspray. Could also take some tape and cover the inside with aluminum foil, then tape it around the top edge so it stays in place
If you hate it I’d say wire brush, then season it again, but if you can live with it, let it ride.
That's character. You should leave it
Physical violence basically.
That buildup is how I know if I'm using a pan enough. Like military rank, the more stripes you have the more senior you are. Seriously though, it's purely cosmetic and if you don't care neither does the pan. Edit to add an actual answer to the question: get something metal and give it a good scraping. Metal putty knife or spatula is good.
Personally I don't bother making the outside perfect. You ain't cooking on that part anyways. The only thing that matters is that it don't rust.
Heat. Put that thing in an outdoor grill and crank it to 500° for an hour, or put it in the oven and run the "Clean" mode. It'll incinerate all of that scut build-up (it's just carbon build-up) into a fine powder you can wipe away. You'll have to re-season, of course, but it's the surefire non-chemical method.
I inherited a pan that looked like that and a self clean cycle turned it all to ash. Some soap and water, then a coat of canola oil and it was good as new.
I don’t know why this was downvoted. You explained it perfectly. This is the proper way. And easiest way. From a metallurgic point of view.
Don't know why this was down-voted. We've done this to at least a half dozen pieces over the years, and it works great.