Step 3: Dry out your pan on the hot stovetop. That should be enough to dissolve the food and make it easier to scrub off with your spatula. Step 2: If you've got some really stuck on food, heat up the pan, pour some salt on the food and add a teaspoon of water to the pan.
Always use HOT water, otherwise you run the risk of cracking your skillet. Step 1: Take your HOT skillet and rinse it under HOT water, scrapping away any stuck on food with a spatula or wooden spoon.
How to Clean and Season Your Cast Iron Skillet It should be glossy black now and rust free! Dump out the salt and wipe any excess oil from the pan. The salt will be picking up any left over rust particles, while the oil coats your clean pan. Step 4: If the pan looks rust free, perform Step 2 again, except you will be adding a nice dollop of oil to the warm pan - we used Primal Kitchen's Avocado Oil- but you can use any vegetable oil or lard. This is basically the reversal of how the rust came to be, remember when water and oxygen made rust?
Citric acid, plus rust, makes water and hydrogen. The reason soda and vinegar can remove rust is because it is very high in citric acid. Step 3: If there is still some deep rust, pour a generous amount of baking soda and white vinegar into the pan. Once the salt is pinkish brown, dump it into the sink and rinse the skillet with hot water, and dry again on the hot stovetop. Grab a piece of cloth, or a piece of leather, and scrub the salt in. The salt picks up any extra rust that you've scrubbed off with the steel sponge/brush. Step 2: Carefully remove the pan from the stovetop (remember the handle may be hot.) Sprinkle a generous amount of course sea salt in the pan - we used Redmond's Real Salt. If there is still a noticeable amount of rust, scrub some more, rinse, and dry on the hot stovetop again. Rinse with hot water and place on the hot stovetop till the water evaporates.
Step 1: Grab a steel sponge or a steel wire brush and start scrubbing like mad, getting every crack and crevasse of your skillet. (Don't freak out, water IS involved, just roll with it.) Here is the step by step on how we restored our rusty cast iron skillet. This is why seasoning your pan with oil will keep it beautiful and functional for a very long time. A layer of oil prevents the oxygen in the air from meeting up with the water on your pan, thus inhibiting rust to form. We already know that water and oil don't mix.(Read below on how to clean and season your pan properly) You did not "season" or oil your pan properly. In order for the oxygen to get to the iron, it needs to pass through water first. Rusting is the chemical breakdown of metal iron.You soaked your pan in water or put it in the dishwasher. You would have to eat a significant amount of weight in rust to do yourself real harm.)īut before we get to fixing your fine piece of cookware, let's discuss a few possible reasons why you got rust in the first place.ġ. (Note: Ingesting small doses of rust will not harm you. Not only is it ugly, the food you cook in a rusty skillet won't taste very good I'm sure. You are here to save your cast iron skillet from the kiss of death - rust. Plug the sink and spray it with white vinegar.How To Clean Rust Off Your Cast Iron Skillet.Rub the paste into the rusted areas with the pumice scouring stick until they are removed.Rub it in a back and forth motion over the rust stains on the porcelain sink.
(Even rust in drinking water isn't considered a health hazard.) Experts at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign agree that a little bit of rust on cookware isn't likely to harm you. If your rusty cookware happens to be made of cast iron, most culinary authorities say it's completely salvageable. The vinegar will dissolve the rust, but once that's gone, the vinegar will go to town on the original cast surface of the pan.Īlso Know, is rust on cast iron dangerous? Use a bucket or plug the sink for really big pans the entire skillet should be covered with the vinegar mixture. Mix 1 part bleach with 10 parts water in a bucket.Īlso Know, does vinegar remove rust from cast iron? Mix basic white vinegar with water in equal parts and submerge your pan in it.Pour white vinegar into a spray bottle, filling it halfway.Brush the loosened rust particles aside with a rag as you work so you can inspect the areas. Sand the rusted areas in the cast-iron sink gently with a 000-grade sandpaper three to four times.How to Clean a Cast-Iron Sink With Rust and Chips People also ask, how do you remove rust from a cast iron sink? Scrub with bristle brush, gentle scouring pad, or mesh sponge if needed. Wash the skillet thoroughly: Wash the cast iron with warm water and mild dish soap. Scour the skillet until the area returns to raw cast iron. Remove all the rust: Use fine steel wool to remove rust from affected areas.