Let Papa Fix It

There was an episode of Duck Commander where Jase found a Nutria along the road, roadkilt. Apparently Louisiana will pay for proof of dead Nutrias. You simply have to present the tail as evidence. So he cut it off and brought it it. Needless to say, it was ripe. But he said “I’m not to proud enough to leave $5 lying on the side of the road.

Well look what I found on the road whilst walking the dogs:

That’s a Lodge 12″ cast iron pan. About $25-$30 on Amazon. I’m not too proud to leave that kind of dough in the side of the road. I only have one of these in this size, and I use it for nearly everything.

I’ve refurbed cast iron before. But I thought I’d look at some youtubes to see how others do it. Man, what a mess. Most use a vinegar/water mix to eat the rust. Some spray, some soak. Then, to remove what seasoning is left, they use oven cleaner and a trash bag, which causes a gawd-awful mess. The way some of these experts carry on, you’d think they were restoring porcelain.

It’s cast iron. You don’t have to be delicate. The best way, bar-none to remove seasoning is to load up a BBQ grill with charcoal. Get it hot. Load a bunch into the pan, set it on the rest of the coals, shut the lid, and leave it for the night. It’ll smoke like hell for a bit. In the morning, there’ll be a pan that looks like it came out of the factory sitting in the ashes. I think I got that from Cowboy Kent Rollins on YouTube.

My go-to rust removal method is a wire wheel, followed by sandpaper and SOS. But I decided to use the vinegar and water spray, and scrub it every 5-10 minutes. This is when I was a few scrubs in:

At the end of this, a scrub with SOS:

Then I got serious. 80 grit sandpaper in a mouse sander. I hit it hard. Why? Because the surface was pitted a bit, but Lodge is also very rough right from the factry. Then I followed up with 60 grit hand sanding.

Then it was time to season it. Again, I’ve read and seen a ton of different ways to do this. I got caught up with Cooks Illustrated where they used Flaxseed oil. Then I tried Grapeseed. Both were roads to perdition. I’ve ruined a few pans that way and had to start over.

Thing is, I knew better. 450 degree oven, coat the thing in Crisco, and go to it. You have to get the pan higher than the oil smoke point, and those two oils smoke point is pretty high. I went back to what I knew.

So after three hours, coating every 1/2 hour for the first two: