If I pick up an estate pan I spray on oven cleaner and put it in a plastic bag, seal the bag, and leave for at least a day. Use rubber kitchen gloves when cleaning the pan. Takes a century of crud off. I don't like the fire or oven heat method because you can warp the pan. I know lots of people use it, but I would not season a pan in the oven at 350° If you use the oven cleaner, BE CAREFUL. It is lye and will burn, or remove your skin. I have a scar on my wrist where a drop dripped a couple of years ago. Didn't feel it till it had burned well into the skin.
throw them on a high direct element. lay them on an air insulated cleaning oven? once had one crack apart on direct heating element. self clean max maybe 900*. good stuff should survive. wood stove cast regular exposure to inside @ what600-900-by the time it get's to the thermometer. 0% harsh chemicals. sorry didn't read every post here, have had really good results in double cleaning oven and cast.
What happens Doug with a pan vs stove is the cooling times. The stove will cool much slower and also it's basicly a box instead of a flat bowl . Anyway, the oven cleaner does a nice job and can be washed off well.
A bit of caution (and common sense) comes into play with the "fire method". Think about it though, how did the pioneers treat cast cookware? It certainly wasnt revered or treated delicately. It got scraped out, maybe occasionally rinsed in the creek, and hung on the back of the wagon. It ain't exactly delicate. The self clean oven trick seems to claim more than a few. A roaring hot fire or white hot coals is way more heat than we need to simply burn off the funk.
I wasn't implying anyone was wrong, And I've also seen it done. Your right that they're not a delicate thing, I was mearly implying that they can get ruined in that manor, If your not careful with a gas stove you can really jack one up… I've witnessed it first hand. They do take abuse, very true. I'm very cautious with mine I guess because I want to pass them along someday and I use mine nearly every day.
As in stove..? The're fine, and My stove is electric. I never need to use a pan on a high setting. I generally cook on medium and very rarely go to med/high or high. When I was talking about a gas stove, I basically ment over heating them or leaving them on the burner too long on a high flame. Over the years of expansion and contraction, If it is used on high heat a lot, micro cracking and other small cracks can occur. I have a pan now that was used in a local restaurant that was cooked on for probably 50 years with gas and the bottom is warped from the constant heating and cooling, It happens.
I'm pretty sure my old valuable wagerer was warped by my uncle who had a gas stove. I can't say for certain, but where its warped sure lines up with the rings on a gas stovetop.....
Wow, some of you guys treat your CI pans like a fragile piece of china. These things are 100 years old and abused, I throw mine in a bonfire, then get it out the next day and season with lard in the oven at 350. I also will wash with soap if needed, the key is not letting it soak. I use a harbor freight dutch oven for the base of my waste oil stove and have had it glowing red for hours on end, going on 6 years old, no cracks. The only CI cookware I've seen damaged is a pan that fell on the floor and cracked the handle.
TC, your right! and a close thought on this is like motor oil.... No two people will "EVER" agree on what is the best oil for your car or truck I think the thought here is, if you collect pans, "as I do" and I have some daily drivers also, I have and know of some pans that have been damaged due to some various ways of cleaning. Again, I'm not saying anyone is wrong, but I have welded up pans that were over heated, quench cooled, dropped etc. It's like anything, if you take care of it it'll last. If a person has pans that are 100 years old, nobody really knows how those pans were taken care of. I just recently came across a pan that "would" have been worth about $100 to a collector, but it's scrap metal because it had been over heated over a fire and cracked in four different directions in the bottom, It was sad.
Dave, you realy have a handle on how to take good care of those cast iron pans! I'm impressed. I've got one of those new induction cooker appliances that I am anxious to try with cast iron. You can get a fine control of the heat with theses.
If someone flashes a $100 bill for one of mine, consider it sold. I need not be cooking in something that someone would pay me $100 for!
Bought a gun to hunt rabbits with once. Luckily my gunsmith buddy told me what it was worth. I might be worse than a dog about going through briars and stuff. Just shows you never know what somethings worth.
Cast iron can certainly crack under high heat, hot spot and so on. How many cast iron wood stoves crack? A lot more that steel stoves I'll bet. Although durable, cast iron does require a certain amount of care.
Thanks but I'm by far an expert, what I have done is over the years, read and listened to people who have collected and cooked with them for years and just followed their advise. I do have a collectors guide on cast pans and have quite a few of nice pieces. Most are stuffed in the closet and "someday" I'm gonna build a rack for them. I pick up a piece now and then, mostly at the flea markets or yard/garage sales. I have bought a few on e-bay and I just scored a griddle I've been looking for. I got a pan now I'm going to "try" and salvage because the bottom is warped like a baby moon hub cap. It's a shame, It's a Wagner ware # 8 about 60 or 70 years old. It's fixable but I just have to be delicate with it, and it can never be a collectors pan because it has been fixed. But a GREAT cooking pan.
