Cast iron pans are a thing of the past in the age of Teflon dishes for soup and other dishes. Now they can not be found in every apartment, and they are rarely used. But cooking in them is a pleasure. Especially – to fry potatoes and meat. Long-term soot is almost a business card of cast iron dishes. It’s not hard to get it dirty , but here’s how to clean a cast iron pan of years of soot to see how clean it can be.
Why does soot quickly appear on a cast-iron frying pan? Because cast iron is porous, and embers stick to it. Black plaque can be cleaned only with strong means, and they are not chemical. The fact is that cast iron, strangely enough, a delicate metal, is an alloy of iron and carbon. Therefore, by pouring chemicals into such dishes, you can permanently spoil it.
Clean with salt
No, it’s not just frying salt on a pan. There are nuances. We will need coarsely ground salt and vegetable oil (housewives recommend better to use goose fat, which helps to remove soot at once). Procedure:
- The pan should be thoroughly washed in hot water using any store-bought dishwashing detergent, then rinsed with cold water to completely remove all traces of grease, and dried.
- Turn on the stove and heat an empty frying pan over low heat as if you were going to fry meat on it.
- Pour coarsely ground non-iodized table salt, about 2 cm high and not lower than 0.5 cm, to the edges of the pan.
- It is not necessary to increase the heat under the pan – it is enough for the salt crystals to heat up evenly. Salt has the ability to penetrate the pores of the metal, so it cleans the long-term soot. Fry the pan for about 20 minutes.
- Pour salt.
- Pour vegetable oil into the pan to heat it up. This is necessary so that the fat absorbs the remaining salt, and the cauldron is completely cleaned of soot. The oil will additionally create a protective layer on the inner surface of the cast iron pan, like Teflon.
After finishing the actions, simply wash the pan, then use it as usual.
Clean with soda
Many years of soot on the inside of a cast-iron pan can be easily removed with ordinary baking soda. The effectiveness of the method in your case can be checked during cooking. If you cook on high heat or simmer vegetables or meat on slow mode, the browning will give a taste. This means that it undergoes a chemical reaction. Soda will help here.
The first method . Pour a mixture of baking soda and salt into a cold pan. Proportions – 50 by 50. Fry on medium heat for 3 hours. Use a sponge to clean the soot, which will simply fall off without friction. You can heat the sand in the same way (it is convenient for traveling).
The second way . Heat water in a pan and pour in half a pack of soda (about 100 g), boil for half an hour on medium heat. The scale will not pass after the procedure. After boiling with soda, the fire is easy to clean with a metal brush for dishes.
Polyethylene bag with vinegar
The method for lazy people is a minimum of energy and time costs. Pour 5-10 cm of table vinegar (6-9% concentration) into a cast-iron pan and add warm water to the edges. Put the container in a plastic bag and twist its tip so that air does not get inside. After half an hour, all that remains is to rinse the pan with cool water.
As a conclusion
It is normal for cast iron to be black. If you endlessly wash black cast iron until it is white, it will not lead to good. To become a good hostess, you need to fry and stew in a black cast-iron dish, and hide it, unattractive, away from the eyes of guests. Advice for the completely lazy – use a gas or electric oven for storage. And then no one will know that the pans need to be cleaned.
It’s another matter if rust has appeared on the cast-iron pan – it must be cleaned, and how to do it, read this article .
Cast iron dishes can be cleaned only with soda, salt, vinegar and sand. And then all the dishes will be – like in resorts with Caucasian, Japanese, Central American and Chinese cuisine.