My Grandmother's Cast Iron Pan

Over a year ago, my grandmother passed on to me her cast iron pan. She received it from a friend more than 20 years ago and used it mostly to make amazing fried fish. She wasn't using it recently because of her new flat-top stove. I too have a flat-top stove, but was excited to start using the pan in the oven and maybe on the grill.

I knew that cast iron pans last forever and have a habit of making meals taste great. I was also excited to have a special pan, one that would always make me think of my grandmother.

First, I had to do some research on cast iron.

It turns out that cast iron pans have been made for more than 100 years. During the early 1900s thousands of foundaries across the country produced pans and skillets that are still in use today. With the right seasoning (or preparation with thin coats of baked on oil), the pans are naturally non-stick. They also release a small amount of iron into each meal. Everyone needs a little more iron, right?

Cleaning
During normal use, a cast iron pan should be cleaned with hot water and a cloth. Soap will remove the natural non-stick coating.

The inside of my pan was in great shape, but I knew the outside needed some serious cleaning. The bottom of the pan had a thick coat of baked-on grease. I found these cleaning tips online and tried all of them:

Use half of a potato to scrub pan with grainy salt.
Scrub with steel scrubber.
Scrape with steel spatula.
Pour boiling water over pan and scrub.

Some people online recommend firing the pan in a 400-degree oven or throwing it into a fireplace, but I was too worried the pan might crack from the heat. So I kept up with the ideas above until it looked like this:

And then Jason got out the Dremmel.

With a little power, he blasted off all of the junk and handed over a clean pan.

Seasoning
Now that the pan was cleaned, it was time to reseason. Here's how:

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Coat entire pan (inside and out) with a thin layer of vegetable oil.
3. Place in oven on top of a sheet of foil.
4. Bake for one hour.
5. Turn off oven and leave pan inside shut oven for another hour.
6. Remove with a pot holder and let cool completely.

I repeated this process twice to improve the coating. It's a little blotchy still, but with further use, the non-stick qualities will improve. It still cleans very easily after a meal with just water and a little gentle scrubbing.

Here's what it looks like now:

So far I've only baked chicken in the pan, but it's literally the best chicken I've ever made.

Next recipe? Corn bread!