So, I had several pieces of cast iron cookware which definitely needed repairing, as they had been put through the ringer. Unfortunately food was left in them, and they had rusted out. I forgot about the pots and pans for a long time, months in fact because I had a lot going on and the situation only got worse.
As you can see, it wasn't going to be an easy task.
So, what you'll need for this is, steel wool, coarse salt, dish soap, and a potato. Oh, and some kind of oil. I recommend peanut oil or coconut oil. Though soybean oil, vegetable oil, animal fat, butter or anything of the sort will work.
I am going to make the dutch oven the focus of this article, to simplify things. First, I filled the sink with water and added the dish soap. The hotter the better. I let it sit there for about an hour before getting in there with the steel wool and really scrubbing the sides HARD. When I mean hard, I mean like you should be sweating. Pretend you're blacksmithing if it helps. lol.
I spent about 20-30 minutes scrubbing hard here before rinsing it. After rinsing, I poured in the salt for the next part.
Which is scrubbing the shit out of the pot again, but this time with a potato. You cut a potato in half and just start scrubbing against the salt, so the salt rubs against the metal. I did this for another 20-30 minutes before pouring in hot water and boiling for about 20 minutes.
Now, a lot of people might stop there, but I didn't. I wasn't happy with how it came out. Usually, this is way more than enough to rejuvenate a cast iron, but mine was a severe case.
So, I did the entire process again(the next photo is after another round).
At this point, I dried the dutch oven completely by placing it on a burner and letting the water evaporate. Then I used a rag to spread peanut oil over the pot entirely. After that, I dropped it into the oven at 400 degrees for an hour before calling it a night. (My oven shuts off after and I let it cool in the oven)
The next morning, I woke up to this, but I was still not happy.
I did the entire process yet again! Who said this wasn't a fun project? The following pics are after another whack at it.
Finally, after hours of hard work and dedication, it was finally ready to cook on, so we tried a new recipe. It turned out amazing, and the cast iron did its job. We substituted sweet potato with carrots because that's what we had, but either way, the job was finally complete.
The result?
I felt like a viking or something eating this.
The moral of the story here, reseasoning cast iron is not easy, so try not to let them fall into disrepair in the first place. =/
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