Cleaning a cast-iron skillet

Is the inside (the cooking surface) blackened or is the outside blackened?

Apparently Cousances existed before Le Creuset, and LC has acquired them. According to the article at the link, Cousances is highly regarded, especially the ones made prior to the acquisition by LC. Also according to the article, the base was un-enameled. Is that the area which appears blackened?

Here is a link that might be useful: cousances

I'd give Easy-Off oven cleaner a try. Coat it, slip into a plastic bag & let sit overnight.

Be careful. Some Cousances had a black enamel interior like Staub currently does. I have an old Cousances loaf pan that looks like it's cast iron but it's actually matte black vitreous enamel over cast iron.

They made some wonderful old stuff before Le Creuset bought them out.

Carol

Posted by ci_lantro "I'd give Easy-Off oven cleaner a try. Coat it, slip into a plastic bag & let sit overnight."

After that, put the skillet with the Easy-Off in the plastic bag into a tub of boil-hot water. High temperature will make the chemicals in Easy-Off a lot stronger.

After that, wash off everything. You may have to use a brass wool pad to scrape off remaining stubborn aged crud.

After that, soak the skillet in diluted bleach to get rid of discoloration./food stain.

dcarch

I'd a never thunk of taking that xtra step, Dcarch. Now, if only I can remember that trick for the next time I could use it!!!

Jasdip, have you made any progress cleaning that skillet? Sure looks like a quality piece worth the effort!

I haven't gotten around to getting any easy-off yet. Would a generic brand work as well, or is Easy off the strongest one?

I did clean the inside with a bunch of salt and baking soda and it came up better.

I was thinking of plopping it on the barbecue, next time my neighbour fires his up. What do you think??

jasdip, I don't think the barbeque will work, although it also shouldn't hurt. Burning off residue from something like grill grates is different than an enameled surface, but you could give it a try.

Elery bought a red Le Crueset from eBay and used Easy Off to clean it up, it worked pretty well. It's a pan that I don't particularly care for, so I don't mess with it, I leave it at his house and he is welcome to it. He doesn't use it much either, it's too small and not deep enough.

I don't care how pretty a pan is, it also has to work for me or I don't use it.

Annie

If you put Easy Off on a hot surface or a bag with a pan covered in it into boiling hot water, it will off-gas a lot of dangerous and choking fumes. Set it do it's work at room temperature for a longer time.
And don't ever EVER use a brass scrubbing pad on an enamel coated pan.
It should clean up well with an oven cleaner....even if the inside is matte coated enamel on the inside.
It's a great pan and will be even better when it's cleaned a bit.
Linda C

Good advice. I assume we all know that you should use rubber gloves and avoid breathing in the fume. There should not be any problem to put the whole thing in hot water since the entire thing is in a plastic bag.
Over a period of time, some food stuff on the skillet will be burnt, and stick on the skillet. Some will become carbon. As I remember, Carbon is an extremely stable substance. I am not sure anything can dissolve carbon, certainly not Easy-Off (sodium hydroxide). The carbon can only be mechanically removed.

Enamel coating is not enamel; it is actually porcelain, which is basically glass. I am not sure why soft brass wool cannot be used to remove this carbon.

dcarch

Oven cleaner will take an ancient and filthy frypan back to raw cast iron, and will remove the carbonized coating from the bottom of an enameled skillet.

Oh! Well, I don't want the enamel to be removed.
Sounds like I should just pass it on to someone else.

Posted by jasdip "Oh! Well, I don't want the enamel to be removed. -----"

No, Easy-Off cannot remove enamel to raw cast iron. It cannot remove (pure) carbon either. I am not sure what chemicals can dissolve carbon.

Hydrofluoric acid will damage glass, porcelain (enamel), but not sodium hydroxide.

Heat will help sodium hydroxide's actions, that's why Draino (sodium hydroxide) add aluminum grains to generate heat when you add water.

dcarch

I think she meant you'll take off the black, not the red. I highly doubt oven cleaner would hurt it, but I also doubt it'll clean it. My vote is elbow grease and a mild abbrasive like BKF.

Worst case this thing ends up at the landfill. That's where it was headed anyway. At least you'll be able to say you tried.

I'm supposing that the material on the skillet is very similar to the material on the interior surface of an oven--both some kind of glassified material--so I don't see the Easy Off being able to harm it.

As far as boiling the whole biz in a plastic bag--I'd assume the use of a good cooking exhaust and good sense enough to turn it on. Otherwise, do it outdoors on the turkey fryer or grill.

Actually, you could boil the water on the stove & take the pot of hot water outdoors before submerging the plastic wrapped skillet for a hot water soak.

A Cousances skillet will be a collector's item. I would clean it and restore it.

After the cleaning, you may find many scratches. You can buy inexpensive diamond polish pads on eBay to give the enamel a mirror shine.

dcarch

The fumes from oven cleaner can be dangerous to birds or other pets, so please be careful.

I'm going to try it as advised, and use the laundry tub for the hot water soaking. The laundry room in our building has an exterior door, so I'll do everything out there with the door open.

jasdip, I believe your final approach should be fine, but if it were me, I would compromise by just using easy off or any other brand, on the cold (or warm to start)pan, put into a bag for several days, perhaps out in the sun.

I used easy off overnight on my stove grates with great success.

After giving and reading all this advise, I just realized that I also have an old Le Crueset pot with glazed on crud that may clean up, so I will have to get some oven cleaner and go after it too.

Chas045, I like your idea too!!!
Weather permitting, I'll do it this weekend.....either in the laundry room with the door open or outside. Rain is predicted, but we all know how accurate that could be!!!

My point about out in the sun was that the closed bag will warm up the pot and help the reaction along and also vent the nasties outside.

As it happens, I put my pot out yesterday afternoon. I had planned to remove the handle and screw from the lid but I forgot until a few minutes ago when I saw your post. I was afraid that the handle and screw might be damaged, so I took the lid out of the sunning bag and washed it off. I could see that some internal crud was oozing down the pot, so cleaning was happening.

Upon lid examination, the black crud (much less than your bottom) came right off with an easy rub with a green scrub sponge. The handle and screw didn't seem to be damaged. Some dingy crud on the bumpy white inner surface came off with more scrubbing. I plan to leave the pot out for another day.

From this, I would expect that your black crud will come off completely and easily. I hope that we will have success with the more critical inner surfaces. Time will tell.

Mine is a small 7 inch pot. The inner surface appeared scorched or cracked. I was only using it to bake the no knead breads and the surface was of no concern. I got it for $7 at a thrift store. If it turns out just to be crud that can be removed, I will have a nice deal. Otherwise we will have learned more about cleaning them. Good luck.

Well I cleaned it up after the sun went down and like I expected, all of the outside black crud came right off. Most of the inside brownish coating also came off down to an off white color with some scorch marks and unfortunately one small pock mark that goes through the coating; so I guess I have a beautifully brand new looking pot from the outside that is mainly good for no knead breads. Anyway, the total time was one full day in the sun.

Chas, did you use the Easy-Off brand, or a store brand?

Just an idea:

You can use drain cleaner type of liquid, such as "Liquid Plumber".

Same stuff, much cheaper.

dcarch

Disclaimer: I am not the owner of Liquid Plumber. :-)

I just came home from checking out a couple of yard sales.
(Picked up a Hamilton Beach tabletop roaster for $10....new in box, styrofoam and plastic wrap all intact).

Stopped at the grocery store and got their store-brand oven cleaner for $1.99. Cheap enough, as long as it works. Can do it a couple of times, anyway, if need be.

Rainy now, so may wait till a sunny day as Chas did.

I'm sure that the store brand will be fine. I actually used 'easy off' brand because that is what the store had. The spray can is more convenient than the liquid, although I suppose you could paint liquid on with a brush.

I probably should have mentioned before: these sprays can be dangerous although the sodium or potassium hydroxide concentrations are lower than one might use in a lab. I was a chemist for many years. The problem IS the spray. Getting any in ones eyes could be a problem. Bases (the hydroxides above) don't wash out as easily as acids do. They also stay on the skin, but damage is slow. Personally, I don't even wear gloves because I am planning on rushing to the sink for a preliminary hand wash and perhaps follow with a dilute vinager rinse or a disolved baking soda rinse that also works because it is much less basic or caustic than the cleaner.

Do they still sell Lewis' Lye? That also would take the black stuff. I have used it as paint stripper when faced with many many coats of paint.....and kept a spray bottle of vinegar close by.....and a running hose!!
But spray on oven cleaner is by far the easiest....and since it's foaming and stays where you spray it, likely the safest too......and I'll bet it would work as lye does as a paint stripper too.
Glad it worked for you....I've done it many times with grill grates and garage sale iron fry pans and even an enamel roaster once.
Linda C