PBW as a cast iron cleaner?

[DavetheDog]

Has anyone use PBW to clean seasoned cast iron?

I pulled out my seasoned iron grills from the grill today to find that they has rusted over the winter. Yeah, I know, I shouldn't have left them out in the first place; but here I am.

PBW is such a fantastic cleaner, I am thinking of filling the sink with some PBW and hot water and letting the grills soak overnight and come back for a light and easy scrubbing the next day. After which, I will season properly and smoke some ribs to go with this IPA that just hit the ready mark.

Thanks for the input.

 

[zachattack]

Hmm. I don't know if it would work, I think iron can hold up OK to some caustics though. But to be honest I'd just try some steel wool and a little muscle, though I like to keep it simple with my iron skillets. I stored mine in my parents' basement for a year one time and they got some rust on them. Only took a couple minutes with a brillo pad and they were back to normal after seasoning.

 

[DavetheDog]

Yeah, your probably right. I'll just have to crack a beer open and get to work. I'll be stopping by to pick up some steel wool tomorrow. For whatever reason, I just wanted all the grime to just fall off like it does in a dirty carboy.

 

[zachattack]

After some quick googling, it looks like people actually use lye to clean their iron skillets. So I guess caustics work great. I'd try the PBW or just a blast of oven cleaner, let it sit overnight and report back.

 

[DavetheDog]

After some quick googling, it looks like people actually use lye to clean their iron skillets. So I guess caustics work great. I'd try the PBW or just a blast of oven cleaner, let it sit overnight and report back.

Thanks for the research. I've read a few people use kosher salt but I'm thinking I will need much more than that. I'm going to go the PBW route and some good ol' scrubbing with the steel wool. I'm feeling good about it and will let you know how it goes.

 

[CoalCracker]

Kosher salt works with baked on stuff. If you have rust, take it down with steel wool and re season that bad boy. I received a bunch of cast iron as a gift this xmas and LOVE it. My grandmother then gave me a skillet that was her mom's. This thing is probably 100 years old. Just cleaned it up and reseasoned that.

 

[DavetheDog]

Kosher salt works with baked on stuff. If you have rust, take it down with steel wool and re season that bad boy. I received a bunch of cast iron as a gift this xmas and LOVE it. My grandmother then gave me a skillet that was her mom's. This thing is probably 100 years old. Just cleaned it up and reseasoned that.

So is steel wool enough to take care of the rust? Needless to say, I don't have a lot of experience removing rust from iron. I'm thinking at this point, I give it a good scrub with some kosher salt and follow it up with some elbow grease and steel wool. After thinking about the PBW method overnight, and reading a little more, I think it may be overkill.

I'll assume, I should stick with the steel wool that does not have any cleaner in it?

 

[LBussy]

Oven cleaner, the classic kind, is lye based. I have used this to "rescue" cast iron cookware found at garage sales. Works great.

 

[MidTNJasonF]

I just take any old nasty cast iron I find at garage sales to a shop with a bead blaster. Blast them clean, wash them down, dry them off, and re-season. Good as new!