How to clean plastic residue out of cast iron

S

Shann

Joined
Sep 2, 2004
Messages
5,250
My Mom, who is not 100% blind, but mostly, cooked some chicken in her old cast iron skillet. Unfortunately, she did not see the plastic wrapping on the bottom of the chicken until it had melted down.

She scrubbed with an SOS pad and got most of it off but not all. My ideas are to put it in my gas grill for an hour or so on high heat and\or use an electric orbital sander to grind off the plastic residue.

Either way, it has to be re-seasoned, so that doesn't matter. I don't want to ruin it though, it is probably about as old as she is (82). I've heard very high heat can warp but my grill gets up to about 800 at most. Probably kind of like a self cleaning oven but I don't have to worry about fumes inside.
 
I'd go for a powered bronze brush. The problem would be that plastics get weird at high temps, and you might not be removing it all with just the grill. I'd hit with the abrasives. Might even try a pressure washer if one was available.
The bigger thought would be what the current finish is, and what grit would keep it that way.
 
A little alcohol (HEET) burning might eliminate the plastic (outdoors of course). Then I would use abrasives and scrub it real good. Season afterwards.

Kinda reminds me of not seeing the card board on the base of a frozen pizza before tossing it in the oven.
 
Just put it on the grill for a hour or so. Whatevers on there will turn to carbon and you can easily remove it.
 
I think I would do it upside down so it tends to drop out instead of seep into the pores.

I heard about a guy yesterday on the radio. He surprised his wife with a new stove. He had the old one hauled away. Trouble is his wife’s heirloom cast iron pans were in the storage drawer underneath.

I don’t think he could ever make up for that.
 
I put it upside down in our firepit and had decent but not roaring fire. Next morning I cleaned it off and did some sanding. I started with a wire wheel and power sander but I didn't like the way it was going so I just hand sanded the bottom and sides. Then a good soapy scrub to get all the soot off of it. I then put it on the stove and warmed it up and put a little vegetable oil on it and wiped it down inside and out.

Later I put some more oil on it and put it in my grill (upside down) at about 400 for an hour. Unfortunately, I ended up with a sticky coating probably too much oil. So I scrubbed it with hot water and coarse salt with a pad, put it back on the stove and very lightly put in a bit of oil. It came our really good. Then I made a couple meals with it using bacon grease as the oil and it worked great. Thanks for all the tips.

My mother is very pleased.
 
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