video:
CHOW Tip
How to Deal with Rusty Cast Iron
Harry Rosenblum, co-owner of the Brooklyn Kitchen, says that rusty cast iron is easy to fix. Simply scrub the rust off with a Brillo Pad or sandpaper, wash the pan clean and dry it, cover it in a thin coat of oil, and bake it in an oven at 275 degrees Fahrenheit for an hour. Then turn the oven off, leaving the pan inside to cool slowly. This is a great tip to keep in mind when shopping at flea markets—old cast iron can be made good as new!
Great tip. Exactly my method that has saved about 20 cast iron pans that my friends and family asked me to rescue over the years.
Great start, let me add few other tips. Don't sand to a polish, you need the rough surface for the oil to stick. Turn pan or pot upside down in oven so the oil won't pool on the inside. The glazed finish you see on a nonstick cast iron pan is carbon, so you must burn the oil on. No smoke, no burning, turn your oven heat up to 450 F degrees for about 4 hours, turn oven off, cool in oven. May need do this 2 or 3 times. Another tip, turn smoke alarms off and open the windows, or better yet, use your bar-b-que grill. And please treat your pan or pot as if it is teflon coated, no metal knifes, spoons, or metal cleaning pads, or you will need to do the above all over again.
My problem is with a cast iron cornstick mold. Since there is a
pattern and depressions, I can't seem to find a method that will removed the rust in the depressions. Anyone have an idea with a
home remedy?
fcpjap60 you could try something along these lines http://www.eastwood.com/catalog/produ...
but I don't know what kinds of chemicals are in there so you will want to scrub it well afterwards, my other thought would be to look for an autobody shop or a machine shop that has a sandblaster
One thing that I've done with rusty cast iron is to put it in a wood fire and let it sit from start to finish, until the embers are pretty much done. The cast iron will glow. I've heard that people do this when cast iron has been flood damaged, but I don't see how that would be different from it just being rusty. They say it's to kill bacteria, but once again, why different.....
Regardless, the rust seems to just dust off after it comes out of the fire, solving your problem with little cornered areas.
if that does not work just put it on the self cleaning mode in your stove and then reseason it. The wood fire part works pretty good for me
white vinegar-I always remove rust with it because it is acidic enough to take off the rust and is obviously non-toxic