How often do you run your oven self-cleaning cycle? Subtitle: cast iron cleaning and seasoning

I can't remember the last time we did it, but I bought a slightly crudded up Griswold frying pan at a house sale, and after much research, decided I preferred the self-cleaning-oven method for stripping the seasoning over the lye-based methods.

I'm running the cycle now, and grateful that it's not too smoky, but it sure stinks around here, even with the fan going at full bore and the back door open slightly.

Our oven was definitely dirty, but not a disaster. Is it less off-putting if you do it on a more frequent basis?

Never. Was told it speeds up the demise of the ignitor by the guy replacing the ignitor...

So I use easy off on a day I can open the windows.  

Annually as part of Passover cleaning

About once every two-three months.  Electric oven, though, so no ignitor.

Easy-Off was one of the lye-based methods for cleaning the cast iron, but that stuff gives me the willies, and I didn't want to deal with it.

We're about a half hour away from the end of the cycle (I ran it for 2 hours and 45 minutes, which is hopefully long enough), ans we haven't been smoked out of the house, so it wasn't as terrible as I thought. Still, I imagine it will take a day for any residual smell to clear out.

I'm most curious to see how my pan comes out. I'll report back with results. Of course, silly me forgot to take a "before" photo.

Here's another way:

http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-restore-a-rusty-cast-iron-skillet-cleaning-lessons-from-the-kitchn-203086

Thanks, j_r, but this pan wasn't rusty; it was bumpy with overseasoned, caked on build-up that would be almost impossible to remove with any method of hand-scrubbing. All the videos and descriptions I saw for removing the seasoning so that you could start from scratch involved either lye, electrolysis, or extreme heat. I'm hoping this oven-cleaning cycle did the trick so that all I need to do is steel wool off any resulting rust and then season anew.

That's not seasoning?   

jasper said:

 it was bumpy with overseasoned, caked on build-up that would be almost impossible to remove with any method of hand-scrubbing. 

Actually, I run my cleaning cycle maybe once every eight years and the housecleaner uses Easy-Off twice or three times a month. 

I love my cast iron skillet but I feel free to clean it with dish soap and a scrubber when it needs it. It's not a holy relic.

wait? You are supposed to clean an oven?!?! LOL

Answer: never

LOL, indeed. I think I've done it once before in the nearly 19 years we've been here, but the cast iron project forced my hand.

So, here's the pan fresh out of the oven:

And here it is with the ash wiped out and a coating of coconut oil to keep it from rusting until I can season it tomorrow:

I can't believe how stupid I was to forget to take the before photo, but trust me that it had a thick, uneven, scratched layer of carbon build-up that would not have been a good cooking surface. I will post another photo after it's seasoned.

Considering how a cast iron skillet is only $25 new I wonder about the cost/benifit ratio of this process.

The old Griswold pans have a much smoother surface than the pans you can buy new now. And I got this pan for about $5, so I'd say I came out right. All I did was run a self-cleaning cycle that was long overdue anyway, and now I'll run one or two baking cycles at 325 to season it.

max_weisenfeld said:

Considering how a cast iron skillet is only $25 new I wonder about the cost/benifit ratio of this process.

Some people feel that older cast iron cookware is superior to modern cast iron cookware.

The good news is that this time the seasoning is causing no odors at all, either because the oven is clean, or because I'm using coconut oil instead of Crisco.

jasper said:

The old Griswold pans have a much smoother surface than the pans you can buy new now. And I got this pan for about $5, so I'd say I came out right. All I did was run a self-cleaning cycle that was long overdue anyway, and now I'll run one or two baking cycles at 325 to season it.

I bought one similar years ago. After managing to get it cleaned and seasoned, I used it for a few months before it cracked down the middle in the oven. Scared the crap out of me.

I've heard of the cracking concern, though it hasn't happened to me yet, and I have quite a bit of cast iron cookware. Some claim that the oven-cleaning method of de-seasoning poses a cracking risk, but so far, the pan seems to be okay. We'll see.

Oh, I have other cast iron cookware, most of it was my mother's. This was the only one that I owned where I didn't know its provenance. 

I was told that Easy off ruins the inside, self cleaning surface, thus the dirt/grease will be harder to remove.

My oven instructions do say to not use Easy-Off. For the most part, the cleaning worked well, but the bottom seems to have a coating that didn't quite come off, which may be permanent damage to the porcelain finish that no amount of cleaning will restore. We're hoping to do a kitchen renovation soon, so this stove will be going, but at least now it's clean enough to possibly pass along to someone else instead of dumping it.

Shortly after we moved into our house in '03, I accidentally hit the self-cleaning button on our oven. Although I hadn't intended to do it, we thought, "ok, so now we'll have a clean oven." Problem was, after the cycle finished, the oven never unlocked itself. We tried everything we could come up with, but finally had to call a repairman to get it open. He told us not to use the self-cleaning function again. Our housekeeper cleans it with oven cleaner two or three times a year. 

On a family event (her family) when I had first married my wife, somehow the cleaning cycle got started with the main course, an expensive beef tenderloin, in the oven.  I shut off the power but it did not unlock.  I got some strange looks as I took the Milwaukee sawzall to the oven to get to our dinner.  It was delicious.

We were getting ready to remodel the kitchen so I didn't feel too bad for cutting the doorlock off.

There was some cook, Alton Brown maybe but I could be mistaken, who mentioned purposely defeating the lock and then running the self cleaning cycle to make pizza at home. 

jeffhandy said:

On a family event (her family) when I had first married my wife, ...

I almost misread that as "when I had married my first wife", who may have thought better of a guy so blithe (or should I say "handy") with a sawzall. Glad you saved your tenderloin. ; - )  

BrickPig said:

Shortly after we moved into our house in '03, I accidentally hit the self-cleaning button on our oven. Although I hadn't intended to do it, we thought, "ok, so now we'll have a clean oven." Problem was, after the cycle finished, the oven never unlocked itself. We tried everything we could come up with, but finally had to call a repairman to get it open. He told us not to use the self-cleaning function again. Our housekeeper cleans it with oven cleaner two or three times a year. 

  Oh noes!

So after seasoning my cleaned up pan with coconut oil in a 200 (or so) degree oven for an hour (or so) twice, the pan still looked kind of dull and unseasoned. I decided to follow a different set of instructions and seasoned it a third time with Crisco, first at 150 for around 15 minutes before applying the Crisco, then at 425 for around 15 minutes, then at 500 for another 15 minutes.

It looks slightly more seasoned than before, but it still seems more "greasy" than "non-stick". I haven't tried cooking anything in it yet, but if anyone has a tried-and-true favorite fat/temperature/time formula for seasoning, feel free to share. Every website you read recommends a different "flavor" and it's hard to tell who is the real expert. The last thing I read suggested Crisco at 500 for an hour if you want a true non-stick surface. I may give that method a go.

I use trader joe's canola oil on mine and bake it at 400F for an hour every month or so, seems to work

Good luck, it looks like a nice piece you got there!

jasper said:

So after seasoning my cleaned up pan with coconut oil in a 200 (or so) degree oven for an hour (or so) twice, the pan still looked kind of dull and unseasoned. I decided to follow a different set of instructions and seasoned it a third time with Crisco, first at 150 for around 15 minutes before applying the Crisco, then at 425 for around 15 minutes, then at 500 for another 15 minutes.

It looks slightly more seasoned than before, but it still seems more "greasy" than "non-stick". I haven't tried cooking anything in it yet, but if anyone has a tried-and-true favorite fat/temperature/time formula for seasoning, feel free to share. Every website you read recommends a different "flavor" and it's hard to tell who is the real expert. The last thing I read suggested Crisco at 500 for an hour if you want a true non-stick surface. I may give that method a go.

Thanks, seaweed. It's a cute little pan (size 5), though it's not the same quality as an older Griswold one that I have just one size up (6). I guess that's why collectors distinguish between the different Griswold logos on the bottom; there really is a noticeable difference.