sometimes i just leave my Carbon pan on the stove and let it burn.

[boomchakabowwow]

i do admit my pan will get crusty sometimes. mostly along the pan's sloped edges. right or wrong, i clean the pan best i can, and then crack open a window, turn the hood vent on and let it rip.

if it wasnt raining, i would done it in my bbq grill. that thing gets to 600 degs +. maybe not on a cold day like today.

i assume i am removing the seasoning to some degree and starting over. this pan is my 2-people sized dish workhorse. it never leaves my stovetop and it gets kinda abused. tomato dishes, metal utensils, etc. it gets kinda ugly. i have never had one of those show business carbon pans i see on the internet where it is a smooth and even JET-BLACK.

you ever overheat your pan to clean it?

 

[Lars]

A scrub in warm soapy water works for me. A clean pan is a good pan ime..

 

[btbyrd]

Crust doesn't really burn off. Burning a crusty pan mostly turns your existing seasoning into a new layer of gunk.

If it's crusty, it's time to scour. Or if it's bad, hit it with a lye solution. Or some electrodes.

 

[Colorado_cutter]

I've done a couple of Lodge 12" cast-iron skillets. I put them in the oven on cleaning cycle (in before the start, out only after they cool), and it got rid of 100% of the (considerable) crust. They looked brand new, for better or worse. That was three or four or five years ago. I'd be tempted to do it again, but my current place doesn't have good ventilation.

 

[ampersandcetera]

I pretty much never take my 8" deBuyer and 10" lodge skillet off of my cooktop. If they get a little crusty I'll boil off of some of the debris with water and then wipe clean with an oiled kitchen towel. If stuff is really stuck on there, yeah I'll scour it with a one of those chainmail scrubbers and some kosher salt. I don't think I've had to fully strip and re-season either of them since I started leaving them on the stovetop last year. My big matfer 14" needs to get a quick seasoning every time I use it (for like, roasting a chicken or some big holiday meal type prep) since it's otherwise just hanging on the storage rack collecting dust all of the time.

 

[stringer]

I mostly clean my cast iron / cast steel with coarse salt, a bit of oil, and a flat edge wooden scraper. If I get extra buildup I hit it with hot soapy water water and a chainmail steel scrubber. I would rather have to reseason a bit than risk scale flakes in whatever I'm cooking. And I nest them in each other so I don't want the crust from the bottom of one leaving big flakes in the one beneath it.

 

[boomchakabowwow]

pan is so slick now. still looks like a beat up pan tho.

 

[coxhaus]

Chainmail for me using carbon steel or cast iron to get carbon build ups off. It is mainly carbon steel that gets carbon spots for me.

I let pans soak on the range sometimes to get bad build ups off the bottom before I clean them. My wife does not clean large pans. I use a plastic card from Walmart that looks like a credit card except it has different rounded corners which will work for the insides of different pans to clean them.

For a really good clean on stainless I use a little Barkeeper Friend.

 

[Dan-]

For my carbon pans I can get a nice kasumi with a combination of … too much effort for a joke.

I use a brush and water, and sometimes a bit of soap. My wife continually ruins the seasoning on my omelette pan though.

 

[gentiscid]

you ever overheat your pan to clean it?

No, I don't intentionally do it to clean a skillet.

Bet you are the guy who would throw a cast iron skillet in the fire to clean it! At some point overheating a skillet with no grease on it, might flake off and “clean” the crusty food stuck, but at the same time if done repeteadly, it will warp your skillet very bad. Yes they are indestructable, but to a certain point!

Just wash it and clean like normal people do, warm water, scrub with dish soap, rinse well, dry the stove top wipe with a paper towel, quick pam spray, wipe excessive oil, and it's ready for the next cooking session!

 

[Wolffire99]

Take a scour pad to it to get the carbon build up off. Apply some high temp oil and burn that off. Have to do mine like that once a month. Takes < 5 minutes.

 

[boomchakabowwow]

No, I don't intentionally do it to clean a skillet.

Bet you are the guy who would throw a cast iron skillet in the fire to clean it!

hahahah....love the internet "BETS". I'll take that bet. first I'm not talking about cast iron. 100$?

a carbon pan, especially on the side will get thicker and thicker with build up. jus saying. and the VERY first step to any wok seasoning is damn near turning it blue over crushing high heat. I have seen my stepdad do it on a restaurant wok burner and it felt like "playing chicken" with the wok. it turned blue. BLUE.

it was just a question from the beginning. just a question, not a challenge to your pan intellect...it really was just a yes/no question.

your's I put under, "no". got it.

 

[gentiscid]

hahahah....love the internet "BETS". I'll take that bet. first I'm not talking about cast iron. 100$?

it was just a question from the beginning. just a question, not a challenge to your pan intellect...it really was just a yes/no question.

your's I put under, "no". got it.

Dang, someone getting passive aggressive

Burning raw steel and burning the seasoning to remove it are two different things.

Cast iron and Carbon steel have different properties but they are treated the same. People will throw skillets in the living fire to “clean” them, but all they do is destroy them forever. Same with high heat on a seasoned carbon pan. You are going to remove the seasoning layer and as it might be Ok the first time, the more you do it the more your skillet will warp.

This is the initial blue seasoning you talking about on my Ballarini carbon skillet. Once it's seasoned, u don't
need to high heat it to remove the seasoning, just use Easy Off yellow cap oven cleaner spray.

 

[MarcelNL]

I have cleaned my carbon pans heating them with salt, avoiding things like acidy tomato helps!

 

[btbyrd]