How to clean your cast iron in an easy and effective manner? It’s called the Ringer, and it’s a stainless steel square made of linked chain mail!
Little did I know that cleaning my cast iron skillets would become so easy.
Pre Ringer, I would add a bit of water and salt to the dirty skillet and scrub. If the pan was especially grungy, I would set it on the burner and bring the water to boil first. This, in itself, is an effective way to loosen those crusty bits of food from the bottom of a cast iron skillet or pan.
With the Ringer, I skip both the boiling water and the salt.
For really big messes, you can also add water to pan before scrubbing caked on food residue.
My skillets have never looked so good. Before storing the pan, I give it a very light coating of coconut oil and I am done. That’s it. Start to finish, two to three minutes and no elbow grease.
Sounds like a pretty amazing device to add to your kitchen. For more information on the ringer, and the see it in action, visit Backdoor Survival.
Featured Image via Jim Winstead / Flickr
Steel scubby and bacon grease. Dont use coconut oil because it burns too easy.
Will any grit on the steelwhool do
I just use the one you get for other dishes, they come in copper also.
Can you tell me step by step? I used water like a fool an it rusted a bit but managed to get it back to normal. What the proper way to clean it.
Jennifer Shaw Harshman notice the lack of soap in these steps! Love u… Don’t be angry… It just popped up in the feed… Didn’t even look for it… Love u again!
Been using cast iron all of my life, and I clean it just like my mom and grandma used to. A little oil to help loosen anything stuck, while on medium low heat. Always preheat, and that assures non stick, plus it heat sanitizes.
Andrea Douglas
I use hot water the steel scrubby no soap rinse out the left over food then reheat and coat with grease.
It takes practice and the key is realizing that even after you clean it it will be slightly greasy. I keep my cast iron in the oven and cook it on a lower heat. The cast iron retains heat better.
The second and most important part. Find either old Griswold or Wagner pans. Yes they cost more but the inside finish is smoother than the new stuff. The modern day lodge pans are IMHO crap. Poorly casted and finished
Don’t use soap! Lol
Trace Davis
Just wipe it out; one needs to season cast iron.