Picked up an unmarked skillet, probably 10 inch, for six quid. Cooking surface has orange rust over most of it and there are small pits — I can catch a fingernail in maybe a dozen spots across the middle. No cracks, sits flat on a worktop, no wobble. Is pitting a dealbreaker or does it season over and become a non-issue?
After restoring, cook bacon in it half a dozen times before you try anything delicate. Nothing builds early seasoning like fatty meat over medium heat, and it's much more forgiving than eggs while the surface is still young.
Alternative to vinegar if you have the space and patience: electrolysis with a battery charger and washing soda. Zero risk of over-etching, strips both rust and old seasoning, and it's oddly satisfying. Overkill for one pan though.
Also the self-clean cycle on an oven if you have one, though check the pan is genuinely cast iron and not something with an enamel or a wooden handle first.
£6 for an old unmarked pan is a good buy regardless. Older castings are usually thinner and lighter than modern ones and heat more evenly. Check the bottom for a heat ring and any faint lettering — worth knowing what you've got even if it doesn't change how you cook on it.
One thing to actually check before you invest the evening: put a straight edge across the cooking surface. Old pans sometimes warp into a slight dome in the middle, which you won't see from the outside and which makes eggs slide to the edges forever.
Checked with a metal ruler — very slightly low in the centre, maybe a hair. Sounds like the good direction to be off.
@carbon_steel_cam · 9mo ago · 3 replies
Pits are cosmetic in almost every case that isn't severe. A dozen fingernail-catching spots on a 10 inch pan is nothing — they fill with seasoning over a few months of cooking and the surface levels out functionally, even if you can still see the marks. Flat and crack-free are the two things that actually matter and you've got both.
Process: get the rust off with a vinegar soak at 1:1 with water, but check it every 15-30 minutes. Vinegar keeps eating iron after the rust is gone and will make the pitting genuinely worse if you leave it overnight. Scrub with steel wool between soaks, wash with soap, dry on the hob immediately, then season.
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@carbon_steel_cam · 9mo ago
Overnight advice is how people turn a lightly rusted pan into a rough one. If it's really heavy rust do multiple short soaks rather than one long one.
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@wild_ferment · 9mo ago
Every 15 minutes is much more attentive than the 'soak it overnight' advice I'd read. Glad I asked.
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