OT- Help me save my skillet, please.

[MickQuinn]

I posted this on the families board, but thought some well-seasoned campers might know how to save my well-seasoned skillet.

This morning I got ready to make my special puffy oven pancake and realized that my trusty old cast iron skillet was missing. DH found it in the camper. We fill the camper with Bounce sheets in the winter to discourage the mice, and the skillet smelled strongly of it. After a rinse and dry, I thought all was well and made the pancake. First bite... ughhh... this tastes like fabric softener (It even made my lip swell up a bit). The skillet is solid cast and well- seasoned.
How on earth can I get the smell/taste out of it without destroying the pan? It is my absolute favorite and we use it a ton when camping.

Any suggestions??? TIA

 

[LarryJ]

I posted this on the families board, but thought some well-seasoned campers might know how to save my well-seasoned skillet.

This morning I got ready to make my special puffy oven pancake and realized that my trusty old cast iron skillet was missing. DH found it in the camper. We fill the camper with Bounce sheets in the winter to discourage the mice, and the skillet smelled strongly of it. After a rinse and dry, I thought all was well and made the pancake. First bite... ughhh... this tastes like fabric softener (It even made my lip swell up a bit). The skillet is solid cast and well- seasoned.
How on earth can I get the smell/taste out of it without destroying the pan? It is my absolute favorite and we use it a ton when camping.

Any suggestions??? TIA

I would first oil it up and put in you oven on like 400 to 450 for 30min to an hour and see if that gets rid of the taste. It's hard to understand how those bounce sheets imparted that taste unless you put on directly in the skillet.

Larry

 

[ftwildernessguy]

You may have to strip the seasoning and reseason it. Soaking in Coca Cola will strip the old seasoning off. Then do the oil and baking method Larry described. My guess is the oil from the old seasoning has absorbed the taste from the dryer sheets, and reseasoning alone without stripping the old seasoning off will be of little use.

 

[DaveInTN]

If all else fails, stop using the skillet to cook in and use it as an iron. It will freshen the clothes as it removes wrinkles.

 

[homebrew2]

Use bacon grease and fry some onions and sliced potatoes in it. They
will usually absorb any taste/odors.

 

[des1954]

Denny! Where the heck have you been?

 

[ftwildernessguy]

I haven't heard from Denny since BATWiT 09.

 

[ntsammy5]

I haven't heard from Denny since BATWiT 09.

It took him that long to recover! Last Time I saw him he was wandering around the 300 loop in a stupor!

 

[homebrew2]

Denny! Where the heck have you been?

Just where you and Al left my car till the 20th....then I came home for Christmas. A white one at that.
I got the flu the day after leaving the
Fort. Laid me low for a while. Then when I got my strength back I
had to try and repair some roof leaks on the RV.

It took him that long to recover! Last Time I saw him he was wandering around the 300 loop in a stupor!

Sheesh! All this from a guy who swore undying gratitude for being
furnished an evenings supply of yummy Missouri Beer. And
you did drive my car back to the RV park for me on Mon. Surely
you remember Hmmmmmmm???

 

[MickQuinn]

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried oiling and cooking potatoes, but the taste was still there. The pp was right, the chemicals from the softener sheet seemed to have bonded to the original layer of seasoning oil. The sheet of Bounce wasn't actually touching the skillet, just thrown into the cabinet near it.

Anyway, a scrub of coke and kosher salt pulled the seasoning off. I decided to use the gas grill outside to cook on a new layer of oil.... I can't stand the smell of the hot oil in the house and it is definitely not a day to open any windows. LOL.

Thanks again for the help.

 

[polkadotsuitcase]

Hope you do save your pan. I'm amazed at how much those fabric sheets can permeate everything. We had an unopened box of coffee filters stored near an open box of fabric softeners. When we made coffee...ew! Floral coffee! Bounce is like an invasive species.

Hope it at least keeps your mice away, too!

 

[disney4dan]

Sounds like the right way to fix the problem. We had guests at our house during the ice storm last December and made a monstrous pot of chili in our deep, 12-inch cast iron Dutch Oven. The next morning, one of the guests decided to help out by scrubbing our Dutch Oven clean. Literally took it right down to a shine with steel wool; had to have taken some serious elbow grease and persistence. We panicked, but managed to get it back to perfection by a couple of oil soakings and smoking over the charcoal in our Weber kettle grille. Learned that from my dear old mom who discovered a stash of excellent, but slightly rusty skillets in an old farm-house we bought.

Bacon tastes so much better when cooked in one of those skillets.

 

[Thumper_Man]

Try this next time you go camping and have an open fire.
Rub some cooking oil all over it with a paper towel.
After you've done this, place it face down into the fire. Yes the fire will turn it very black, but we'll take care of this.
Leave it in the fire for about 5-10 minutes. The fire will burn off the oil and the smell.
Remove the pan from the fire. Caution: Don't grab with bare hand. If you have a shovel, use this to take out of the fire. If not, use an over mitt. I highly recommend a shovel though.
Place on a rock (or some other surface that won't start on fire) and let cool down for a bit.
After it's cooled down a little, but still hot, put some table salt in it. Use a paper towel to rub the salt all around the pan. (Caution: It will still be hot to the touch. You'll want to use an oven mitt to help you hold onto it, but it needs to be hot to use the salt). This will take off any excess oil and remove the black left behind by the fire.
Once you're done, apply just enough cooking oil with a paper towel to coat the entire pan. This will finish removing any excess black left by the fire, and your pan should be ready to use. Hope this works for you.