Homemade Cast-Iron Cleaner

I've always been interested in the sciences, especially the scientific process of the experiment that had to occur to create the results.

On camping trips and for different scouting trips my family uses cast-iron cooking tools, but that is not to say that we never use them at home. My grandmother's cast-iron skillet hadn't been used for 30 years and had been gaining a few stains and even a little bit of rust on the bottom. In my independent book, Salt, Lemons, Vinegar, and Baking Soda, there is a recipe for a cast-iron cleaner. I thought that I might try to clean my grandmother's cast-iron skillet, so that we can use it or at least have it clean to be shown. The ingredients are:

1/2 cup Salt

1/4 cup Vegetable Oil

The directions are to first rinse the skillet in hot water and scrape any residue off with a wooden spoon, then you place the skillet over medium heat until it is dry (Zukowski 30). You create the mixture of the salt and vegetable oil by mixing the two up together. The book then says to put the mixture on the skillet and "scrub with a thick wad of paper towels until clean" (Zukowski 30). The reason you use a thick wad of paper towels is that the cast-iron skillet is still quite hot from being on the stove. 

Then after you scrub the skillet with the mixture of salt and vegetable oil you rinse the skillet with hot water and dry over medium heat on the stove again. This recipe from my independent book, Salt, Lemons, Vinegar, and Baking Soda, worked wonderfully.

How does your family clean old or passed down items that need to be cleaned?

Zukowski, Shea. Salt, Lemons, Vinegar, and Baking Soda: Hundreds of Earth-friendly Houshold Projects, Solutions, and Formulas. New York: Metro, 2009. Print.