Baking Soda and Elbow Greese - Cleaning Your Lodge Cast Iron Pans with Baking Soda Paste

After most uses you can simply clean your Cast Iron pan using a brush and some water. However, from time to time you will want to give your a cast iron pan a thorough cleaning by following the instructions below.

Once you have thoroughly cleaned the pan it will be ready to be seasoned.

Add some baking soda to the pan along with some water.

Since you should not use soapy dish detergant on cast iron Baking Soda is a great alternative as it will deodorize and kill bacteria.

The baking soda will remove any bad (as well as good) flavors that have built in the pan. It works wonders for removing the fish smell and taste after pan frying fish.

Scrub the pan with a stiff bristled brush, scotch brite pad or a wire pad. You can use a Brillo or SOS pad that does not have any soap left in it.

Another benifit to the baking soda is that it will create an abrasive paste when mixed with water. This sandy paste will let you really power through any tough chunks of burnt food in the pan.

Once you have broken up all of the food that was stuck to the pan, give it a rinse in some running water.

After the first rinse your pan should be free of most of the debree.

Repeat the process using some more baking soda and just a small amount of water.

Do not go to crazy scrubing away, unless you are planning on giving the pan a really good reseasoning afterwards. The more you clean the pan the more you are removing the good seasoning you have built up.

You should now have a nice clean pan which is ready to be seasoned by following the Cast Iron Seasoning Instructions.