Question for Doug

J

JeanC

New member
Hello Doug,

Hope you are well. I have a pan, cleaned up well, there was a bit of pitting on the curve of the sidewall. When seasoned, a bit of the carbon/lye/whatever it is in there, leaked out and bled into the seasoning. It doens't wash off but I know it's there and I wonder if it's safe. Right? Lye.. in the pit.. doesn't sound good.

So.. I threw it back in the bath and started over.. I don't have an Electrolysis bath set up so I'm using the vinegar bath for rust.

At any rate, I saw you post how one of your favorite pans is one that was pitted badly.

So.. this crud that leaks off during seasoning, it's gross.. but is it as gross as I think it is? ( It isn't there while I rub in the oils)

Oh.. forgot to say, the first time I heated that baby up before seasoning, some black goo leaked out.. I just flicked it off before seasoning.. maybe I should bake that baby dry a few times to get it all to leak out? I don't know..

A friend gave me a beat up chicken fryer.. the side walls are so pitted I didn't think it would be salvagable. He is very sad about that. Maybe I'm wrong, but shoot.. it feels and looks terrible, the carbon in those pits won't budge. What do you think of that one?

Thanks for your replies.. I value your expertise on these issues, I consider myself a newbie still, even though I've cleaned and cooked in them now for a few years. Yes, the lye bath is like oil now, maybe time to change it out but that sounds like a chore I would rather not do. hahahahaha
 
Lye reacts with the oils and fats left in the baked on crud to soften and release it from the iron. Sometimes, deposits/build-up/crud will have been cooked on for so long that it has been reduced to basically just carbon, which lye will not budge. Drop a dry leaf or a piece of paper in your lye tank sometime. You'll see it has no effect on them. At that point, you either have to try electro or very carefully scrape or brush with suitable tools and techniques so as not to damage to the metal surface. If the pitting on your pan is extensive, manual methods could be tedious. Or you could just consider it like those dark stains we often talk about just blending in over time, and season over. If your lye tank has done all it can, whatever's left should basically be inert, and if you've washed and rinsed it, there shouldn't be any lye remaining. I would point out, though, that I've never seen any residue do anything like what I would call physically "leaking" or bleeding through the seasoning.
 
interesting that you' ve never had anything leak from a pit. Now I wish I had taken pictures.

Thanks so much for the response.
 
Jean said:
Hello Doug,

Hope you are well. I have a pan, cleaned up well, there was a bit of pitting on the curve of the sidewall. When seasoned, a bit of the carbon/lye/whatever it is in there, leaked out and bled into the seasoning. It doens't wash off but I know it's there and I wonder if it's safe. Right? Lye.. in the pit.. doesn't sound good.
So.. I threw it back in the bath and started over.. I don't have an Electrolysis bath set up so I'm using the vinegar bath for rust.

At any rate, I saw you post how one of your favorite pans is one that was pitted badly.

So.. this crud that leaks off during seasoning, it's gross.. but is it as gross as I think it is? ( It isn't there while I rub in the oils)

Oh.. forgot to say, the first time I heated that baby up before seasoning, some black goo leaked out.. I just flicked it off before seasoning.. maybe I should bake that baby dry a few times to get it all to leak out? I don't know..

A friend gave me a beat up chicken fryer.. the side walls are so pitted I didn't think it would be salvagable. He is very sad about that. Maybe I'm wrong, but shoot.. it feels and looks terrible, the carbon in those pits won't budge. What do you think of that one?

Thanks for your replies.. I value your expertise on these issues, I consider myself a newbie still, even though I've cleaned and cooked in them now for a few years. Yes, the lye bath is like oil now, maybe time to change it out but that sounds like a chore I would rather not do. hahahahaha
Click to expand...

You have probably eaten lye a few times already.

Like pretzyls? They are processed in a mild lye solution before baking to give them that brown shiny exterior.

Ever had grits? They are made from ground hominy, which is corn that has been soaked in a lye solution.

Every had a corn tortilla? Same thing, masa is corn soaked in a lye solution, and then ground into flour.

The amount that could be in a pit in cast iron is so small as to not be a safety issue at all.
 
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