Fix a Smelly Cast Iron Skillet With Quick Oven Bake
Cast iron pans are great for just about anything , including smelly foods like fish or slow-fried cruciferous vegetables, but if the smell seems to linger in the pan after cooking, add soap. A quick walk through the oven will clear it out and won’t hurt the season.
Before you complain, no, soap won’t damage cast iron – we’ve mentioned this before . But this is a more elegant solution to the stench problem. America’s Test Kitchen has a few tricks to solve common cast iron problems, but this smelly frying pan solution we particularly liked:
Some sources recommend pouring a thin layer of oil into a skillet and heating it to a smoking point on the stove to remove stinky, stubborn fish oil, but this method leaves an oily grime that needs to be removed. Fortunately, heat alone turned out to be enough to eliminate two sources of fishy funk: compounds called trialkylamines, which evaporate at temperatures between 200 and 250 degrees, and oxidized fatty acids, which evaporate at temperatures above 350 degrees. The next time your skillet needs a little aromatherapy, simply heat the empty, smelling skillet in a 400-degree oven for 10 minutes. This method is quick, neat and efficient and does not spoil the kitchen.
Ten minutes at 400 degrees (200 degrees C) in the oven is a small price to pay to rid your favorite skillet of the smell of yesterday’s salmon or sea bass or Brussels sprouts that you roasted and then roasted in the oven until caramelized. And best of all, this method is simple and effective, and it won’t hurt this precious seasoning we hope you have in your favorite cast iron skillet.
Follow the link below for some other fixes, including how to get rid of stains on enamelled cast iron cookware and how to clean a particularly dirty frying pan.
Four Simple Solutions to Common Cast Iron Problems | America’s Test Kitchen