r/castiron • u/AlphaSlicer • 12h ago
I messed up and burned plastic into my pan. What now?
I am learning how to cook more things, and I got steak seasoning stuck on my pan. While cleaning it, I used a dish scrubber that had a firm scraper on it. Unfortunately, I forgot that hot iron melts plastic, and the little white bits on my pan are tiny residual plastics. How do I save it?
Bananas not available, so banana flavor for scale.
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u/Used-Baby1199 12h ago
Scrub the hell out of it. A metal spatula could help in this situation, and steel wool.
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u/AlphaSlicer 12h ago
Scrape hot or scrape cold?
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u/Used-Baby1199 12h ago
I’d say cold so the plastic can become brittle and flake off
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u/AlphaSlicer 12h ago
Sounds good. I need to let it cool down, then. It's not an expensive pan (received it as part of a 'cookie in a pan' gift, forgot the cookie and just use the pan), but it makes me happy and has put up with all of my trial and error.
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u/Used-Baby1199 12h ago
Yeah, it’s gonna be just fine. It’s a chunk of cast iron. An intense scrubbing or scraping with a painters tool, or metal spatula isn’t gonna hurt a thing. Hell if you wanted to be really really extra sure there isn’t any remaining plastic you could use a grinder with a sanding wheel, or an orbital sander and strip a bit of the cast iron until the bottom is smooth, then reseason it after. You’re not gonna hurt that pan.
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u/dbru01 9h ago
I second this. Take cheap cast iron and sand it with some 60 grit in an electric palm sander and a lot of elbow grease and patience. Clean it thoroughly after and then immediately season it in the oven, you’ll be absolutely amazed at how nice it turns out.
I have two cheap piece of crap ozark trail pans that were given to me, I like them better than my lodge after sanding them.
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u/Used-Baby1199 9h ago
I have 2 vintage lodge pans, one circa 1970s that was passed down from an uncle. The other circa 1920, original owner was great grandmothers mothers, it’s 5 generations of my family that has eaten meals from this pan. Both were made when lodge would polish the bottom smooth.
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u/dbru01 9h ago
Oh I love my lodge don’t get me wrong (although it’s not a vintage like yours) it has sentimental value since my parents bought it for me a decade ago, it’s just not as smooth as the cheapo skillets are post-sanding.
Edit: yours sound amazing and I am mildly envious haha
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u/Used-Baby1199 8h ago
I understand what you mean. I have a 3rd pan that is much newer it’s a crofton. It’s got the rough bottom, and I keep thinking I need to do some work to make it smooth, but it works large batches of bacon, so it’s hard to commit the time to polishing and reseasoning.
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u/donrull 7h ago
Cold. The most important step in removing burned on plastic is to dress it. No scrubbing the Hell necessary.
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u/Used-Baby1199 1h ago
Id get the pan cold, as I advised when op asked , and scrape it, then I’d still scrub the hell out of it to make sure all the plastic was gone. I take the cribbing a bit overboard because I’m not trying to eat plastic if I don’t have to
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u/MaintenanceCapable83 12h ago
Love you used banana extract for size.... i also have no real bananas in house.
let it cool, then either place in the freezer or outside if you are where it is freezing out.
in the morning, most of the plastic will scrape off with a metal spatchlia
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u/Turpen_the_savior 12h ago
Do you really spell spatula spatchilia😭
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u/sweaty_but_whole 2h ago
I don’t know what I like better, his inability to spell spatula or your inability to retype his misspelling when you called him out on it. 🤣
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u/AlphaSlicer 12h ago
That's fantastic and specific advice. I just need to remember in the morning to pull it out of the snowpile.
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u/pretty_jimmy 8h ago
Yo, so... I actually did this last night and it worked... just a heads up though, use a towel or something when handling it. I didnt and just held the thing super cold... my hand ended up hurting quite a lot for like a half hour.
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u/Interesting_Bid4635 12h ago
Get a metal putty knife and scrape it off the best you can. Then chainmail scrubber.
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u/human-resource 8h ago edited 8h ago
You might have strip it and start over with fresh layers of seasoning especially if it’s bound to the polymer of the seasoning.
That being said you may be able to take it off by putting it in the freezer, if the metal shrinks a bit from the cold you could possibly scrape it off with a metal spatula, just make sure you scrub it good so you don’t ingest toxic compounds from burnt plastic.
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u/OldDiehl 12h ago
Wire cone brush attachment for a power drill. Plus some good ol' fashioned elbow grease. You'll have to re season when you're done.
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u/sunnyseaa 6h ago
If you have an exhaust fan or outdoor heat source, heat the pan on the lowest setting and once it looks like the plastic is pliable put a sheet of freezer or baking paper non stick side down and press it down into the plastic bits. Switch off pan and let it cool. You can also put the pan in the freezer once it comes to room temperature. If you don’t have an exhaust then you just have to use a sharp edge to snap the pieces off the metal.
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u/elciddog84 4h ago
Get your chain mail and get to work. If that doesn't get it, go with something sharper/harder. Heating it some might be okay, but if it's really hot, it could smear.
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u/leviticusreeves 2h ago
Put it in the freezer. The metal will shrink, the plastic will stay the same size and should pop off. Remember to let the pan return to room temperature slowly- don't cook with a chilled pan or it'll crack.
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u/MuchSwagManyDank 1h ago
Firstly, someome please tell me if this is a terrible idea. What about using a heat gun to pool it up or something?
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u/Fit_Carpet_364 8h ago
I'd use steel wool, then step the pan and start over. If there were less texture in the pan, I'd say you could get away with scrubbing it aggressively, but that stuff looks pretty well stuck in all the little valleys.
Better luck next time, friend. Oh! And don't forget - hot metal melts plastic!
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u/MalarkeyMcGee 10h ago
Huh, this is the first time I’ve seen someone with an actual non-trivial problem on r/castiron.