I inherited a cast iron skillet from Kara’s late Aunt Bert that I was able to research and identify as a collectible, being cast anywhere from 1922 to 1959. That’s a wide spread but we don’t know if Kara's grandmother bought it in the 20s or if Bert received it as a wedding gift or just purchased it in the 40s or 50s. No matter what, it has some history. It also was made using an older method that provides a smooth cooking surface rather than the slightly pebbled ones from cheaper processes that are what you buy today.
However, it was caked in grease. That’s good for non-stick and shows lots of history, but it’s also a bit gross. Long story short, I did my research and wound up spending a month cleaning the thing. Every other day I’d put on rubber gloves and scrub it vigorously with a wire brush, spray it with a lye-based cleaner and seal it in a bag and then repeat.
I don’t have a good “before" picture because I didn’t expect to get this obsessed or to get it this clean from the beginning. Here, the black gunk you see on the side was so thick all over the pan you literally could not see the brand name, which in this shot is now clear. It took two weeks to get to this point, and two more to finish.
After a full month of scrubbing, I had this:
If you’re interested to read more about this stuff, this site is very thorough: http://www.castironcollector.com/collecting.php
