Fire, Cast Iron, and Soot

Welcome to the Cast Iron Chef world. We enjoy it.

We use a wet paper towel to wash and wipe off the soot then stow it. No big deal. Then we toss the paper towel into the fire pit to burn. The sand is a good idea if you are boondocking and don't have a water connection.

Cast iron is tough. The only thing you need to be cautious about is to avoid running cold water over a hot pot or pan. The temperature shock will crack it.

Don't let the myths running around the internet run your life when it comes to cast iron. You can use metal utensils and chain-mail scrubbers on it, just don't use chisels and hammers.

Microlite Mike wrote:

When I was a young kid and when camping cooked almost exclusively over the fire we would put some liquid dish soap (Joy was my mom's detergent of choice) on a paper towel and wipe the outside of all pots and pans including the skillet. A nice even coat of the liquid detergent/soap made it easy to wash off the soot.

WOW ! Brings back Boy Scout campouts !! Pre-soaping the outside helped, but it was not a perfect solution.

Microlite Mike wrote:

We did a lot of beach camping where we landed by boat.

Once the inside was clean (no food residue), beach sand works very well as a scouring powder to clean the outside. Old fashioned Brillo/SOS pads work the best.

Face the fact, they will never be "like new" on the outside again !

Try plain old water and see what happens. You could also use soapy water but no scrub brushes.

Or put the cast iron in a bag and just use it sooty next time.

First item to remember regarding Dutch oven cooking is the “fire” should be 2/3 on the lid and 1/3 on the bottom.

pasusan wrote:
I've finally gotten into cast iron cooking. And I want to do it over a fire when we're camping.

What do you do about the black soot that coats the outside of the pan? Do you just clean it off? And - how?

Or do you have a special pan that is always getting sooty?

Not sure about what to do...

When I was a young kid and when camping cooked almost exclusively over the fire we would put some liquid dish soap (Joy was my mom's detergent of choice) on a paper towel and wipe the outside of all pots and pans including the skillet. A nice even coat of the liquid detergent/soap made it easy to wash off the soot.

Mom liked the liquid Joy because it also worked well in salt water. We did a lot of beach camping where we landed by boat.

I'm sure just about any liquid soap/detergent would leave a nice "parting agent" on the cast iron to make the soot easier to remove.