Fire, Cast Iron, and Soot
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 ...
Forum Discussion
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 !
