UPDATE **REVIEW** Cast Iron Skillet Cleaner with Good Grips

Please check the last part of this post. I had to do a serious update - with more photos. I just discovered that some of my negative impressions about this product are totally unwarranted. My bad.

I was talking recently about taking care of my cast iron pots and pans. This is the chainmail cleaning tool I decided to try out:

There are several I could have chosen but this off-brand one had the silicone pad feature of some more expensive ones. It wasn't super-cheap though so I had planned to return it unless it really impressed me. It has a lifetime guarantee and, even though it hasn't been reviewed by a lot of users, the reviews are all 4- and 5-star ratings.

It's from a company that seems to sell a hodge-podge of items. I was kind of surprised at how well made this scrubber is because most of the products on WYPQ's storefront look like cheap knock-offs. I've bought from companies like this before and always hope the product's okay because it often soon designated as "item no longer available". I was surprised that the company priced this scrubber at more than $10.00. I honestly don't think I will buy more stuff from that page, but this item is definitely worth $12.99.

This is much thicker than I thought it was going to be (that's good, by the way), and the silicone is locked in with clasps on either end. You can remove the inner silicone pad to clean it, but I notice that it rinses well while inside the chainmail.

Links are well made

I first used this on a pan that had some meat scrapings coating the pan. You know how some of the meat searing gets stuck to the pan? Usually, I soak the skillet with some hot water inside before I do the salt and oil cleaning trick. This was the perfect time to test the Skillet Cleaner.

I did use some hot water from the faucet, then I started working the chainmail around the pan. I will be hot-durned if every bit of the seared gunk wiped off like it was nothing. I didn't even need to use the flip-side silicone pad-scraper thingie. As usual, I then dried the pan on the stove and rubbed it with oil. There was no damage to the pan and the cleaning took very little time. When I use salt and oil for cleaning, it takes more elbow grease. (By the way, cast iron can take a lot of punishment. I have cut up meat that was in the skillet and my seasoning was just fine... The biggest no-no in my book is using harsh soaps.)

dense but soft scrubbing pad

Last night, I fixed stir-fried chicken and veggies with egg in the skillet. That is always a nasty mess. This particular skillet is getting more and more seasoned with use, but stuff like eggs cooked with veggies still sticks. I could not wait to try out the Skillet Cleaner. I think I was almost looking for a reason to send it back!

The silicone did nothing for the eggy mess, but that chainmail... That stuff works. If I could have one wish, it would be that the chain was thinner. I might look into getting some thinner chainmail just to try it.

This product photo here is of "The Ringer" and it looks thinner. Maybe because that's because it's not wrapped around silicone? I don't know but I think it would work better for some skillet sizes.

The Ringer

I can't really complain about the Skillet Cleaner. There are a few things I would like to see improved though. One thing is that the way the silicone is placed inside the chain, it bunches up and gaps a little when I am using the metal and looks as if it's oozing out of the cage. The other thing is that I want thinner chainmail for the smaller skillets. This one is great in my 9-inch but I have a 5-inch skillet for which this cleaner is too big to maneuver around the inside with.

The clasp is too far to one side

One extra positive to this particular cleaner is that there is not only silicone inside the chainmail, but there is a scrubber pad on one side. That has come in handy for cleaning less messy skillets.

I would give this cleaner an 8.9 out of 10.

Peace
--Free

UPDATE:

I am such a dummy. In this review, I mentioned wanting something thinner for smaller pans. Well. A couple of days ago, I was rinsing the scrubber with some soap. For the first time, I took out the inner silicone padding. Guess what? The scrubber without the padding is perfect for cleaning smaller, tighter spots. To be honest, I actually like using the scrubber and chainmail without the insert. I'll save the thick silicone for when I need to clean a really large pan - like maybe the Dutch oven?

I think I like it better
without the insert...

Scrubber works better with salt and oil
when I don't need the chain

Even stores easier without the insert

I can always put the
insert back in as needed

Look how nice and clean the little pan turned out!

Listen, this is one of those times when I will chalk a stupidity up to the sarc. I have no idea why I didn't think about this before. Anyway, now I have to go over and edit the review I did on Amazon. Pray for me, people. 

One of my favorite MTV memories was watching this dude perform. WTH ever happened to Billy?

**Pre-REVIEW** Cast Iron Skillet Cleaning?

I have a small collection of cast iron cookware. My mother grew up in a home where cast iron skillets, pots, and kettles were all that was used. When I was young, I don't remember ever seeing Mama cook in any other kind of skillet. My sister and I picked up the habit. When I was young and had anemia, Mama would cook liver for me in her cast-iron skillet. That liver was nasty (though I love liver now), but between it and the cast iron, the anemia didn't stand a chance! By the way, there is now more public knowledge and some legit attention given to this idea. You younguns can go ask your grandmamas.

Here is where I posted about some of my expanding set of cast iron pieces - including a teapot that I use daily.

Anyway.

With all this cast iron that I want to last for years and years, I have been looking for easier ways to clean it. IA lot of the time, I can just take the pan off the stove, wipe out any excess oil and I am good to go. Sometimes, though, I have to do a good clean. I have always followed one of Mama's examples when cleaning the skillets. I use some cooking oil and Kosher salt (or margarita salt or any other coarse salt). These are my steps:

•  I will use a sponge to work the oil and salt around for getting any sticky crud out of the pan.
• Rinse out the pan with really hot water - even some boiling water if I must..
•  I almost NEVER use any kind of soap (and if I ever do, I have to re-season the pan). 
• Put the rinsed pan on a low burner for a couple of minutes to dry out the pores.
• Wipe the pan with some lard or other oil. I prefer lard because it's really cheap and I don't use it for anything else.
• 
  

That's it. If you do this and keep up the care of your pans, eventually, they start to really smooth out and become almost non-stick. (If you want other methods, you can also use baking soda and a wet rag to clean the skillet or by rubbing a half a potato over the salt for a scrub (there's something about the makeup of the potato...???) 

The one really old skillet I have is almost as smooth as glass. That's from years of regular use, cleaning and seasoning. I am working toward that point with the skillets I got a couple of years ago and the newest Dutch Oven. I have an online friend who used a sanding head on his drill to smooth out his wife's pans. Smart, huh? By the way, you can do the sanding by hand if you're up for it, I guess. Sanding. Hm. Who knew? And I don't know why the heck manufacturers don't do all this smoothing before they sell the skillets. Pre-seasoned? No way.

Like I said, I am looking for easier ways to clean my cast ironware. The newer pans take some work to get them clean and I don't always feel like scrubbing with oil and salt for long enough. While I don't believe in buying special seasoning oils and treatments, (waste of money, in my opinion), when I heard about using chain mail for cleaning these pans, I flipped my wig. I mean chain mail? What?

These are arejust a few examples of the many random ones that popped up on Amazon when I did a search:

That one on the bottom there seems quite popular but it's pricier than the others for some reason. I don't have any idea if the more expensive ones are any better, but I have noticed from reviews and other bloggers that you should look for a chain that is welded. Apparently, a welded chain is more gentle on the pan. Cast iron is pretty tough though, so... I also have read articles s that suggest having a silicone insert is helpful for gripping while cleaning with the chain. Also, the silicone might help in the actual cleaning process. I decided that, if my grandma and my mom had known about it, they would have tried chainmail, so I will give it a shot. I'm still not spending money on any of those special seasoning oils and treatments - or the 11-ounce, $13 bottle of special "scrub" (aka really pricey salt) that I happened to see online. I'm not trying to impress anyone.

Of course, when I decide on one of the scrubbers, I will have to go or the lower-priced model, but I will try to find one with a silicone insert. There are some random videos showing people using chain mail to clean.It looks "oddly satisfying" as fellow Redditors might say.

The other item that could be useful when cleaning your cast iron stuff is agood  scaper. I looked around at some of these and like the idea but want to try the chain first.

(I have to say that while I do love a Lodge skillet, every last one of their accessories is ridiculously pricey!)

 By the way, I will be adding some of these items to the next post I am doing on Un-Christmas Gifts. I think it's a great idea to get people things they need throughout the year instead of trying to buy impressive items for Christmas, birthdays, etcetera. I hope that doing the Anytime Gift lists will encourage people to be thoughtful all year long.

Anyway, that's it and I will, of course, be going a review on whatever chain scrubber I get for the skillets.

Peace

--Free

My sister loved this song and since it would have been her birthday today, I wanted to share it.

Also since it's the season of what we assume to be the birth of the Lord, I think that we need to hear and think about this now more than ever. Let's all try to be great again and then the country will really come together. No matter what you thought of Michael Jackson, he got this so right. Cha-mon, people.