How to deal with a cast iron pot when using it for the first time

With the improvement of people's living standards, many people have begun to use some non-stick pots to cook. In fact, this kind of pot can reduce the trouble brought by the use of people, but some people like to use cast iron pots. New cast iron pots have a smell, that is, iron smell. You can't cook directly with it. At the same time, you must do a good job of maintaining the cast iron pot. So how to deal with the cast iron pot when you use it for the first time?

First, how should the cast iron pot be treated when used for the first time? After the cast iron pot is cast and before it leaves the factory, in order to prevent serious rust due to improper inventory transportation during the sales process, it is generally treated with certain anti-rust treatments. Therefore, the surface of the new iron pot will look glossy and feel greasy to the touch. This is because the anti-rust treatment agent has been sprayed, as shown in Figure 1 below. These treatment agents, combined with the cast iron of the pot, create a peculiar smell that must be removed before cooking.

Second, remove the odor first. Add 1:1 water and cooking oil to the pot, add a handful of tea leaves and bring to a boil. It is best to use animal fat, and the amount of oil should be enough to scrub the walls. After boiling, turn down the heat and use a spatula to scoop up the oil and water and pour it over the entire wall of the pot several times. After turning off the fire, when the oil and water are hot, if there is fine sand, sawdust or rice husks, add a few handfuls to the oil and water. If there is none, you can also leave it out. Then use a brush to scrub the entire pot wall. Then pour out the oil and water, rinse with hot water, and proceed to the next step.

Third, the function of tea is to remove the iron smell of the iron pot. If you don't have tea leaves, you can use salt and minced ginger instead. First, dry-heat a new iron pan, sprinkle a few handfuls of salt into the pan and stir-fry, trying to cover the entire wall of the pan until the salt turns brown. Then gather the salt at the bottom of the pan, add cooking oil and minced ginger, stir-fry over low heat, and then add water and bring to a boil. After the water boils, pour it over the pot wall several times. Then turn off the heat and brush it while it is still hot.

How to deal with a cast iron pot when using it for the first time? If you don’t want to use a greasy method to remove the odor, you can use a new cast iron pot to cook a pot of mung bean porridge. After the porridge boils, simmer it over low heat until it becomes a paste, then let it cool naturally. When the porridge has cooled, pour it out. This kind of porridge is not edible. Scrub the walls of the pot with ginger slices and rinse it with hot water. If you don’t have ginger slices, just scrub them with hot water.

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