wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I inheirited a very black cast-iron pan from my mom. I enjoy cooking
> in it--it is very nonstick and it seems easy to clean by simply
> deglazing with hot water and scrubbing well with my regular nylon
> dish-cleaning brush. After each use, I dry the skillet thoroughly
and
> apply a thin layer of canola oil. In fact, I'm a bit obsessive about
> this.
>
> My problem is this: I keep getting rust spots developing on the
bottom
> of the pan. I can always remove them by scrubbing the spots with a
> mixture of salt and oil, but they keep coming back. Also, on the
other
> side (the cooking side), it _looks_ like there may be rust _under_
the
> blackened patina. It's very hard to tell--it's not obviously dry,
> powdery rust like I get on the bottom, and the way that light
reflects
> off the surface, the redness may be a figment of my imagination.
>
> I do not know how well the pan was treated before I got it, but I am
> guessing not very well. It was sitting in my parents' basement for
> years before I rescued it. They probably got it from my grandma, who
> was a notoriously bad cook.
>
> My question is: could there be rust _underneath_ the seasoning/patina
> layer? If there is, I think I'm just going to buy a new skillet,
since
> it does not seem like it's worth it to remove all the seasoning, then
> remove all the rust, then reseason when I can get a new, preseasoned
> skillet for twenty bucks at Amazon.

A pan that old cries out for reseasoning. Could well be badly rusted
below a thick layer of burned on food... only way to know if the pan is
worth salvaging is to totally remove everything down to bare metal. If
badly pitted it's not worth saving, use it for a door stop. Like you
said, cast iron cookware is very inexpensive, get a new one.