Any good Southern woman owns at least one seasoned cast iron skillet. My mom, who has been cooking up biscuits, cornbread, fried green tomatoes, and many other Southern delicacies for 30 years, had a few too many and decided to past one down to me. Yay!

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve put my skillet to good use. And the other day as I was shifting things around in my oven (because I tend to store things in there that I’m not using), I discovered that my dear skillet had developed a tarry, gummy, icky mess in the bottom. Eww.

I mean, this rubbery stuff is thick. And the noticeable sheen? That’s not water. I’m guessing that I put too much oil in the bottom after I last used it. Then, as it sat in my oven while I cooked on the stove top, the pan heated up and cooled off many times, thus creating the grossness. At first I was devastated, thinking that I had somehow managed to completely ruin an indestructible pan. But thankfully I found a helpful video about cleaning a super dirty skillet and had hope that it could be saved. Basically you boil water and scrape. I followed the instructions, and it worked! See:

Today while out running some errands, I saw a lovely cast iron grill pan that just had to be mine. (Honestly, I’ve been wanting this one in FENNEL from Le Creuset, but $125 seems a little steep. I think my $30 Lodge will do the same trick.)

I can’t wait to test out the artichoke recipe in this on the stovetop!