Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsScrub away food, not your seasoning
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2018
Confession: Yes, I am an owner of the Stainless Steel Mesh Cast Iron Cleaner. Moreover, I've been a frequent user of the product with several of my cast iron skillets. The concept behind these "chain-mail" style scrubbers is that they efficiently scrub off everything from caked-on grit to burnt cheese, leaving your precious cast iron skillet looking clean and refreshed (don't forget to oil your cast iron after cleaning it).
And while I have no plans of retiring my chain-mail scrubber, the frequency with which I use it changed dramatically after a conversation with the people behind the Field Company - makers of an American made cast iron skillet that is significantly smoother and lighter than similar cast iron brands. What I learned in that conversation was that while effective, the chain-mail scrubbers can prove to be overly abrasive on some cast iron - particularly those designed with a smoother interior finish.
Here's the deal, nearly all cast iron these days is sold pre-seasoned, so it seems logical to just expect it to behave as promised right off the bat. But it's not quite that easy nor straight forward. In truth, the seasoning on cast iron is in a constant ebb and flow. You build up layers when you cook with it, but then you'll also lose a few layers here and there — after cleaning some particularly stubborn food bits, for instance, or after cooking something very acidic. The aim is to build more layers of seasoning than you lose, eventually accumulating a silky smooth, gloriously shiny, deeply blackened cooking surface.
Enter the Full Circle Tenacious Cast Iron Brush. Not wanting to risk the seasoning that my cast iron skillets were building up, I opted for the brush. The product relies reinforced (but not metal) bristles and special scraper to do the heavy lifting of cleaning my pans. The heavy duty bristles do the hard work of cleaning away the unwanted gunk without stripping away the layers of season that will make my skillets the envy of friends and family.
Bottom Line: Cast iron rewards loyalty. Take care of your skillet and it will take care of you - and the Full Circle Tenacious Brush is a great place to start.
