Nothing beats cooking with cast iron. The even heating, the high temps, the bullet-proof nature of the iron, the flavors the sear produces…I could go on and on. If I were forced to pick something about it that I didn’t absolutely love, it’s cleaning it up. Nothing beats a burger from a cast iron grill pan. Until it dribbles fat and cheese that sizzles to a faretheewell and good luck getting off without a blowtorch or some horribly caustic acid. And that’s where Hudson’s Premium Xl Cast Iron Cleaning Chainmail Scrubber comes in.
See, one thing about cast iron is it needs to be seasoned to be “bulletproof” cookware. Seasoning involves coating the pan, pot or dutch oven with a high-heat fat (I use lard), and baking in an over for about an hour. After that, the use of soaps or acids to clean tend to strip away the seasoning and flavors that build up on good cast iron. So, in order to clean it off completely you’re constantly starting over from square one. Unless you a have a good, large bit of chainmail around to scrub with. Think of it as a big, flat stainless steel sponge that never goes bad, falls apart, or gets covered in germs. And because it’s 316L food-grade stainless steel, it won’t rust. At 9″x 9″, it’s 40% larger than the standard 7″ x 7″, and covers the cook base of most standard 10″ pans perfectly.
The things I did not love about this was that I tend to use a grill pan more often than my cast iron skillet. A grill pan has a raised grill, with narrow channels to carry away fats as you cook. The narrow channels are just narrow enough that the small stainless rings that make up the chain mail don’t quite fit in the channels, which means the pan I’d need it for the most doesn’t play nice with the Hudson Premium XL Chainmail Scrubber. Bummer. That’s a problem exclusive to folks like me who have a Lodge brand 12″ grill pan. All my other cast iron pieces clean up like a dream. The other is the size. It’s not a true 9″ x 9″, more like 8″ x 7″ at best. And since I don’t have a lot of experience with chain mail cleaners, I don’t know how accurate their explanation for the short measurement is. The upside is, it’s a one time cost, so no chemicals to buy, no fancy cleaners, no sponges or brushes. And Hudson guarantees it for the life of the product. So you need to decide if this is for you, but I’m a fan.
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I received the above product(s) free of charge from Hudson Essentials. I am not obligated to provide a positive or favorable review, just my honest opinion. My review is based on my experience with the product and/or brand, which may differ from yours.
WOM-derful 