Protect Your Cast Iron Skillet From Rust With An Easy Coffee Filter Hack

After you cook a delicious meal for yourself, your family, or guests, it's time for that part of the dining experience that some home cooks enjoy and others dread: washing the dishes. Whether you like it or not, you need to keep your pots and pans clean for food safety, including your cast iron skillet. However, even if you do a great job of washing and drying your cast iron skillet (all while avoiding soap), you still risk the pan developing rust from moisture that can form on the pan. That's why you should lay a coffee filter inside your skillet after you wash and dry it thoroughly to protect your pan from moisture. 

You can place your cast iron skillet on your stovetop over low heat to dry any lingering dampness from the pan. But even after you do that, you still need to protect the pan from moisture that can build up while it's stored in your pantry. Simply line your skillet with a coffee filter when you store it, and your pan will be protected from the humidity and moisture that can form on its surface, which will ultimately lead to rusting. How? Well, it's because of the material that paper coffee filters are made of.

Coffee filters are made of a type of cellulose fiber, an organic material derived from plants that is highly absorbent. That cellulose is strengthened with a chemical application that makes it sturdier and more absorbent. After the chemicals are applied to the cellulose, it's then shaped into a sheet, dried, and fashioned into a particular shape and size — the most typical being cone-shaped filters with an entwined texture.

When you line your cast iron skillet with a coffee filter, the highly absorbent properties of its material will capture any moisture and humidity that may form as it sits in your kitchen cabinet. This layer of protection will help prevent your cast iron skillet from rusting. Lining your pan with two or three coffee filters should be enough to protect it. But, just as there's a coffee filter hack to avoid scratching up your fancy plates, you can use coffee filters to protect your cast iron skillets from scratches, too.

If you don't have a lot of space in your kitchen cabinet, you may compensate by stacking your pots and pans, including your cast iron skillets. This can be risky because the bottom of a pan can end up scratching the inside of the pan it's stacked on top of. You don't want your skillet to ever develop any unsightly scratches that may make you want to replace it with a new pan, which can be costly. Helpfully, the coffee filter that you line your pan with to absorb moisture to prevent your cast iron skillet from rusting will also help keep it looking like you just bought it.

By placing a few coffee filters inside of your cast iron skillet when you store it, you'll protect its surface from the bottom of the pots or pans that may be stacked on top of it. This will ensure your cast iron skillet doesn't get scratched or go rusty. Now you have a new reason to buy coffee filters, even if you don't drink coffee.