Accidentally burnt cast-iron teapot

[noul]

Hi everybody,

Excuse me for starting my presence at the forum urged by a personal need but I would appreciate any possible help.

I have a cast iron teapot like the one in the pic below. I accidentally forgot the teapot empty on the hot electric cooking plate. The tea pot had a black layer of some material inside which is now melted/destroyed at many parts.

Is it still safe to use? Is there a way to repair it?

Thank you in advance!

[hobin]

I think yours is a teapot, not a kettle. not meant for hotplates. iron teapots are usually coated inside---that is the substance that melt
I personally wouldn't use it anymore

[Jaymo]

I echo the above. I would not use it anymore. What you have is a teapot, not a kettle. It is designed simply to steep tea like other teapots, but is designed to look similar to a tetsubin (cast iron kettle.)

Now that the inner coating is burnt I would not risk your health by continuing to use it.

On a more positive note, welcome to the boards! I hope you find much useful information here!

[kyarazen]

Hi everybody,

Excuse me for starting my presence at the forum urged by a personal need but I would appreciate any possible help.

I have a cast iron teapot like the one in the pic below. I accidentally forgot the teapot empty on the hot electric cooking plate. The tea pot had a black layer of some material inside which is now melted/destroyed at many parts.

Is it still safe to use? Is there a way to repair it?

Thank you in advance!

if its urushi that has broken down then you might want to decide if you want to get rid of all the coating (urushi is food safe after curing)

if it is the iron reduction layer that loses its blackness/greyness you can treat it with green tea.

but still check with the maker of your pot, if the iron's good quality etc.

[noul]

Thanks for the answers! I know that I should not heat it, what actually happened is that I accidentally turned on the wrong hot plate for cooking and the teapot was there

I was just hoping that there is a way to re-do the coating..

[kyarazen]

Thanks for the answers! I know that I should not heat it, what actually happened is that I accidentally turned on the wrong hot plate for cooking and the teapot was there

I was just hoping that there is a way to re-do the coating..

if its urushi then it may not be worth going through the trouble.. you need a humid chamber to cure it, and you will need to import the lacquer. i have loads of it though.. and when not handled properly it results in some rash

the factories do it in superb bulk so it is efficient and economical for them.

[miig]

depending on how expensive the pot was / how dear it is to you, you might find someone who can fix it? I for example sent some teaware to a japanese lady in Berlin a while ago, who does Kintsugi (urushi + some color to fix broken porcelain).
I bet she could do it too, so you might find someone next to where you live.

[chamekke]

If you can be sure of safely removing the residue, that's great. I personally would err on the side of caution.

(I know this isn't the use you bought it for, but tetsubin also make charming planters.)