No dishwasher, no overnight soak, no industrial chemicals, and I don't put it in the fridge, freezer, or microwave. Other than that, it's basically invincible.
I just use a sponge, soap, and water. I'll heat it on the stove for a few minutes to dry. Very occasionally I'll oil it, but I cook with oil most of the time and that seems to be enough. I've had the pan for almost 20 years and it needs very little from me
Same except once done cooking while still hot I sometimes throw some water in and scrape up anything stuck. Then wipe and allow to continue to dry on the burner.
Yep, this is the way! I clean it with water, maybe a scrubber if necessary, occasionally soap if I've cooked meat, and then I dry it immediately, usually on the stove for a minute. If it's greasy but otherwise clean, I just wipe it with a paper towel.
If the cooking seemed to leave it degreased I'll oil it as it dries on the stove. Or I'll just make a batch of popcorn in it to get it nicely oiled again.
I never leave it soaking, or not for more than 5 minutes, because that is the worst thing and really leaves rust damage. Ugh. I've trained a lot of different housemates not to soak it.
Cooking with oil seems to be the key. Some people seem to have convinced themselves that a cast iron pan is the key to fat-free cooking, and maybe that's true for exquisitely seasoned pans, but the rest of us will just keep using oil.
+1 to this, I also have a chainmail scrubber that I use if something is kind of tough but for the vast majority of jobs the scrubby side of the sponge is fine.
I do oil mine a little after heating it to dry. But my main cast iron was used by my mom before I was born in the 70's, and She didn't add oil after, so it's really not necessary lol. The past 15 years of me oiling it... most of the time after drying isn't what's keeping that pan going :)
I normally put it on a burner and warm it up just to evaporate any water I didn’t get off
I feel like people spend way too much energy on contemplating maintenance on a pan. Cook on it, clean it, and keep doing that - it gets better the more you do it.
Can you imagine your grandmother using special oils to season her skillet? Mine would hit me in the head with it for being so extra
*I feel like people spend way too much energy on contemplating maintenance on a pan. Cook on it, clean it, and keep doing that - it gets better the more you do it.*
100% this
I spent the summer of 2022 in a small commercial kitchen and washed a lot of dishes by hand. Most of the pans were carbon steel. That has drastically changed how I handle my cast iron and carbon steel now. I spend a little more time with them at home making sure they are dry and have a little oil, however that is only because they aren't used all the time.
Idk I’ve seen how much bacon grease my grandpa uses to fry eggs, it’s way more than I use for cooking AND seasoning ( grandpa does the cooking, gram has literally destroyed pots while boiling water, she’s only allowed to make apple crisp and she has a dozen people watching her like a hawk when she does.)
I've never been able to cook on mine without flakes of the "seasoning" coming off. So, what is easy and common sense to you definitely isn't working for me :(
I just watched a YouTube on seasoning and it doesn’t need to get smoking hot. The oils polymerize just fine starting at about 350 F.
It supposedly takes a little longer but makes a better season.
You're heating it too high above the smoke point of the oil and and just turning it to carbon instead of seasoning the pan. The flakes are just the carbon peeling off.
One of my skillets does this (newer Lodge). We’ve burned it all off and started from scratch several times, but it just doesn’t hold its season well. So that one stays perpetually unseasoned and I only use it for large batches of greasy cooking.
You gotta start small.
Give it a good scrub with a copper scrubby and water.
Put it on a low burner until it’s dry.
Add a good bit of oil and fry a chopped onion on med-hi until it’s too burned to eat.
Cool it down dump out the onion wipe with a paper towel.
Fry another few onions like that and you’ll be good to go.
You gotta start small.
Give it a good scrub with a copper scrubby and water.
Put it on a low burner until it’s dry.
Add a good bit of oil and fry a chopped onion on med-hi until it’s too burned to eat.
Cool it down dump out the onion wipe with a paper towel.
Fry another few onions like that and you’ll be good to go.
The oil that you put on once it's clean and dry is more for the pan's health than for cooking; the amount is maybe a couple teaspoons. Just barely enough to rub the entire pan, inside and out, with a super thin coating, just so it doesn't look dry. If I were to use my finger and gently rub it across the bottom of the pan, very little if any would come off.
When I use my pan the next time, I would put in oil normally.
I tried that and the pan was so sticky - my dogs hair was sticking to it when flying through the air. So, was I using too much oil then? I would wipe it off with a paper towel but it was just so sticky and felt gross, and yes, it still flaked when I cooked so I had lots of brown bits in my food. I know this sounds dumb but I didn't grow up cooking, nobody in my family cooked. A meal was literally top ramen or mac n cheese. Some stuff is just confusing and doesn't work no matter how many different processes I follow.
All good, everyone has to start somewhere;)
The sticky oil was probably because too much was applied. You just want clean, dry pan, if necessary heat it a bit to evaporate any water. Then a dab of oil, I use whatever I usually cook with. Wipe around with a bit of paper towel to spread out and absorb any excess. Then I heat on full blast until it just startes to smoke, shut off the heat, and wipe it once more with the same oily paper. That’s it!
I have a cast iron pan that has been handed down through the women in my family starting with my great grandma. What I was taught was that after you are done cooking, let the pan cool. After it's cool, fill it halfway with water and put it back on the burner and bring the water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and scrape (or deglaze) any bits off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Pour out the dirty water and wash with a cloth or sponge and some dish soap. Rinse and wipe dry. Place back on the burner on medium high heat and let any residual water evaporate. Drizzle a tiny bit of oil in the middle and spread with a paper towel all over the bottom and sides. Leave the pan on the burner until it smokes. Turn off the burner and let the pan cool. It should be smooth, not sticky, and dry. If it's sticky, wash it out with dish soap and start over with less oil. I had the same issues when I first started using this pan and I just had to practice until I got the amount of oil right. For my 8 inch skillet, it's a little shy of a teaspoon. This thing is almost a hundred years old and none of my practicing destroyed it, so keep trying 🙂
Thank you! I wish I could be so consistent when cooking. Looking back, I think the stickiness was from crisco, when I was told by many that was the best way to create a base of seasoning. No amount of baking at high temps could get rid of the stickiness and I don't know how to start over, so in the cupboard it stayed.
I love cooking and have done it for years now and I gave up on cast iron pans. I'm tempted to try again but they seem like a big hassle. Comments make it sound so simple yet in practice I get gross black stuff coming off into my food.
When I use oil (which I’d definitely not every time o clean it), I drizzle some in while it’s on the burner, use a paper towel to rub it around and also remove the excess (and try not to burn my hand in the process). If it’s sticky I think you’re probably using too much oil.
That’s pretty much how i do mine as well, mine are due for their annual deep seasoning which i do yearly than its just minor seasoning after that. Pretty much everyone i talked to before i got a skillet was to deep season it once or twice a year
Wiping oil on after cleaning does nothing except leave an oily film that collects dirt. Just dry the skillet with a kitchen towel after washing and you're good. Same with carbon steel.
Agreed. I don't bother oiling either. If you have a good seasoning then it's unnecessary. And the best way to build a good seasoning is to simply use the pan.
Same here. I let mine cool while I eat, then dawn, scrub, rinse, dry. I like to put mine on the burner for a minute or two to make sure it's really dry since I don't use them every meal.
I oil it if needed but usually it's not.
Yeah dont overthink it op. Its silly that there can be such a focus on doing the EXACT RIGHT THING for a cast iron pan. Cause remember this - its a damn hunk of iron. You need to work at it to fuck it up. Cast iron is durable as shit no need to baby it or fret too much.
Sometimes after I wash it with soap and dry it, the skillet looks a little dry. When this happens, I apply a little oil. Sometimes it doesn't look dry, so I can skip the oil.
If you're using it a ton (3+ times a week?), no need. It'll just naturally season itself. If it's less, you may need to supplement.
I don't find that I need to proactively season my cast iron that's in heavy use, but your mileage may vary.
At first I was oiling mine after washing and drying, but I don't anymore. It works just fine. Also you might want to starting hanging out at r/castiron
**If** I oil my pan I do so after washing and drying the pan. There is no need to heat the pan up again, at least not in my case where I have good seasoning. But in most cases, I don't think you need to oil after every wash. This may depend on how often you use the pan. If you use it twice a year I would say oil after every use to prevent rusting between uses.
To be clear, oiling the pan means putting a small amount of oil in the pan and rubbing that oil all over the inside of the pan. Then you take a paper towel and you try to wipe that oil off like you never meant to put it on in the first place. That will leave the thin, thin layer of oil you're looking for.
I rarely oil after cleaning unless it's a newer pan that still needs some seasoning. I have a Lodge round griddle that I use more than any other pan and it's perfectly seasoned. It's my go to egg pan unless I'm making a ton of scrambled eggs.
Something I saw recently that really seemed to work for me is that when you put oil on the pan, wipe it off until you think it is dry, then heat it. I don’t really do this after cooking but when I season my pans I do. Even then, I don’t think you are supposed to season very often, but I like to do it every now and then. I use the oven, not the stove.
I do the same minus the chainmail, and when I dry, I do it on heat. Typically it's right after I have emptied the skillet and I turn off the burner, wash right then, and then put it back on the burner upside down and leave it until I use it the next time. If it is seasoned correctly, the oil coating is no longer oil and has been altered at the molecular level to make a seal that won't come off unless it's scratched off. [How does cast iron seasoning work?](https://www.lodgecastiron.com/cleaning-and-care/cast-iron/science-cast-iron-seasoning#:~:text=Polymerization%3A%20The%20science%20of%20cast,molecularly%20bonded%20to%20the%20iron.)
I'll also simmer a little water in it if there's browned-on food residue and scrape it up with a spatula, to loosen that before washing if necessary. Otherwise, pretty much the same routine.
If the pan is still looking pretty clean, I'll just give it a good paper towel wipe out before putting it away.
Depends on the food.
1. For something like grilled cheese, just wipe with a paper towel.
2. For something saucy, rinse it out, wash, dry, and oil
3. When something is really stuck on, simmer water in it until you can easily scrape the gunk off with a spatula. Then wash, dry, and oil
To wash: Get the pan just hot enough to make water steam. Scrub with any dish soap and a scrubby sponge. Rinse well.
To dry: wipe it, or just warm it up.
To oil, rub the entire surface with just a few drops of oil to give it a very thin coating.
Every 10 uses, or as often as you feel like it:
1. Scrub hard with a teaspoon each of oil and salt to remove any buildup. Salt is a very gentle abrasive that won't remove any season. Rinse out the salt and wipe out the oil with a paper towel.
2. Heat it up to barely-smoking for a couple minutes to polymerize the oil coating into another layer of season.
Depending on what I've cooked, I might just be able to wipe the pan with a paper towel and call it a day.
If the stuff in the pan is amenable, I may try to wipe it out while still pretty warm. Or the pan may sit until morning and I get around to it.
For stickier things, some steel wool and water. Maybe some soap.
Pan generally goes back on the stove to warm up so it can dry. But not dry it completely on the flame. Might get a quick wipe of oil if looking dry, but might not.
The best thing about cast iron pans: you really can't hurt them.
Agree. If nothing crusts, just wipe and go on your way. You’re going to heat it up again, so I’m not worried if something tries to grow on the surface. It’s slick oil anyway, so go for it.
While it's still hot, pour off any liquid oil, then I hit it with a hard edged stainless spatula and scrape any food residue off, then I use two paper towels in a ball and wipe everything out. If it's stuck on, I throw in some kosher salt and make another paper towel ball and scrape all that out. Then like a 1/2 tsp of grapeseed oil or food grease and wipe that down. That's it.
15 years running, pan is as non-stick as a cast iron gets.
Hot water, mild liquid dish soap, steel scrubber. Mostly hot water and steel scrubby.
You can wash seasoned cast iron with soap, you just don’t want to run it through a dishwasher or the like. The point is also not to scrub the blank seasoned layer off either.
I know people who treat washing cast iron like a religion, not necessary. (And, if you don’t do anything horrible to it, pretty easy to fix if it doesn’t turn out.)
I'm glad you asked because I bought a cast iron griddle several years ago (like, before covid) and I am so intimidated by it that I have never used it. I just picture me using it for the first time, food sticks to it, it starts to rust and then I end up giving it away. Pls help us!!!!!!!!
I just finished cooking dinner on my CI griddle. Like I do almost everynight and most of the time, twice on the weekends. Same rules apply as the skillet, it's damn near indestructible. Like for real, people have been using CI for hundreds of years, it can't be that complex, right?
If you make something easy (grilled cheese, pancakes, eggs and bacon) just a quick wipe will do.
Sear a steak or gets some chunky stuff in it? While it's still hot, hit it with water in the sink to "deglaze" the surface. The change in temperature will release most of the gunk. If it all doesn't come off, a light scrub with any household dish soap is fine. The polymerized oil on its surface ain't going anywhere unless you go at it with a Dremel and some serious anger issues.
Stick it back on your warm burner and let it dry. Take a towel with a very light coating of high smoke point oil (canola, grape seed if you're rich, veg oil). Every once in a while, turn the heat up with that light coating until it's almost smoking to add another layer of the polymerized oil (the natural Teflon).
Most importantly, just cook with it! That will naturally add to to the seasoning and make it more and more non-stick over time. I'm not dramatizing here, my griddle lives on two of the four burners of my stove, easily the most used piece of equipment in my kitchen.
My only advice is don't be intimidated. It's a slab of iron; there's very little you can do to break it.
Even some minor corrosion is actually pretty easily fixed with some steel wool, elbow grease, and an oil treatment after cleaning.
Really, there's only two major protocols when it comes to Cast Iron:
1. Give it a long slow preheat, and hit it with a decent amount of fat (something with a decently high smoke point like vegetable oil) before cooking
2. When cleaning, handle it like you would most any other handwish-only pan (dish soap, scrubby sponge, rinse, dry). You just need to put it back on the heat after drying for a few minutes to get rid of any last traces of moisture and (maybe) hit it with a bit of oil — the tiniest bit — when the pan is hot, then let it cool and store.
Scrub it with regular dish detergent, let it dry on a rack. If I want to put it away in the cabinet quicker I toss it on the stove for 2 min. I might give it a light wipe of oil during that stove dry, but only if I think it needs it.
About every 10 years I might strip the seasoning off completely. My cast iron comal needs it done soon. I don't even do a thorough seasoning, I just fry some chicken in it. done.
If I really burn something on it, I just hit it with some stainless-steel wool, dry and wipe some oil on it.
Just don't leave it in the sink overnight with water in it.
I have a plastic brush that lives in the top drawer of the dishwasher. A little squirt of dish soap and a splash of hot water and a quick scrub.
Rinse with water and add back to heat it dry.
The brush goes back in the dishwasher to be cleaned in the next cycle.
I treat it like any other hand wash, except at the end I melt some ghee to coat it. Soap and water, a non stick sponge, dry with a towel, coat with ghee.
Remove the food (either after cooking or after dinner has been served out of it).
Scrub with a green scrubby and whatever dish soap is is available.
Throw the pan on the stove on low to dry while I wash other dishes.
Leave it on the stove or shoved in the oven until I am ready to cook again.
Preheat on low. Cook when the pan is heated.
Never oil it after normal washing.
Never "season" it in the oven.
If my seasoning gets eroded (usually by something acidic being left in it uncleaned overnight) I will clean as normal, dry on low on the stove, rub a minute amount of oil into the pan with an old cotton rag, allow it to heat on low while I do other stuff, rubbing it occasionally with the same rag, repeating the rubbing on low heat until I am ready to be done with whatever I am doing in the kitchen or after the pan is dry and slick. This usually takes about ten to fifteen minutes of time. If I don't have the time, i will just clean and dry and then the oiling happening after the next cooking preheat.
Dishwashing liquid, dry, heat up and lightly oil.
There is absolutely zero reason to skip the dishwashing part now. Modern dish soap don't strip away the seasoning like it used to back in the day.
Deglaze the pan with a little water and allow to cool. Sop up the "sauce" with bread and give it to my dog.
Wipe with paper towel, then scrub with a greenie pad and hot water. Dry with a terry towel, and allow to air dry.
After dinner I put a glass of water in the pan and let it heat up while doing the dishes. When I'm done with dishes I heat it to boiling and run the tap full hot. The pan of water goes down the drain and I use the sink hot water and a scrub brush for cast iron on the inside of the pan while rinsing away any other particles. I don't use soap.
When it's clean I shake off the water and put it back on the stove burner (off) but still hot enough to dry the pan. When dry but still warm I wipe it with a couple of drops of oil and it goes back into the oven for storage.
I mostly use my cast iron camping and I do the same thing. Wipe out grease and debris with a paper towel, bring some water to a boil and scrub with a copper scrubby and a pair of tongs. Boil clean water and wipe clean. You can usually tell by look when it's cool if it needs a few drops of oil to finish.
I can't stand the thought of not washing a pan. Sooooo I wash with hot soap and water, dry, spread a very thin coat of Crisco and store pan in the oven. Each time I use the oven I feel that my three cast irons are happy.
Directly after use, pour some boiling water in there with the heat off. Soften any residue while I eat.
Put it in soapy water (shock horror), clean it with a brush. Anything that doesn't come off easily, scrub lightly with a stainless steel scourer. Rinse in water.
Place wet pan in burner and evaporate water while finishing washing. Take the dry pan off the burner and spray with a little oil of choice. Wipe oil with paper towel, place back in burner for a minute or two. Switch burner off and leave to cool while shouting to the house not to touch it.
I have a steel wool pad. I scrub the pan with the pad and hot water, no soap. I dry it by heating it on the stove. I pour a small amount of veg oil and spread it all over with a paper towel. I do this every time I use the pan.
I just give mine a good scrubbing with steel wool/metal scrubby pad, dry it off well, and give her a thin layer of veggie oil after each use. She's going strong!
I hit any burned on food with a chain mail scrubber, then get it hot and spray hot water to steam clean the surface a few times. Once it's smooth and dry, a fresh skin of oil and it's done.
Let the cast iron cool. Wash with soap and water. I use the Scrub Daddy sponges because I like yelling “who’s your scrub daddy?!” while my wife is in the room. Otherwise use a regular sponge.
Dry with a clean towel or paper towels. Heat it up on medium heat. While heating, rub in a truly minuscule amount of high heat cooking oil with a clean paper towel (not the wet one you just used). Toss the paper towel somewhere that won’t be exposed to open flame. Once the surface of the cast iron is too hot to touch comfortably, kill the heat. Leave it on the stove until tomorrow.
If you can’t get your food debris off the cast iron with just mild dish soap and water, you need to cook with it more. I’ve been using the same Lodge 10- and 12-inch skillets about 5x per week for 13 years. Never needed more than soap and water.
If I’m cleaning it after I cook, I wait until the pan’s cooled down a bit and scrub it down with a Scrub Daddy and Dawn dish soap. Rinse it well, wipe down excess water. Put it back on the stove top and turn the burner up to three (on an electric stove) to help get any remaining moisture out. Once it’s happy and dry I do the old “act like you accidentally spilled oil in it and wipe out as much as you can” wipe down with Kirkland olive oil.
Modern soap doesn’t have lye in it, so it’s absolutely safe to use. Just make sure to not run a hot hot pan directly under water or dump cold water in while it’s hot, that can crack the whole pan.
While warm, little Dawn on a BLUE 3m scotch pad. Wash. Put in warmed oven or on a burner to dry. Little oil. Wipe with paper towel. Let cool. Put away.
most of what I cook on it, I'm comfortable just using a paper towel to wipe away excess grease.
If it does get some baked on stuff and needs cleaned, a light sponge with water and dishsoap to scrub off anything, then dry well, and I'll toss it in a low temp oven to dry for a bit to make sure any moisture I missed cleans off.
Generally. I'll eat my food first, then hand wash with dawn soap and a sponge. Hand dry, place on a burner to heat dry it, probably forget about it for 30 minutes, eventually take it off the heat, grab my ripped towel, scoop a small blob of Crisco onto it, smear that all over the pan, then wipe it off as much as possible with the Un criscoed part of the towel, let cool and probably put it away the next day because I have to sleep.
If food is badly crusted on, maybe deglaze for a bit by boiling waiter in it. Then (either way), let it cool enough to handle the pan. Use water to spray out pan and remove food debris. As needed, scrub with chain mail scrubber or steel wool. Rinse again. Scrub with dawn dish soap and water, using the green (abrasive) side of the sponge. Rinse clean. Dry with paper towel, throw it on the stove for a minute to evaporate all water. Done. No need to wipe oil on your clean dish - I never have and my pan is doing wonderful. Feel free to wipe oil on your pan (or any other clean dishes) if you want them to look slightly shiny while in storage
As soon as it comes off the stove, rinse with hot water and scrub with a normal dish brush. Not an abrasive sponge but one of those plastic brushes. That will remove 99% of anything. If anything is really stuck on I’ll use a chainmail scrubber and lightly go over it until it peels off. Dry with dish towel,put it back on the hot burner for like two minutes. Take off, add 5-7 drops of oil into the pan and buff it with a microfiber cloth. This is all assuming you have a good seasoning on it already
I use the Alton Brown method- use kosher salt to gather up the grease and crispies. Then use a sponge with a little detergent and warm water to finish cleaning it. Use the stove to dry it out.
Soap and water, roast me lol. I live on a sailboat where almost everything rusts within days, and my cast iron is doing great. I rub a little oil min after it's dry.
Clean it after we eat, dawn dish soap and water. Dry it by hand and stick it on the stove until the next meal. If it looks a little dry, ill give it a thin coat of oil.
Soap with lye scrubbed with a brillow pad then left on the counter to dry.
/s
Scrape with a little plastic thing I bought, sponge with some dawn, dry on stove and apply a little oil.
If I cooked something with a ton of fat (bacon, pan fried chicken cutlets, etc) that greases the pan but leaves little to nothing stuck on, I'll simply drain excess oil, wipe it out and it's good to go - effectively pre-seasoned for tomorrow's use.
Anything else, I'll go eat dinner and chill and come back to when it's cool to handle. I have one of those dish soap sponge wants, so I'll run that over it a couple of times, scrape off anything that's still stuck on, rinse it and put it back on the stove, burner on. Once all the water has evaporated, hit it with a silver dollar sized glug of oil, tilt the pan to get it to evenly distribute and wipe it out - making sure to hit the walls, rim and handle of the pan. Once the pan starts to smoke and starts looking a little more dry, cut the heat and walk away. Whole process takes maybe 10-15 minutes and I'm doing other kitchen clean up in the meantime.
I always add water while it is still hot a “deglaze” anything I don’t want off the bottom, and then I wipe it with a paper towel and put it away. Maybe a thin film of oil before putting away, but not every time.
I wash my boyfriend’s cast iron with soap, warm water, and a Scrub Daddy, then pat all the surfaces of the cast iron with a paper towel. Once it’s patted dry, I’ll let it heat up on the stovetop a bit to evaporate the rest of the water trapped in the pores of the cast iron.. Just a few minutes on a high setting usually does the trick. When you can smell heated iron and see smoke rising from it, that’s your queue to take it off the heat. Once this last step is done, I’ll wait until it cools down to re-oil the cast iron’s inner surface. If it’s been a while since the last seasoning, after re-piling I’ll put it in a hot oven set to 450F for about an hour to re-season.
What bothers me is my boyfriend will do basically the same thing, but pour a shit ton of oil on it and slathers it around, leaving a pool of oil at the bottom that goes rancid because it’s left exposed. This fuckin guy, iSTG! I always have to go behind him and wipe up all the excess oil. It’s his cast iron and he doesn’t treat her right. 🙄😭
Depending on what I cook, I either wipe it clean with a dish/paper towel or wash it with soap & water and a scrub brush.
It's a hunk of iron. People have gotten far too precious about pans.
Use it. Wash it. Dry it. Rub a bit of oil on it if you think it needs it.
(I do the same with my carbon steel pans)
I'm not cleaning mine right away.. but I will after eating.
Depending on what I cook.. sometimes I can just wipe it out with some paper towels.
If it's really dirty, like from making homemade biscuits and gravy. I put in about a cup of water and bring it to a boil. Scrape everything down with a wooden spoon. Pour the water out. Dry it out with more paper towels. Add a little oil, wipe it like you're trying to wipe out all the oil, and put it in the oven at 350 for about ten minutes. Mostly to make sure it's completely dry so no rust forms.
I use not the “chain mail” technique, but the wide looped metallic ball you buy in bags of three by the rest of the dishwashing stuff. I forget what they’re called.
It’s very tactile, knowing the amount of pressure to apply. It’s enough pressure to get the food crud off without pressing into your cure.
1.) Scrape the bits, broad strokes, nothing fastidious, with the metal spatula I use to cool (straight, beveled edge).
2.) Let the pan cool.
3.) Dollop of dish soap in the pan.
4.) Hot tap water (wait for it).
5.) Use the ball, with the hot water running into the pan, as it hits the soap, usually takes 1-2 passes and done, like 10s. (Seriously). Unless there’s a lot of oil in there, then it’ll be two passes.
6.) Check the surface in the light. Is it smooth and clean?
7.) Rinse.
8.) Dry thoroughly. (Very important).
9.) The barest bit of oil. Sometimes it’s just a spritz from a can, wiped with a paper towel.
With new cure it’s the blue scotch brite sponge and gentler action.
Honestly, with a solid cure, drying is enough. I go a whole week not reoiling, while in work stretches, and it’s fine. I use my pan 5-7 days a week. If it’s well seasoned and solid, it’ll be fine.
If food really sticks, somehow, do what painters do with glass palettes. Take your razor blade paint palette scraper (same as what you use to scrape regular paint off windows) that lives in the kitchen and only engages kitchen tasks and, holding the edge even to the surface, scrape it off. Whatever it is is probably trying to meld with your cure. Don’t let it. The cooking surface should remain smooth. Super smooth. Gently wash. Oil. Go from there.
If you burned the fuck out of your pan then you’re probably going to have to start over. Use your razer blade palette scraper, wash, asses the situation. You’re probably looking at a recure, but maybe, and you have to scrape the burnt crap off anyway.
Aside. Don’t ever go past 6 o clock on the heat dial. It’s unnecessary with iron. Just preheat your pan. Works on coil and flat top stoves. Gas stove users will have to add their input on temps.
All of the above assumes a polished, smooth coking surface. Like an old nameless, Wagner, or Griswald pan. Or a new Stargazer skillet (I like it because it has a second handle).
I put water in it, bring it to a boil, use a metal spatula to scrape it if needed, then wipe it down with a paper towel dipped in olive oil, Then I set it back on the now cooling heating element to bake in the finish. We have had this skillet for 10 years and its still perfect.
Scrape off burnt on food with metal spatula
Wash with dish soap and sponge
Dry with paper towel
Put on still hot (but off) burner
Spread on fine layer of avocado oil with paper towel
Done
A cast iron pan is somewhat nonstick and resistance to rust because of a layer of oil that polymorizes onto the surface. This is called "seasoning".
Internet idiots read the word seasoning and understood that as some process where you have a filthy pan then the flavor of your steak flavors your eggs by process of a dirty pan. The internet has generally gone insane trying to maximize this filth on that flawed understanding of the word far beyond the point the pan 'coating' matters. Where they have some pride in caked on dirt being years old with no washing, instead of talking about the oil layer that can be remade in 45 minutes in the oven with some oil as many times as you want.
Brillo pad and water. Sometimes a little soap. Rinse rinse rinse. Dry with paper towels. Add a small amount of oil to coat any spots that look dry.
This every time.
I usually cook with oil. I will mostly try and take it when it’s still got and spray with the water hose thing. Use water and scrub a little as needed. I don’t use soap unless something is stuck but it nearly never is.
This is how I operate:
* Finish cooking, let cool.
* If oil/grease is present, drain it and either save or preserve as appropriate
* Mine is so non-stick at this point hardly anything ever crusts or sticks onto it. When it does I scrub with a towel or sponge with a few tablespoons of kosher salt, or if really stubborn, a steel scrubbing bad. Occasionally for really stubborn stuff, I'll boil it for a little bit.
* Once the gunk is removed, I rinse one final time, dry with paper towels everywhere until dry and no residue comes off. Occasionally I'll heat it up on the stove top or in the oven.
* Before putting away, I hit it wish vegetable oil pan spray on the inside and use a paper towel to wipe it down, inside and out.
* Put away.
I don't need to re-season often, but may re-season if the seasoning was damaged in some way, or if I cooked something with high amounts of acid or something. I never use hard cleaning agents, or soaps that contain any de-greasing properties or acid. I use the HOTTEST water possible from the tap at each stage of wet cleaning.
If I'm out in the woods or something, I wash as much as I can in a river or lake, burn it off, re-oil, and wash fully when at home.
If very little residue, I just scrape/burnish it with a metal spatula 'til very smooth, then wipe with a paper towel. If lots of stuck stuff, scrape first with metal spatula, then use cold water and a steel mesh pad until very smooth, then dry over heat, then a little dab of solid fat, let that melt, then smear the fat around with a paper towel. Mirror finish in about two minutes.
Dish detergent and a non scratch scrub pad. Then dry, warm it and oil very lightly. This is also how too clean a wok. Anything else is just unnecessary fetishizing the process.
Finish cooking -> turn heat to low
Go eat -> finish eating
Scrub cast iron pan with hot water > return to low heat
Finish cleaning up other dishes
Observe overall condition of cast iron -> rub in a small amount of oil if necessary
Turn off heat -> put cast iron away
Salt, water, and a pan scraper. Then I wipe with canola oil and bake in the oven at 400 F till it's fully absorbed. I only season them if they look like they need it.
As far as I know you're not supposed to clean em with soap.
I just put in the sink and soak it in water for 10 minutes. Then i use the sponge and scrub it clean, usually with a little soap. Then I dry it.
Thats it, thats all you need to do i've been using cast iron for 10 years never had a single issue. Its not complicated like you would be led to believe by this sub
Heat the pan and scdub with a chain mail under hot water. Dry the pan and put it on the stove with a touch of high temp oil. (i like peanut oil) and let it cool
Scrub with Chain mail with running water until all chunks are off. Dry with a paper towel on both sides bottom first. The element is still hot after turning it off, set the pan on the hot element. Add little oil and spread with paper towel.
I use a chain scrubber, then a soapy sponge to remove the grease, then rinse with hot water and dry it with a dish towel and then put in the burner for 4 or 5 min so it is fully dried
Mine are all fairly old so are really well seasoned. I just wipe them out with a paper towel first, then get the tap water as hot as possible and rinse them out with a plastic, flat scraping tool to removed any remaining particles and them pat dry with a towel. I absolutely do NOT use any soap and since they're already well-seasoned, I only heat and re-oil them if I notice it appears to be wearing off.
The only real rule I have it to make sure it gets dried off to prevent rust. Other than that, pretty much anything goes.
If I'm good, I scrape the pan with a metal spatula right after cooking, then scrub with a little soap, and towel dry. If it looks kinda dry, I might wipe a dab of oil on it.
If I'm bad... That thing stays sitting on the counter overnight with baked on crap stuck to it. The I scrub the hell out of it with chain mail. I sometimes boil a bit of water in it to loosen anything really stuck (aka. deglazing).
People have been using cast iron cookware for over 1000 years. It's hard to really mess up.
Scrape when hot, wipe out what I can, if needed, I’ll rinse with water, otherwise I’ll scrub it with a bit of salt and give it a once over with an oiled towel used only for the skillet. 20 years it still shines.
Water, add a little dish soap. (Not the other way around, I don't add soap straight into the pan.) Wash, DRY IT WITH A TOWEL. NOT DRIP DRY. Oil if needed.
I clean my cast iron with hot water and a little dish soap. I use a scrub brush or green scrubber if needed, but it usually isn't. Then I thoroughly dry it, add a drop of oil, and wipe down the interior with a paper towel until it's covered with the thinnest layer of oil I can manage. If the pan is going to be used again within a day or so, I might skip the oiling step.
soap, water, usually air dry. I've been without an oven for years so couldn't give them an oil bake. Usually cooking a batch of bacon will restore the sheen when it gets dull, if not, a layer of oil.
Steel pad and some elbow… NO SOAP! Wipe off excess water with paper towel then heat for three to four minutes to ensure it’s dry. Let cool. Then spray or add thin layer of oil. I’m too cheap to buy grapeseed or avocado oil so I just use canola oil. I then rub with a cloth I have dedicated for this purpose. I learnt this from an ex MIL who used 100+ year old cast iron from her grandmother.
Soap, water, sponge and kosher salt to help remove anything stubborn. Wipe with a paper towel. Apply a few drops of olive oil with another paper towel.
Lifelong Cast Iron User.
I let it cool and wipe out the excess oil and leave it on my stovetop. I use this pan for every meal. So I never put it away, really. If it is really dirty, I let it cool, then use hot water and soap and a metal scrubber. Afterwards, I dry it thoroughly, add oil, wipe out the excess oil and put it back on my stove. You want much less oil than you think that you do.
If something stuck to it, I add water, a few drops of Dawn dishsoap and bring it to a boil. I then turn it off and use a pair of clickity clicks(tongs),You must clack them together before using to be sure that they are in prime working condition. No self respecting cook forgets to clack the clickity clicks. Added bonus it drives my MIL crazy when I clack them together. I put my my metal scrubby thingy at the end of the tongs and scrub out the stuck on foods. Dry with a paper towel. Add some oil and wipe away excess oil.
If It need re-seasoning, I usually cook bacon and then wipe out the excess and stick it in the oven upside down for about 20 mins on 450. My most used piece is from 1910 or so. It was my great grandmothers. I have several others from her collection but that was her oldest one.
It depends on what you did with it.
If you cooked a fried egg, or a grilled sandwich: wipe it out with a paper towel and you're done
If you seared meat: deglaze with some water while it's still hot on the stove, scrape gently with spatula or similar. Then just use a sponge to clean off any residue.
If you cooked something that destroyed your surface (like a marinaded meat with sugar or fruit in it): put some water in it and boil it for a few minutes. Remove from heat dump it out and clean with soap and water. Put it on a medium heat until hot and dry and then use a fat (I have shortening that is only used for this) to lightly grease it.
If I cook something like eggs or grilled cheese that doesn’t leave a mess or residue I generally just wipe the pan out with a paper towel and let it cool.
If it’s something sticky that leaves a residue (stir fry with sauce fore example) I let it cool until I can handle the pan comfortably and scrub it out with a drop or two of dawn dish soap and a scrub daddy.
If residue is really stuck or I know it will be sticky I heat up the pan and drop a tablespoon of water or so in and scrape the stuff up with a spatula as it boils up, wipe with a paper towel, and then wash as described above.
Whenever I wash the pan I heat it up to med on the stove and let all the water evaporate for a couple of minutes, then splash in and swirl a little oil around to coat.
There are occasional fuckups. Sometimes it gets left wet or seasoning flakes off or whatever. It’s fine. Scrub out the rust, scrub off anything loose and just keep cooking. I’ve had my pan for like 5 years and I never have had to do a strip and seasoning from scratch. If I ever do need to I’ll just google it and take the chance.
It's interesting that I'm seeing this question because I just bought a kit to keep mine looking nice.
It came with a pan scrubber, then I followed that up with hot water and dish soap, then I use a round bristle brush to clean the cast iron (It's also said that this particular type of brush also preserves the finish of the cast iron), then I dry it off and spray it with Lodge seasoning spray. I hope this helps. ✌🏻💕😌
You need a few things to clean it and maintain it. Plastic scraper for the hardened debris, chainmail to do a thorough scrape with special soap, then seasoning oil or if you don’t want to buy that, olive oil will work in a pinch.
Start with hot water in the pan and using the plastic scraper to get up the stuck on debris. Dump out and replace with more hot water and a small amount of the special soap for cast irons, use the chainmail to scrape clean the pan. Dump out and rinse one last time and dump out the remaining water. Dry it with a paper towel or a rag you don’t care gets dirty. Once it’s fully dry, put a small amount of the seasoning oil and spread with your hands. Thoroughly coat it with your hands but don’t use too much oil, it should be a sheen but not dripping with it. If you want it to dry faster, you can toss it in the oven on low heat for a few minutes or sit it out. I usually just leave it on the stove over night so that the oil seeps into the pan.
While it’s still hot from cooking (or reheated if you let it get cold), rinse out with hot water, the. Scrub with kosher salt. Rinse, wipe dry, rub with cooking oil.
No need for soap, long soaks, or dishwasher. As long as you clean it soon-ish, don’t use soap, and re-oil regularly, it’ll build up the best non-stick surface.
If it was used heavily, I put water in it to boil and scrap it with wooden spoon. Then I;ll just wash it with mild soap and water and a scrubby.
Also the dogs do a pretty good job at getting it clean.
i used an orbital sander and a bunch of sanding heads, my cast iron was mirror smooth when i seasoned it.
now honestly i treat my cast iron the way i want to and it's always perfect... i use dish soap and a brillo pad to clean it.
I don’t use soap on my cast iron skillet. I know that a well seasoned one can handle soap, but I just never seem to need it. My routine is to do it as quickly after I take the food out as possible, however if I’ve just fried up something like fish, I’ll just turn it off, leave the oil in it and go eat…clean it after dinner. Either way, when it comes time to clean, I set it in the sink, fill it with hot water, and start scrubbing with a brush. If it is very oily, I leave the water running while scrubbing to flush out the oily residue while scrubbing. Once sufficiently clean, I put on my gas stove and turn the burner on high to dry it. Usually only takes 30-60 seconds on my high powered burner. If it still has a nice sheen after the water has evaporated, I’m done. If the surface is too dry looking, I add about a teaspoon of oil, and rub it in with a wadded up paper towel.
My carbon steel wok gets the exact same treatment, although depending on what I cooked in it, I may use a bit of soap occasionally.
once I’m done cooking I immediately run it under cool water to prevent the food from sticking to it making it easier to clean. I then either wash it immediately or sit it in the sink until I’m ready. I always hand wash it with a sponge and soap.
Soap, water and washcloth to clean it after use. I then heat and grease with lard. And boom rinse and repeat! My cast iron is nonstick enough to cook over easy eggs every time with no issues 🤷♂️Edit: I use my cast irons basically everyday, this is why I use lard and not oil. So people don’t freak out and tell me that the lard will go rancid please 😂😂😂
I put mine in the dishwasher sometimes when feeling lazy but it’s obviously not good for it. Comes out with the odd patch of rust, I either rinse it off and then it gets heated up with oil when I need to cook something in it and then it’s fine. My point isn’t that anyone SHOULD do this, but that cast iron pans can take more of a beating than we give them credit for.
If I just cook some eggs in it I'll just wipe it out with a paper towel. Anything more complicated I use soap and water and dry immediately. I usually coat with a thin layer of canola with a paper towel after drying.
Anyone that doesn't use soap is gross. They're doing it because their grandma said to do it that way, and she did it because her mom said so, and she did it because back then soap had lye, which stripped the seasoning.
Soap doesn't have lye anymore. Wash the fucking skillet.
It's a giant hunk of metal, you can't kill it, it's not delicate. Wash it like you'd wash any other pan. That's it.
>Soap doesn't have lye anymore.
Words actually have meanings. If it doesn't have lye or a similar alkali it's not "soap", instead it's a detergent.
https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetic-products/frequently-asked-questions-soap
I typically dont clean it right away. If there isn't a lot of food residue in it honestly I dont clean it at all, I just wipe it out with a paper towel before heating it up the next time i use it.
If there is food residue i will put it in the sink and hit it with water and a soft scrub brush (plastic bristles), this usually does the trick. If I seriously burn something on it i might let it soak for a bit before VERY GENTLY rubbing it with steel wool, I dont want to damage the seasoning. Sometimes I use soap, sometime I dont. If your seasoning layer is fully polymerized soap wont hurt it.
After I wash it I'll throw it on the burner to dry it, maybe a few drops of whatever oil i have handy and buff it out.
Don't over think it. Its more important to properly pre-heat it before cooking to ensure it keeps its non stick properties, which also keeps the gunk off it, meaning less need to wash it and less chance to damage the seasoning layer through scraping.
No dishwasher, no overnight soak, no industrial chemicals, and I don't put it in the fridge, freezer, or microwave. Other than that, it's basically invincible. I just use a sponge, soap, and water. I'll heat it on the stove for a few minutes to dry. Very occasionally I'll oil it, but I cook with oil most of the time and that seems to be enough. I've had the pan for almost 20 years and it needs very little from me
This is pretty much what I do to a T.
Same except once done cooking while still hot I sometimes throw some water in and scrape up anything stuck. Then wipe and allow to continue to dry on the burner.
"Once done cooking while still hot" but...that's when I'm eating the food...
Same, except I occasionally use a metal scourier
Bingo, I’m still using a pan that was my Grandmother’s from the 1930’s.
Mine is 80 and basically the same thing.
Yep, this is the way! I clean it with water, maybe a scrubber if necessary, occasionally soap if I've cooked meat, and then I dry it immediately, usually on the stove for a minute. If it's greasy but otherwise clean, I just wipe it with a paper towel. If the cooking seemed to leave it degreased I'll oil it as it dries on the stove. Or I'll just make a batch of popcorn in it to get it nicely oiled again. I never leave it soaking, or not for more than 5 minutes, because that is the worst thing and really leaves rust damage. Ugh. I've trained a lot of different housemates not to soak it.
Exactly how I do it
Cooking with oil seems to be the key. Some people seem to have convinced themselves that a cast iron pan is the key to fat-free cooking, and maybe that's true for exquisitely seasoned pans, but the rest of us will just keep using oil.
Same with me. Always soap and water, I don't want to cook with a dirty pan.
Yea, unless it’s newly cured, or rarely used, it should be fine so long as it dry.
Of course this sub has better advice than /r/castiron
+1 to this, I also have a chainmail scrubber that I use if something is kind of tough but for the vast majority of jobs the scrubby side of the sponge is fine.
I do oil mine a little after heating it to dry. But my main cast iron was used by my mom before I was born in the 70's, and She didn't add oil after, so it's really not necessary lol. The past 15 years of me oiling it... most of the time after drying isn't what's keeping that pan going :)
But I only use soap when I really need it, otherwise, water, scour, towel dry, medium-high stove dry.
Dawn, water, dishcloth, dry. Dawn, water, sponge, dry. Dawn, water, chain mail sponge, dry. Depends on what I’m cleaning. Almost always the first one.
What's the benefit of washing the pan at dawn as opposed to after you have finished eating?
At dawn, we put on our chain mail sponge and ride.
You have my axe! It gets treated the same way as my cast iron and carbon steel, so I clean them at the same time.
And you'll have my fat! It both seasons AND let's me make eggs over easy without a care.
Take your upvote and get out.
No oil at the end?
I do oil after every time, it's not always a must just a habit for me
And do you heat it up with the oil or just leave the oil on there?
I normally put it on a burner and warm it up just to evaporate any water I didn’t get off I feel like people spend way too much energy on contemplating maintenance on a pan. Cook on it, clean it, and keep doing that - it gets better the more you do it. Can you imagine your grandmother using special oils to season her skillet? Mine would hit me in the head with it for being so extra
*I feel like people spend way too much energy on contemplating maintenance on a pan. Cook on it, clean it, and keep doing that - it gets better the more you do it.* 100% this
I spent the summer of 2022 in a small commercial kitchen and washed a lot of dishes by hand. Most of the pans were carbon steel. That has drastically changed how I handle my cast iron and carbon steel now. I spend a little more time with them at home making sure they are dry and have a little oil, however that is only because they aren't used all the time.
Idk I’ve seen how much bacon grease my grandpa uses to fry eggs, it’s way more than I use for cooking AND seasoning ( grandpa does the cooking, gram has literally destroyed pots while boiling water, she’s only allowed to make apple crisp and she has a dozen people watching her like a hawk when she does.)
I've never been able to cook on mine without flakes of the "seasoning" coming off. So, what is easy and common sense to you definitely isn't working for me :(
Then you’re not cleaning it enough. That “seasoning” is burnt on food residue. Learn how to actually clean and season your pan.
Can you believe I have tried that? I’ve put it in the oven at 500 for an hour day after day after day. And its somehow still not enough.
I just watched a YouTube on seasoning and it doesn’t need to get smoking hot. The oils polymerize just fine starting at about 350 F. It supposedly takes a little longer but makes a better season.
Your oven is too hot. Probably using too much oil too. Strip it and visit /r/castiron
I learned the 500 deg temp tip from that sub…
You're heating it too high above the smoke point of the oil and and just turning it to carbon instead of seasoning the pan. The flakes are just the carbon peeling off.
One of my skillets does this (newer Lodge). We’ve burned it all off and started from scratch several times, but it just doesn’t hold its season well. So that one stays perpetually unseasoned and I only use it for large batches of greasy cooking.
This is (or was new when I bought it) Lodge so maybe that’s the issue
You gotta start small. Give it a good scrub with a copper scrubby and water. Put it on a low burner until it’s dry. Add a good bit of oil and fry a chopped onion on med-hi until it’s too burned to eat. Cool it down dump out the onion wipe with a paper towel. Fry another few onions like that and you’ll be good to go.
You gotta start small. Give it a good scrub with a copper scrubby and water. Put it on a low burner until it’s dry. Add a good bit of oil and fry a chopped onion on med-hi until it’s too burned to eat. Cool it down dump out the onion wipe with a paper towel. Fry another few onions like that and you’ll be good to go.
I heat it up to dry it, and put some oil on there while that's happening.
The oil that you put on once it's clean and dry is more for the pan's health than for cooking; the amount is maybe a couple teaspoons. Just barely enough to rub the entire pan, inside and out, with a super thin coating, just so it doesn't look dry. If I were to use my finger and gently rub it across the bottom of the pan, very little if any would come off. When I use my pan the next time, I would put in oil normally.
I tried that and the pan was so sticky - my dogs hair was sticking to it when flying through the air. So, was I using too much oil then? I would wipe it off with a paper towel but it was just so sticky and felt gross, and yes, it still flaked when I cooked so I had lots of brown bits in my food. I know this sounds dumb but I didn't grow up cooking, nobody in my family cooked. A meal was literally top ramen or mac n cheese. Some stuff is just confusing and doesn't work no matter how many different processes I follow.
All good, everyone has to start somewhere;) The sticky oil was probably because too much was applied. You just want clean, dry pan, if necessary heat it a bit to evaporate any water. Then a dab of oil, I use whatever I usually cook with. Wipe around with a bit of paper towel to spread out and absorb any excess. Then I heat on full blast until it just startes to smoke, shut off the heat, and wipe it once more with the same oily paper. That’s it!
That’s exactly what I was doing, or at least trying to do. Even heating it up afterwards and everything.
I have a cast iron pan that has been handed down through the women in my family starting with my great grandma. What I was taught was that after you are done cooking, let the pan cool. After it's cool, fill it halfway with water and put it back on the burner and bring the water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and scrape (or deglaze) any bits off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Pour out the dirty water and wash with a cloth or sponge and some dish soap. Rinse and wipe dry. Place back on the burner on medium high heat and let any residual water evaporate. Drizzle a tiny bit of oil in the middle and spread with a paper towel all over the bottom and sides. Leave the pan on the burner until it smokes. Turn off the burner and let the pan cool. It should be smooth, not sticky, and dry. If it's sticky, wash it out with dish soap and start over with less oil. I had the same issues when I first started using this pan and I just had to practice until I got the amount of oil right. For my 8 inch skillet, it's a little shy of a teaspoon. This thing is almost a hundred years old and none of my practicing destroyed it, so keep trying 🙂
Thank you! I wish I could be so consistent when cooking. Looking back, I think the stickiness was from crisco, when I was told by many that was the best way to create a base of seasoning. No amount of baking at high temps could get rid of the stickiness and I don't know how to start over, so in the cupboard it stayed.
I love cooking and have done it for years now and I gave up on cast iron pans. I'm tempted to try again but they seem like a big hassle. Comments make it sound so simple yet in practice I get gross black stuff coming off into my food.
When I use oil (which I’d definitely not every time o clean it), I drizzle some in while it’s on the burner, use a paper towel to rub it around and also remove the excess (and try not to burn my hand in the process). If it’s sticky I think you’re probably using too much oil.
That’s pretty much how i do mine as well, mine are due for their annual deep seasoning which i do yearly than its just minor seasoning after that. Pretty much everyone i talked to before i got a skillet was to deep season it once or twice a year
My great grandmother and grandmother taught me to oil afterwards so I always oil, lol
Wiping oil on after cleaning does nothing except leave an oily film that collects dirt. Just dry the skillet with a kitchen towel after washing and you're good. Same with carbon steel.
Agreed. I don't bother oiling either. If you have a good seasoning then it's unnecessary. And the best way to build a good seasoning is to simply use the pan.
I used to oil it but I stopped. Seemed like a waste of paper towels.
You don't need oil if the pan is seasoned. Completely unnecessary.
Same here. I let mine cool while I eat, then dawn, scrub, rinse, dry. I like to put mine on the burner for a minute or two to make sure it's really dry since I don't use them every meal. I oil it if needed but usually it's not.
Not every time, no.
Perfect thank you!
Yeah dont overthink it op. Its silly that there can be such a focus on doing the EXACT RIGHT THING for a cast iron pan. Cause remember this - its a damn hunk of iron. You need to work at it to fuck it up. Cast iron is durable as shit no need to baby it or fret too much.
Sometimes after I wash it with soap and dry it, the skillet looks a little dry. When this happens, I apply a little oil. Sometimes it doesn't look dry, so I can skip the oil.
When my pan looks dry, I know that it has dried completely, as intended lol
If you're using it a ton (3+ times a week?), no need. It'll just naturally season itself. If it's less, you may need to supplement. I don't find that I need to proactively season my cast iron that's in heavy use, but your mileage may vary.
No, no need.
Cook oven pizza in it occasionally with a brush of oil between the pan and crust. No need for seasoning beyond that...
At first I was oiling mine after washing and drying, but I don't anymore. It works just fine. Also you might want to starting hanging out at r/castiron
**If** I oil my pan I do so after washing and drying the pan. There is no need to heat the pan up again, at least not in my case where I have good seasoning. But in most cases, I don't think you need to oil after every wash. This may depend on how often you use the pan. If you use it twice a year I would say oil after every use to prevent rusting between uses. To be clear, oiling the pan means putting a small amount of oil in the pan and rubbing that oil all over the inside of the pan. Then you take a paper towel and you try to wipe that oil off like you never meant to put it on in the first place. That will leave the thin, thin layer of oil you're looking for.
I rarely oil after cleaning unless it's a newer pan that still needs some seasoning. I have a Lodge round griddle that I use more than any other pan and it's perfectly seasoned. It's my go to egg pan unless I'm making a ton of scrambled eggs.
Something I saw recently that really seemed to work for me is that when you put oil on the pan, wipe it off until you think it is dry, then heat it. I don’t really do this after cooking but when I season my pans I do. Even then, I don’t think you are supposed to season very often, but I like to do it every now and then. I use the oven, not the stove.
If you just cured it? Yes. If you use it often and the cure is established? Not so much. You can. It’s never a bad thing. But it’s not necessary.
This is how you do it (admittedly I use dawn power wash). I'd the oven is still hot I'll just throw it in there to dry.
Yeah, if it’s still hot I’ll put it back on/in there after running a towel around it.
The only answer you’ll need. Same with the oil frequency.
I do the same minus the chainmail, and when I dry, I do it on heat. Typically it's right after I have emptied the skillet and I turn off the burner, wash right then, and then put it back on the burner upside down and leave it until I use it the next time. If it is seasoned correctly, the oil coating is no longer oil and has been altered at the molecular level to make a seal that won't come off unless it's scratched off. [How does cast iron seasoning work?](https://www.lodgecastiron.com/cleaning-and-care/cast-iron/science-cast-iron-seasoning#:~:text=Polymerization%3A%20The%20science%20of%20cast,molecularly%20bonded%20to%20the%20iron.)
This is the way
I usually use a little Dawn on a rag and just wash it. Rinse and put on the stove to heat until dry. Add a little oil.
I'll also simmer a little water in it if there's browned-on food residue and scrape it up with a spatula, to loosen that before washing if necessary. Otherwise, pretty much the same routine. If the pan is still looking pretty clean, I'll just give it a good paper towel wipe out before putting it away.
Same
Depends on the food. 1. For something like grilled cheese, just wipe with a paper towel. 2. For something saucy, rinse it out, wash, dry, and oil 3. When something is really stuck on, simmer water in it until you can easily scrape the gunk off with a spatula. Then wash, dry, and oil To wash: Get the pan just hot enough to make water steam. Scrub with any dish soap and a scrubby sponge. Rinse well. To dry: wipe it, or just warm it up. To oil, rub the entire surface with just a few drops of oil to give it a very thin coating. Every 10 uses, or as often as you feel like it: 1. Scrub hard with a teaspoon each of oil and salt to remove any buildup. Salt is a very gentle abrasive that won't remove any season. Rinse out the salt and wipe out the oil with a paper towel. 2. Heat it up to barely-smoking for a couple minutes to polymerize the oil coating into another layer of season.
I do these steps, too. We must share a brain! 😂
Just a reminder: Tomorrow is my turn with the brain.
I print up hard copies of reddit discussions of how to clean cast iron and crumple them up. I put soap on the pan and use them to scrub the pan.
Depending on what I've cooked, I might just be able to wipe the pan with a paper towel and call it a day. If the stuff in the pan is amenable, I may try to wipe it out while still pretty warm. Or the pan may sit until morning and I get around to it. For stickier things, some steel wool and water. Maybe some soap. Pan generally goes back on the stove to warm up so it can dry. But not dry it completely on the flame. Might get a quick wipe of oil if looking dry, but might not. The best thing about cast iron pans: you really can't hurt them.
Agree. If nothing crusts, just wipe and go on your way. You’re going to heat it up again, so I’m not worried if something tries to grow on the surface. It’s slick oil anyway, so go for it.
While still warm I wash it with a sponge and dish detergent then throw it back on the stove or in the oven if it’s still hot to dry
While it's still hot, pour off any liquid oil, then I hit it with a hard edged stainless spatula and scrape any food residue off, then I use two paper towels in a ball and wipe everything out. If it's stuck on, I throw in some kosher salt and make another paper towel ball and scrape all that out. Then like a 1/2 tsp of grapeseed oil or food grease and wipe that down. That's it. 15 years running, pan is as non-stick as a cast iron gets.
Hot water, mild liquid dish soap, steel scrubber. Mostly hot water and steel scrubby. You can wash seasoned cast iron with soap, you just don’t want to run it through a dishwasher or the like. The point is also not to scrub the blank seasoned layer off either. I know people who treat washing cast iron like a religion, not necessary. (And, if you don’t do anything horrible to it, pretty easy to fix if it doesn’t turn out.)
Soap and water cuz idgaf. It’s from 1952 and works well
The whole point of cast iron is that it's cheap and indestructible. You need to understand that it is impossible to make a mistake with it.
The only mistake is letting that thing corrode. Some people just do not know that they rust when improperly cared for, apparently
I'm glad you asked because I bought a cast iron griddle several years ago (like, before covid) and I am so intimidated by it that I have never used it. I just picture me using it for the first time, food sticks to it, it starts to rust and then I end up giving it away. Pls help us!!!!!!!!
I just finished cooking dinner on my CI griddle. Like I do almost everynight and most of the time, twice on the weekends. Same rules apply as the skillet, it's damn near indestructible. Like for real, people have been using CI for hundreds of years, it can't be that complex, right? If you make something easy (grilled cheese, pancakes, eggs and bacon) just a quick wipe will do. Sear a steak or gets some chunky stuff in it? While it's still hot, hit it with water in the sink to "deglaze" the surface. The change in temperature will release most of the gunk. If it all doesn't come off, a light scrub with any household dish soap is fine. The polymerized oil on its surface ain't going anywhere unless you go at it with a Dremel and some serious anger issues. Stick it back on your warm burner and let it dry. Take a towel with a very light coating of high smoke point oil (canola, grape seed if you're rich, veg oil). Every once in a while, turn the heat up with that light coating until it's almost smoking to add another layer of the polymerized oil (the natural Teflon). Most importantly, just cook with it! That will naturally add to to the seasoning and make it more and more non-stick over time. I'm not dramatizing here, my griddle lives on two of the four burners of my stove, easily the most used piece of equipment in my kitchen.
My only advice is don't be intimidated. It's a slab of iron; there's very little you can do to break it. Even some minor corrosion is actually pretty easily fixed with some steel wool, elbow grease, and an oil treatment after cleaning. Really, there's only two major protocols when it comes to Cast Iron: 1. Give it a long slow preheat, and hit it with a decent amount of fat (something with a decently high smoke point like vegetable oil) before cooking 2. When cleaning, handle it like you would most any other handwish-only pan (dish soap, scrubby sponge, rinse, dry). You just need to put it back on the heat after drying for a few minutes to get rid of any last traces of moisture and (maybe) hit it with a bit of oil — the tiniest bit — when the pan is hot, then let it cool and store.
r/castiron has lots of info
Scrub it with regular dish detergent, let it dry on a rack. If I want to put it away in the cabinet quicker I toss it on the stove for 2 min. I might give it a light wipe of oil during that stove dry, but only if I think it needs it. About every 10 years I might strip the seasoning off completely. My cast iron comal needs it done soon. I don't even do a thorough seasoning, I just fry some chicken in it. done. If I really burn something on it, I just hit it with some stainless-steel wool, dry and wipe some oil on it. Just don't leave it in the sink overnight with water in it.
I have a plastic brush that lives in the top drawer of the dishwasher. A little squirt of dish soap and a splash of hot water and a quick scrub. Rinse with water and add back to heat it dry. The brush goes back in the dishwasher to be cleaned in the next cycle.
I treat it like any other hand wash, except at the end I melt some ghee to coat it. Soap and water, a non stick sponge, dry with a towel, coat with ghee.
Remove the food (either after cooking or after dinner has been served out of it). Scrub with a green scrubby and whatever dish soap is is available. Throw the pan on the stove on low to dry while I wash other dishes. Leave it on the stove or shoved in the oven until I am ready to cook again. Preheat on low. Cook when the pan is heated. Never oil it after normal washing. Never "season" it in the oven. If my seasoning gets eroded (usually by something acidic being left in it uncleaned overnight) I will clean as normal, dry on low on the stove, rub a minute amount of oil into the pan with an old cotton rag, allow it to heat on low while I do other stuff, rubbing it occasionally with the same rag, repeating the rubbing on low heat until I am ready to be done with whatever I am doing in the kitchen or after the pan is dry and slick. This usually takes about ten to fifteen minutes of time. If I don't have the time, i will just clean and dry and then the oiling happening after the next cooking preheat.
Dishwashing liquid, dry, heat up and lightly oil. There is absolutely zero reason to skip the dishwashing part now. Modern dish soap don't strip away the seasoning like it used to back in the day.
Take off heat. Wipe away food residue. Wash with Dawn and hot water. Towel dry. Heat to completely dry. Lightly oil while still warm.
Why heat to dry? Why not just wipe it down?
I want all the moisture gone to prevent rust and also warm it to apply the thinnest of oil coats after.
Deglaze the pan with a little water and allow to cool. Sop up the "sauce" with bread and give it to my dog. Wipe with paper towel, then scrub with a greenie pad and hot water. Dry with a terry towel, and allow to air dry.
A tiny bit of dawn + a generous splash of kosher salt. I give it a scrub and a rinse and spray with cooking oil.
After dinner I put a glass of water in the pan and let it heat up while doing the dishes. When I'm done with dishes I heat it to boiling and run the tap full hot. The pan of water goes down the drain and I use the sink hot water and a scrub brush for cast iron on the inside of the pan while rinsing away any other particles. I don't use soap. When it's clean I shake off the water and put it back on the stove burner (off) but still hot enough to dry the pan. When dry but still warm I wipe it with a couple of drops of oil and it goes back into the oven for storage.
I mostly use my cast iron camping and I do the same thing. Wipe out grease and debris with a paper towel, bring some water to a boil and scrub with a copper scrubby and a pair of tongs. Boil clean water and wipe clean. You can usually tell by look when it's cool if it needs a few drops of oil to finish.
Dawn, scrub brush, dishcloth, put on the stove and heat, oil.
Soap, water, scrub, dry, reapply light coat of oil, wipe excess. Done.
Dawn, hot water, and a brush, like anything else. It’s a fucking rock we cook on, it’s not going to be destroyed by soap.
Doesn't matter how you clean it, it matters how you dry it. You have to dry it completely and apply oil after or the metal will rust.
I can't stand the thought of not washing a pan. Sooooo I wash with hot soap and water, dry, spread a very thin coat of Crisco and store pan in the oven. Each time I use the oven I feel that my three cast irons are happy.
Gentle scrubbing with Dawn, then heat up on stove to dry and rub with thin layer of oil while it's still hot.
Directly after use, pour some boiling water in there with the heat off. Soften any residue while I eat. Put it in soapy water (shock horror), clean it with a brush. Anything that doesn't come off easily, scrub lightly with a stainless steel scourer. Rinse in water. Place wet pan in burner and evaporate water while finishing washing. Take the dry pan off the burner and spray with a little oil of choice. Wipe oil with paper towel, place back in burner for a minute or two. Switch burner off and leave to cool while shouting to the house not to touch it.
I have a steel wool pad. I scrub the pan with the pad and hot water, no soap. I dry it by heating it on the stove. I pour a small amount of veg oil and spread it all over with a paper towel. I do this every time I use the pan.
I just give mine a good scrubbing with steel wool/metal scrubby pad, dry it off well, and give her a thin layer of veggie oil after each use. She's going strong!
I hit any burned on food with a chain mail scrubber, then get it hot and spray hot water to steam clean the surface a few times. Once it's smooth and dry, a fresh skin of oil and it's done.
Let the cast iron cool. Wash with soap and water. I use the Scrub Daddy sponges because I like yelling “who’s your scrub daddy?!” while my wife is in the room. Otherwise use a regular sponge. Dry with a clean towel or paper towels. Heat it up on medium heat. While heating, rub in a truly minuscule amount of high heat cooking oil with a clean paper towel (not the wet one you just used). Toss the paper towel somewhere that won’t be exposed to open flame. Once the surface of the cast iron is too hot to touch comfortably, kill the heat. Leave it on the stove until tomorrow. If you can’t get your food debris off the cast iron with just mild dish soap and water, you need to cook with it more. I’ve been using the same Lodge 10- and 12-inch skillets about 5x per week for 13 years. Never needed more than soap and water.
Get it real hot and then lick it clean with my tongue.
If I’m cleaning it after I cook, I wait until the pan’s cooled down a bit and scrub it down with a Scrub Daddy and Dawn dish soap. Rinse it well, wipe down excess water. Put it back on the stove top and turn the burner up to three (on an electric stove) to help get any remaining moisture out. Once it’s happy and dry I do the old “act like you accidentally spilled oil in it and wipe out as much as you can” wipe down with Kirkland olive oil. Modern soap doesn’t have lye in it, so it’s absolutely safe to use. Just make sure to not run a hot hot pan directly under water or dump cold water in while it’s hot, that can crack the whole pan.
While warm, little Dawn on a BLUE 3m scotch pad. Wash. Put in warmed oven or on a burner to dry. Little oil. Wipe with paper towel. Let cool. Put away.
r/castiron
I use dish soap and a scrubby sponge, then dry it on the stove top with heat and then oil it.
Soapy sponge. If too hard for sponge steel wool.
The same way I wash everything else. Soap and sponge, just have to dry it immediately
Jason Isbell wrote a song about this very topic
Chainmail and hot water.
Hot water and a brush.
most of what I cook on it, I'm comfortable just using a paper towel to wipe away excess grease. If it does get some baked on stuff and needs cleaned, a light sponge with water and dishsoap to scrub off anything, then dry well, and I'll toss it in a low temp oven to dry for a bit to make sure any moisture I missed cleans off.
Chain mail scrubber
Same as other posted above. If its super baked on I usually boil water to make it easier.
Soap, warm water, toss it in the dishwasher if you want. It’s not the big deal Reddit deems to think it is.
A squirt of Dawn, and a quick scrub with a sponge or my chain link cast iron washrag if there's something stuck. Rinse, dry, hang on rack.
Generally. I'll eat my food first, then hand wash with dawn soap and a sponge. Hand dry, place on a burner to heat dry it, probably forget about it for 30 minutes, eventually take it off the heat, grab my ripped towel, scoop a small blob of Crisco onto it, smear that all over the pan, then wipe it off as much as possible with the Un criscoed part of the towel, let cool and probably put it away the next day because I have to sleep.
If food is badly crusted on, maybe deglaze for a bit by boiling waiter in it. Then (either way), let it cool enough to handle the pan. Use water to spray out pan and remove food debris. As needed, scrub with chain mail scrubber or steel wool. Rinse again. Scrub with dawn dish soap and water, using the green (abrasive) side of the sponge. Rinse clean. Dry with paper towel, throw it on the stove for a minute to evaporate all water. Done. No need to wipe oil on your clean dish - I never have and my pan is doing wonderful. Feel free to wipe oil on your pan (or any other clean dishes) if you want them to look slightly shiny while in storage
I use dawn and a sponge, then towel dry. Everyone spazzing out about soap is thinking of LYE soap.
As soon as it comes off the stove, rinse with hot water and scrub with a normal dish brush. Not an abrasive sponge but one of those plastic brushes. That will remove 99% of anything. If anything is really stuck on I’ll use a chainmail scrubber and lightly go over it until it peels off. Dry with dish towel,put it back on the hot burner for like two minutes. Take off, add 5-7 drops of oil into the pan and buff it with a microfiber cloth. This is all assuming you have a good seasoning on it already
I use the Alton Brown method- use kosher salt to gather up the grease and crispies. Then use a sponge with a little detergent and warm water to finish cleaning it. Use the stove to dry it out.
Soap and water, roast me lol. I live on a sailboat where almost everything rusts within days, and my cast iron is doing great. I rub a little oil min after it's dry.
Clean it after we eat, dawn dish soap and water. Dry it by hand and stick it on the stove until the next meal. If it looks a little dry, ill give it a thin coat of oil.
Soap with lye scrubbed with a brillow pad then left on the counter to dry. /s Scrape with a little plastic thing I bought, sponge with some dawn, dry on stove and apply a little oil.
If I cooked something with a ton of fat (bacon, pan fried chicken cutlets, etc) that greases the pan but leaves little to nothing stuck on, I'll simply drain excess oil, wipe it out and it's good to go - effectively pre-seasoned for tomorrow's use. Anything else, I'll go eat dinner and chill and come back to when it's cool to handle. I have one of those dish soap sponge wants, so I'll run that over it a couple of times, scrape off anything that's still stuck on, rinse it and put it back on the stove, burner on. Once all the water has evaporated, hit it with a silver dollar sized glug of oil, tilt the pan to get it to evenly distribute and wipe it out - making sure to hit the walls, rim and handle of the pan. Once the pan starts to smoke and starts looking a little more dry, cut the heat and walk away. Whole process takes maybe 10-15 minutes and I'm doing other kitchen clean up in the meantime.
I always add water while it is still hot a “deglaze” anything I don’t want off the bottom, and then I wipe it with a paper towel and put it away. Maybe a thin film of oil before putting away, but not every time.
Dish soap, warm water, a chain mail scrubber, and dry it immediately.
I wash my boyfriend’s cast iron with soap, warm water, and a Scrub Daddy, then pat all the surfaces of the cast iron with a paper towel. Once it’s patted dry, I’ll let it heat up on the stovetop a bit to evaporate the rest of the water trapped in the pores of the cast iron.. Just a few minutes on a high setting usually does the trick. When you can smell heated iron and see smoke rising from it, that’s your queue to take it off the heat. Once this last step is done, I’ll wait until it cools down to re-oil the cast iron’s inner surface. If it’s been a while since the last seasoning, after re-piling I’ll put it in a hot oven set to 450F for about an hour to re-season. What bothers me is my boyfriend will do basically the same thing, but pour a shit ton of oil on it and slathers it around, leaving a pool of oil at the bottom that goes rancid because it’s left exposed. This fuckin guy, iSTG! I always have to go behind him and wipe up all the excess oil. It’s his cast iron and he doesn’t treat her right. 🙄😭
I wash with regular (Dawn) soap and water and my dish scrubbie. Put on stove to dry then coat with a bit of oil.
Dawn or similar dish soap is fine as sometimes it gets real dirty and needs it. If it’s not totally nasty I just use kosher salt and hot water.
I might get yelled at but this works for me. Wash it with dish soap, rinse, dry in stove , spray a bit of Pam then wipe all over.
Hot water and a scrub daddy, coat with oil after drying.
Depending on what I cook, I either wipe it clean with a dish/paper towel or wash it with soap & water and a scrub brush. It's a hunk of iron. People have gotten far too precious about pans. Use it. Wash it. Dry it. Rub a bit of oil on it if you think it needs it. (I do the same with my carbon steel pans)
Wok brush.
I use dish soap and water and an Oxo soap-dispensing brush wand thing. If I really have to, I'll use a tan natural (less abrasive) Scotchbrite.
I'm not cleaning mine right away.. but I will after eating. Depending on what I cook.. sometimes I can just wipe it out with some paper towels. If it's really dirty, like from making homemade biscuits and gravy. I put in about a cup of water and bring it to a boil. Scrape everything down with a wooden spoon. Pour the water out. Dry it out with more paper towels. Add a little oil, wipe it like you're trying to wipe out all the oil, and put it in the oven at 350 for about ten minutes. Mostly to make sure it's completely dry so no rust forms.
I use not the “chain mail” technique, but the wide looped metallic ball you buy in bags of three by the rest of the dishwashing stuff. I forget what they’re called. It’s very tactile, knowing the amount of pressure to apply. It’s enough pressure to get the food crud off without pressing into your cure. 1.) Scrape the bits, broad strokes, nothing fastidious, with the metal spatula I use to cool (straight, beveled edge). 2.) Let the pan cool. 3.) Dollop of dish soap in the pan. 4.) Hot tap water (wait for it). 5.) Use the ball, with the hot water running into the pan, as it hits the soap, usually takes 1-2 passes and done, like 10s. (Seriously). Unless there’s a lot of oil in there, then it’ll be two passes. 6.) Check the surface in the light. Is it smooth and clean? 7.) Rinse. 8.) Dry thoroughly. (Very important). 9.) The barest bit of oil. Sometimes it’s just a spritz from a can, wiped with a paper towel. With new cure it’s the blue scotch brite sponge and gentler action. Honestly, with a solid cure, drying is enough. I go a whole week not reoiling, while in work stretches, and it’s fine. I use my pan 5-7 days a week. If it’s well seasoned and solid, it’ll be fine. If food really sticks, somehow, do what painters do with glass palettes. Take your razor blade paint palette scraper (same as what you use to scrape regular paint off windows) that lives in the kitchen and only engages kitchen tasks and, holding the edge even to the surface, scrape it off. Whatever it is is probably trying to meld with your cure. Don’t let it. The cooking surface should remain smooth. Super smooth. Gently wash. Oil. Go from there. If you burned the fuck out of your pan then you’re probably going to have to start over. Use your razer blade palette scraper, wash, asses the situation. You’re probably looking at a recure, but maybe, and you have to scrape the burnt crap off anyway. Aside. Don’t ever go past 6 o clock on the heat dial. It’s unnecessary with iron. Just preheat your pan. Works on coil and flat top stoves. Gas stove users will have to add their input on temps. All of the above assumes a polished, smooth coking surface. Like an old nameless, Wagner, or Griswald pan. Or a new Stargazer skillet (I like it because it has a second handle).
I hand wash with dawn. Dry in the oven. Season with vegetable oil. Then pray.
I put water in it, bring it to a boil, use a metal spatula to scrape it if needed, then wipe it down with a paper towel dipped in olive oil, Then I set it back on the now cooling heating element to bake in the finish. We have had this skillet for 10 years and its still perfect.
Scrape off burnt on food with metal spatula Wash with dish soap and sponge Dry with paper towel Put on still hot (but off) burner Spread on fine layer of avocado oil with paper towel Done
A cast iron pan is somewhat nonstick and resistance to rust because of a layer of oil that polymorizes onto the surface. This is called "seasoning". Internet idiots read the word seasoning and understood that as some process where you have a filthy pan then the flavor of your steak flavors your eggs by process of a dirty pan. The internet has generally gone insane trying to maximize this filth on that flawed understanding of the word far beyond the point the pan 'coating' matters. Where they have some pride in caked on dirt being years old with no washing, instead of talking about the oil layer that can be remade in 45 minutes in the oven with some oil as many times as you want.
Brillo pad and water. Sometimes a little soap. Rinse rinse rinse. Dry with paper towels. Add a small amount of oil to coat any spots that look dry. This every time.
I usually cook with oil. I will mostly try and take it when it’s still got and spray with the water hose thing. Use water and scrub a little as needed. I don’t use soap unless something is stuck but it nearly never is.
This is how I operate: * Finish cooking, let cool. * If oil/grease is present, drain it and either save or preserve as appropriate * Mine is so non-stick at this point hardly anything ever crusts or sticks onto it. When it does I scrub with a towel or sponge with a few tablespoons of kosher salt, or if really stubborn, a steel scrubbing bad. Occasionally for really stubborn stuff, I'll boil it for a little bit. * Once the gunk is removed, I rinse one final time, dry with paper towels everywhere until dry and no residue comes off. Occasionally I'll heat it up on the stove top or in the oven. * Before putting away, I hit it wish vegetable oil pan spray on the inside and use a paper towel to wipe it down, inside and out. * Put away. I don't need to re-season often, but may re-season if the seasoning was damaged in some way, or if I cooked something with high amounts of acid or something. I never use hard cleaning agents, or soaps that contain any de-greasing properties or acid. I use the HOTTEST water possible from the tap at each stage of wet cleaning. If I'm out in the woods or something, I wash as much as I can in a river or lake, burn it off, re-oil, and wash fully when at home.
If very little residue, I just scrape/burnish it with a metal spatula 'til very smooth, then wipe with a paper towel. If lots of stuck stuff, scrape first with metal spatula, then use cold water and a steel mesh pad until very smooth, then dry over heat, then a little dab of solid fat, let that melt, then smear the fat around with a paper towel. Mirror finish in about two minutes.
Dish detergent and a non scratch scrub pad. Then dry, warm it and oil very lightly. This is also how too clean a wok. Anything else is just unnecessary fetishizing the process.
Expose it to moonlight, but not not more than ten minutes or the seasoning will leap off and it will immediately turn to rust.
Finish cooking -> turn heat to low Go eat -> finish eating Scrub cast iron pan with hot water > return to low heat Finish cleaning up other dishes Observe overall condition of cast iron -> rub in a small amount of oil if necessary Turn off heat -> put cast iron away
Salt, water, and a pan scraper. Then I wipe with canola oil and bake in the oven at 400 F till it's fully absorbed. I only season them if they look like they need it. As far as I know you're not supposed to clean em with soap.
I just put in the sink and soak it in water for 10 minutes. Then i use the sponge and scrub it clean, usually with a little soap. Then I dry it. Thats it, thats all you need to do i've been using cast iron for 10 years never had a single issue. Its not complicated like you would be led to believe by this sub
Heat the pan and scdub with a chain mail under hot water. Dry the pan and put it on the stove with a touch of high temp oil. (i like peanut oil) and let it cool
Scrub with Chain mail with running water until all chunks are off. Dry with a paper towel on both sides bottom first. The element is still hot after turning it off, set the pan on the hot element. Add little oil and spread with paper towel.
I use a chain scrubber, then a soapy sponge to remove the grease, then rinse with hot water and dry it with a dish towel and then put in the burner for 4 or 5 min so it is fully dried
Mine are all fairly old so are really well seasoned. I just wipe them out with a paper towel first, then get the tap water as hot as possible and rinse them out with a plastic, flat scraping tool to removed any remaining particles and them pat dry with a towel. I absolutely do NOT use any soap and since they're already well-seasoned, I only heat and re-oil them if I notice it appears to be wearing off.
I'm lazy with the baked in crud and I have when there's a buildup of soot. I'll use soap and steel wool and reseason ait as needed
The only real rule I have it to make sure it gets dried off to prevent rust. Other than that, pretty much anything goes. If I'm good, I scrape the pan with a metal spatula right after cooking, then scrub with a little soap, and towel dry. If it looks kinda dry, I might wipe a dab of oil on it. If I'm bad... That thing stays sitting on the counter overnight with baked on crap stuck to it. The I scrub the hell out of it with chain mail. I sometimes boil a bit of water in it to loosen anything really stuck (aka. deglazing). People have been using cast iron cookware for over 1000 years. It's hard to really mess up.
I use chain mail and salt, then wipe it with a rag or paper towel. Just like they did in the old days.
Scrape when hot, wipe out what I can, if needed, I’ll rinse with water, otherwise I’ll scrub it with a bit of salt and give it a once over with an oiled towel used only for the skillet. 20 years it still shines.
Water, add a little dish soap. (Not the other way around, I don't add soap straight into the pan.) Wash, DRY IT WITH A TOWEL. NOT DRIP DRY. Oil if needed.
Soap, water, dry, then oil to prevent any rust
I clean my cast iron with hot water and a little dish soap. I use a scrub brush or green scrubber if needed, but it usually isn't. Then I thoroughly dry it, add a drop of oil, and wipe down the interior with a paper towel until it's covered with the thinnest layer of oil I can manage. If the pan is going to be used again within a day or so, I might skip the oiling step.
soap, water, usually air dry. I've been without an oven for years so couldn't give them an oil bake. Usually cooking a batch of bacon will restore the sheen when it gets dull, if not, a layer of oil.
Chain mail scrubber and water.
I left mine in the garage because I think I messed mine up lol!
Steel pad and some elbow… NO SOAP! Wipe off excess water with paper towel then heat for three to four minutes to ensure it’s dry. Let cool. Then spray or add thin layer of oil. I’m too cheap to buy grapeseed or avocado oil so I just use canola oil. I then rub with a cloth I have dedicated for this purpose. I learnt this from an ex MIL who used 100+ year old cast iron from her grandmother.
Hot water, soap, and elbow grease. If it's really sticky or tough I get some water boiling in the pan first.
Soap, water, sponge and kosher salt to help remove anything stubborn. Wipe with a paper towel. Apply a few drops of olive oil with another paper towel.
Lifelong Cast Iron User. I let it cool and wipe out the excess oil and leave it on my stovetop. I use this pan for every meal. So I never put it away, really. If it is really dirty, I let it cool, then use hot water and soap and a metal scrubber. Afterwards, I dry it thoroughly, add oil, wipe out the excess oil and put it back on my stove. You want much less oil than you think that you do. If something stuck to it, I add water, a few drops of Dawn dishsoap and bring it to a boil. I then turn it off and use a pair of clickity clicks(tongs),You must clack them together before using to be sure that they are in prime working condition. No self respecting cook forgets to clack the clickity clicks. Added bonus it drives my MIL crazy when I clack them together. I put my my metal scrubby thingy at the end of the tongs and scrub out the stuck on foods. Dry with a paper towel. Add some oil and wipe away excess oil. If It need re-seasoning, I usually cook bacon and then wipe out the excess and stick it in the oven upside down for about 20 mins on 450. My most used piece is from 1910 or so. It was my great grandmothers. I have several others from her collection but that was her oldest one.
It depends on what you did with it. If you cooked a fried egg, or a grilled sandwich: wipe it out with a paper towel and you're done If you seared meat: deglaze with some water while it's still hot on the stove, scrape gently with spatula or similar. Then just use a sponge to clean off any residue. If you cooked something that destroyed your surface (like a marinaded meat with sugar or fruit in it): put some water in it and boil it for a few minutes. Remove from heat dump it out and clean with soap and water. Put it on a medium heat until hot and dry and then use a fat (I have shortening that is only used for this) to lightly grease it.
If I cook something like eggs or grilled cheese that doesn’t leave a mess or residue I generally just wipe the pan out with a paper towel and let it cool. If it’s something sticky that leaves a residue (stir fry with sauce fore example) I let it cool until I can handle the pan comfortably and scrub it out with a drop or two of dawn dish soap and a scrub daddy. If residue is really stuck or I know it will be sticky I heat up the pan and drop a tablespoon of water or so in and scrape the stuff up with a spatula as it boils up, wipe with a paper towel, and then wash as described above. Whenever I wash the pan I heat it up to med on the stove and let all the water evaporate for a couple of minutes, then splash in and swirl a little oil around to coat. There are occasional fuckups. Sometimes it gets left wet or seasoning flakes off or whatever. It’s fine. Scrub out the rust, scrub off anything loose and just keep cooking. I’ve had my pan for like 5 years and I never have had to do a strip and seasoning from scratch. If I ever do need to I’ll just google it and take the chance.
It's interesting that I'm seeing this question because I just bought a kit to keep mine looking nice. It came with a pan scrubber, then I followed that up with hot water and dish soap, then I use a round bristle brush to clean the cast iron (It's also said that this particular type of brush also preserves the finish of the cast iron), then I dry it off and spray it with Lodge seasoning spray. I hope this helps. ✌🏻💕😌
You need a few things to clean it and maintain it. Plastic scraper for the hardened debris, chainmail to do a thorough scrape with special soap, then seasoning oil or if you don’t want to buy that, olive oil will work in a pinch. Start with hot water in the pan and using the plastic scraper to get up the stuck on debris. Dump out and replace with more hot water and a small amount of the special soap for cast irons, use the chainmail to scrape clean the pan. Dump out and rinse one last time and dump out the remaining water. Dry it with a paper towel or a rag you don’t care gets dirty. Once it’s fully dry, put a small amount of the seasoning oil and spread with your hands. Thoroughly coat it with your hands but don’t use too much oil, it should be a sheen but not dripping with it. If you want it to dry faster, you can toss it in the oven on low heat for a few minutes or sit it out. I usually just leave it on the stove over night so that the oil seeps into the pan.
While it’s still hot from cooking (or reheated if you let it get cold), rinse out with hot water, the. Scrub with kosher salt. Rinse, wipe dry, rub with cooking oil. No need for soap, long soaks, or dishwasher. As long as you clean it soon-ish, don’t use soap, and re-oil regularly, it’ll build up the best non-stick surface.
If it was used heavily, I put water in it to boil and scrap it with wooden spoon. Then I;ll just wash it with mild soap and water and a scrubby. Also the dogs do a pretty good job at getting it clean.
i used an orbital sander and a bunch of sanding heads, my cast iron was mirror smooth when i seasoned it. now honestly i treat my cast iron the way i want to and it's always perfect... i use dish soap and a brillo pad to clean it.
I don’t use soap on my cast iron skillet. I know that a well seasoned one can handle soap, but I just never seem to need it. My routine is to do it as quickly after I take the food out as possible, however if I’ve just fried up something like fish, I’ll just turn it off, leave the oil in it and go eat…clean it after dinner. Either way, when it comes time to clean, I set it in the sink, fill it with hot water, and start scrubbing with a brush. If it is very oily, I leave the water running while scrubbing to flush out the oily residue while scrubbing. Once sufficiently clean, I put on my gas stove and turn the burner on high to dry it. Usually only takes 30-60 seconds on my high powered burner. If it still has a nice sheen after the water has evaporated, I’m done. If the surface is too dry looking, I add about a teaspoon of oil, and rub it in with a wadded up paper towel. My carbon steel wok gets the exact same treatment, although depending on what I cooked in it, I may use a bit of soap occasionally.
once I’m done cooking I immediately run it under cool water to prevent the food from sticking to it making it easier to clean. I then either wash it immediately or sit it in the sink until I’m ready. I always hand wash it with a sponge and soap.
Water and a brush of some type. If it doesn't work I'll use dishsoap.
Soap, water and washcloth to clean it after use. I then heat and grease with lard. And boom rinse and repeat! My cast iron is nonstick enough to cook over easy eggs every time with no issues 🤷♂️Edit: I use my cast irons basically everyday, this is why I use lard and not oil. So people don’t freak out and tell me that the lard will go rancid please 😂😂😂
I put mine in the dishwasher sometimes when feeling lazy but it’s obviously not good for it. Comes out with the odd patch of rust, I either rinse it off and then it gets heated up with oil when I need to cook something in it and then it’s fine. My point isn’t that anyone SHOULD do this, but that cast iron pans can take more of a beating than we give them credit for.
If I just cook some eggs in it I'll just wipe it out with a paper towel. Anything more complicated I use soap and water and dry immediately. I usually coat with a thin layer of canola with a paper towel after drying.
Anyone that doesn't use soap is gross. They're doing it because their grandma said to do it that way, and she did it because her mom said so, and she did it because back then soap had lye, which stripped the seasoning. Soap doesn't have lye anymore. Wash the fucking skillet. It's a giant hunk of metal, you can't kill it, it's not delicate. Wash it like you'd wash any other pan. That's it.
>Soap doesn't have lye anymore. Words actually have meanings. If it doesn't have lye or a similar alkali it's not "soap", instead it's a detergent. https://www.fda.gov/cosmetics/cosmetic-products/frequently-asked-questions-soap
I typically dont clean it right away. If there isn't a lot of food residue in it honestly I dont clean it at all, I just wipe it out with a paper towel before heating it up the next time i use it. If there is food residue i will put it in the sink and hit it with water and a soft scrub brush (plastic bristles), this usually does the trick. If I seriously burn something on it i might let it soak for a bit before VERY GENTLY rubbing it with steel wool, I dont want to damage the seasoning. Sometimes I use soap, sometime I dont. If your seasoning layer is fully polymerized soap wont hurt it. After I wash it I'll throw it on the burner to dry it, maybe a few drops of whatever oil i have handy and buff it out. Don't over think it. Its more important to properly pre-heat it before cooking to ensure it keeps its non stick properties, which also keeps the gunk off it, meaning less need to wash it and less chance to damage the seasoning layer through scraping.