The moment I realized I was cleaning my cast iron skillet totally backwards

I spent 2 years scrubbing my Lodge with soap and water like a regular pan, wondering why everything stuck to it. Then my buddy in Atlanta saw me doing it and just laughed, told me to wipe it with salt and oil instead. Has anyone else been doing basic stuff wrong forever because nobody told you the real way?

3 comments

3 Comments

diana_west2727d ago

Yeah, I did the same thing with my Dutch oven for a year before someone set me straight.

alicehernandez27d ago

black.jake's point about enameled vs bare iron is exactly why this stuff is so confusing. I feel like there's this secret handshake knowledge for cast iron that nobody writes down anywhere. My grandmother told me to never use soap, but then I see people online saying modern dish soap is fine for seasoned pans. It's like everyone's got that one friend or relative who shows up and rewrites everything you thought you knew. I bet there's a whole category of everyday tasks we're all doing wrong just because nobody ever spoke up at the right moment.

black.jake27d ago

Wait, did your Dutch oven have the same enamel coating or was it bare cast iron? I gotta ask because a lot of people wreck their enameled stuff scrubbing with salt and oil too, which is a whole different problem. That seasoning layer on a plain skillet is basically just burnt-on oil, so it makes sense to not strip it off with soap every time. But enameled cookware has a glass-like coating that doesn't need seasoning at all. So you and diana_west27 might have been heading down opposite wrong paths without even knowing it.