You can tell me not to use soap on my cast iron pans til the cows come home. I will use it, anyway. I refuse to put away a pan that has only been scraped and wiped. To me, that borders on 'nasty'. I make country style gravy in my cast iron frying pan. I fry thinly sliced sweet potatoes sprinkled with brown sugar, in that pan, cooking till the sugar is syrupy or caramelized. Imagine just 'wiping' that pan.
If the pan is properly seasoned, hot, soapy water will not affect that season. Almost always, a ruined season is due to overheating an empty pan while preheating it. When preheating a pan, don't allow it to get hot enough to smoke. If you see even the slight smoke, don't just turn down the heat, remove the pan from the heat.
The inside bottom of a well seasoned pan will be smooth and shiny. No scrubbing should be required. The inside walls of the pan will often be rougher. Scrub these with something no more abrasive than a plastic mesh ball or a nylon brush. Soak the pan for a while if need be. Never use steel wool, nylon pads, or powdered cleansers on a pan. When the pan is clean and rinsed, put it on a burner at medium heat. Watch carefully. The instant all water is burned way, remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool. With a paper towel, apply a thin film of cooking oil to the pan before putting it away.
If you have cooked fish or onions in the pan, you can rest assured the next time you scramble eggs, they will taste of fish or onions, if you only wipe the pan 'clean'. Even soap and hot water will not remove these scents.
Removing lingering scents from a pan is simple. After washing and rinsing the pan, fill with water and place on medium heat burner. Add a tablespoon of baking soda to the water. Simmer two or three minutes and rinse, then back to the burner to dry. I find drying the pan with heat is more thorough, thus preventing any rust, especially on the bottom where it is most likely to appear.
It's like this, I wash my cast iron pans in hot, soapy water after every use; I always have. An egg will slide around in my pan as if the pan was coated with Teflon or T fal.
Where are those cows, anyway? It's time for their evening milking.
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YES! I've been saying this for years - I'm in my late 50s and can STILL hear my great-gran saying a properly seasoned cast iron pan or pot will do with a good washing in hot soapy water after every use! She thought not washing after use was just plain unhygienic and anyone who thought merely wiping away the remains to be a safe clean-up was only asking for a serious case of food poisoning.
She taught me how to season and care for that cookware back in the early 60s and I've never forgot those lessons - and no-one has ever got sick eating from my kitchen.
She was amazing, she had one of the first tempered glass cutting boards, and paid very good money for stainless steel drainboards she also used as cutting boards. The only food items she would cut on wood (or plastic as times changed) were breads and the occasional fruit.
She lived to be 99 years old - she died a few months short of her 100th birthday. I reckon she knew a thing or two about keeping herself and her family healthy!
I wash my cast iron with soap and water. Sometimes I have to scrub them. Mine are very old. One was my great grandmother's. I always coat them with Crisco after I wash them.
Thank goodness, a voice of reason!! I have always washed my pans in soapy water & agree it's just not clean otherwise. I don't oil or grease the pan afterward unless for some reason I've had to really scrub with something abrasive such as steel wool. That's when you will lose the pan's seasoning, NOT just from being washed. If and when that happens, which is very rare for me, seasoning again is not that hard.
Amen! I'm not about to NOT wash my pans! I have BOTH of my grandmothers cast iron (app 2 dozen) and not about to put away with just a 'wipe'! *shudders* Yuk! It's very little effort to care for your pans after all I am passing my iron down to my children.
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