Warning: My grandma's old cast iron skillet finally convinced me about soap

For years I never washed my cast iron with soap because my grandma told me it would ruin the seasoning back in the 90s in Austin. Then last month I made a sticky honey chicken and scrubbed it with plain water for 15 minutes with zero luck, so I tried a little Dawn. The seasoning is actually better now and the pan doesn't smell like old bacon grease. Has anyone else had that moment where an old kitchen rule turned out to be wrong?

3 comments

3 Comments

joseph_ellis8510d ago

Wait, does this mean I've been torturing myself with salt scrubs for absolutely no reason? @sean782 I feel like you and I are in the same boat here, buddy. I had this exact thing happen with a cornbread pan last fall - my seasoning was so bad it was basically flaking off into my food. A tiny squirt of Dawn fixed it in like two minutes and now the pan is slicker than my college roommate's Teflon. I still get nervous every time I do it though, like I'm waiting for my grandma's ghost to smack me with a wooden spoon.

bennett.mason14d ago

Honestly took me way too long to figure that one out too. I had this old Griswold pan that just always had a weird film on it no matter how much I scrubbed with salt and water. Finally broke down and used soap one day and it was like the pan woke up from a nap. The seasoning was way more even after that and the pan actually started getting that dark black color instead of that patchy brown look. Ngl I think grandmas meant well but they were working with way harsher lye based soaps back then that actually would strip it. Modern dish soap is totally fine as long as you dry it on the stove after and hit it with a tiny drop of oil.

sean78214d ago

Whoa wait hold on, you actually used soap on it and it turned out better? That goes against everything I've ever heard about cast iron.