this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2024
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[–] [email protected] 66 points 11 hours ago (7 children)

It’s insane to me that people don’t wash them and call it seasoning.

It’s apparently a different story when someone seasons their underwear.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 46 minutes ago

It still gets them to reply, every time.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 hours ago

I hate cast iron, but 'seasoning' is just a misnomer that was adopted to refer to the oils polymerizing on the pan. The oil (usually something like canola) is literally bonded to the metal.

Not cleaning a cast iron pan is gross, fats left in the pan will go rancid.

The only soap you can't use is lye based as that will strip the seasoning off.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

We do wash them, I clean mine by boiling water in them, scraping any stubborn bits with a wooden spatula, rinsing it out under running water and wiping them down with a clean towel and heating the pan again to evaporate any remaining water. No microbials will survive being boiled and then heated again, anything stuck to the pan dissolves away in boiling water and a clean towel will wipe away anything else. After that I add a few drops of oil and wipe down the still hot surface with the thinnest possible coating of oil.

Seasoning for cast iron doesn't mean holding onto previous flavors. It definitely shouldn't taste like last night's dinner. Seasoning in the context of cast iron is the build up of thin layers of polymerized oils from heating them up in a clean pan that forms a durable protective finish that is incredibly non-stick.

So more accurately parallel your underwear example how cast iron is cleaned, if you took your underwear, boiled the hell out of them, used something to give them a scrub, rinsed them out well and then heat dried them.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

Just FYI, you do wash cast iron, you just don't use detergents on it. One common method is to dump a handful of salt and a tiny splash of water into the pan and start scrubbing. You can use a gentle dish soap, but I'd avoid using the dishwasher, because those detergents will be a lot stronger and will actually ruin the seasoning (as well as linger on the surface and end up in your food, which is also bad).

[–] [email protected] 50 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

Modern soaps/detergents don’t contain lye, which is what ruins the seasoning. It’s the humid drying of a dishwasher that causes it to rust. Nothing to with the detergent.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 hours ago

Dawn has lye, that's why it works so well

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

I use a little dawn on mine now and then and it’s still basically like glass. Just put a little oil on it afterwards. Never the dishwasher though omg

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 hours ago

Ice in the hot pan also works. Paper towel to wipe out, voila!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 hours ago

Whatsa matter? You don’t like your pancakes to taste like last nights steak?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I just wash it as normal, you just need to re-fry/season it once in in 3-5 months or so. People that don't wash it usually let it become rusted and dirty as well.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Shouldn't need to reseason it if you are just using dish detergent like Dawn.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago

I don't really think about looking for special detergent without lye when buying (dunno why people say that dish detergent in general doesn't contain it anymore), re-frying it once in a while makes the surface more smooth.