Learn to Maintain Your Cast Iron

Cleaning Your Cast Iron

Here are some of the various tools you might use for cleaning your cast iron:

• Dish detergent (graphic: Controversial!)
• Pan scrapers
• Sponges
• Chainmail scrubbers
• Kosher salt
• Lint-free towels
• Your stove or oven

Let’s talk first about detergent. It’s a long-held belief that you cannot use soap on cast iron. If it were 1830, and we were still commonly using lye-based soaps, that would be true. Lye soap dissolves the seasoning on cast iron, exposing bare metal to rust. Modern dish detergents don’t do that, so we’re going to go ahead and use a drop or two to dissolve the grease.

Scrubbers are used to scrub debris out of the pan. The salt can be made into a paste and scrubbed into the pan to clear out any food debris.

Any of those aforementioned tools can be used to scrub your cast iron, and if you’re being aggressive, in combination with one another. If you’re too aggressive, your seasoning can be harmed, but that can always be reapplied. There are only two real way you might damage your actual cast iron in this case:

• To soak your pan, which might cause it to rust (but could still theoretically be repaired)
• To put your hot pan into cold water, which might cause it to crack, and unfortunately, can’t be repaired

After cleaning your cast iron, you’ll want to wipe it dry. This step is important, to prevent rusting. If the towel comes out black after wiping, that’s carbon. It’s not quite clean yet.

You may or may not want to wipe a thin layer of your favorite oil on your pan before the next step.

Finally, put your cast iron on a low temperature burn until it is dry. This ensures that the cast iron is fully dry and ready for storage.