Contrary to popular opinion, it is definitely acceptable to use soap to clean skillet. In the 'olden days' soap was made with lye which was not good for cast iron. Today using a dishwashing liquid is perfectly okay, with a scrubber if necessary. Dry and rub with a bit of oil. Been doing that to my grandmothers pans for years with no ill effects. They cook beautifully.
Just a small note to new cast iron pan cooks: if you do not use the pan often, excess oil in the pan can become sticky and/or turn rancid. I sometimes use my cast iron daily, but in other occasions I go 3-6 months without using it. It is harmless to leave oil in your pan when you re-season after cooking, but there’s also no benefit. If you suspect you will go a long time without re-using your pan… 1) heat up your cast iron before seasoning. 2) Coat your pan with as little oil as possible while still re-coating the whole surface. 3) if there is any excess oil in the pan, wipe it out 4) pre-heat your oven to 500 FH 5) put cast iron in the oven, upside down, ensuring that oil does not pool in the pan 6) turn off heat and leave pan overnight The oil will have bound to the pores in the iron, removing any opportunity for rancidity/stickiness. Again, all of this is far beyond necessary if you use your pan more often than once every 3-4 weeks. I leave town/the country for several months at a time, and I’ve returned to a pretty gross pan. The process above works perfectly to prevent that. Cheers
It's a good idea to season it multiple times because due to the way the oil polymerizes it has small holes in it but no matter how many layers you add if given enough time water can seep through these holes and eventually get to the bare iron
The paper towel comes into play at the beginning, to remove excess oil. Do your washing. Then what I do is shake off excess water the best I can, and I set it in the drainer for a few minutes, ten or so, to let the water run off. THEN I set it on the burner and let the heat remove the remaining moisture. The paper towel comes into play again when I turn the burner off, and I carefully apply the oil, then let it cool. Same basic process, just skip drying the skillet. It works great. My pan belonged to my grandmother, who raised her family during the Great Depression... and I use it several times a week. It's one of my favorite pans!
Preferably use a sponge with a hard side to scrub a cast iron. brushes or steel wool can chip away the coating and ruin your skillet ( learned hard way)
Always clean the skillet while it's hot on the stove. Wipe and if needed scrape w wooden spatula. That should handle the majorityof the cleaning. For stubborn crud, hot skillet under hot running water and the steam shot with a dish brush will loosen everything. The wash in the sink is ok but really not needed. Dry on the stove and add as little oil as possible, a few drops at most...wipe on, wipe off or you'll get the dreaded sticky skillet
All you cast-iron-skilleteers must hold a convention where you'll decide once and for all what the proper steps are. Stop wasting everybody else's time.
You don't need to be this gentle with your cast-iron skillet. Use it, abuse it and clean it as you wish (just not in a dishwasher). If you accidentally ruin it, or if you've neglected it for a long time. Just get it sandblasted and redo the cook-in process.
I have 150+ year old cast iron, and l do almost exactly what the video shows. By being kind to something that is twice, or even thrice your age, it will be useful for at least the next 150 years. Think about it.
I always wash with soap handwash and never had an issue on 3 cast irons so far. I always reseason them after use in a stove. I do wait for few minutes turn it other way and apply another layer. Less stickier with just heating it up then immediately cooling them.
Is it normal for my paper towel to continue looking black/dirty after rubbing my "clean" cast iron. I washed it, and still seems to be dirty... should I continue to wash it until my towel rubs clean against the skillet? Thanks for the help.
I watched a video on this a few months back and I saw a woman using coffee filters and I did, and it worked. No lint left behind, like from paper towels.
I’m surprised being ATK that they’re suggesting paper towels. I’ve always been told to use a lint free rag before the fibers will stick to the skillet…
Cast iron is best cleaned when HOT. That means right away the second your are done cooking. Put on oven gloves and use a wooden spoon to scrape any stuck pieces. Scrub with a bristol brush, rinse. Dry off with the soft side of a sponge. Put it back on the burner at max heat for 5 minutes. Pour cooking oil. Wipe it all around and then try wiping as much off as possible. Thats it. The same process every time. It never changes.
@@rosysandhu2443 I would recommend afterwards, after making all the pancakes. Cast iron to me is discipline and I always have a clean kitchen with all the dishes done by the end of cooking the meal, to include the cast iron. It has forced me to clean all the dishes as I go. Sometimes when you have pancakes and want to cook steaks next, you just scrape out the bits with a wooden spoon over the trash can (they come off quickly if you take care of it), put cooking oil in it amd carry on. Clean at the end though.
@@rosysandhu2443 My experience is (even with a well seasoned and used cast iron) that if you let it get cold after cooking, bits get stuck to it, or the seasoning doesnt come out evenly or you need to heat it at 500 degrees with a new coat of cooking oil for one hour because you ended up scrubbing off some of the seasoning when you scrubbed it (even with a chain mail). Clean as you go is always best and not in between each pancake, but when you turn off the burner on the stovetop, thats when you should clean it. It is an option to clean it between switching food. For example, if I have cooked a custard and want to cook some chicken next, I clean it. But if I am cooking a whole back of breakfast meat for my family and can only fit 4 pieces of turkey sausage at a time, I am not going to clean each time. I am going to keep cooking and cooking until I cook all 20 pieces. Then when I finally turn off the burner, I clean it immediately over HOT water.
@@rosysandhu2443 There is also the science of Polymerization - to specifically justify cleaning, even after cooking pancakes. Your pan will always take a certain amount of the polymerized carbonic cooking oil that is hardened on your cast iron. If you simply just scrape off the pancake bits and call it a day, your polymer (the seasoning you built on the pan) may pit in certain areas of the pan, making your seasoning very holey and rough and you will turn your pan into how Lodge adds their "pre-seasoning". - Versus - When you rinse and briefly scrub the whole pan with a bristol brush, you even things out, and by applying a new coat of cooking oil, the cleaning (which more evenly removed the same amount of polymerized carbon based bonds) and the new coat evens out your seasoning every time.
@@rosysandhu2443 Everyone always thinks "non-stick" is easier. Yeah, in America we always think easier. But if you knew the kind of crap you put in your food every time you use it, you would change your mind. Its worth going back to a more primitive mindset and imagine yourself living in Rome in 30 AD and buying a Cast Iron cooking tool you traded on the Chinese silk road. Then go venture into the great outdoors, cut down a tree and make charcoal and hunt a deer. Then try polymerizing it by cooking the meat and scrubbing and scraping the meat so the pan absorbs the fat from the animal. Or you can just polymerize it in your own kitchen. In America, we have clean water, electricity, and access to buying home improvement materials that other countries do not easily have access to. In other words, it is already easier to cook and live here. Why not eat healthier and make better tasting food. Or, you can get warped into the stupid Les Creusets "enameled" cast iron (which is not the same and you get no taste) and spend much more beaucoup bucks. Even with inflation and rising food prices, we still have it easier in the USA and Americans cannot save money and think of McDonalds drive throughs and cholestrol heart attacks. If people learned some discipline and spent 3 MONTHS AT PARRIS ISLAND AND STOPPED CLOGGING THEIR ARTERIES WITH JUNK, THEN MAY BE PEOPLE WOULD BE HEALTHIER, LEARN HOW TO GROW CONFIDENCE, AND FEEL BETTER ABOUT THEMSELVES!!!! Gee whiz, grow up and learn cast iron discipline. Otherwise, if you want to complain about it, go join the marine corps and those drill instructors can help you grow some confidence and get over everything you thought was hard in life!!!!!
I do. So does my mom. Just be careful not to drop it onto the stove... I even slide it across the surface without picking it up and haven't noticed any scratches.
Do you not know that Lodge, Field Co, and your own company (ATK) recommend using liquid dish soap on cast iron, as it safe for seasoning? You are undoing the great work America’s Test Kitchen did on this debunking an old wives tale that is left over from way back when harsh lye soap actually would damage seasoning.
Even American test kitchen gets it...kinda wrong..wth. cleaning a cast Iron skillet requires you heat the skillet. While hot wipe it, scrape it w wooden spatula, wipe again. Add a drop of canola oil if needed ... not to much..wipe. only when necessary use hot water and hot skillet and soap.. note this is a very rare occurrence.
Use a stainless or brass scrubber, it can take it. I only use luke warm water so you don’t remove the cooked in oil. Then just wipe with a paper towel. Much quicker than removing the oil you cooked with, then heating it with more oil.
Why would you spend more money when this is a perfectly proven method that I'd say 95% of people with cast iron use. She did a wonderful job seasoning the pan the right way. Why add metal into the equation no need Edit: If she already has that scrubber you're talking about i still wouldn't use it. She did everything the right way, no need for extra gadgets that will scratch.
Just another gadget to make money on. If you know anything about deglazing a pan in the cooking process you can do the same thing to clean your pan. Just put some water in it heat the water up and then gently scrape the pan of all the parts that are sticking with a green Scotch-Brite pad. No need to use a heavy hand.
Does it make any thing different? It may be better to remove burnt food but it doesn’t matter if cooking properly. I use the chainmail to clean metal cups and bottles sometimes.
Out of all the CZcams shorts finally something with some type of substance everything else has been garbage thank you for showing me something showing me that people are actually out here trying to educate or something for that matter
All the knuckleheads on this chat who say use Dawn or any other soap based cleanser are just wrong. Do Not Use Soap. Better yet pour in 1/4 cup of kosher salt and rub clean with clean towel.
Way too much work. Brush the loose bits into the trash so they don't clog up your drain. Wash it. Use soap. Scrub it. Dry it. Put it away. Oil the pan before use, not before storage.
You forgot to use Dawn dish soap, otherwise good job. If you need to use chain mail scrubber you’re not doing it right. If you have stuck on food place it back on the stove put some water in it heat it up and decglaze it to remove all stuck on food. I use a green scotch bright scrub pad and Dawn dishwashing soap and my pans come out wonderful.
I like my method better. Run under hot water with a drop of Dawn and an abrasive pad. Rub lightly until just clean. Rinse. Dry with a towel. I don’t coat with oil until the next use.
Contrary to popular opinion, it is definitely acceptable to use soap to clean skillet. In the 'olden days' soap was made with lye which was not good for cast iron. Today using a dishwashing liquid is perfectly okay, with a scrubber if necessary. Dry and rub with a bit of oil. Been doing that to my grandmothers pans for years with no ill effects. They cook beautifully.
Nah man.
@@combatbeatdown
-comes into comment section
-replies “nah man” and refuses to elaborate
-leaves
@@combatbeatdown "nah man" 🗿 🍷
Again we're back where we started
I use dish detergent also.
Scrub clean.
Dry it with a Dish towel.
Put olive oil in the bottom.
Wipe with a paper towel..
Store it away...
Done✔
You should heat the finishing oil to the smoke point to prevent it going rancid.
Don't use olive oil
@@jwill5034 use what then
@@jwill5034 I prefer beef tallow, but vegetable oil works well too.
@@kylan419 one of the most used is grapeseed oil
@@dan5087 How about peanut or canola oil?
Simple and to the point. Thanks!
Just a small note to new cast iron pan cooks: if you do not use the pan often, excess oil in the pan can become sticky and/or turn rancid.
I sometimes use my cast iron daily, but in other occasions I go 3-6 months without using it.
It is harmless to leave oil in your pan when you re-season after cooking, but there’s also no benefit.
If you suspect you will go a long time without re-using your pan…
1) heat up your cast iron before seasoning.
2) Coat your pan with as little oil as possible while still re-coating the whole surface.
3) if there is any excess oil in the pan, wipe it out
4) pre-heat your oven to 500 FH
5) put cast iron in the oven, upside down, ensuring that oil does not pool in the pan
6) turn off heat and leave pan overnight
The oil will have bound to the pores in the iron, removing any opportunity for rancidity/stickiness.
Again, all of this is far beyond necessary if you use your pan more often than once every 3-4 weeks.
I leave town/the country for several months at a time, and I’ve returned to a pretty gross pan. The process above works perfectly to prevent that.
Cheers
Thank you!! I very recently got a cast iron, i was wondering why my pan was sticky, thanks again!
It's a good idea to season it multiple times because due to the way the oil polymerizes it has small holes in it but no matter how many layers you add if given enough time water can seep through these holes and eventually get to the bare iron
Short and sweet. Thank y'all, this is mighty useful.
Everytime I dry it, fibers from the towel or paper towel stick to it. What other cloth of sorts could I use for this process?
The paper towel comes into play at the beginning, to remove excess oil. Do your washing. Then what I do is shake off excess water the best I can, and I set it in the drainer for a few minutes, ten or so, to let the water run off. THEN I set it on the burner and let the heat remove the remaining moisture. The paper towel comes into play again when I turn the burner off, and I carefully apply the oil, then let it cool. Same basic process, just skip drying the skillet. It works great. My pan belonged to my grandmother, who raised her family during the Great Depression... and I use it several times a week. It's one of my favorite pans!
Even faster: use rubber-tipped tongs instead of your hand. Skillet speedrun
Very simple and easy to tutorial and great job
Lorraine Bracco is a doll.
What's the best temperature
Preferably use a sponge with a hard side to scrub a cast iron. brushes or steel wool can chip away the coating and ruin your skillet ( learned hard way)
What type of oil is recommended for seasoning a cast iron skillet? It's an important question.
Always clean the skillet while it's hot on the stove. Wipe and if needed scrape w wooden spatula. That should handle the majorityof the cleaning. For stubborn crud, hot skillet under hot running water and the steam shot with a dish brush will loosen everything. The wash in the sink is ok but really not needed. Dry on the stove and add as little oil as possible, a few drops at most...wipe on, wipe off or you'll get the dreaded sticky skillet
@ACloudyDay22 the are many "you cans" out there. The point is... you don't need to. While the skillets hot.. scrape, wipe, done
All you cast-iron-skilleteers must hold a convention where you'll decide once and for all what the proper steps are. Stop wasting everybody else's time.
You're a true original.
You don't need to be this gentle with your cast-iron skillet. Use it, abuse it and clean it as you wish (just not in a dishwasher). If you accidentally ruin it, or if you've neglected it for a long time. Just get it sandblasted and redo the cook-in process.
I have 150+ year old cast iron, and l do almost exactly what the video shows. By being kind to something that is twice, or even thrice your age, it will be useful for at least the next 150 years. Think about it.
If you have a heavy Lodge I would agree, but a 100 year old Griswold has thinner walls and will shock easier. I always heat and cool it slowly.
I always wash with soap handwash and never had an issue on 3 cast irons so far. I always reseason them after use in a stove.
I do wait for few minutes turn it other way and apply another layer. Less stickier with just heating it up then immediately cooling them.
If you leave that much oil on the pan it will turn to glue over time.
What about mine ? I do this and it has a black residue what should I do
Is it normal for my paper towel to continue looking black/dirty after rubbing my "clean" cast iron. I washed it, and still seems to be dirty... should I continue to wash it until my towel rubs clean against the skillet? Thanks for the help.
I was told not to use paper towels, they leave lint behind.... one should use lint free cloth ?!
I watched a video on this a few months back and I saw a woman using coffee filters and I did, and it worked. No lint left behind, like from paper towels.
I use paper towels almost everytime I use it.
I can't possibly see how it's going to hurt anything.
That was way too much oil for daily maintenance. You need a quarter teaspoon or less. Like... as little as humanly possible is all you really need.
I’m surprised being ATK that they’re suggesting paper towels. I’ve always been told to use a lint free rag before the fibers will stick to the skillet…
You dont need to heat after washing the heat from the water is fine you just need to oil a tiny bit and rub down with paper towel after.
Would you use the same process for a carbon steel pan?
That’s what I do
Yes
Why use a non metal brush? I’ve been using a metal scouring pad to clean my pan… is that bad?
No its not. But you should be aware at it could remove some of the seasoning if you scrap harder or longer.
@@casolver I think that’s my problem I’ve been scrubbing it too hard. I bought a non metal cast iron brush after watching this video 😂
Curious, why is it better to use a non metal brush to clean vs a chain metal to clean?
You want to prevent irregularities in the seasoning
How many people are going to give us his or her own version of “how to clean a cast iron skillet”? This Hass to be the 30th I’ve seen so far.
I shoulda watched this before trying to clean and season it,
If food is stuck on don’t scrape burn it at 500 in oven
Cast iron is best cleaned when HOT. That means right away the second your are done cooking. Put on oven gloves and use a wooden spoon to scrape any stuck pieces. Scrub with a bristol brush, rinse. Dry off with the soft side of a sponge. Put it back on the burner at max heat for 5 minutes. Pour cooking oil. Wipe it all around and then try wiping as much off as possible. Thats it. The same process every time. It never changes.
So every time we need to do it like this. I'm super confused!! If I'm making pancakes, then also I need to clean it!??
@@rosysandhu2443 I would recommend afterwards, after making all the pancakes. Cast iron to me is discipline and I always have a clean kitchen with all the dishes done by the end of cooking the meal, to include the cast iron. It has forced me to clean all the dishes as I go.
Sometimes when you have pancakes and want to cook steaks next, you just scrape out the bits with a wooden spoon over the trash can (they come off quickly if you take care of it), put cooking oil in it amd carry on. Clean at the end though.
@@rosysandhu2443 My experience is (even with a well seasoned and used cast iron) that if you let it get cold after cooking, bits get stuck to it, or the seasoning doesnt come out evenly or you need to heat it at 500 degrees with a new coat of cooking oil for one hour because you ended up scrubbing off some of the seasoning when you scrubbed it (even with a chain mail).
Clean as you go is always best and not in between each pancake, but when you turn off the burner on the stovetop, thats when you should clean it. It is an option to clean it between switching food. For example, if I have cooked a custard and want to cook some chicken next, I clean it. But if I am cooking a whole back of breakfast meat for my family and can only fit 4 pieces of turkey sausage at a time, I am not going to clean each time. I am going to keep cooking and cooking until I cook all 20 pieces. Then when I finally turn off the burner, I clean it immediately over HOT water.
@@rosysandhu2443 There is also the science of Polymerization - to specifically justify cleaning, even after cooking pancakes. Your pan will always take a certain amount of the polymerized carbonic cooking oil that is hardened on your cast iron. If you simply just scrape off the pancake bits and call it a day, your polymer (the seasoning you built on the pan) may pit in certain areas of the pan, making your seasoning very holey and rough and you will turn your pan into how Lodge adds their "pre-seasoning".
- Versus -
When you rinse and briefly scrub the whole pan with a bristol brush, you even things out, and by applying a new coat of cooking oil, the cleaning (which more evenly removed the same amount of polymerized carbon based bonds) and the new coat evens out your seasoning every time.
@@rosysandhu2443 Everyone always thinks "non-stick" is easier. Yeah, in America we always think easier. But if you knew the kind of crap you put in your food every time you use it, you would change your mind. Its worth going back to a more primitive mindset and imagine yourself living in Rome in 30 AD and buying a Cast Iron cooking tool you traded on the Chinese silk road. Then go venture into the great outdoors, cut down a tree and make charcoal and hunt a deer. Then try polymerizing it by cooking the meat and scrubbing and scraping the meat so the pan absorbs the fat from the animal.
Or you can just polymerize it in your own kitchen. In America, we have clean water, electricity, and access to buying home improvement materials that other countries do not easily have access to. In other words, it is already easier to cook and live here. Why not eat healthier and make better tasting food.
Or, you can get warped into the stupid Les Creusets "enameled" cast iron (which is not the same and you get no taste) and spend much more beaucoup bucks.
Even with inflation and rising food prices, we still have it easier in the USA and Americans cannot save money and think of McDonalds drive throughs and cholestrol heart attacks.
If people learned some discipline and spent 3 MONTHS AT PARRIS ISLAND AND STOPPED CLOGGING THEIR ARTERIES WITH JUNK, THEN MAY BE PEOPLE WOULD BE HEALTHIER, LEARN HOW TO GROW CONFIDENCE, AND FEEL BETTER ABOUT THEMSELVES!!!!
Gee whiz, grow up and learn cast iron discipline. Otherwise, if you want to complain about it, go join the marine corps and those drill instructors can help you grow some confidence and get over everything you thought was hard in life!!!!!
No soap??
Can you use a cast iron pan on a glass top stove?
I do. So does my mom. Just be careful not to drop it onto the stove... I even slide it across the surface without picking it up and haven't noticed any scratches.
Yes, I’m guess you’re talking about an induction cooktop but be careful not to drop it you will shatter the top
@@lji_btrfly Thank you☺
@@user-eh2ul3bx3y Not an induction, just a normal glass top. Thank you. ☺
You can, but most cast iron cookware is not flat on the bottom so they rock a little on a flat glass surface.
Do you not know that Lodge, Field Co, and your own company (ATK) recommend using liquid dish soap on cast iron, as it safe for seasoning? You are undoing the great work America’s Test Kitchen did on this debunking an old wives tale that is left over from way back when harsh lye soap actually would damage seasoning.
Even American test kitchen gets it...kinda wrong..wth. cleaning a cast Iron skillet requires you heat the skillet. While hot wipe it, scrape it w wooden spatula, wipe again. Add a drop of canola oil if needed ... not to much..wipe. only when necessary use hot water and hot skillet and soap.. note this is a very rare occurrence.
That pan is still dirty when you oiled it
What kind of oil?
10w-30
Cooking oil
Use a stainless or brass scrubber, it can take it. I only use luke warm water so you don’t remove the cooked in oil. Then just wipe with a paper towel. Much quicker than removing the oil you cooked with, then heating it with more oil.
DONT CLEAN IT. That’s seasoning
This is ridiculous. I’ve never had issues washing. Mine are putting them in the dishwasher. This is just too much.
Nice bait post
But Lodge sells a metal chain link scrubber specifically for their cast iron pan.
Why would you spend more money when this is a perfectly proven method that I'd say 95% of people with cast iron use. She did a wonderful job seasoning the pan the right way. Why add metal into the equation no need
Edit: If she already has that scrubber you're talking about i still wouldn't use it. She did everything the right way, no need for extra gadgets that will scratch.
You can use the metal link scrubber, this is what I use and it works fine.
Just another gadget to make money on. If you know anything about deglazing a pan in the cooking process you can do the same thing to clean your pan. Just put some water in it heat the water up and then gently scrape the pan of all the parts that are sticking with a green Scotch-Brite pad. No need to use a heavy hand.
Lodge was making cast iron pans long before the chain link scrubber came along.
Does it make any thing different? It may be better to remove burnt food but it doesn’t matter if cooking properly. I use the chainmail to clean metal cups and bottles sometimes.
Out of all the CZcams shorts finally something with some type of substance everything else has been garbage thank you for showing me something showing me that people are actually out here trying to educate or something for that matter
Clearly there are MANY ways to get your pan clean 😊
Why do you need to dry it to dry it?
The water will get in the way of the oil
WOW
SOMEONE THAT KNOWS HOW TO CLEAN CAST IRON CORRECTLY.
NO SOAP NEEDED..
All the knuckleheads on this chat who say use Dawn or any other soap based cleanser are just wrong. Do Not Use Soap. Better yet pour in 1/4 cup of kosher salt and rub clean with clean towel.
Rub it clean with coffee filters and it will not leave any lint.
I thought you needed to heat the pan back up after adding the oil. Then when warm wipe off residual oil and cool the pan before storing.
Heat before adding oil to open pores in cast iron. Then let cool. No need to heat after adding oil.
I heat mine to make sure all the moisture is off and to make the oil flow better to coat the whole pan.
Omg! Thank you for not using soap! I just watched a short where the lady used soap and NO ONE in the comments sections said anything.
Way too much work.
Brush the loose bits into the trash so they don't clog up your drain.
Wash it.
Use soap.
Scrub it.
Dry it.
Put it away.
Oil the pan before use, not before storage.
I dry my pan in the oven.
You forgot to use Dawn dish soap, otherwise good job. If you need to use chain mail scrubber you’re not doing it right. If you have stuck on food place it back on the stove put some water in it heat it up and decglaze it to remove all stuck on food. I use a green scotch bright scrub pad and Dawn dishwashing soap and my pans come out wonderful.
I always hear that youre not suppose to use soap on cast-iron
@@athickie that's a rule from when lye was used in soap, lye will eat the seasoning off, it's perfectly safe to use regular modern soaps on cast iron
@@emilymulcahy Ok good to know 👌
@@emilymulcahy
100% correct
@@athickie anytime doll
Don't follow this video, many problems with these steps!
Why? What is she doing wrong?
Really just measured out 1/2 tsp
I like my method better. Run under hot water with a drop of Dawn and an abrasive pad. Rub lightly until just clean. Rinse. Dry with a towel.
I don’t coat with oil until the next use.
Wrong. Clean it with soap duh