this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2025
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If you use regular dish soap (i.e. dawn), you most certainly can (and should) wash it. However, the trick is that you absolutely must dry it, put a light coat of oil, and then bake it to keep it from rusting. I preheat the oven to 450°F and then turn off the oven, and let the pan sit until it’s cool enough to the touch to put away.
If it's seasoned you don't have to oil it. Just make sure it's dry.
That’s fair. I have a Lodge, and I ground down the inner surface so it’s flat, so I had to re-season it.
~I guess I can probably stop re-seasoning it now. 😅~
Nah, if you are doing properly thin seasoning you really can't overdo it.
I have a lodge set of pans for the last 15 or so years and you can tell which ones are most used because they are flat and the less useful to me sizes are all still bumpy. I think over the years I've eaten a bumpy surface worth of cast iron off several pans
I mean, iron is a part of our nutritional diet. 🤣
I have the h&h of a Sherpa after a marathon. I breathe three times a minute. Sometimes i rust a little if I don't put lotion on right after the shower.
Unironically starting in the mid 40’s Norway began to add iron to their “Myseost” as they didn’t use ironpots to make it anymore and myseost was a substantial part of their diet.
I have heard you're not really supposed to do that - the texture helps the seasoning stick properly instead of flaking off.
Most vintage cast iron pans were ground flat, they only stopped doing that as a cost saving measure later on.
My vintage flat cast iron pan from the 30's keeps its seasoning just as well as my modern one, and is a bit more non-stick compared to the modern ones.
What determines if a seasoning will flake off is mostly due to the type of oil used to create the seasoning. Flax seed oil will create a much harder seasoning, but it is the most prone to being chipped or flaking off.
Most other types of fat, like Crisco (don't cook with it!) or canola oil, will produce a perfectly good and resilient seasoning on smooth or bumpy cast iron.
Wait, why shouldn’t I cook with Cisco?
Update! So the new Crisco uses Intersterified fat, which this study suggests promotes weight gain, increases blood sugar levels, and stresses the liver.
It also is now mostly made of Palm oil, which means buying it inadvertently supports the burning of rainforest for palm oil plantations.
Thanks!
From the studies I'd read on the new formulation, the thing they're doing to it to keep it solid at room temperature seems to also be very unhealthy, even if it no longer has trans fats.
It's been quite a while since I read them, so I can't recall the name of chemical or process that's harmful (agh!)
I'll see if I can find it.
There are a lot of pits in the surface of a Lodge. It’s much better now and food doesn’t get stuck as often. I guess it’s a preference thing. 🤷♂️
Depends how well you clean it, and what you cooked.
If you made bacon, sure. Perfect seasoning and water and a sponge won't dry it out.
That's not how many other foods work, though. I almost always put a bit of oil back on it, then heat it up to preserve the pan. I can cook eggs, pancakes, or really anything on it any time with this treatment. It's literally better than any non-stick pan.
I have cooked on a cast iron pan daily for decades at this point. I never oil it. It's fine.
But internet guy says you've been doing it wrong this whole time. Why won't you completely change your ways based on the comment of pedantic rando?
You don't necessarily need to do that every time. The thing about cast iron is that even if you actually "ruin" it, you can just redo the seasoning.
So it's fine to be a little lazy about it. The one thing you want to avoid is rust, as you mentioned. I wash mine with a tiny amount of soap involved and most of the time I just dry them off with a paper towel. If I put on a coat of oil, I leave the pan on the induction stove for a bit, with the stove timer on. Easier than the oven.
Only if the seasoning looks like it might need a couple more layers, do I go the oven route.
Yes to oil and stove.
Totally forgot about the stove timer thanks!
It's easier than this. Wipe/scrub the excess off, then simply put it on the stove for 2-3 minutes and wipe oil onto it.
Saves you some gas and time. So far it's worked perfectly for me for over a year.
This is the way. People make cast iron sound hard to maintain, but I’ve been doing this for a decade or more and it works great
I just cook bacon any time I need to re-season it. Lol.
how do you know when someone abuses animals don't worry they never stop telling you ha ha ha
That pig was already bacon Jerkface. Delicious delicious bacon... okay! You've won this round! But next time!
no i'm pretty sure you have to personally kill a new pig any time you want bacon
I've been a lazy ass and just leave it dirty until I'm gonna use it again, wipe it down with soap then cook. Prevents it from staying wet at least.
I just wash with water and stove-dry it
Sameish. I thought soap was supposed to damage it. I boil water, use a metal spatula to help lift anything stuck on there, dump the water, wipe it dry, then add oil and wipe it one more time and leave it on the stove so it's ready to use again.
I'll be honest, I still don't really understand what "season" means, but I've been doing that several times a week for like ~7 years now without any issues (that I'm aware of, I guess).
My - admittedly naive - understanding of seasoning is that you’re creating layers of dried oil that a) protect the pan, 2) make the pan nonstick without having to always use excessive amounts of oil, and iii) depending on what you’ve cooked in the past (i.e. bacon or other flavorful foods) will leach into your food and give it a yummy unique flavor.
Personally I usually just clean it with a paper towel, and put it away. Mine is almost exclusively a cornbread pan, though, so I'm mostly cleaning excess oil unless I fucked up and it stuck.
Occasionally I do give it a proper wash like you've said, but not very often.
Yeah just wipe it with a damp paper towel and it’ll be good. People overcomplicating things.
I just dry and lightly oil mine. I only bake them if they need it.