this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2025
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Clean it, don't clean it, oil it, salt it, water it, "season it", season it by not cleaning it so your french toast gets all that good hamburger flavor from the night before...
I've read so many different ways to treat cast iron that at this point I'm convinced that it's all just superstition.
Don't let water touch it or it will bring you 7 years of bad luck
Darn. I was hoping they'd reproduce when you get them wet. Time to try feeding it after midnight.
If a black cat crosses its path food will stick to it for the next seven years.
I put a little water in it, turn the burner on, and scrape it with a spatula as the water boils. Rinse out and paper towel dry. Add a little oil if it needs it, heat again, and wipe off the excess.
I wash mine in holy water, then dust it with volcanic ash from the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption, and wipe it down with a felted angora cloth, just like my mother taught me.
I'm noticing a severe lack of chants and prayers in your routine. And where's the incense?
Noobie mistake, you need to say you learned it from your nonna
I also have performative masturbation rituals
Normally I wipe it with paper towels while it's still hot, they go in the compost. Then I put a teaspoon of cooking salt in the dry pan and scrub it with another paper towel.
My theory is that what little grease is left behind absorbs so much salt that it becomes destructive to bacteria.
I buy cooking salt in big 5kg bags so it is dirt cheap and costs basically nothing to do this.
A lot of it kinda is. Sure there might be some optimal option. But its a fucking frying pan. It can manage being mishandled a bit too. Just don't drop it as you might damage your floor after breaking your feet.
Leave it outside for 2 years, use acid and scrubbing to get the rust off, reseason. Good as new!
Why would you wait two years when you can just melt it down in a crucible and re-cast it after every use?
Why not just do your cooking directly in the crucible at that point? I heard it's great for pizza
Yup, just go with stainless steel. I wouldn't recommend teflon coated pans anymore, because it's literally poison.
~~It's not about teflon, but the chemicals used to attach this (or any other) extremely non-sticky plastic to a pan.
Imagine the kind of chemistry needed to make a thing that a cooked egg slides off on it's own stick to a metal surface in high temperatures.~~
* This is mostly incorrect, I don't want to spread misinformation.
Teflon is otherwise inert and shouldn't have health implications on it's own (that we know of).
Obviously I'll still avoid ingesting any more plastic myself, as much as I can help it. Not suggesting anyone chews on PTFE tubes.
No, it's about the Teflon too. Teflon becomes chemically unstable around 400-500F, temperatures well within the reach of a modern home oven or range, and releases polymer fumes that are damaging to your health.
Check out this amazing video all about Teflon. I know, nearly an hour long... Worth it!
Fascinating and scary how poorly regulated it still is today.
I was also wrong about how teflon is joined to cookware. I don't know where I got that from.
It is, I literally just cook in mine, don't baby it, scrape the hell out of it with a heavy stainless steel spatula and use a paper towel to get out anything. If stuck bits of food, they get scrapped, then water and soap. Then just oil the pan and rack it again. None of that silly shit. Just use the damn thing.
Exactly. Just soak it in bacon grease, let the cats lick it dry overnight, then bury it in loamy soil under an orange tree during the full moon. So easy. I'm not sure why anyone doesn't use cast iron.
At first you're gonna boil them. And after tha t you're gonna mash them, then you can choose to stick it in a stew.
Po-tae-toes
I scrape the crud off while it's still hot and then rinse it with dish soap and water. Never had an issue.
NO. NO MORE INSTRUCTIONS.
I’m cleaning it with an industrial angle grinder, seasoning it with crushed up dandelions, then storing it under my pillow just like my couples therapist taught me!
That's all fine but if you do this over long weekends then you don't deserve cast iron.
I've always just been taught to use boiling/hot water and scrub it, dry it immediately after, and then put some oil on it so it doesn't get dry. Never had any issues.
NO. NO MORE INSTRUCTIONS.
I'm washing it with Himalayan salt, hanging it to dry in the sunshine, then storing it under my bed in a wicker box just like my great grandmother taught me!
That salt better be pink or you’ve been doing it wrong this entire time.
Source: My Great great grandmother.
Thats basically what I've been doing all this time too.
As long as you're not cleaning with lye, soap is generally fine. But if you're going to be a bit lax on cleaning, the only real downside in my opinion is potentially introducing flavors you didn't intend.
I think for the most part, you do you. If it looks visually fine, it's probably good enough.
I'm just going to keep cleaning mine with three drops of goat's blood, drying it with a linen towel, then storing it in a humidity-controlled cabinet with the handle pointing north, just like my guidance counselor taught me.
You don't rotate the handle in sync with the precession of the vernal equinox? Your cast iron's going to be fucked when the age of Aquarius begins. I'll bet the Priestmunty who proclaimed your pans wasn't even a bake-borne by the eight transcendental Broilers of Avalon. Poser.
what about hydrofluoric acid? can i use that?
Scrubbing under running hot water has worked fine for me. I occasionally use boiling water if there is grease that doesn't want to move.
I scrub mine with a Scrub Daddy in a nearby waterfall, then dry it by tying it to the roof of my car and driving around for a bit. Haven't had any issues yet!
I wash mine with soap and hot water, then dry and rub a bit of cooking oil on it (high smoke point oil, not olive oil).
I’ve built up a pretty substantial amount of seasoning on mine though. One of the ways to recognize that is that when you’re rinsing it out after washing the water should just bead right off, not wet the surface. Any areas where the water wets the surface could use some touch up seasoning. A well seasoned pan should be nice and hydrophobic.
NO. NO MORE INSTRUCTIONS.
I’m scraping it with a boar bristle brush, drying it with a traditional Japanese paper fan, then storing it in a nearby cave just like my uncle taught me!
I think you’ll have the best experience if you learn what seasoning actually is and what it isn’t. Seasoning is polymerized cooking oil that’s bonded to the surface of the metal. It’s hydrophobic which protects the metal from rust. It does not actually give nonstick properties (those are due to cooking oil and proper temperature control).
Seasoning is not burnt food, it’s not black, it’s not dry, nor does it leave marks on your finger when you rub it (only do this with a cold pan). A well seasoned pan should feel smooth and glossy and hard, not dry or powdery or gummy or sticky or greasy. When seasoned properly it does not need anything else applied, though most people apply a thin layer of oil as an extra precaution and because the oil improves the glossy appearance.
One thing to be aware of is that overheating your pan will burn the seasoning, carbonizing it and turning it black. A burned seasoning is vulnerable to flaking off and adding charred flavours to food, as well as exposing the pan to potential rust. Lastly, exposing the pan to acids (such as white vinegar or simmering tomato sauce) will strip away the seasoning (and ruin your sauce).
As a hydromomie, i always die a little inside, when i read the word hydrophobic.
TIL it's even worse when actually typing it out.
Olive oil has about the same smoke point as many standard cooking oils. It's a common misconception that it's not suitable for frying.
Only if it’s refined to remove all the suspended solids. When most people think about olive oil they think of EVOO which has a low smoke point and turns very bitter if overheated.
Again, this isn't true. Extra virgin olive oil of decent quality has a smoke point similar to canola oil.
Do you have a citation for that claim? It’s pretty well common knowledge that EVOO is a lower smoke point than typical refined cooking oils.
Google it
I did and all the links back me up and contradict you.
There's this list for example
There's also this article
There's also the fact that in mediterranian cuisine it has been used that way for centuries with no complaints about the taste.
And then there's just my personal experience of not a single dish I've prepared tasting bitter due to using extra virgin olive oil for frying.
Those are cherry-picked high numbers for EVOO and low numbers for canola oil. I have seen 450F/230C as a more common high end figure. I cook with sunflower oil which ranges 440F-480F and ghee which smokes at 482F.
I would also like to note that the original discussion was about caring for and seasoning cast iron pans which occurs at temperatures close to the smoke point of the oil, not about frying or sautéing. Cast iron pans are often seasoned in the oven and even used for roasting or baking at oven temperatures exceeding 500F. I would never put EVOO into an oven like that unless it was protected (such as included in a pizza crust) but even then I would prefer to drizzle the olive oil over the pizza after baking rather than before, due to the volatility of all the aromatics.
I have cooked plenty of times with EVOO but I would never use it for stir frying!