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I use an iron skillet for most things, it gets cleaned then takes up real estate on a stove burner until the next day.
Most of the time it’s just enough oil to sear things. Salmon. The white meat chicken with a bacon iron on top. Each needs some oil for Maillard rxn on the hot iron and non-stick, in addition to flavor and moistness.
It’s liquid at room temp. It’s minimal. When the pan is cool enough, a dollop of dawn, a light abrasive without a lot of pressure (it’s a tactile thing, cast iron people know) and the soap slurry goes right down the drain. I’ve owned for 25 yrs, no issues.
(Because someone is about to start text screaming: If it’s a new cure or a cure done in 1-2 layers or a weaker fat, any abrasive or cleaning will likely kill it. I use lard for my cures while lightly washing with hot soapy water in between. 5 layers/rounds of cure. Then oil it after each use for the first month post new cure. Then, it’s solid, just wash and dry, and you can use a light abrasive. We have a 12, a 10, three 8s, and three 5s in circulation.)
Now, if I make Pho, I’m not skimming the beef tallow/oil off into the sink. I wait for the broth to cool, crack the disc of solid lard off the top, and drop it in the trash.
Popcorn pan, sink. Salmon in the pan, sink. Dark meat chicken in the pan, cool and scrape those solids into the trash.
It’s about amount and what it does at room temp.
I respect that you were brave enough to admit on the internet to using a little soap now and again with your cast iron. It took me about a year after I rehabbed mom's pans to work up the courage to gently swipe a little soap on them now and again. They still get dried in the oven and moisturized with avocado oil. Mah bebes.
I do not baby cast iron at all. I use plenty of dish soap and scrub it. But then again, I've also to completely refinished cast iron before. You learn to appreciate how durable seasoning can be when you actually try and remove it. My main skillet I've in the past taken it down to bare metal with an angle grinder, then built the seasoning back up from nothing.
I did the same with these pans too. Though I didn't need an angle grinder. A day or two in a trash bag marinating in oven cleaner, then some steel wool and elbow grease. That's why I call them my babies, they are antique pans that sadly had gotten rusty and I gave them new life. They were my mom's, and before her, her great-grandma's pans (and maybe someone else's before then but we, the family, have lost track).